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Atheists cite resurgence as they gather on Easter weekend (Triple Barf Alert)
CNN ^ | 3 Apr 10 | John Blake

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: atheists; christ; easter
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To: Doogle
I've shut up every atheist I've ever talked to, when I suggest that they go to Islamabad or Abu Dhabi or somesuch, to spread the "good news" of theirs, to those in REAL theocracies, that there is no Allah.

Cheers!

41 posted on 04/03/2010 7:28:22 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: Mr. Mojo
The ones that did feel the need to whine were zotted or opus'ed themselves long ago.

If they can find common ground, great: this is explicitly a pro-God site according to JR.

If not, let them remain courteous and respectful.

Cheers!

42 posted on 04/03/2010 7:30:16 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: GL of Sector 2814
They really do need to get a life (an overused phrase, but it applies here).

Yes they do: which is why Jesus came, to give them life, and life more abundantly.

Cheers!

43 posted on 04/03/2010 7:31:12 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: SkyPilot

“When we die, we’re annihilated!” I don’t know why they didn’t go with that slogan in their ad campaign.


44 posted on 04/03/2010 7:34:47 PM PDT by St_Thomas_Aquinas
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To: SkyPilot

Why should Easter matter so much to an atheist? It’s a Christian day. There are more people who believe in God than Christians.


45 posted on 04/03/2010 7:40:11 PM PDT by Mamzelle (Employers--lay off Obama voters first)
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To: 353FMG
The sign on the bus states: ‘There is PROBABLY no God’. So they’re not even certain that God does not exist.

I'd say all those in photo believe in God as much as the Popes does as their lives revolve around Him.

46 posted on 04/03/2010 8:03:25 PM PDT by Ol' Sparky (Liberal Republicans are the greater of two evils)
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To: mtnjimmi
.....if there is no God then why........

....then, is there anything at all.

47 posted on 04/03/2010 8:13:06 PM PDT by Texas Songwriter
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To: mtnjimmi
I’m with you, if there is no God then why fight him?

"Those who do not believe in God think of him more earnestly than those who do." - ( who said it? )

... and it's "Nietzsche," like "Porsche."

48 posted on 04/03/2010 8:28:35 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: SkyPilot
Bush's polarizing presidency showed people how bad things could turn "if religion was in charge," he said.

If "religion being in charge" can make you an atheist then what do you do when atheists are in charge i.e., Stalin, Mao, Castro and on and on?

49 posted on 04/03/2010 8:28:40 PM PDT by phredo53 (Caution: This post does not comply with White House standards.)
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To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
I don’t know why they didn’t go with that slogan in their ad campaign.

How about:

Nil igitur mors est ad nos

"Therefore death is nothing to us" - Lucretius

50 posted on 04/03/2010 8:38:15 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: SkyPilot; greyfoxx39; WKB; Salvation; NYer

Satan HATES Easter and the reminder of what happened.

His days are numbered and he knows it and is trying to take as many with him as possible.

People have tried for thousands of years to stamp out Christianity and religion, and it hasn’t worked yet.

And it’s not going to.

He is Risen!!!


51 posted on 04/03/2010 9:02:39 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Venturer

They want to hear someone tell them that they are right and don’t have to worry about their eternal destiny after all.

That’s all this is about.


52 posted on 04/03/2010 9:04:08 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: mlocher
If anything, it was the Clinton Administration that should have made the atheists irate, not Bush.

Except that even atheists can recognize genuine faith. That's what irritates them. Not religiosity.

53 posted on 04/03/2010 9:07:36 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: SkyPilot
I don't understand this. If I was an atheist, I wouldn't go to meetings, I wouldn't be evangelical, I wouldn't be afraid to go in churches.

So many atheists seem intent on recreating what they reject- they replace going to church with some other kind of meeting, they try to convert everyone else, they are always finding heretics, etc. etc. They might as well have stayed in a religion! They take all the fun out of being an atheist, basically.

54 posted on 04/03/2010 9:09:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: svcw

We have more in my Christian homeschool group every Thursday.

Heck, 300? I’ll bet the Catholic Church on the corner has more this Sunday.


55 posted on 04/03/2010 9:23:07 PM PDT by I still care (I believe in the universality of freedom -George Bush, asked if he regrets going to war.)
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To: nickcarraway
... they are always finding heretics, etc. etc.

How do you mean? Theistic backsliders, as I suppose?

Do you know who the patron saint of science is? It's Albertus Magnus, a 13th century naturalist and encyclopedist. I have always thought that the real and true Patron Saint of Science is Giordano Bruno, who was after all martyred for the cause of free thought, as he freely and knowingly submitted himself to his fate in confidence of the knowledge of his own rightness.

There is another martyr of science written of in THE CHEESE AND THE WORMS by Carlo Ginzburg. He was a 16th century Italian miller known as Menocchio, who was given to cosmological speculation and brought to trial for heresy. He recanted, but was brought to trial again after persisting in his speculations. At this trial he submitted himself to his fate and spoke freely:

Preaching that men should live in peace pleases me, but preaching about hell, Paul says one thing, Peter says another, so that I think it is a business, an invention of men who know more than others ... I did not believe that paradise existed, because I did not know where it was.

56 posted on 04/03/2010 9:46:55 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: SkyPilot

Perfect headline for this:

Atheists Try To Get Rise Out Of Christians Again At Easter


57 posted on 04/03/2010 9:48:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (I am in America but not of America (per bible: am in the world but not of it))
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To: SkyPilot

I don’t get why people think it’s strange for like-minded people to band together and try to recruit more people to their way of thinking and try to influence public policy. It’s the natural thing for people to do. Now you can argue that their approach is ineffective, but it makes as much sense for atheists to try to get publicity for an event as any other group. Why wouldn’t they try to increase their influence and attempt something like getting “In God We Trust” off of currency just as Christians would demonstrate and lobby to keep it on?


58 posted on 04/03/2010 10:29:49 PM PDT by edweena
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To: SkyPilot

“There’s probably no God.” And on what foundation, pray tell, rest the laws the laws of logic that allow us as sentient beings to make sense of that sentence?


59 posted on 04/03/2010 10:38:19 PM PDT by Lexinom
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To: mtnjimmi
I’m with you, if there is no God then why fight him?

I use to be an atheist and I wished that I could swallow the "pink pill" of believing that their was a God. I believed that their was not a God but I envied those who were so naive as to believe that one existed.

I have no idea how they can celebrate the idea that they simply vanish upon death. I think they lie. If they did not care if they vanished upon death they would lack the natural need to survive. If someone tried to murder them would they simply go with "oh well it matters not" or would they fight like tigers to live? Wanting to live forever is as normal as wanting to survive the next moment.

60 posted on 04/04/2010 12:55:30 AM PDT by Bellflower (If you are left DO NOT take the mark of the beast and be damned forever.)
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