Millionaire Atheist Reveals Plan That He Says Will Profoundly Change How Society Views Those Who Reject God

An activist and his secular foundation are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a campaign aimed at fighting back against anti-atheist discrimination.

Todd Stiefel, the well-known millionaire atheist whom TheBlaze first profiled back in 2012, is hoping to raise $500,000 through the StiefelFreethought Foundation to help fund Openly Secular, his new initiative aimed at creating a more positive image of nonbelievers in American society.

"The reasoning behind it is that there's a lot of discrimination against a lot of different groups in this county," he told TheBlaze, noting that he believes biases against atheists are often both rampant and deemed socially acceptable.

The point of the campaign, he said, is for nonbelievers to be more open about who they are and what they believe, so that those around them better understand that they, too, can be moral individuals.

"If everyday atheists, agnostics, humanists or other nonreligious people [stop hiding] what they believe, [others] can recognize that we are good," Stiefel said.

He added that one of his central goals is to help people realize that they don't have to agree on theology in order to accept and love one another.

And Stiefel has devised and launched a social media campaign to help spread that word.

"We are doing a pretty massive online campaign. We've also launched an online video campaign," he said. "We've created over 150 videos that we have produced ourselves. People can record their own videos. We've gotten over 100 out already."

Among those depicted in the clips are former NFL player Chris Kluwe and ex-congressman Barney Frank, who both embrace a "secular" worldview.

Watch Kluwe, who says he's "cheerfully agnostic," below:

Stiefel said that Openly Secular will be deemed a success when atheists are able to be open with friends and family without being shunned, experiencing rifts in their marriages or being treated differently due to their decision to reject a higher power.

Stiefel said that he believes the image problem plaguing nontheists dates back to their place and depiction in history.

"Our image problems are mostly historic and they're rooted in the dark ages when we were burned at the stake and during the Red Scare when everyone equated atheist with communism," Stiefel said.

As for controversial remarks made by some atheist leaders, Stiefel said that critics should be careful before attributing these comments to the wider secular community.

"I think that every group has a lot of different voices … but no group should be judged based one or two of those voices," he said. "Much like I don't judge all Christians based on Pat Robertson, you shouldn't judge all atheist people based on one or two atheists."