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What have you, as an atheist, done to advance atheism?
I'm frankly far less concerned with advancing atheism than I am with
wiping out fundamentalism. I've never had a problem dealing with, or getting along with a deist. (Magyckme #554 )
By my standard of living, I'm a role model for my son (and-son-to-be-
born-soon) to use when deciding on their own belief system. Intelligent disbelief and the need to give proof for extraordinary claims are
qualities I demonstrate for him.
To give an example of the latter (and, please, let's not get into a
thread on this issue in here), my wife and I recently had to decide if
we wanted to have have our new baby circumcised. I was initially for the decision, but without good reason. I just wanted to do it because it's "what you do". However, after researching the issue, including the reasons to do it, not to do it, how they do it and why it's been done in the past, we both decided *intelligently* that there is no valid reason to
circumcise him when he's born. By intelligent research and discussion,
and weighing the facts and fallacies, we realized what was proper and are firm in our decision. (Darryl L. Pierce #1142)
Since most people are taught that atheists are evil, foul-minded, foul-mouthed, and hateful, this confuses them. They are forced to make a
choice: believe what they were taught, or believe the conclusions *they* had formed about me. The more they interact with me, the more proof they have that at least *one* thing they learned in church was wrong.
Either they go out of their way to avoid me, or their curiosity gets the better of them, and they ask me why I'm an atheist. I don't cause very
many people to abandon their faith, but they do learn that atheism isn't
a bad thing, and atheists aren't necessarily bad people. (Carl Funk #1229)
A fair number of these are also beyond help. For various reasons they have decided it doesn't make sense to accept views different from the majority, so they go to church Easter and Xmas, and generally lie about how they fervently believe is Jaasus and his friends.
In between them and us atheists are a lot of intelligent folks who are finally away from mommy and daddy but haven't been challenged since the "strange people" at college were talking to them about Hari Krishna or Satanism or magic crystals or whatever. A lot of them are actually
pretty interested when you say, nicely, "Not for me, thanks" in response
to a "God Bless You" after a sneeze. It's not like they are ready to
dump years of baggage instantly, but often it's the foot in the door to start a decent discussion.
Granted, if a fundy moron/asshole walks up the discussion is doomed for
a while, still it's amazing how many smart people are actually pretty hungry to have intelligent discussions about different world views.
Tie that in with stuff like the obvious fascist agendas of most of the fundy organizations and the sad silliness like the recent Newsweek
"Science finds God" stuff and there's lots of opportunities to present other viewpoints.
It doesn't hurt any either to relate occasionally some of the more bizarre ramblings from our theistic invaders. Showing how raveningly stupid and/or dishonest so many of them are in the name of their gawd really can open eyes. As soon as they start off with "well, we're not all like that of course" you've got a shot. A nicely phrased "hum, how are you different exactly" or a slightly more aggressive "then why isn't your church/congregation/mob more vocally opposing this" can really lead them
to their own inconsistencies.
Truly honest people who have to confront inconsistencies make for some interesting reactions. Those that don't run off screaming in denial are, usually, potential allies in the fights for our rights. And the rest are nicely identified so you can avoid them :-) (Dewey Henize #122
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