Hello:

I'm an atheist. However, I've never found the need to bond with other atheists. Indeed, in my view, an organization for atheists is an anathema to atheism. In fact, I don't believe there IS an atheist organization. Simply put, they don't exist.

Besides that, a very good reason of why most atheists would never dream of joining an atheistic organization is because most atheistic organizations are not atheistic at all, they're shills for ideological commitments other-than-atheism.

And when I say other-than-atheism, I of course mean self-described leftist organizations. Humanism, vegetarianism, identity politics, and all sorts of patent nonsense go under the umbrella of atheism, as any jaunt around the net or an appearance at your local atheist organization will show you.

These are organizations designed to get you to DO something. Don't buy what they're selling. They're NOT atheists. True atheists don't want YOU to DO anything. What they really want is to be left alone.

No?

excon

bushg

I see where you are coming from.
I don't feel the need to belong to any group..I like helping people out when the chance arises or animals, the environment....but I just dont wanna belong. I sometimes write letters for a cause and give a few bucks to things I believe in.

No church, no groups. Just leave me the heck alone...I'm happy. Don't except crap outta me. I'll give and march if I want to, if I can. Just because it's a law don't make it right, I may even try to slip around the laws I don't believe in...but thats me. I'm just out in the universe wandering around I don't call myself anything.

Dark_crow

I think it is necessary to make a distinction between the two moralities- the morality of religion and the morality of civic- human rights:
Universal rights to which every person is entitled because they are justified by a moral standard that stands above the laws of any individual nation; best enunciated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948.

On the other hand, I don’t believe Atheism is justified in defending the defamation of religion.

When the Morality of Religion conflicts with the Morality of Universal Human Rights I think there should be organized opposition, as there is in many countries today.

excon

Hello DC:

Moral is moral and can't be parsed. It's like pregnant. You either are, or you aren't.

IF religion under the guise of morality, is being immoral, then it's immoral and I don't care what THEY call it. If that's the case, then that immorality must be challenged.

I do it one on one here, but the problem is that real atheists don't band together to challenge anybody. Other people with other agendas do, and call it atheism.

In fact, it shouldn't even be called atheism, because the "isim" part connotes a movement of some kind. The point of my post is to report that there IS no movement.

excon

tomder55

no man is an island . Humans natuarally flock if nothing more than to experience fellowship and sense a of belonging .

Therein lies the church of atheism . Jesus said "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am ";thus establishing a very broad definition of what a church is . The same could be said I surmise by a gathering of free thinkers .

excon

Hello again, tom:

Well, I do get all warm a fuzzy when jillian says something brilliant about atheists.

excon

Emland

My philosophy teacher of 20 years back told me that atheists must believe there is a god so that they have something NOT to believe in. That statement is about the only thing I remember from that class. It gave me a headache then, and still does. My prof was an ordained Lutheran minister, not that he was biased or anything - right.

I want to believe that there are other beings in the universe, hopefully superior or more advanced simply because it is a little depressing to think we're the best of the bunch.

I was forced to take religion courses by the university I attended. It only reinforced that religion is not for me.

Could the reason there is no organized group of atheists be because since we are free thinkers, no two people think the same way enough to form a group?

Dark_crow

Yeah, there is always someone wanting to tell the world the way it ‘should be,’ and not recognizing the way it is. The facts are that there are many Atheist and secular organizations and just because you don’t want to belong is your business, but that don’t change that fact anymore than because you believe there is only one moral entity that changes the fact there is more than one.

This "misplaced idealism" of the "ideal state" and "ideal way of life" is individualistic, and subjective.

jillianleab

Aw, shucks, I'm blushing!

I see your point, though. It seems the atheist organizations have other agendas in mind, but I think that's only natural when you get a band of people together.

Does this make them bad? I don't think so, at least no more "bad" than any other activist group.

Well that's mighty convenient.....

RubyPitbull

I respectfully disagree. I think the atheists on this web site do a fine job of banding together and challenging people. I see it all the time on the Christian threads. But, when you challenge someone else's belief system or knowledge (or lack thereof, whatever the case may be), it upsets them. Why purposely upset people? You may think they are wrong, and they may be. So what? Let them be wrong. Those religious threads or opinion threads really don't have any right or wrong answers if you are sticking to the topic and don't go off on tangents. Why is it so important for people to insist they are right all the time? That is where the true problems lie. Now, if you just love to debate and argue, and you feel the overwhelming desire to proclaim loudly that you are right and they are wrong, well then, just be prepared for the anger that ensues. Personally, I would rather leave the arguing between all the different Christian sects. Let them annoy the crapola out of each other. It will eventually lead some of them to question their faith and fall off those self-righteous soapboxes they have placed themselves upon.