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835 Comments
- acparks1, on 04/28/2009, -25/+305we're all born atheists. people have to be taught to fear god.
- Alheithinn, on 04/27/2009, -30/+297And no reason they should not. Christians feel free to proclaim their religion, why should people not feel free to proclaim their lack of it? I am a polytheist, and I make no secret of it. I'm proud of what I am.
As long as people aren't going door to door to "witness" their belief or lack thereof, I have no problem with it. And to date, not a single atheist has come to my door - only Christians. - JanTik, on 04/27/2009, -13/+189I am a Christian and my best friend is an Atheist. Our many debates on the topic have actually cemented our friendship and we respect each others views. It’s time to stop the medieval mentality of wanting to attack everyone we disagree with.
- DirtPile, on 04/28/2009, -19/+143I'm atheist as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more! I'm a human being, dammit!
- MrInfallible, on 04/28/2009, -11/+124Convert?
- dpbBryan, on 04/28/2009, -47/+136Atheism isn't a religion *****.
- hobomoe001, on 04/28/2009, -23/+109man created religion to explain what he couldn't in numbers or science.
- lamejoketeller, on 04/27/2009, -72/+150it was hard when I converted, since my father is a devout catholic, but it's a very important step to take
- Komgol, on 04/28/2009, -13/+90Stop burying him over semantics, dicks.
- Shaggy6ster, on 04/28/2009, -5/+81It seems you've made the same mistake.
- jigendysuke, on 04/28/2009, -9/+84It's nice to see a story about atheists where they weren't treated as inhuman monsters who crave human blood while trying to destroy all of society.
- WoWii, on 04/28/2009, -12/+80there is no irony
- Boogalou007, on 04/28/2009, -12/+80Geesh, why so hostile guys? His comment was sincere...
- Vishalrix, on 04/28/2009, -5/+59Its good to know that atheists can meet in groups, and organize themselves in America. This is a small first step: the bigger issue is whether two atheists can be allowed to marry each other, and raise atheist kids.
- smedrick, on 04/28/2009, -5/+57@alpha88: I hate to bury you (because I agree with the spirit of your remark), but religion was indeed created to fill in the blanks. Eventually people realized they could take advantage of it and use it to control people.
- kevinmoore, on 06/13/2009, -5/+57Atheism is a lack of belief in an invisible all-seeing, all-knowing being commonly referred to as god. It's nothing more and nothing less. There's nothing about atheism that has anything to do with "faith in oneself".
Atheists do not, as you say, "believe there isn't anything out there they can't explain." That's a common way for people to twist things around. Atheism doesn't proclaim answers to anything. It is simply a lack of belief in an unobservable and unverifiable thing you call god. - whereNICKstands, on 04/27/2009, -26/+77three cheers for the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry... and the Pastafarians cracked me up.
It's embarrassing that the only rational position out there (the others are held on "faith" not "reason") is sidelined. - takamalak, on 04/28/2009, -6/+53You're wrong. A baby doesn't believe in god because they can't comprehend it. They are taught that belief as they group up and are indoctrinated.
- InfinitySnatch, on 04/28/2009, -6/+51There's no irony unless we get representatives giving edicts on what kinds of belief Atheists have to adhere too. There are plenty of organized groups in the US that have nothing to do with religion.
- drallo, on 04/28/2009, -11/+54atheism = nontheism
the only people who believe otherwise are retarded agnostics. - Jaime2000, on 04/28/2009, -0/+42Huh? I don't see a log in prompt, but if you insist...
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,” the group’s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman’s living room to grapple with the fallout.
The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite. An overflow audience of more than 100 had showed up for their most recent public symposium, and the board members discussed whether it was time to find a larger place.
And now parents were coming out of the woodwork asking for family-oriented programs where they could meet like-minded nonbelievers.
“Is everyone in favor of sponsoring a picnic for humanists with families?” asked the board president, Jonathan Lamb, a 27-year-old meteorologist, eliciting a chorus of “ayes.”
More than ever, America’s atheists are linking up and speaking out — even here in South Carolina, home to Bob Jones University, blue laws and a legislature that last year unanimously approved a Christian license plate embossed with a cross, a stained glass window and the words “I Believe” (a move blocked by a judge and now headed for trial).
They are connecting on the Internet, holding meet-ups in bars, advertising on billboards and buses, volunteering at food pantries and picking up roadside trash, earning atheist groups recognition on adopt-a-highway signs.
They liken their strategy to that of the gay-rights movement, which lifted off when closeted members of a scorned minority decided to go public.
“It’s not about carrying banners or protesting,” said Herb Silverman, a math professor at the College of Charleston who founded the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, which has about 150 members on the coast of the Carolinas. “The most important thing is coming out of the closet.”
Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.
Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters.
Local and national atheist organizations have flourished in recent years, fed by outrage over the Bush administration’s embrace of the religious right. A spate of best-selling books on atheism also popularized the notion that nonbelief is not just an argument but a cause, like environmentalism or muscular dystrophy.
Ten national organizations that variously identify themselves as atheists, humanists, freethinkers and others who go without God have recently united to form the Secular Coalition for America, of which Mr. Silverman is president. These groups, once rivals, are now pooling resources to lobby in Washington for separation of church and state.
A wave of donations, some in the millions of dollars, has enabled the hiring of more paid professional organizers, said Fred Edwords, a longtime atheist leader who just started his own umbrella group, the United Coalition of Reason, which plans to spawn 20 local groups around the country in the next year.
Despite changing attitudes, polls continue to show that atheists are ranked lower than any other minority or religious group when Americans are asked whether they would vote for or approve of their child marrying a member of that group.
Over lunch with some new atheist joiners at a downtown Charleston restaurant serving shrimp and grits, one young mother said that her husband was afraid to allow her to go public as an atheist because employers would refuse to hire him.
But another member, Beverly Long, a retired school administrator who now teaches education at the Citadel, said that when she first moved to Charleston from Toronto in 2001, “the first question people asked me was, What church do you belong to?” Ms. Long attended Wednesday dinners at a Methodist church, for the social interaction, but never felt at home. Since her youth, she had doubted the existence of God but did not discuss her views with others.
Ms. Long found the secular humanists through a newspaper advertisement and attended a meeting. Now, she is ready to go public, she said, especially after doing some genealogical research recently. “I had ancestors who fought in the American Revolution so I could speak my mind,” she said.
Until recent years, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry were local pariahs. Mr. Silverman — whose specialty license plate, one of many offered by the state, says “In Reason We Trust” — was invited to give the invocation at the Charleston City Council once, but half the council members walked out. The local chapter of Habitat for Humanity would not let the Secular Humanists volunteer to build houses wearing T-shirts that said “Non Prophet Organization,” he said.
When their billboard went up in January, with their Web site address displayed prominently, they expected hate mail.
“But most of the e-mails were grateful,” said Laura Kasman, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina.
The board members meeting in the Kasmans’ living room were an unlikely mix that included a gift store owner, a builder, a grandmother, a retired nursing professor, a retired Navy officer, an administrator at a primate sanctuary and a church musician. They are also diverse in their attitudes toward religion.
Loretta Haskell, the church musician, said: “I did struggle at one point as to whether or not I should be making music in churches, given my position on things. But at the same time I like using my music to move people, to give them comfort. And what I’ve found is, I am not one of the humanists who feels that religion is a bad thing.”
The group has had mixed reactions to President Obama, who acknowledged nonbelievers in his inauguration speech. “I sent him a thank-you note,” Ms. Kasman said. But Sharon Fratepietro, who is married to Mr. Silverman, said, “It seemed like one long religious ceremony, with a moment of lip service.”
Part of what is giving the movement momentum is the proliferation of groups on college campuses. The Secular Student Alliance now has 146 chapters, up from 42 in 2003.
At the University of South Carolina, in Columbia, 19 students showed up for a recent evening meeting of the “Pastafarians,” named for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster — a popular spoof on religion dreamed up by an opponent of intelligent design, the idea that living organisms are so complex that the best explanation is that a higher intelligence designed them.
Andrew Cederdahl, the group’s co-founder, asked for volunteers for the local food bank and for a coming debate with a nearby Christian college. Then Mr. Cederdahl opened the floor to members to tell their “coming out stories.”
Andrew Morency, who attended a Christian high school, said that when he got to college and studied evolutionary biology he decided that “creationists lie.”
Josh Streetman, who once attended the very Christian college that the Pastafarians were about to debate, said he knew the Bible too well to be sure that Scripture is true. Like Mr. Streetman, many of the other students at the meeting were highly literate in the Bible and religious history.
In keeping with the new generation of atheist evangelists, the Pastafarian leaders say that their goal is not confrontation, or even winning converts, but changing the public’s stereotype of atheists. A favorite Pastafarian activity is to gather at a busy crossroads on campus with a sign offering “Free Hugs” from “Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist.” - Legoman513, on 04/28/2009, -3/+45Wow so here we have a guy (JanTik) who was sincerely trying to show kindness towards opposing beliefs and here you guys just totally threw that aside and started bashing each other. This is pathetic...
- Chompy, on 04/28/2009, -14/+54Yes, from willful ignorance to sanity.
- udjet, on 04/28/2009, -14/+54Hey douche, just because it is not a religion doesn't mean you can't convert. Converting from believer to non-believer maybe?
- Coven, on 04/27/2009, -3/+42for all. note how he said "as long as people aren't going door to door to "witness" their belief or lack thereof"
- Zhang5, on 04/28/2009, -2/+39Wait, we were in hiding? When did I not get this memo? I've never hidden it and nobody has ever had a problem with it, at least in dealing with me of course.
- takamalak, on 04/28/2009, -11/+45Maybe he meant he converted back to the way he was born: atheist.
- TennisinneT, on 04/28/2009, -20/+53You can't convert to a lack of a religion.
- wjreynolds, on 04/27/2009, -18/+50Add this article to the scores of others whose authors made a very basic mistake in interpreting the original survey, namely, confusing those who expressed "no religion" with atheist. Undoubtedly, some in that category certainly are atheists, but there is nothing to make us think they ALL are. A believer who is of the "spiritual but not religious" camp would almost certainly put him- or herself in the "no religion" category, but it is a mistake to jump from that to "atheist."
- Dinner, on 04/28/2009, -1/+32"IN THE NAME OF THE LACK OF GOD I HEREBY STARVE ALL THESE PEASANTS"
...No, that doesn't quite work. - takamalak, on 04/28/2009, -2/+33You're confusing atheism (thanks for capitalizing, but it's unnecessary) with anarchism.
- shawxn, on 04/28/2009, -3/+34actually, there is reason to atheism. I'm surprised you missed the part where if there is no evidence of something it is rational to believe it doesn't exist.
- solarplexus7, on 04/28/2009, -6/+31no one (to my knowledge) has ever killed in the name of atheism. religions on the other hand...
- Miknarf, on 04/28/2009, -0/+25the prefix a- means not or non. its not that complicated.
- Finsternis, on 04/28/2009, -1/+26I'd be perfectly happy do do that if the theists kept THEIR theism out of OUR government and laws.
Do you see any atheists trying to get "There are no gods" printed on our money? Or try to tell people who they're allowed to marry? Trying to have the Pledge of Allegiance say "one, nation, godless..."? - clip9, on 04/28/2009, -4/+29This is just semantic *****.
- cthellis, on 04/28/2009, -1/+26I go door-to-door to proclaim by belief that people should buy vacuum cleaners from me.
Does that count? - johnkemp, on 04/28/2009, -3/+27"reverted" would be the correct term then.
- Ryuusen, on 04/28/2009, -3/+27Why would you kill for something you don't believe in? You're argument is somewhat flawed.
- nicko68, on 04/28/2009, -2/+26"I am a Christian and my best friend is an Atheist."
Do hilarious hijinks ensue? :) - thiefjack, on 04/28/2009, -0/+24"as hell" also akin to "like hell"
a colloquial expression usually to mean something done with intensity or ferocity - SelfAbortion, on 04/28/2009, -0/+22How often do people get picketed, persecuted, or denounced for not believing in unicorns? Compare to same re: god or gods. There's your answer. Thank you, drive through.
- Hraes, on 04/28/2009, -2/+23Atheism isn't a belief, that's the point. It's a lack of belief. It is the default state--the state we are born in. Same as we're born with no language by default, and must learn a language to become a speaker of that language, we are born atheistic, and must learn a religion to become a believer in any religion.
- kevinmoore, on 06/13/2009, -2/+23Yeah, but how many believers of unicorns and easter bunnies do you encounter on a daily basis?
If you're able to understand how ridiculous the concept of unicorns and easter bunnies are, then you should be able to understand atheism. To an atheist, a unicorn is as unbelievable as god. - inactive, on 04/28/2009, -1/+22What if you don't believe in belief? In my case, it's not that I believe there is no God, but that I don't believe there is a God. We can never know anything for certain, is my philosophy, so I see no reason for belief.
EDIT: Oh, and offrdbandit, that's backwards. Theists claim they can explain everything, atheists claim they can't. If you believe in God, you believe in an explanation for everything. - maddskillz, on 04/28/2009, -0/+20When I was a baby, I just thought about boobs
- carpeclunes, on 04/28/2009, -1/+21Any difference between the usages of the words Atheism and Nontheism is negligible and hardly worth discussing. Suffice to say, in terms of etymology, theism means a believe in one or multiple deities. So atheism simply means the lack of a belief in one or multiple deities. If you are nontheistic, meaning you don't even have a concept of god, or if you are agnostic (lack of knowledge), then you are inherently atheistic. Because if you don't know if there is a god, why would you believe in one? Take some Greek.
- DouglasQ, on 04/28/2009, -4/+24I don't mind if someone's an atheist, so long as they keep it indoors.
I just don't one one marrying my daughter! - Finsternis, on 04/28/2009, -0/+20Do people try to tell you what you can and can't do based on belief in the Easter Bunny? Does anyone say "I won't allow you to get married because the unicorns don't like it?"
When that starts happening, then your comparisons will be valid. The truth is that even though gods and unicorns and the easter bunny are equally ridiculous, followers of the easter bunny never burned atheists at the stake. - DouglasQ, on 04/28/2009, -1/+20I'm an atheist, I was kidding dude.
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