Atheism in the American Animal Rights Movement: An Invisible Majority

• In Event: 2210 - Presented Research Explores How Human and Non-human Animals Co-exist and Interact in Society

Abstract

The Western Nonhuman Animal rights movement has its origins organized religion, but, by the 20th century, it had quietly assumed a secular character while maintaining its religious appeals. Previous research has alluded to the predominance of atheism in participant pools (Galvin and Herzog 1992, Guither 1998) as well as the correlation between atheism and support for Nonhuman Animal rights (Gabriel et al. 2012, The Humane Society 2014), but no study to date has independently examined this demographic. This article presents a profile of 210 atheists and agnostics derived from a larger survey of 287 American vegans conducted in early 2017. Results demonstrate that non-believers constitute one of the largest movement demographics, and these vegans are more likely to adopt veganism out of concern for other animals. While atheist and agnostic vegans did not register a higher level of social movement participation than religious vegans, they were more intersectionally oriented and more likely to politically identify with the far left. The Western Nonhuman Animal rights movement has remained silent on the relationship between anti-speciesist attitudes and secularism. Theories of social movements and stigma offer potential explanations. Although this survey does not measure movement decision-making, it could be that charities design campaigns in heavy religious rhetoric in hopes of appealing to the perceived spiritual majority while explicitly overlooking atheism given its extreme stigma in American society.

Author

• Corey Lee Wrenn, Monmouth University