Posted on 04/03/2010 5:36:23 PM PDT by SkyPilot
(CNN) -- While millions of Christians worldwide will celebrate Easter this weekend, David Silverman has other plans.
Silverman will join about 300 atheists in a Newark, New Jersey, hotel ballroom to proclaim another message: The atheist movement in America is growing.
Silverman will participate in the 36th annual American Atheists National Convention at the Newark Liberty Renaissance Hotel. He'll also try to clear up a misconception: Atheists aren't immoral, and they don't worship Satan.
That's what many people assume when he tells them that he belongs to an atheist group, Silverman says.
"We have a lot of wonderful people," he said. "I haven't sacrificed any Christian babies. I haven't danced naked under the stars. I haven't stolen anything."
What Silverman is doing instead is talking up the "resurgence" among atheists. He says atheists once felt isolated and misunderstood.
Two events changed that, he says: the rise of the Internet and the election of George W. Bush.
Bush's polarizing presidency showed people how bad things could turn "if religion was in charge," he said. The Internet showed atheists that they weren't alone, as they sought out and encouraged one another.
"Closet atheists are coming out all over the country," Silverman said, estimating that his group has 4,000 members. "Anybody can go on the Internet and read blogs, Facebook pages, and know that there are millions like them."
Those who ask why people need God are also raising their public profile in other ways. Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion," and Sam Harris, author of "The End of Faith," have best-selling books questioning the need for religion.
Silverman says a coalition of groups, including American Atheists, met with White House officials in February to discuss more tolerance for nonbelievers.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I'm an atheist, and I have far better things to do with my time! They really do need to get a life (an overused phrase, but it applies here).
Speaking just for my self. something like god doesn´t exist. i will defend this against everyone even i respect if someone thinks different.
36 years/300 people = 8.33 people per year joining the movement. That's quite an organization he's got going there - I draw more people to my block party every year.
Pretty thin.
Bear in mind that there's more than one flavor of atheism. Strong (or positive) atheists explicitly deny the existence of deities. Weak (or negative) atheists include implicit atheists (those who have thought little, or not at all, about gods) and those who explicitly eschew belief in deities without asserting deities do not exist.
I subscribe to the latter, myself.
Thanks for the reference. I am going to build on this statement to make a point.
St. Paul spread the Gospel to both Jews and Greeks, at least initially. He had some success with both groups of people. However, when he did not have success, the results were different. For the most part, unbelieving Greeks continued to believe in polytheism, but left Paul alone. Unbelieving Jews, on the other hand, who understood the God the Father part of the equation, ran Paul out of town and even made attempts on his life. The Jews did this because either Paul's message shook the foundation of their beliefs, or because they had money and power to lose.
The atheists of today that attack Christianity have a lot in common with the Jews of St. Paul's time. Either their fundamental beliefs are being challenged (and they have no answer), or they are losing power and money.
Sorry, I couldn’t read it all. I’m looking for a teflon barf bag.
I’m with you, if there is no God then why fight him? why spend time fighting that that dose not exist? don’t they put people in rubber rooms for that?
Probably no God? LOL. What’s wrong with these people? If they are so confident of their faith they should just out and say there IS no God.
That was certainly the case for myself, but I suspect I'm in the minority as regards atheists as a whole...they tend to be quite left-leaning, with the notable exception of those who have Objectivist & Libertarian tendencies.
A gathering of anti-Semites, anti-Christites and anti-Buddhites.
All that is missing is their pointy white hoods and a cross to burn.
Too many worship political correctness, instead. How is political correctness NOT a religion, too?
ROTFL!!!
Nice sign, hosers! It sounds as though somebody isn't so sure of themself.
Why do I have to prove anything? I'm not the one making the assertion.
This may interest you as well:
"The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit: And Its Impact on World History"
by E. Michael Jones.
Why bother with defending something that doesn’t exist? A waste of a true atheist’s time.
Gore's fault.
NJ population: 8,707,739
“surging atheist” gathering: 300
silliness: priceless
Yeah, now they've progressed all the way to denial.
Cheers!
...oh, and Happy Easter.
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