how to get atheism out there without organizing (Christianity, America, godless)
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Your message IS being radically pushed "out there" - by colleges and universities. Its successful indoctrination too as nearly 75% of Christian students who attend public school and go on to secular college become atheist by the time they graduate college.
Do you have any references for that 75% Christian to atheist claim. I find that very hard to believe. The overwhelming majority of Americans are religious and Christians and if three quarters of the students who went to college were converted to atheism those statistics would be very different. It is true that in general the more education a person has the less likely they are to be religious and I don't want to make that sound like I'm saying religious people are dumb and uneducated, I've known too many very intelligent religious people to think such a thing, I'm just saying that statistics show that this is the case.
I also disagree with your choice of the words "radical" and "indoctrination" when you describe the experience of a college education. America has some of the best universities in the world and institutions such as MIT, Harvard and many of the other ivy league universities are the cream of the crop.
Location: Everybody is going to hurt you, you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for-B Marley
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Quote:
Originally Posted by cleatis
I have been meeting up with some Atheist friends and we have been trying to get proactive - to the extent of, as my friend says, "puching back". We all pretty much agree that organizing would pretty much turn this into another religion.
We really have no intent to take over the world or anything, but what are some suggestions on how to get our "message" out there without getting too organized?
Of course, if the Universities only presented one side of the issue, they would, of necessity, have to be named something else, like........ A Church! As the name University implies, there is a whole universe out there to be learned about, savor it! Mathematics, Logic, English, Drama, Art, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Sociology, Psychology, Dance, Music, Architecture, Body Mechanics, History.....the list is actually quite mind-boggling, even if one does not touch the body of work known as Literature.
As for getting Atheists organized, in my humble opinion, the Church will do that for us.
Well churches aren't forcing people to believe in God, but that doesn't mean they don't promote that viewpoint. Same with colleges and universities today.
If professors would stick to philosophy and stick to science instead of focusing on an agenda, this wouldn't be a problem.
How do you feel about a hypothetical law that would require that no children under the age of 16 be taken to any religious organization's meetings, on the grounds that they are not "of age" to make any decision about religious belief? It is the indoctrination of children that is the foundation of religious institutions all over the world and in all of history. That would be a very serious step toward "freedom from religion."
Religion should be a choice for adults, not the result of the indoctrination of children. For instance, I was allowed to "join" a church and be baptized when I was 11 y.o., and my younger sister did so when she was about 9 y.o. By what measure are the beliefs of a 9 y.o. firmly enough based for that congregation (Southern Baptist affiliation) to consider me a "member"? It's kind of a joke when you think about it. What a "low threshold" for membership in that organization!
The way it is in the American society, the fact of the religious indoctrination of children works against legitimate educational processes in the sciences, the social sciences, and history. The religious institutions "get there first" in the children's minds and prejudice them against another point of view. And the religious authorities know very well that this is the case.
Last edited by ParkTwain; 11-18-2008 at 08:35 PM..
Many of the young people attending universities have been programmed by their parents into Christianity...It is not something they decided for themselves. Universities teach them how to think, then they make their own choices...I'm quite sure the schools are not teaching non belief.
Because to adopt atheism is practically always done through personal crisis, change, and experience. Just as it is for those who turn to religion.
I am 56 years old and I've never ~ ever ~ known or met anyone who converted to religion through Jehovah's Witnesses knocking at their door. Yes, I know ~ you're didn't say anything about knocking on doors. Metaphor for being too aggressive.
Ya just can't change people's minds that way. For all the good efforts I've read in this forum, it's done nothing to change mine. Or yours.
Well churches aren't forcing people to believe in God, but that doesn't mean they don't promote that viewpoint. Same with colleges and universities today.
If professors would stick to philosophy and stick to science instead of focusing on an agenda, this wouldn't be a problem.
I am currently in my fourth year of college, and not once have i felt like any of my professors have been pushing an atheist agenda on me. In fact in those four years I have only heard two references made about religion. The first was brought up in a philosophy class i took, not suprising seing as the class was called God and the Meaning of Life. And I'm also willing to bet if you had taken that class you would see an agenda being pushed on you, rather than apporaching the topic from a philosophical view point. The second was when my Marketing professor mentioned that her children attended a Luthern School. If anything atheists in college, as in society, are overlooked, not considerd, and complelty ignored.
Back to the OP, you pose a very difficult question. Is it possible for anyone/thing to be widely recognized by society without having some form of organization, i think so but extremely difficult. To be recognized, there would have to be some sort of public figure head, and what is a figure head without an organization backing them? More often then not they would be seen as a crack pot, trying to push a personal agenda on everyone else. Im not saying that an organization is needed to be recognized, but it certainly helps.
If there were such an atheist organizition, im not sure i would be a part of it. Mainly because i feel no need what so ever to define my atheisim in any sort of organization
We really have no intent to take over the world or anything, but what are some suggestions on how to get our "message" out there without getting too organized?
Ridiculous notion. Who cares about getting our "message" out there? We don't HAVE a message, because we're not an organized group of people and we don't NEED to be an organized group of people. It would be like saying "Gee, I like cheese on my burger and so do my friends. We need to get our message out to the world, so that everyone else can enjoy cheese too!"
Atheists don't need to organize. All the ones I know are a live-and-let-live bunch of folks, and don't care what anyone else believes as long as they don't try to push it on us.
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