Problems with atheism

[Godnose]

Wow, I totally tried to give you the benefit of the doubt and reasonably explain what was going on here. It seems, however, that you are more interested in copping an attitude and playing the victim than having a rational discussion.

Now I understand why you have trouble meeting people.

Ah - I see I have totally misunderstood. I was under the impression that a forum is about exchanging thoughts and ideas. Clearly I was misled about that - one is merely supposed to agree with whoever happens to be there before you. I stand corrected.

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Back to the OP, it really does sound as if you have made a personal problem manifest by throwing it out as a social one. Were atheists to need a physical space in which to congregate specifically because they are atheists and not because they share other interests, you might as well create another religion, which would utterly defeat the point.

All so-called "social" problems are ultimately personal. The fire that burns a house down is personal to the householder, however the provision of a fire service is a social enterprise provided for the safety of the entire community. Similarly, the moral dilemmas faced by multitudes of individuals, if permitted to continue without the provision of any opportunity for solace, will lead to generalised social breakdown (of which there is much evidence already in our increasingly secular societies). If a secular society refuses to provide any substitute for activities which have traditionally been carried out by religion, then the result, after a period of chaos, will be the reinforcement of religion. People will be attracted by the services provided and will in many cases be prepared to adopt a religious ideology in order to obtain them.

This is common practice among atheists. Many people who profess atheism are nevertheless prepared to marry in church, often "for the sake of their families". Their argument is usually along the lines that it's only a game they are playing, as they are atheists it is no risk to them to go through such a meaningless ritual. However every wedding that is conducted by the clergy, whether or not the participants are actual believers, effectively reinforces the power of the religion. The only solution to this problem is to provide alternative, secular marriage services. This is already available throughout many parts of the UK from the Humanist Society but remains extremely limited in number and scope, and a similar principle needs to be extended over a greater range of services. in which I would include some form of morality counselling service similar to those currently provided by clergy (but without the god bits).

My purpose in wanting to provide alternative, atheist based facilities is specifically not to bolster religion or religiosity, but rather to subvert the need for religious-based structures by replacing them with atheist based ones.

The point of atheism is not to "defeat religion", the point of atheism is to refute the concept of a deity. This is a pragmatic problem and does not mean that all other aspects of religion are thereby precluded. Anyone who refuses to consider the coming together of atheists on the grounds that it runs the risk of forming another religion is subjecting themselves to dogma, and it is that which is most likely, in the end, to "utterly defeat the point" of atheism.

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... The other night, I was talking to a Canadian, a guy in Kentucky, and a guy in Australia. Maybe you'd say we'd never see each other "in person" but there we were, online in a video chat, four members of the "Atheist Community" (specifically the "Atheist Forums Community") chillin' together doing shit and staring at each other's mugs.

Oh yeah, the so-called "global village". Wow, you can TALK to someone in some other part of the world. Big deal. How's that going to help stop your house burning down if it catches fire?

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I'll go one step further than Cinjin, since Godnose has managed to contradict his own argument that religion needs to go, but religious establishments must stay,

This is the usual word-twisting I so often experience on these forums. Some services traditionally carried out by religion are essential for society, and if a stable secular society is to ever be achieved it will be necessary to incorporate similar services in order to maintain similar essential services. There is no contradiction here.

and that this atheist forum is clearly not a community; he is not just a religious poser, he's also a poe.

Utter rubbish. Of course this forum is not a community, except in a most glib sense of the word. And as for me being fundamentalist, it's not me that's laying down all these dogmatic restrictions on freedom of thought!

What a waste of oxygen. >.>

Your choice. No-one's forcing you.