The uprising of the young atheists

This is Hemant Mehta at FreeOK2012, the 2012 Oklahoma Freethought Convention.

Frankly, I'm still a little blown away by the fact that there is an Oklahoma Freethought Convention. Indeed, just the fact that many atheists are 'out,' all across the nation, is pretty encouraging. Certainly, my own experience, up through high school, at least, was very different.

And yes, this is about young atheists. After all, there's nothing worse as a kid than being different - than being seen as different by your classmates, certainly. We're social animals, and we generally want to fit in. If you don't, you're likely to be the perpetual target of bullies.

But you don't have to fit in with everyone in your school or your town. As long as you have some social support, some community, some niche, it's OK. So, for atheist students, who're almost certainly going to be a minority, these groups are very important.

It's encouraging to see such progress, don't you think?