[split] Warm Greetings - The Not Welcome-y Stuff

[Mister Agenda]

It is hardly surprising to me that, coming from such an insular society, in which everyone you know thinks just like you, that you'd have a hard time grasping why atheism makes any sense. However, if you really want to know, there was an atheist group that met weekly at a restaurant/bar in the Paseo Arts District (it's called the Picasso Cafe, now, but was called something else, back in 2002 when I was there). If you'd really like to get to know some nonbelievers as people, you might drop by some of their meetings.

According to their website, they now have a larger number of activities, with a schedule. You can contact them via the website, and attend the meetups scheduled on the site.

http://oklahomaatheists.com/

I think you'll find, when you actually meet and get to know some of us, that many of your preconceived notions about us are simply wrong, peddled by preachers who have an agenda in making us look like The Enemy™.

"Insular Society" "God's country", call us what you will, but Oklahoma is one of the grandest places in the USA.

Atheists are not the enemy? Excuse me? You take prayer out of schools, want to remove "Under God" from our pledge, and want to forbid the putting up of nativity scenes and merry christmas. Why aren't you the enemy?

Those things all have to do with secularism, and more Christians support them than atheists.

Prayer has never been taken out of schools, only the authority of government employees to lead a captive audience of other people's children in prayer.

'Under God' is still in the pledge, but it wasn't in the original version of the pledge. It was inserted in the 1950s during the Red Scare. It doesn't belong in the pledge of an officially secular nation, and the only reason it got by the Supreme Court is that it was argued that the 'God' in the pledge wasn't specifically the Abrahamic God.

We heartily support your right to a nativity scene: on your own property. Government property belongs to everyone and the government shouldn't endorse a particular religion when everyone is supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law.

Atheists aren't trying to get rid of 'Merry Christmas'. Some stores, desiring to be more inclusive and welcoming of customers, have their sales staff say 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'. Your ability to say 'Merry Christmas' is not hindered in any way by this.

It is best for all concerned in the long run if government is as neutral as possible regarding religious matters. The same rules would apply if it were Muslims, atheists, Buddhists, or Wiccans trying to use the government to endorse their views on religion.

If someone were trying to take your Bibles, shut down your churches, or forbid your protests; I would be on your side. So no, I don't consider myself the enemy of Christians. I do oppose Christianists, though. A Christianist is to a Christian as an Islamist is to a Muslim; someone who wants special privileges from the government for their religion.