Ateísmo no brasil: Da invisibilidade à crença fundamentalista

Abstract

According to the 2010 census the number of Brazilians that consider themselves as non-religious has increased substantially. Nevertheless, atheism as a political doctrine and as a subject of research remains an almost invisible phenomenon in Brazil. As part of a larger ongoing research on the formation of a secular society and on the social limits of laicity in Brazil this text presents a description of the attempt of the Association of Brazilian Atheists and Agnosticists (ATEA) to launch a campaign in the public transport system and analyse the reasons of its failure. After the reactions to the ATEA campaign and the accusations of fundamentalism we claim that the atheism is socially interpreted as a personal choice within the scope of religion.