I am a married male from North Carolina who, on one of my easy days, would be described as a strong or militant Atheist. I work as a chemist, and live in an area of the bible belt where there are few bible beaters. I have survived five decades of life, and for 40 of those years have been non religious. My goals are to work to main stream the Atheist view, while helping develop an Atheist political voice.

Hi, sir and welcome.

what's the atheist view? is it just that we don't believe in a god? or do you think there is something else too? I don't know, but for some reason I feel like you are saying we have a lot of things in common. I'm just going to assume that you aren't and you know that the only thing that makes us the same is lack of a belief in gods. that being said, it would be nice if there could be openly non-religious people in office. (in the US) I'm assuming that's not the case, because otherwise I think I would have heard about the outrage, but my political knowledge— well, I don't have much. (that's just a disclaimer in case I'm wrong, of course.)

anyway, welcome.

(September 27, 2010 at 9:53 pm)Cego_Colher Wrote: Hi, sir and welcome.

what's the atheist view? is it just that we don't believe in a god? or do you think there is something else too? I don't know, but for some reason I feel like you are saying we have a lot of things in common. I'm just going to assume that you aren't and you know that the only thing that makes us the same is lack of a belief in gods. that being said, it would be nice if there could be openly non-religious people in office. (in the US) I'm assuming that's not the case, because otherwise I think I would have heard about the outrage, but my political knowledge— well, I don't have much. (that's just a disclaimer in case I'm wrong, of course.)

anyway, welcome.

I see being and atheist as more than just not believing in god. I see it as an intellectual movement that is pushing atheists into the public view as outstanding members of society. I want to see these Atheist views, values, goals, and intellect to take the position they deserve in our system. This is the atheist view I speak of.
We have allowed the religious right to place us in a second class position in the US, and in doing so have restricted ourselves to being ignored by the political system. If we don’t act will be forced into a system where the freedom to be non religious is a thing of the past. It is time to recognize we make up between 16 and 30% of the US population, this is a larger voting block than all but one other voting block, yet we are not represented in our government.
My atheist view is no longer a view from a closet, it is a in your face view.

Woot .. well welcome...... Im an outspoken Atheist too .. I too am a stong Atheist as far as any god in any holy book.. I'm as convinced that they dont exsist to the same exstent that I know leprachans and fairies dont exsist... 100 % sure? no .. but damn close

(September 27, 2010 at 9:36 pm)Beam Reach Wrote: I am a married male from North Carolina who, on one of my easy days, would be described as a strong or militant Atheist. I work as a chemist, and live in an area of the bible belt where there are few bible beaters. I have survived five decades of life, and for 40 of those years have been non religious. My goals are to work to main stream the Atheist view, while helping develop an Atheist political voice.

I'm not too far way in Northeast Georgia. Welcome!

Hello. Welcome to atheistforums.

(September 27, 2010 at 9:36 pm)Beam Reach Wrote: I would be described as a strong or militant Atheist.

Militant Atheist you say?...

Quote:My goals are to work to main stream the Atheist view, while helping develop an Atheist political voice.

It's not your place to speak for "atheists" - The only necessity arising from the label is non-belief, attaching any ideals to a label in a political sense is really going to have a good chance of pissing many people off. If you're a secular humanist run under that banner, if not then invent something else, but for fucks sake don't try and speak for everyone who is an Atheist.

The chances of you matching my political ideologies for instance is pretty slim, so if you attach political meaning to atheism in a way that enforces that relationship in the minds of others all you have done is rape the word atheist of it's intended meaning and fuck things up for us atheists who have to now make a distinction between our atheism and yours.

So please, whatever the fuck you do, do not speak for anyone but yourself and those who are happy to take up the label that specifically represents your political ideology.

(September 27, 2010 at 11:38 pm)theVOID Wrote:

(September 27, 2010 at 9:36 pm)Beam Reach Wrote: I would be described as a strong or militant Atheist.

Militant Atheist you say?...

Quote:My goals are to work to main stream the Atheist view, while helping develop an Atheist political voice.

It's not your place to speak for "atheists" - The only necessity arising from the label is non-belief, attaching any ideals to a label in a political sense is really going to have a good chance of pissing many people off. If you're a secular humanist run under that banner, if not then invent something else, but for fucks sake don't try and speak for everyone who is an Atheist.

The chances of you matching my political ideologies for instance is pretty slim, so if you attach political meaning to atheism in a way that enforces that relationship in the minds of others all you have done is rape the word atheist of it's intended meaning and fuck things up for us atheists who have to now make a distinction between our atheism and yours.

So please, whatever the fuck you do, do not speak for anyone but yourself and those who are happy to take up the label that specifically represents your political ideology.

My political view is coming from the values I have as and Atheist, those also mesh with Humanist values, as I am also a Humanist. I view the attitude you express in your post as one of the problems which have resulted in the view of Atheist as second class citizens in the US. If you like hiding in your values, and not speaking out that is fine, but don’t think the other Atheist will continue to be unheard. The movement to take our position in society has started and it make no difference if it is call us Humanist, or Atheist; regardless of some Atheist’s desire to be reclusive it will continue. I respect you option to not work for equality, but I also expect your recognize my right to be a political Atheist pushing for the Atheist’s rightful position in society.

You seem not to have a fucking clue what I actually said, because that's a pretty massive strawman you've thrown back.

1. Atheism only has ONE value, that is being "without belief in a deity". All other values that an atheist may have do not stem from their atheism, but from various worldview, political and ethical ideologies, examples of which are humanism, desirism and naturalism.

2. I am an open and vocal atheist, I will not hide my position because of pressure or fear, nor do I under any circumstances, in fact I will be the first one rushing head first into an argument at the slightest mention of God, why? because I get a kick out of it.

3. I am all for raising public awareness of atheism and removing all of the values that have been incorrectly attached to it, such as "Atheists hate God and religion". Atheism should ONLY mean "without belief in a deity". For example, Not all atheists are humanists, including me, therefore conflating the two is a logical fallacy known as false equivocation. Another example is economic ideologies, most atheists are economically left wing, I am right wing, this makes the conflation another false equivocation. The same applies with libertarianism vs authoritarianism and secularism vs anti-theism etc etc.

4. What you are proposing to do is remove one set of incorrect attributes from the word and attach others. In this sense you are no better than the ones who believe atheists "Hate God and religion". Attaching any political ideology to the word commits the same raping of the definition of the word committed by evangelists.

5. This has nothing to do with hiding my values, not my Atheist value or my secular values or my naturalist values or my political values.

6. What you seem to be wanting to achieve is secularism (religious belief is not used to inform policy and morality) and I am all for that, but calling it an Atheist political movement makes you guilty of (4). There simply is no such thing as an atheist political movement.

You know, its easier if you go out and try easier things to herd... like cats