(April 19, 2015 at 12:55 pm)whateverist Wrote: I'd ignored this thread at first. But since francis has posted such a well thought out response I guess I'll go ahead and post my initial, flippant and much less well thought out reaction.
For atheism to become corrupt there'd need to be more money in the system. That could come about through tithing, televangelism or contributing to de-conversion missionaries. But they won't get any of my money. I'm not invested in de-converting the masses. Educating them, yes. Implanting the mindset that should result, no.
Yeah I too went against my better judgement and responded to this thread (only to find out the author of the OP has already been banned, but oh well). Normally, I find it rather pointless to debate with theists, although, there are atheists who share this view (for whatever reason, probably because they haven't been steeped in atheism for very long and they don't have much contact with the atheist community). The idea that atheists in America are anything but a group that's constantly maligned, the underdog by any reasonable estimation, is simply not supported by reality. Anyone who has been an atheist for a while and who's had a healthy degree of contact with other atheists, would know this.
The only exception is the "angry at god" crowd, who identifies as atheists (but I question their intellectual commitment to atheism, since their atheism is not intellectually based)
