Anonymous wrote:

I do wish there was a non-church equivalent for atheists, and I also wish there was a better word in the english language than 'praying'. 'I'll be crossing my fingers for you' or 'I'll be hoping you recover soon' is not the same as 'I'll be praying for you' or 'you'll be in my prayers'.

I always just say "you'll be in my thoughts" or "I'll be thinking of you"

Anonymous wrote:atheist tend to hate religion or belittle religion .

Maybe they tend to hate religious hypocrisy. You know, the evil people are good because they believe. And they are better than the good people who don't believe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

I would love this! And I'm serious!

It's called Unitarian Universalism. Well almost. We do have a service. But you don't have to come.

But you guys have Christianity/Jesus pictures. I don't want my kids to see any of that to be honest. Where do we go to find pure atheism as community? I'm thinking philosophers instead of religion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

I would love this! And I'm serious!

Me too, seriously. Great idea!

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Anonymous wrote:I don't believe they exist.

What kind of ludicrous comment is this, anyway? You just refuse to acknowledge that people who disagree with you or who are different from you exist and that means they don't? Is it wishful thinking that deep down every single atheist actually does believe in your diety? Is it a way of trying to add more credibility to your opinions?

No, I truly don't believe they exist. I choose not to believe in them. I don't disagree with them, because they don't exist.

And what evidence do you have?

Wait. You're just trolling. I get it. Now lets see if you see the flaw in your analogy...

I don't have any proof. I personally have never met an athiest, so I don't believe in them. I guess I have athiest denial.

You don't believe in athiests because you've personally never met one, but you believe in God without personally having met him/her??? Interesting.

Please stop. You're embarrassing yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

I would love this! And I'm serious!

It's called Unitarian Universalism. Well almost. We do have a service. But you don't have to come.

Atheist here. There was a really interesting NPR segment on atheism, and it wasn't until I heard it that I realized that many people view atheists as immoral just because they are not adhering to a set of religious rules scribbled on tablets or won't face St Jude at the Pearly Gates and get their judgement. I was astounded that someone could jump to that conclusion. I also think that religious people might feel like atheists are elitist, e.g. 'too good' or 'too smart' to have faith in their beliefs.

Point being, I have gently told my parents that I am atheist (they pretty much figured it out) and my friends know too. But I worry that outside of an area like DC where there are more atheists, we could be stigmatized. (I have also posted about sending my kids to a catholic school for the education and whether they'd even get accepted since the application asks when they were baptized...wow...did i get some responses! Like I was confused or something because I am tolerant of other peoples' religions and want my children exposed to many faiths so if they become religious it will be their decision/faith.)

I do wish there was a non-church equivalent for atheists, and I also wish there was a better word in the english language than 'praying'. 'I'll be crossing my fingers for you' or 'I'll be hoping you recover soon' is not the same as 'I'll be praying for you' or 'you'll be in my prayers'.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

I would love this! And I'm serious!

Try the Washington Ethical Society.

I would suggest the Northern Virginia Ethical Society or the Baltimore Ethical Society first.

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

There are religious humanist congregations. Lots of Unitarians are humanists. Ditto Ethical Culture.

Indifferent.

As an atheist, I don't hate believers. I think religion offers many people many important things. We teach our kids to be intolerant of intolerance, so we teach acceptance of differing views. Do I ultimately think believers are drinking the cool-aid? Yes, honestly I do. I actually hope I am wrong, because the idea of heaven/utopia sounds really cool. Too bad I'll be in hell.

Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

atheist tend to hate religion or belittle religion .

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the "I don't believe in atheists" poster, but she has a point even though I'm not sure she realizes it. Like another PP said, Darwin, Einstein and Dawkins have all said they can't rule out a deity 100%, so they call themselves agnostics rather than atheists. Well in Dawkins' case he calls himself a practical atheist because he acts like God doesn't exist even though he can never be 100% sure, but I'll let you guys unpack his definitions. In any case, if these 3 undeniably smart people don't call themselves atheists, then do they exist? A theological question for the day....

Atheism is not the claim to know that gods don't exist. Its the lack of belief in their existence. Some atheists do claim to know (just like some theists do), but most (like myself) do not. And I would not make that claim until there is sufficient evidence to disprove deities.

Anonymous wrote:I'm not the "I don't believe in atheists" poster, but she has a point even though I'm not sure she realizes it. Like another PP said, Darwin, Einstein and Dawkins have all said they can't rule out a deity 100%, so they call themselves agnostics rather than atheists. Well in Dawkins' case he calls himself a practical atheist because he acts like God doesn't exist even though he can never be 100% sure, but I'll let you guys unpack his definitions. In any case, if these 3 undeniably smart people don't call themselves atheists, then do they exist? A theological question for the day....

I'm the Einstein/Darwin PP and I would add that Einstein did believe in "Spinoza's god," so one might argue that he was closer to theism than to atheism. He did not believe in a personal God.

What cracks me up is the people who say they're Buddhists because they think Buddhism is so darn cool. They know next to nothing about Buddhism, of course.