First of all, when you mentioned TAM it should have been specified that The Amazing Meeting is identified as a skeptics gathering. While many skeptics ARE atheists, there are some who believe in god. The point of TAM is to promote critical thinking, and if that critical thinking leads you to believe god is bullshit...well, you're in good company. It is not a cult gather having anything necessarily to do with atheists. Rather, it's a collection of nerdy people who are trying to inject science and the scientific method into what they do. If she wants to rail against the "Cult of Science," then that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish.
Second of all, it sounds like your friend is uncomfortable with whatever she (she, right?) thinks atheism represents.
Personally, I like talking about atheism because I spent 24 years being silent about the fact that whatever everyone was talking about around me (god) wasn't making any sense and I felt like there was something wrong with ME. I can't be the only one raised below the Mason-Dixon line who feels like this, so right off the bat we have people discussing it because they've suddenly discovered they're not weird for thinking what they do; they're not alone. Is this how cults start? Sounds more like an interest club to me. "Hey, *I* like chess!" "I like chess too!" "Let's get together and make a chess club and we'll talk about chess things and play chess and read about great chess players and their strategies!" Is this only different because we're talking about people's religions and world beliefs?
A cult requires blind obedience to one leader. There isn't room for more. Since there are many on the board who think that Dawkins, Hitchens, or many others are individually assholes and not worth following, but other professed atheists are, I think that's reason enough to assume the group is too fractured to call a cult. It's like herding cats. Try getting a room of free-thinkers to agree on ANYTHING much less get them to DO anything all at the same time.
Second of all, it sounds like your friend is uncomfortable with whatever she (she, right?) thinks atheism represents.
Personally, I like talking about atheism because I spent 24 years being silent about the fact that whatever everyone was talking about around me (god) wasn't making any sense and I felt like there was something wrong with ME. I can't be the only one raised below the Mason-Dixon line who feels like this, so right off the bat we have people discussing it because they've suddenly discovered they're not weird for thinking what they do; they're not alone. Is this how cults start? Sounds more like an interest club to me. "Hey, *I* like chess!" "I like chess too!" "Let's get together and make a chess club and we'll talk about chess things and play chess and read about great chess players and their strategies!" Is this only different because we're talking about people's religions and world beliefs?
A cult requires blind obedience to one leader. There isn't room for more. Since there are many on the board who think that Dawkins, Hitchens, or many others are individually assholes and not worth following, but other professed atheists are, I think that's reason enough to assume the group is too fractured to call a cult. It's like herding cats. Try getting a room of free-thinkers to agree on ANYTHING much less get them to DO anything all at the same time.
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