elephants doing this. they were on the truck to be transported to a circus in texas. and those are some hard-working elephants, and we thought that we had a hard day at work. >> i hope they are okay. there is no one creator. >> americans losing faith every day. >> can i get a darwin? >> darwin. >> i was a bible thumping christian until i was about 12. >> they say there is no god. >> if santa claus lands on my roof, i will believe in santa claus. >> and the stigma is stifling. >> we completely stopped leaving the house. >> paralyzing pastors. >> it's hard to visit troubled people. they need to pray out loud. >> fracturing families. >> it is a constant burden to

our hearts. >> so many people of faith will see this documentary and they'll be enraged. what do you say to them? >> grow up. >> the a word. what is it? who are they? and why should we care? tonight, a cnn special report. "atheists: inside the world of non-believers." [ church bells ringing ] ♪ >> as we gather, praise almighty god. >> sunday morning. 11 a.m. >> the spirit of the lord god is upon me. >> anywhere. and everywhere usa. >> the lord be with you. >> the lord be with you. >> where faith and family go

hand in hand. >> let us give thanks to the lord, our god. >> one nation under god. it's who we are. and religion is what we do. >> one god, forever and ever. >> amen. >> we were always faithful. >> for john gorhamli, sundays have always been sacred. he's a deacon in moreland, georgia. south of atlanta and in the heart of the bible belt. did you require boys to go to church? >> unless we were providentially hindered from going. >> john and his wife diane have devoted their entire lives to the lord. >> father was an independent baptist minister. the lord saved him right after i was born. so i grew up in church. >> did you discuss how you were going to raise your kids by faith? >> certainly. yes. >> what did you talk about?

>> how we were going to instruct them in scriptures and what our desire was for them. that they grow up to be. >> godly men. >> mmm. >> that would be the desire for them to be godly men. >> and how did you do that, as a couple? >> not as well as we should. >> not far from home -- >> delicious cookies, and all of our condiments. >> -- on the campus of the university of north georgia. >> this is for ask an atheist. cookies and condoms, what's better? >> the gormley son chose a life without god. >> nice to meet you, i'm david. part of the north georgia skeptics society. >> david is an atheist. >> jesus was probably a historical person, but what

evidence is there being there to fulfill the law of the old testament? >> loud and proud. >> that's blasphemy. >> he rejects almost everything his parents believe about god and religion. >> because we're in the bible belt, a lot of people are more devout in their belief. so when you try and question that at all, it makes them angrier. thanks for stopping by. >> i have affection for the church of england. nice gentle church. nobody actually believes it. >> richard dawkins is one of the most well known atheists in the world. what is it about atheism that rocks so many people to the core? >> it's a very odd thing that, the very word atheism has a terrible resonance to people. >> people think devil worshipping. >> something like that. >> morally bankrupt. >> it's possible that word has

become so deeply engrained in the reaction that we do need to find a better word. >> there are other words out there. nuns. humanists. skeptics. free thinkers. agnostics. millions of americans. >> i've interviewed men and women. they say i'm a humanist. i'm a free thinker. i'm a skeptic. so many people won't say, i'm an atheist. is it all the same thing? are these just softer terms for i'm an atheist? >> yes, these are atheists who are afraid to use the word. and what are they doing? they're lying. >> david silverman is the fire brand head of american atheists. >> the flyer will not hurt you. >> a group formed in the early '60s that now has more than 5,000 members. >> atheists at cpac, yes, we're here.

>> more and more americans are realizing they don't have the responsibility to pretend to believe the lies their parents believed. the under 30 crowd is about one-third atheist. millennials are the future of atheism. >> so who are these non-believers and what exactly is atheism? >> for me, it's there's no positive evidence whatsoever. there's no reason to believe in any kind of supernaturalism. and so i live my life as though there is nothing supernatural. >> atheism is the absence of religion. there are no gods. if santa claus lands on my roof, i will believe in santa claus. but until santa claus lands on my roof, fiction is fiction. when a god appears in front of me, i'll believe it. >> why are millennials giving up on god? >> because they read the internet. they're the ones doing the most communicating about religion. they're the ones doing the most research about religion. >> people who don't believe in

god or follow god are building up punishment for themselves. if you kill them as unbelievers, that prevents them from repenting. >> david is not just an atheist, he's the president of ung's skeptics society. a secular club of about 25 members. they meet once a week. >> today is ask an atheist day. once a month, we set up tables on campus. the topic is our info and have people start a discussion with us. >> jesus said i'm the way, the truth. he said i am the truth and the life. so that means there can be no other. >> that's not an exclusive claim to your religion. half the people that walk by give us looks of judgment or dissatisfaction, but half of them stop and talk and have generally good discussion with us. >> that is subjective. wrong is not. >> dawkins says when it comes to atheism, most people just don't get it. >> it just means a certain

philosophical position. it means you don't believe in a supernatural creator. it's not like being a fascist or a communist. >> for many americans, accepting atheism just isn't that simple. >> a couple of my uncles and cousins have completely stopped talking to me. i sort of felt as though i was the black sheep of the family. >> welcome. >> but gatherings like these provide support. >> how many of you tonight believe at least jesus was a historical person? our weekly meetings are like a group therapy session. it's kind of a relief. >> people don't even realize how downtrodden atheists are. we're the most hated group in this country. >> when we return -- >> it is a constant burden to our hearts. >> david's family devastated. >> they will always harbor some sort of regret.

>> are you afraid your son is going to go straight to hell? >> the scripture plainly bears it to be show. "ride away" (by roy orbison begins to play) ♪ i ride the highway... ♪ i'm going my way... ♪i leave a story untold...

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pretty much a good day for me would be people leaving their hands off of me. i'm always called names. um, everywhere that i go there's always someone calling me names, calling me gay. i've been choked. thrown up against a wall. punched. nobody's ever tried to help me. ♪ the campus of university of

north georgia. in the foothills of the appalachian mountains. to locals, it's god's country. for david gormley, it's just 15 miles from his childhood home, yet a world away from the life he left behind. >> we went to church twice a week. wednesday nights and sundays and we would be there for six to eight hours. there was always this pressure to assume that there was god, and that if you didn't hear him or if he didn't speak to you, you weren't trying hard enough. >> you never really felt comfortable. >> no. >> david is not alone. today, many young people are doubting their faith and walking away from god. why are millennials now questioning so much? >> i think they're struggling

with questions of living with a lot of different faith groups in their schools and network of friends. they're inundated with media, with different perspectives. >> author david kinman has studied this phenomenon. 8 million millennials give up on god by their 30th birthdays. >> 59% of people who grow up in a christian home are going to walk away on some level. they're either going to become ex-christians or dechurched. ♪ >> david gormley struggled for years and at 16, gave up on god. >> i actually came out as an atheist. i didn't want to lie to people anymore. i was just tired of pretending that i was someone that i wasn't. >> david's news rocked his deeply faithful family. do you remember how they took it? >> with quiet silence at first. for about six months afterwards,

we had a very rough period. tensions were just very high. >> take me back to that moment where david said, i need to tell you something. i don't believe in god. >> i guess to hear him say it, to verbalize it was kind of shocking. but it wasn't in the sense that we knew that he had never come to christ. >> this is deep water for us. to see your own flesh and blood pursuing a life of rebellion against god. it's a constant burden to our hearts. >> alienated from friends and family, david finally found solace with like minds. despite their religious differences, david does live at

home with his parents, but it's an uneasy. >> we really don't have a great deal of interaction with david on a day-to-day basis. >> we do have conversations, and it can be at the dinner table or what's new, what's happening here and there. but really, and truly, those are superficial things. >> and it's tempered and it's bittersweet because the reality is that you're talking to a dead person. >> it breaks my heart though that you see your son as dead. >> well, it's not a matter of me seeing it that way. it's a matter of what scripture objectively declares. >> it hurts. as their child. >> we asked the gormleys to sit down with their son and us, but they declined. >> the reality is that you're talking to a dead person.

>> that one got me. >> yeah. >> how does that feel? >> he's saying they see me as a dead person. he said, well, it's not a question of me seeing it. it's a question of what scripture objectively says. but it is about the way he sees it. >> do you feel like you judge them as harshly as they're judging you? >> i would never say that they're dead people just because they believe in something that i don't. i wouldn't condemn them for it. >> are you afraid your son is going to go straight to hell? >> it's not a matter of being afraid. it is an inevitability for every person on earth who remains in their sin and away from god. do we shed tears? absolutely.

>> what do you tell them when they say, son, this hurts us. you're hurting our hearts. >> i am who i am and i'm not going to change that. i can't change that. it's just part of who i am. and as loving parents of a loving son, on some level, they should be accepting of that. and they are outwardly, of course, but it's still lurking there underneath the surface. they'll always harbor some sort of regret or anger towards me for just being who i am. and that kind of hurts. coming up -- >> i almost wish i still believed in god. >> closeted and in the clergy. >> nobody knows my secret. >> living a double life. >> i was on any knees wishing i could go get my god.

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♪ i sing because i'm happy he's a minister in a small town. everyone knows him, even if they don't go to his church.

♪ i sing because i'm free >> he takes care of them in the name of jesus. ♪ and i know he watches me >> this is stan. >> i function as a teacher, counselor, social worker, chaplain, and spiritual guide. >> we met him hundreds of miles from his home. changed his name, and changed his voice. because stan has a very dark secret. he's an atheist. >> i almost wish i still believed in god because it would be easier in some ways. it's hard to visit troubled people who beg me to pray out loud and say magic words i no longer believe. >> he calls this his sermon to himself. his secret letter.

a way to vent without being vilified. what was it like to read that out loud? how did that feel? >> it was strange, foreign. because these are not things i say to anybody. >> so why not just get up to the pulpit and say, this is how i feel? >> i wish i were about 20 years younger. i had more energy and i had more vigor and i could have said, okay, so i'll flip hamburgers for a while. >> you're sacrificing your heart and your soul. >> i never thought i'd end up lying to take care of a family. >> so stan has stayed in the clergy and in the closet. >> do you remember that moment where you sat back and went, oh my god, i'm doubting everything? >> yeah.

i was having a lot of turmoil with the church, so i was trying to pull my thoughts together. and i was thinking about the upcoming sermon. and i thought, i don't believe this. and then i thought i don't believe anything. >> did you panic? >> yeah. yeah. >> panic about a god that just wasn't there. so stan turned away from religion. detailing every doubt in his journal for the last 15 years. >> why has he let me wallow in this hell hole? it feels like he abandoned me. >> what is it like for you to put your hands on that pulpit and look at your bible and look into the eyes of all those men and women and children in your congregation?

>> when i'm standing up there, i often cannot look them in the eyes. sometimes, i feel like my knees are going to buckle. like i can't even hold myself up. >> he says now he mouths the words, but his thoughts are his own. to stan, god is a product of our culture invented so he has disinvented him. >> we don't talk about that crazy atonement theory that god has his son killed for the salvation of a sinful world that he kind of hates. i have two sons and nobody gets to have them, ever. if there is a god, he hadn't lived up to his reputation. if there is a holy spirit, i have searched for him. or her. or it.

and it has not been there. >> and stan is not alone. we found him through the clergy project, started four years ago for ministers like him who need an anonymous way to talk about giving up on god. there are more than 600 religious leaders in the group. >> what do you ultimately want? >> i would like to get free of all the religious paraphernalia. could we please quit spending money on stain glass windows and church buildings and gymnasiums that we don't need? could we please use all of that and use it towards the betterment of our communities, for real, in my town, 30% of the people live in poverty. we could feed them for what we spend on church buildings.

we could feed them indefinitely. >> for stan, atheism just makes more sense. do you think you'll ever come out or is this something you'll take to the grave? >> i will come out. i will walk away from the pulpit. i won't do it ugly. these people and many of them depended on me, they're vulnerable and i don't want to hurt them. i'll try to be gracious and kind as i can. but yeah, i'm going to walk away. >> now that we understand that there is no one creator -- coming up -- >> it's very sad. >> what happens when you do leave the pulpit? >> my wife left. family and friends had already disowned us. everything was as bad as it could get.

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it's never been easier with so many networks all in one place. get live tv whenever you want. the xfinity tv go app. now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. check one two, there we go. let's do that keyboard one more time. i'm going to check some eq levels here. thank you all for being here today. do you feel like you're at church yet? a little bit? a little bit? >> the lord's day in lake charles, louisiana. >> i'm about to release you from something.

>> jerry dewitt owns the pulpit. >> brothers and sisters, this is how valuable you are. i think the universe will hide you in its pockets so that you would never be scratched and never receive a dipg or a dent. >> i tell you what, you're born to preach. >> this is natural for me. sunday, you truly are the king of the world. >> for 25 years, he was a pentecostal preacher in the evangelical south. but listen to this sermon a little closer. >> i'm preaching to you just like i would have in the old days. just minus a few characters in the story. >> there's no mention of god or jesus. >> can i get a darwin? >> three years ago, jerry dewitt lost his faith. >> it felt like living a lie. >> and made the hardest choice in his life.

>> the real heartbreak, soul crushing heartbreak, was realizing i had to give up the ministry. even though i had been here my entire life, i'm the outsider due to this one little word called atheism. >> dewitt's painful journey begins in small town, louisiana. >> this is my life blood. our world in louisiana, this is nothing but churches an food. that's it. >> so you started playing preacher at age 5. >> i did and i was horrible at it. i was horrible at it. came back around about age 17. >> worship jesus. >> raised in a pentecostal home, where a charismatic preacher blasted from the tv every sunday. >> worshipping god is never a

waste. >> i fell in love with jimmy swag gert when the television was left on at my mom's house. he would swing the bible around and the red tassle would fly in the air. it was just the power of his presence. >> his hero fell from grace. >> i have sinned against you my lord. >> but dewitt was saved and discovered a charisma of his own. by 20 years old, he was married, a father, and soon preaching to overflow crowds of pentecostals all over the south. >> what you're doing is changing the world for the better. >> it was euphoria. it was a sense of oneness. family community connection. >> and in 2004, dewitt reached spiritual stardom. he was a full-time pastor, even contemplating running for mayor. but privately, his faith was fading.

>> it was such a slow burn. it had taken literally years to get to that place because i read what i shouldn't read. and i went where i shouldn't have gone and i studied what i shouldn't have studied. >> swapping the bible for atheist best sellers. but it was a desperate call from a congress -- church member. >> a church member called. brother in a severe accident. she was calling he from outside the emergency depending on me for prayer. i'm trying to say things to comfort her and try to figure out how to get out of this box without crushing her. i just avoided it. i just pretended that i didn't know we were supposed to do. >> you didn't pray with her? >> not because it was suddenly against my convictions, my ethics, my morals to pray.

it was that the reality is prayer doesn't work. >> for dewitt, as religion became more troubling, atheism looked much closer to the truth. eventually in 2011, dewitt quit preaching altogether. he took a job as a building inspector and hoped to live a quiet life. >> that's when your aunt comes. >> 85-year-old aunt grace on facebook. >> yes, aunt grace spotted a facebook photo of dewitt at a gathering of skeptics standing right next to the father of atheism, richard dawkins. >> bob posted this picture of me and my son with professor richard dawkins. >> the news that dewitt had become an atheist sent shockwaves through the community and the fallout was like a punch to the gut. you lost it all. your job.

your congregation. your wife left. you lost all your money. >> i didn't think it would be everything. >> this is the house that went into foreclosure. >> at one point, we literally sat down and began to google how to live in your car. >> why did you continue down this path? >> because it's right. the only thing that's different is theologically, i no longer believe in god. outside of that, almost everything is identical. >> abandoned by family and friends, ostracized from his hometown, dewitt feared for his life after receiving a string of threatening calls. >> we completely stopped leaving the house. it's hard to sleep. i was nervous.

i slept at bed just in case. >> dewitt said his 20-year-old son called who converted to atheism just two years before he did saved his life. >> i can say without any doubt whatsoever that had he not been in my life during this time, i don't think i would have made it. i know i wouldn't have made it. it really upsets me. it irritates me. i know how much dad has tried to help people in the community. >> so why stay here in louisiana? why not go somewhere more progressive, open minded? >> if we're going to make things better, we've got to make things better where things need to be made better. >> ready, ready, ready. >> making things better came in the form of doing what he knows best. starting his own congregation. but this time, for atheists.

>> the community chapel, where everything that a good church is, minus the jesus. that's it. >> shake the hand of the person next to you. >> is it hard to find a place to hold a service because you are considered running with the devil? >> atheist and satanist is the same thing down here and that's all we're asking for. someone to give us a chance. >> we have limited time. have a seat. >> for now, a rented home an hour away in lake charles, louisiana, will have to do. >> the world is actually getting better. >> dewitt saved his marriage, his house, and is cautiously optimistic about what's next. >> the evidence is that you've got better days ahead of you than what you've got behind you. >> you preached today about happiness. >> right. >> are you happy? >> i am happy. yeah. i'm content with a lot of things. i'm extremely happy about the ministry that i now have and the

future that that holds. so i'm scarred. what you see is you see a scarred smile. and it tells a story. ahead, atheism here? >> there's a lot of atheists that would be very uncomfortable in this environment. expected wait time: 55 minutes.

vo: in the nation, we know how it feels when you aren't treated like a priority. we'll take care of it. we put members first. join the nation. thank you. ♪ nationwide is on your side

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♪ this is the divinity school. at harvard university. one of the most prestigious places in the country to study religion. okay, friends. thanks for coming. we had a really interesting paper on the book today from the student in the class. >> it's week two of the fall semester. >> the awareness of the role that i play. >> here, a rare peek inside spiritual formation class. >> is that when you're like in the messiah? >> the history of the place

becomes richer every year. it feels like going to somebody's church. >> third year grad student, vanessa zoltan, finds herself constantly inspired. >> every year, we have a preaching competition here and more and more beautiful sermons are preached here. >> but unlike most of her classmates, vanessa has no plans to become a minister in the traditional sense. she's an atheist. >> everything i wanted to learn even without believing in god was in this space. >> there's a lot of atheists that would be very uncomfortable in this environment. >> i just think you mitsdz -- miss so much if you cross out all of religion. you're not going to understand t.s. eliot let alone the spirituality of thousands of years. >> vanessa was raised a reformed jew. >> there were shabbat dinners and say der. there was friday night temple. >> but without god.

>> all tour of my grandparents are holocaust survivors. god did not survive auschwitz, so god did not come into our home. >> stephanie paulsell not only vanessa's professor, an ordained christian minister. >> religious experts said to me atheism is dangerous. >> i think it's dangerous to fundamentally misunderstand religion. i think that's very dangerous. i feel like god makes a claim on my life that makes me want to sacrifice for the good of others. that makes me not want to put myself always first. but vanessa wants all those things too. >> does that mean you can be good without god? >> yes. >> anybody here not like singing in public but likes silence? okay.

>> greg ebbstein is certainly good without god. he wrote the best selling book and has been harvard's humanist chaplain for a decade. so what is humanism? >> it's being a good human being and working at being a good human being without a concept that we have any sort of supernatural powers to guide us or tell us what to do. >> humanists, atheists, skeptics, free thinker. isn't that all the same thing? >> it's all one community. >> a community that gathers here at harvard's humanist hub. a secular community with its own space. >> are you getting any pushback though? this is harvard. it's a huge name. it's got a famous divinity school, right? and you're a humanist chaplain talking about a godless generation. >> yeah. i think the biggest thing is harvard tries to take a neutral approach where a humanist, a christian, a muslim, a buddhist, a jew, whoever, we're all equally welcome here. i think we're seeing the turning of a tide.

there are more and more people who are coming to harvard divinity school wanting to study humanism and how to be a leader in humanist communities. >> like vanessa, recently promoted to assistant chaplain. >> i think here what we're practicing is a sort of radical hospitality. that's why it's important to meet in this community so we can bear witness to all of someone's life and support them through their highs and lows. >> from early in the morning until late at night, we get inundated with requests for help. what we're trying to do is we're trying to take the best aspects of congregations and bring them into the lives of humanists and atheists. >> i think our scope is broadening and now atheists aren't just devil worshippers anymore. but they are full fledged human beings and i hope we're a small part of moving, you know, our society in that direction.

[ applause ] >> redefining it means to be good without god. coming up -- >> atheists are coming out of the closet. >> atheism, in your face. does it work? >> i'm the good cop. he's the bad cop. >> three, two, one. [ cheers ] i've just arrived in atlanta and i can't wait to start telling people how switching to geico could save them hundreds of dollars on car insurance. but first, my luggage. ahh, there it is. uh, excuse me sir? i think you've got the wrong bag. >>sorry, they all look alike, you know? no worries. well, car's here, i can't save people money chatting at the baggage claim all day. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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♪ five, four, three, two, one -- >> move over, televangelist. >> the world's first television network by and for atheists. >> and welcome to atheist tv. launched just last summer, the first tv channel geared to the godless. >> it used to be that atheists could rely on some television stations. the history channel is now having a series on the bible, as if the bible is history. the science channel has alien abductions and big foot. it's all bunk. >> american atheist frontman david silverman came up with the

idea. funded by donors, he says atheist tv streams to 25,000 subscribers. tell me what we're going to see. >> comedy, talk, soap operas, reality shows. we're satisfied a niche. religion is harmful. religion is bad. religion is wrong. we can say that on atheist tv. we can't say it on any other network. >> he's built quite a rep since taking the helm of american atheists in 2010. >> we are here, and we will never be silenced again. >> he led the 2012 reason rally in washington, d.c. the largest ever gathering of non-believers in one place. and spearheaded a national anti-christmas bill board campaign. his in your face tactics have made him a legend in the atheist world. >> this is something that people don't run into every day, with

your husband's face on someone else's body part. >> this is one of the joys of being married to him. >> but not everyone is laughing. >> they're fashionists. >> you call me a fascist? >> absolutely. >> i am a patriot, sir. >> without question, his fiery approach alienates people, even his own. >> david would consider winning to be doing away with religion. he's out there loud and proud saying that religious people are stupid. i'm here saying, i love everybody. >> even famed atheist richard dawkins has softened his approach. david silverman has very aggressive tactics. what do you think of that? >> people tend to identify with their religious beliefs. so to say your religious belief is ridiculous and here's why is

a bit like saying, you have an ugly face. >> silverman is unapologetic. is america america without religion, without god? >> america is greater without god. >> why? >> think about all the hatred that would go away. think about all the bigotry would go away. >> but david, god is part of our culture, the traditions. it's in god we trust. we're talking about our military, money, god bless america. everybody says that. god bless you. >> not everybody. "in god we trust" is a great example of how religion lies. we do not trust in god. you may trust in god, but we don't. >> one nation under god. >> one nation under god is drilled into every student. this is the government pushing religion on everybody. it's disgusting and it's wrong and it's the exact opposite of what america stands for.

>> so would the world be a better place without god? >> the world would be an enormously better place would god, without religion, yes. there are all sorts of things we don't know. but let's seek the truth. let's be open minded. the time should come, i hope it will come, when we don't even need the word "atheist yths because we shall live in a time because people believe things because there's evidence. there's no evidence for fairies or leprechauns or gods, that we shouldn't need the word "atheism" at all. >> david kineman says that day isn't coming any time soon. could christianity become obsolete? >> not in the next century. but we are becoming more religiously diverse. atheism is part of that diversity. >> so what does the future hold for the godless? back at the university of north georgia, david gormley. >> there's kind of a new wave of

atheism. the first people to come out were very angry, very militant. but i think the people that are coming out now tend to be calmer. they want to genuinely have discussion and exchange ideas. >> you give me a short summary of why you don't -- ♪ ♪ i can see clearly now the rain is gone ♪ >> come on now, sing it. you know this song. >> like atheist minister jerry dewitt, who is already doing that in the deep south. preaching peacefully, hoping for normalcy. ♪ >> the place wasn't firebombed. we didn't have protesters outside. we enjoyed ourselves and now we're living happily ever after. one day that will be the sister for all atheists. ♪

♪ where is the rainbow i've been waiting for ♪ ♪ lit be a bright, bright sun shiny day ♪ >> come on now, sing it with us. looking for clues after a passenger plane drops from the sky. >> and the hope of finding survivors, families are in mourning. >> and the strained relations between israel and the u.s. plus, italy's highest court is set to issue its final ruling in the amanda knox case. >> great to have you with us. i'm john vause. >> and i'm zain asher. this is cnn newsroom.