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Educational tool only. All groups exist on a spectrum of control. Individual experiences vary. Based on publicly available reports, ex-member accounts, court records, and expert analyses — not medical or legal advice.

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Atheist / Freethought organisations (mainstream)

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Confidence: HighLast reviewed 29 May 2026United StatesWikipedia

Mainstream atheist / freethought organisations — Freedom From Religion Foundation, Atheist Alliance International, Center for Inquiry. Very low-control reference.

CLCI radar

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Minimal documented control

BITE breakdown

Behavior Control1/10
Information Control1/10
Thought Control1/10
Emotional Control1/10
Modifiers (+0)

0 — mainstream atheist / freethought organisations; very low-control.

Profile facts

Founded
1976+
Members
Tens of thousands across organisations
Active in
USA, Global

In context

Mainstream atheist / freethought organisations advocate for separation of church and state and secular ethics. FFRF (1976), AAI, CFI. Mainstream voluntary participation with no religious requirements.

Recovery resources

See the full curated list at /resources.

This profile is in progress — history, deeper BITE evidence and survivor voices are still being added. Contributions welcome via GitHub.

Timeline

  1. 1976
    Freedom From Religion Foundation founded

Evidence matrix

Structured sources cross-linked to the claims they document. Tiered per the source hierarchy. For free-text citations see the Sources section below.

Sources

  • Various academic studies search ↗
  • The Old Atheism Revisited: Robert G. Ingersoll and the Bible — Journal of The Historical Society (2011) — https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fj.1540-5923.2011.00330.x open ↗
  • The Escuela Moderna Movement of Francisco Ferrer: "Por la Verdad y la Justicia" — History of Education Quarterly (1985) — https://doi.org/10.2307%2F368893 open ↗
  • ARTFL Encyclopédie Search Results — http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.8:1431:4.encyclopedie0513.4781541 open ↗
  • http://www.k-state.edu/freethought/ — http://www.k-state.edu/freethought/ open ↗

We cite sources by name and outlet rather than fabricating links. Where a source includes its own URL, the open ↗ link opens it directly; otherwise search ↗ runs a Google Scholar query for the cited title — useful for verifying academic sources. For news outlets, search the outlet's own archive.

Change history

Substantive edits logged per the score-updates policy.

  1. 2026-05-29Phase 1 Batch J: per-group recovery resources applied via programmatic palette (closest-fit by category + subCategory + score). Palette: Mainstream-comparator lighter.
  2. 2026-05-20Source-density flags derived from existing free-text sources[]: academic sources. Heuristic auto-flag; subsequent editorial pass will populate structuredSources[] with reliability tiers.
  3. 2026-05-20Score band scheme migrated from 4 bands to 5 (Minimal 0–5 / Low 6–12 / Moderate 13–20 / High 21–30 / Extreme 31–40). No CLCI value changed; the new Minimal band was carved out of the bottom of the previous Low band.

Relevant hubs

Curated entry points on CLCI Hub for situations connected to this group.

Found something wrong on this profile?

We accept correction requests from anyone — current and former members, researchers, journalists, family members, and the listed organisation. Submissions are reviewed by an editor; we do not auto-publish.

Disclaimer. This profile is an educational summary based on publicly available reports. Many members of this group do not experience the patterns described. Individual congregations and chapters vary widely. If you or someone you know needs support, contact a licensed therapist or the International Cultic Studies Association.