The meet, the first regional gathering of atheists to be held in Arizona, is part of the organization's push to erase the stereotype of atheists as bitter, amoral wet blankets who want to deny others the spirituality that they themselves have been unable to find. I want the people to meet me, and I want to meet them, and we want to highlight the hard work that our state directors are doing. For more than a generation, American Atheists was defined by the confrontational leadership of its founder, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who raised the group's public profile, but also alienated many religious fence-sitters. It doesn't matter how you run your group. Because the atheist, in general, is not a joiner.
Most atheists are still in the closet.
They're very independent people. They're not like church people. They don't like to follow. That's good, and it's also bad. It's good for the atheist in general to be that independent, but for the organization, it's like herding cats.