Atheists turning to cult behaviour?

[SoFarEast]

If someone is accusing me of being part of "a group" that is responsible for something, then I am quite within my rights to say I am not part of that group. I will happily get on board and address the bad behaviour in question, but I'm not going to take responsibility personally. How could that work?

I think I am in agreement with you. You do not need to identify with it, as an independent atheist you have the right to distance yourself.

However, if atheists are holding conferences, if atheists are congregating in public spaces and meeting in online forums, then this does constitute a community in a sense. And I feel there has to be some set of principles that limit bad behavior. It's just not right when the others shrug their shoulders to these acts.

And I do not say that atheism causes their bad behavior. I just feel a group of atheists without rules can be as bad as a group of religious people with religion. And when they are meeting up regularly, whats to stop a crazy bunch from doing some damage?

I did not title this thread, Atheism leads to cult behavior.

I am not used to writing on the net so maybe it's taking a while to get my point across. I'm not sure, but I think for the past few posts I've basically been repeating what you've been saying.

Just out of interest SFE, are you not identifying as an atheist? I see you have irrelegious down, and people on the forum have all sorts of weird stuff in their description.

Well, most of education and other forms I filled never used to have 'Atheist' as an option. It was always 'Not religious' or 'Irreligious'. So when asked my religious views, I just typed that down. I surely am an atheist.