RON KARAFIN/Courier-Post Janice Rael, 34, of Clayton is an atheist who finds fault with the mention of religion in the borough seal.

By KIM MULFORD
Courier-Post Staff

Whenever Janice Rael wears her favorite white T-shirt, the one with "Atheist" stamped across the front, she hears it.

You're going to burn in hell, someone usually shouts.

She expects comments like that. But what really irks the 34-year-old mother of two is when the government and its elected officials invoke the name of God, whether it's in the Pledge of Allegiance or in prayers before council meetings.

"I'm tired of feeling marginalized and I'm tired of feeling like I'm the only one out here living without religion," said Rael, a Clayton resident who volunteers as the South Jersey regional director for American Atheists. "It does bother me."

She's not the only one, of course. Estimates on the number of nonbelievers range from about 10 to 14 percent of Americans - that means as many as 30 million Americans don't have a religion.

Nonbelievers can be atheists: people who don't believe in the existence of a god. They can be agnostics: people who aren't sure if there is a god. They may call themselves secular humanists, freethinkers, nontheists or even "Brights." Some don't call themselves anything.

Bill Brown of Haddon Township was raised in the Baptist church. But after his baptism at age 12, he had what he calls a "revelation" that the church wasn't teaching the truth.

Today, the 72-year-old retired engineer isn't sure what label to attach to his beliefs and tentatively calls himself agnostic.

He believes much evil has been done in the name of religion.

"I'm more anti-religion, than I am anti-deity," said Brown.

The term "Brights" was recently coined to combat the negative connotations of atheism. And there is plenty of that, nonbelievers say.

Mike Judge, a 51-year-old airline pilot, grew up in a Baptist family of six. When he was a teen, he began to question his beliefs and decided Christianity didn't make sense.

He has spent much of his adult life reading about religion, which he finds a fascinating subject. But after much research and debate, he believes he has the answer.

The truth is, Judge said, there is no heaven, no hell, no deity of any kind.

"It's not easy being a minority," said Judge. "We don't do it because we like being looked down on. We're honest with ourselves and our beliefs."

If anyone can show him he's wrong about the existence of God, he said, he's willing to listen.

"I think there's a lot of people out there who want to believe so badly in a supernatural being, they don't want to look at the details too much," said Judge, who lives in Washington Township. "That's why many Christians don't read the Bible."

Bernie Katz does. His Palmyra apartment is crammed with reference books, magazines, papers and his own essays about religion. Among the books is a hard-bound Bible, a dictionary of Christian terms and a well-thumbed favorite, the Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy.

"I was born an atheist," said Katz, a retired Philadelphia schoolteacher and a former stockbroker. "I merely continued that way."

Religion defies reason and logic, said Katz, 79. It amazes him that faith in the supernatural runs so deep in the American culture.

"People take the Bible literally," Katz said. "They want to transform that into legislation and they want to impose that legislation on me."

When religion crosses into government, American nonbelievers ignite into action.

"There should be a clear line," said Judge, who is a member of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia. The group lobbies against such things as the posting of the 10 Commandments on courthouses.

There shouldn't be prayer before Congress or city council meetings, he said. There shouldn't be prayer in schools. The country's motto shouldn't be "one nation under God."

Religion can survive without government's endorsement, Judge said.

"Do freethinkers want this country to be a godless nation?" Judge asked. "No. They want it to be a free country."

Last Christmas, Judge got into an argument with his largely Christian family about the "under God" phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in February that the phrase, which was added in 1954, was unconstitutional.

"It should have never been put in there in the first place," said Judge. "Something as basic as the Pledge of Allegiance should be general enough to include everyone and not exclude nonbelievers."

As he was taking the country to war, President Bush mentioned God frequently in his speeches, an act that infuriated nonbelievers.

"He's not espousing a Muslim god or a Hindu god," said Judge. "He's espousing a Christian god. Everybody knows that."

Rael lives in Clayton, where one of the four symbols on the borough's seal is a church with a Christian cross. The town's motto is: Clayton, a good place to live and play, work and pray.

"It feels like an official government endorsement of only one religion," said Rael. "There are Muslims who live in Clayton. There are Jews who live in Clayton. And there are atheists who live in Clayton. We pay taxes here, too."

For now, though, the stay-at-home mom protests against religious intrusions on the federal level. She writes to politicians regularly and hosts Internet chat rooms. She is trying to unite South Jersey atheists.

"The work that we atheists do now to ensure our own constitutional rights," said Rael, "will help guarantee religious liberties for all Americans."

Nonbelievers
Names: Atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, freethinkers, Brights
Number: Estimated between 10 and 14 percent of Americans
Basic beliefs: Atheists do not believe in the existence of a god. Agnostics are not sure whether there is a god. Secular humanists may be atheist or agnostic, but emphasize humanity's ability to improve itself through reason. Freethinkers form opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority or established belief. Brights believe the natural world is all that exists.
Organizations: American Atheists (www.atheists.org ); Council for Secular Humanism (www.secularhumanism.org); Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia (www.fsgp.org).
For more information about the South Jersey chapter of the American Atheists, e-mail Janice Rael at jrael@atheists.org.
Sources: `Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions;' American Religious Identification Survey 2001