Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Atheist Exile on October 11, 2010 at 5:45am

Word of mouth. We can express our views on those rare occasions when the opportunities arise. Over the course of a lifetime, this can amount to dozens or hundreds of occasions. Our arguments might seem to fall on deaf ears but our words actually rattle around the brains of our recipients. When the time is ripe, all the arguments they're heard against religion will be there for recall.

We can't expect to convert people on the spot. Just put out the message. Our combined efforts will have effects we can't predict. So what if your words, in particular, weren't the deciding factor? You contributed. That's all we can do without a public forum.

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Permalink Reply by Jānis Ķimsis on October 11, 2010 at 1:03pm

To me it seems like asking "what do you want to achieve by being human/male/sane etc.". I didn't choose to be an atheist, it was just a byproduct of my obsessive tendency to read. And I love arguing, so I quickly came to realize, once I had a close look at them, that religuos ideas are just as full of logical fallacies as many of the arguments I've been involved in, which didn't leave me much of a choice ( I love being right).

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Permalink Reply by Reggie on October 11, 2010 at 1:26pm

I, too, get pissed when I see people offer useless prayers. But, then I see the recipients seem to be thankful for them and I throw my hands in the air.

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Permalink Reply by Svendsen on October 11, 2010 at 4:54pm

Hehe i love having a adult conversation for once thx for participating so far=)

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Permalink Reply by baddy on October 11, 2010 at 5:02pm

I'm just speaking for myself, but I don't really have any goal in mind other than for my own personal development. But, as far as the community on this website goes, the people on here are awesome. It's nice to find people with similar mindsets, as well as those with different ones so as to converse and debate. I also love to just post funny pics and videos that mock religion and make me smile.

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Permalink Reply by Svendsen on October 12, 2010 at 8:35am

Why I raised the question is because majority that calls them self atheist have been religious and tend to do certain things to express them self etc. Like building a blog,starting a radio show etc.Seems to be people want to achieve SOMETHING maybe not something universal but..

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Permalink Reply by Svendsen on October 12, 2010 at 10:21am

Yes brilliant put,that's what I've been thinking about.The slogan "atheist" it's a pessimistic term and I think alot of people don't trust us because the tag we were.The Bright's movement collapsed I think quite early.
Cool if we all tried to look for a new name and start spreading the word hehe. because "naturlist" don't work
either because you have to define "Naturlists" for some people that's when your free of sin right and "the brights"
a brite, doesn't mean your necessarly smart but you get my point. same thing with "humanists" because it's essentialy about our human essence and nature.So something more positive and modern could work but we have to find out what we want to achieve..I really care about this:P

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Permalink Reply by idcollapse Ra on March 21, 2011 at 11:23pm

nice post

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Permalink Reply by Melanie Dawn Molina Wood on March 22, 2011 at 1:33pm

I find myself becoming more "activist" in my atheism too, but all that really amounts to is being more "out" about it. What I would really like to accomplish is to make discrimination against atheists as socially unacceptable as discrimination against other minority groups is. An atheist should be able to openly run for public office without the mere fact of their atheism ensuring they will lose. Business people wouldn't dream (in today's world) of posting anti-semitic jokes on a business forum, but they think nothing of posting anti-atheist jokes there.

 

We will never entirely rid the world of bigots, but I would like to work towards a world were bigots are the only ones that are marginalized.

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Permalink Reply by Apple on March 22, 2011 at 2:26pm

My goal is to work on not being materialistic. It has been said that without god / spirituality, atheists are then reduced to simply being materialists. Or society also pushes us in that direction, urging us constantly to buy things that we do not need.

One time Sam Harris said to a group of atheists that we need to cultivate and mindset of happiness that doesn't rely on the "next good thing" to happen. We're always waiting for the fun thing on the weekend, or completing that project, a meeting with a friend or lover, or the newest cool gadget, etc. So my goal is to work on cultivating this mindset of happiness that Harris talks about without relying on supernatural ideas to do it.

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