As atheism grows in U.S., nontheists find place to meet in southern Utah

Atheism advocate Richard Dawkins and Ariane Sherine, founder of Atheist Bus Campaign (image: Zoe Margolis)

Written by Ken Hedler

In 1971, singer-songwriter John Lennon implored listeners to imagine a world with no religion, a world where all of the people were living harmoniously. These are words that a local group has apparently taken to heart, gathering religiously (pun partially intended) Sunday afternoons in Jazzy’s Rock n Roll Grill in St. George. However, this group of mostly adults in their 20s to 40s is not there to listen to sermons, pray, or sing hymns, and they do not dress in their Sunday finest. Sunday is not the Sabbath—a day of rest—for them. At least not for their minds.

The cerebral-sounding Discourse Reason Inquiry and Free Thought, or DRIFT, is an informal discussion group that consists largely of atheists but which is open to those of other creeds. According to member Rich Lee, DRIFT does not charge dues and has no leadership structure. He said students at Dixie State University started DRIFT a few years ago.

“Normally, we talk about everything except religion,” said Lee, an atheist who was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, works in the cybernetics field, and lives in Washington City. “A lot of us know each other so well.”

Lee and other participants acknowledge the challenge of being nonbelievers in one of the most religious states in the country, a state in which the LDS religion predominates. Members of the LDS Church account for 60 percent or more of the population in Washington County.

Lee said DRIFT members talk on occasion about people believing their employers fired them based on belonging to the “wrong” religion. While open about his own beliefs, Lee generally  avoids confrontations.

“I bite my tongue because I am actually exhausted arguing with people about it,” Lee said.  “That is kind of a downside of being a minority in southern Utah.”

However, that nontheist minority is growing throughout the country and possibly in Utah as well.

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press study “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” the number of people who identify themselves as atheists in the United States has been rising modestly but steadily in recent years. Atheists grew from 1.6 percent in 2007 to 3.1 percent in 2014, and agnostics—people who claim neither faith nor disbelief in any god—increased from 2.4 percent to 4 percent in the same time frame. These groups, among others, equate to roughly 56 million religiously unaffiliated adults in the United States.

Closer to home, DRIFT’s Facebook page has 205 members, and SUSHI (the Southern Utah Secular Humanist Initiative) lists 61 members on its Facebook page.

DRIFT participants reflect the area’s demographics. Lee and three others interviewed by The Independent were raised LDS, but former Roman Catholics and a Quaker also attend.

“I was really lousy at being LDS through my teens and early-20s,” Lee said. “I did not go on a mission or anything like that.”

Lee said he gradually became an atheist after exploring “other schools of thought.”

Thomas Moore of St. George said he turned away from his faith after staying at the home of an atheist Mormon in Southern California for four months while serving his mission a few years ago.

 “I was very scientific-minded,” Moore said, adding his host talked about evolution and exposed him to early Mormon books.

“That is what started to click with me,” Moore said. He became an atheist a year into his two-year mission.

Other members of DRIFT, such as Avalon Kriel of St. George, were simply put off by the LDS belief system.

“I remember there were certain things I could never believe about it, like Joseph Smith was a prophet and there is an afterlife,” Kriel said. “I could never fathom it … My belief system does not include a god or savior.”

Church doctrine also turned off another woman who asked to remain anonymous because several of her clients are LDS.

“Church doctrine says you can’t enter the celestial kingdom if you are not married in the (Mormon) temple,” she said. Her then-husband did not want to convert to LDS, and a Church leader told her she would have to get divorced to enter the kingdom. She resigned from the Church in November 2011.

“After I resigned, I considered myself Christian for a few months,” she said, adding she now is an atheist.

Along with Lee and Kriel, she made the decision to raise her children without religion.

“My family was really upset about me leaving the church,” she said. “I felt it was harmful and hurtful, and it was damaging to people.”

She and other former Mormons in the group said they have not been excommunicated.

“That would be fun,” Moore said with a laugh.

More than 10 people showed up Sunday afternoon. Lee said that DRIFT meetings are open to attendance and discussion by religious practitioners. However, proselytizers are not welcome, and New Agers “don’t have a fun time.”

DRIFT meets from 2 to 6 p.m. Sundays at Jazzy’s Rock n Roll Grill, Bluff Street and 300 North.

Ken Hedler is a freelance writer who is based in St. George. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @KeninDixie2014.