Any Black Atheists in Atlanta (that's right I said it) (Rome: live in, move to)

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by caramel74

Buckhead Betty, thank you for your thoughts and I will consider doing that. Many of you may be surprised to hear that since I started this thread back in September, we (my husband and I) actually have found some African American freethinkers and atheists here in Atlanta. People (Black people especially) are finally becoming more open minded. I feel that there is a new Freethinker movement and it is about time. Just as people are becoming more open to the thought of homosexuality, people are starting to question and THINK logically about the hypocrital ideals that the bible is FULL of.

I won't "preach", but it just amazes me at how super religious we as Black people are. We PRAISE to the highest and are so LOYAL and FAITHFUL to an ALL LOVING and ALL POWERFUL god that allowed us to be beaten, expoited, degrated, tortured, violated, and raped SLAVES for over 400 years. Yeah, that sounds like someone who I want to give my money to, waste my Sundays on and dedicate me life to alright.

Well i'm not an atheist by any means.However because I am a free thinker and I question the Church and Religion on many of its traditional teachings,others blacks think I am full of blasphemy.So I do understand your views of the black religious experience in America.However I take isssue that while it may be a waste of a Sunday to you.I think we could agree that even though black people did go through much,I think it was faith in something larger than ourselves that gave us the strength and courage to make it through form being beaten," expoited, degrated, tortured, violated, and raped SLAVES for over 400 years".
Even if you do not believe in God surely can see that it was not all bad.Where would our culture be without it?One thing comes to mind is,as a music fanatic, particularly R&B,Jazz,House,Neo-SOul and Blues,our culture would be very bland.

Please do not think i'm trying to convert you.LOL.I'm just asking you to consider another way of looking at the impact of religion in the black community.Anyway I hope you are able to find what you seek.

[caramel74]

Even if you do not believe in God surely can see that it was not all bad.Where would our culture be without it?One thing comes to mind is,as a music fanatic, particularly R&B,Jazz,House,Neo-SOul and Blues,our culture would be very bland.

I believe our dedication to god/jesus is partly responsible for our inability to advance even more than we have. So many of us think we will reap our rewards in heaven so therefore we don't see a need to work and study hard to be all we can be while we are here. I have a very religious aunt whose house is literally falling apart. She belives that the "Lawd" will take care of it in due time....now what she needs to do is get up off of her behind and DO something about her home and life for that matter. My own mother is a very sucessful businesswoman living in a million dollar home, and she feels like god is what gave it to her. No, what gave it to her was her business savy, her people skills, her common sense, and her intelligence. If god gave her financial success, why not ALL people?! Why should she be rewarded with all the blessings from god and not all believers. No they get blown up by airplanes, and killed by tsunamis and hurricanes.

As for your other point, christianity was given to the slaves as a way to keep them docile and "in check". Using quotes from the bible to make us think that that was what we were supposed to be doing. Having us saying "Yes suh massa...No suh massa" with our heads looking down at the floor. Teaching us that us that feeling inferior was looked at by god as respect that will be rewarded in heaven. I think that by nature we are very talented people and we have a certain swagger and style about us that would have been there even if we were not slaves. We were dancing, singing songs and clapping in Africa too!

[karrobe]

caramel74, I agree 100%. I identify more with Eastern thought i.e. Buddhism, a philosophy of natural observation and logical thought as well as a basic tenant of loving kindness. Christianity continues to oppress our people. How many times do we hear "put it in God's hands"? That is exactly the mentality that keeps us down. Personally, I used to be Christian and no longer am. I was raised Christian and went to a parochial school. I was actually pretty devout (also I experienced just about every kind of Christian denomination) until I started to dig deeper into the history of the religion, specifically Christianity. It's unfortunate that the religion pushes the idea of blind faith. If you do believe in God, is intellect and knowledge not God-given? The belief in God came from our ancestors' fear and lack of knowledge. The idea of God, which they created, gave them comfort in times of crisis which is something we obviously still see today. The God idea is a response to fear and frustration.


I can't stand, especially in the Black community, that when you are not Christian or even challenge an obviously erroneous belief that now you are sinful, blasphemous, immoral, etc. But I have found that atheists, agnostics are so much more loving, kind, compassionate than most Christians! They are far more non-judgmental overall and more progressive. Don't even get me started on the prosperity gospel...

Great article:Buddha, Buddhism and God

[MisterNY]

Originally Posted by karrobe

But I have found that atheists, agnostics are so much more loving, kind, compassionate than most Christians! They are far more non-judgmental overall and more progressive. Don't even get me started on the prosperity gospel...

Great article:Buddha, Buddhism and God

Ironically YOU GET 2 AMENS for that . You are spot on. I believe so myself. Much more compassion, less hypocrisy, more love and morality from agnostics and atheists as a whole. Agreed, agreed, agreed!!

[karrobe]

I appreciate it! Love to see open-mindedness "sigh"

[JahNissi]

Wow, so many straw men, red herrings, and generalizations in this thread for a bunch of educated open-minded free thinkers...

[portyhead24]

Originally Posted by caramel74

I think that by nature we are very talented people and we have a certain swagger and style about us that would have been there even if we were not slaves. We were dancing, singing songs and clapping in Africa too!

This is true but I don't believe this is just African nature, that's human nature.

[afonega1]

Originally Posted by caramel74

I believe our dedication to god/jesus is partly responsible for our inability to advance even more than we have. So many of us think we will reap our rewards in heaven so therefore we don't see a need to work and study hard to be all we can be while we are here. I have a very religious aunt whose house is literally falling apart. She belives that the "Lawd" will take care of it in due time....now what she needs to do is get up off of her behind and DO something about her home and life for that matter. My own mother is a very sucessful businesswoman living in a million dollar home, and she feels like god is what gave it to her. No, what gave it to her was her business savy, her people skills, her common sense, and her intelligence. If god gave her financial success, why not ALL people?! Why should she be rewarded with all the blessings from god and not all believers. No they get blown up by airplanes, and killed by tsunamis and hurricanes.

As for your other point, christianity was given to the slaves as a way to keep them docile and "in check". Using quotes from the bible to make us think that that was what we were supposed to be doing. Having us saying "Yes suh massa...No suh massa" with our heads looking down at the floor. Teaching us that us that feeling inferior was looked at by god as respect that will be rewarded in heaven. I think that by nature we are very talented people and we have a certain swagger and style about us that would have been there even if we were not slaves. We were dancing, singing songs and clapping in Africa too!

Some of the same issues you have or some of the issues I have.I do not believe that the bible and our church leaders are infallible.Actually most people that claim to be Christians do follow blindly.Yu are also right that to many people use the excuse that God will do it all.Many do not understand that we are made to be free thinkers and free men.Thats actually not christian Doctrine.Thats people with their own agendas.Thats why we have the problems we have with Religeon.

My point is that people can always find reasons to be different and blame that behavior on whatever is convienient.Yes Christianity has been used by those who use it too further their own agenda,but thats not the fault of the religeon.

The same argument you make for against christianity is what some people say against black people.Do some blacks do bad things ?Yes.Do a some Christians do bad things?Yes.After all,we Christians,Islamics and yes ,Athiest deserve to be respected.

[ArthursChoice]

I ain't mad at you though; you should be able to say it!

Originally Posted by caramel74

Hubby and I recently moved to ATL. We are clean, professional, law abiding, kind and respectable people. ( I had to start it off that way because as soon as you say "atheist", people assume you wear black and worship the devil).

We would love to meet some African American atheists in the Atlanta area. Believe me, there are some...even in this bible-belt area. It's hard for people to be courageous enough (especially for Black people) to come out of the religious "closet".

Not trying to stir up controversy (even though I'm sure I will), we just would love to mix and mingle with other freethinkers.

[caramel74]

The same argument you make for against christianity is what some people say against black people.Do some blacks do bad things ?Yes.Do a some Christians do bad things?Yes.After all,we Christians,Islamics and yes ,Athiest deserve to be respected.

I am an atheist so I don't have just an argument about christianity....I don't believe in any religion or god. I totally agree that ALL people deserve respect regarding what they believe. I never said that anyone is crazy for believing in god or christianity. I am just saying that I don't and I wanted to get connected with others in Atlanta (especially African Americans) that share my views. Christians do bad things because we are ALL human and that's the way of the world. I personally don't need the bible to make me not do bad things. I don't kill because I can relate to someone's sorrow...so I would never do that.

To me god is like santa claus... when you were young your mom and dad told you "you better be good or you won't get any presents!" But as you got older you started THINKING and you may have said to your parents..."how can santa go to EVERY house in the world in one night?" Or you may have said like I did..."Mom, we don't have a fireplace....how can santa get in?" Then finally you realized that there was NO santa! You didn't need to know that santa was coming to enjoy christmas. That's how I feel about my transformation from being raised Baptist....I started THINKING! How can two people (Adam and Eve) populate the earth? Didn't they have two SONS? So that means one of them or both had to have sex with their MOTHER! How can a man live in a whale? How can EVERY single species of animal on the planet fit on one boat (Noah's ark)? How come the bible doesn't have anything about dinosaurs? Why doesn't it say how many planets and stars god created? Why doesn't it name the planets and stars? You know why.... because the people who wrote the bible had no idea about those kinds of things back then. They banked on the fact that future generations would not advance to the level that we have and have access to the technology that we do. Those were my "santa" questions and after I researched and asked questions to ministers, parents, friends and all I kept getting was...."You just gotta believe, or you gotta have faith". Well I'm sorry but I don't...I require proof before I dedicate my entire life to something.

Why is it that human beings require proof in every other aspect in life, but not for religion. If someone asked you to move to California and promised to give you a job, a beautiful home, all the luxuries in life (heaven), would you move before you involved your lawyer or had them sign a contract? I bet you wouldn't move on BLIND FAITH then!