One of the factors that makes religion attractive and atheism unattractive to many people is that atheism offers no community. Humans are social animals. Churches have long exploited this aspect of our humanity. I would wager that many theists place more value on their church membership than they do on the theological implications of belief.
A problem with trying to organize atheists into a community is that we have a single point of view in common, our disbelief in gods. Other than that, we believe a wide range of concepts that we may or may not share with other atheists. I know atheist UFO fanatics, atheists who follow politics “religiously” and others who barely know who the president is, atheist hunters and atheist animal-rights advocates.
Free thought isn’t a set of beliefs or attitudes, it’s the means by which a thinking human comes to conclusions without being distracted or blinded by preconceived notions. So even free thought doesn’t really offer itself as a rallying point for a group. “We’re free thinkers!” “What do you free think about?” “Uh, everything…”
Free thought groups and atheist groups have been reasonably compared to a herd of cats. I think that’s an accurate assessment.
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