Kevbo

Wow, this thread seems to have gotten around quite a bit

Thanks for all the responses! You've all raised some good points that I want to consider carefully.

I seem to be coming from a different experience than many of the posters who responded, and that might have a lot to do with how my philosophical views are shaped. My nuclear family is not very religious, though my extended family is. It's not much of an issue though, so I have never felt very uncomfortable with atheism. My town is rather conservative, but more in the stuck-up-rich-folks way than religiously. There's not a very large evangelist population here, at least. In the absence of strong adult pressure, it seems that the teens and young adults here are generally pretty secular. Even one of my friends, who comes from a very conservative Mormon household, seems completely secular when religion isn't being discussed.

I've generally been a person who follows rules and doesn't cause trouble, so it upsets me when I hear religious folks saying that atheists can't have morals or similar sentiments. Most of these discussions have been on internet forums like these, though, and have had no affect on my everyday life.

I've had quite some experience debating people who think the world is 6000 years old, and they're a real curiosity for me. I've even found some around NY, which is about as far away from the Bible Belt as you can get without crossing the border.

My outlook on life tends to be: "Find something that you're good at or enjoy and do it. It's great if you help people along the way, and even greater if you enjoy helping people, but not everyone can be expected to do so. If you enjoy your life and aren't causing direct harm to others, that's all that matters."

That's why I'm generally "hands-off" when it comes to religion and philosophy. If it floats someone's ark to believe in a certain thing, great. I do have a problem with people who try to push their views on others, though, especially those types who want to get evolution banned from biology. Science is something I hold dear, and I don't like to see it corrupted, which is why I'm not "hands-off" with those people. I don't limit this to only the strongly religious though, if an atheist went around causing trouble with religious folks just because he said that religions were nonsense myths, I would have a problem with that as well (though I would tend to agree with his philosophy). Some people are just biologically or socially predisposed to religion, and I recognize that.

Enlighten Me

Was that a typo when you said you are 18? Didn't you mean 28, 38, or 48? You are wise beyond your years!

Kevbo

No, I'm your usual quasi-nerd + sports who reads a lot of books and feels more comfortable composing thoughts slowly through writing rather than speaking, where they can be edited and revised. I'm definately not a good public speaker.

Bumble Bee Tuna

Welcome, Kevbo. You sounds like my long-lost twin.

Another 18 year old quasi-nerd,

-B

Jamie_L

Meeting atheist chicks?

Just kidding. A little. Well, actually, meeting other atheists is an important part of maintaining an atheist community.

Why activism? Why any activism? Because you think it's something that needs doing - usually to stop an injustice. In this case, the injustice of marginalizing or oppressing a group of people based on belief.

But mostly it's for the chicks.

Jamie

capsaicin67

I think that working to build and maintain a visible, positive, freethought community is increasingly important. I totally agree with others' comments about the benefits of community.

It's where people socialize and network. People that they can be themselves around and a place where they can explore ideas that are taboo in many if not most other circles. Cameraderie and validation can be inspiring and encouraging for many of us mere mortals.

I heard some time back, from a source I can't remember, that some study showed that relationships that last the longest are those that share values. So all joking aside, if you are looking for a chick or a guy with similar values, a community of shared values would be a helpful place to start perhaps? Wanting to hook-up, especially with someone that you share values with, seems like a natural and potentially healthy thing to me.

I think that the freethought community will grow of it's own accord without necessitating obnoxiousness if it's visible and fosters legitimacy and a secure infrastructure that supports those that choose it. Right now, I would say that there is quite a lot of social momentum working against a person embracing reason and atheism. Build it and many more will come, I think. Not that trying to "recruit" or whatever is the biggest priority, it's just that it's hard to be intellectually and emotionally honest in the current cultural climate and it would be pretty cool if there were a vibrant community in place that allowed a person to choose such a lifeway without such a stiff social and political penalty.

The CSS issue is pretty fragile right now. What does it matter? One of the cornerstones of liberty in the US was the notion, now under assault, that the nation was to be a place of liberty with respect to ideas [and in other ways too] and not just with respect to acquiring wealth. You hear lots of talk about nations needing to embrace democracy, but no one dares advocate for fostering the concept of separation of church and state as a critical part of what initially worked in the "American experiment".
The US govt has gotten itself in deep with fundamentalism as it tries to fight fundamentalism abroad. Meaning it cannot analyze or talk openly regarding any solutions toward working on the issue of religious extremism abroad because it doesn't get what's wrong with it domestically. Thus it offers poor solutions, and continues to encourage regressive thinking generally.

The reason I think all this matters is because it is going to be difficult for humanity to find a well-reasoned way forward, if there is a successful "war on reason" or it becomes more difficult for people to stand up to extremists, especially those fanatics and manipulators that require ignorance to prosper and accumulate wealth. The fundamentalist movements are counter to education, equity, clear-thinking, individual liberty of thought, etc. All this, IMHO, promotes suffering and stagnation and oppression and conflict.

At the end of the day, reason and superstition are not very compatible and it could really matter which is more prevalent, maybe. Reason promotes clarity of intellectual thought more than superstition. Clarity of thought is what future progress and advancement of the human condition and quality of life will surely require more, rather than less of. We don't have to crusade, prosletyze, or terrorize to advance reason IMO. I think we can "activize" and "visibilize"with creativity, maturity, restraint, thoughtfulness, savvy strategy, integrity etc. We won't win by becoming a poor imitation of them anyway. But I think that it unfortunatley, inconveniently, really does matter. I believe in the
right of people to believe what they wish about god and metaphysics in their personal lives to a great degree, but the public/govt fora must allow society to evolve and not inhibit the people from choosing to be reason-able. The trick will be in activizing in a manner that does not turn us into them, but still commits to nurturing, supporting and allowing reason to grow and spread vigorously all the same.

Just thoughts....

Shake

I agree, and you'll find that others here do too, that we atheists don't need to stoop to the level of proselytizing. That said, there are areas in which activism would clearly benefits atheists (and minority religious folks), and that is in the area of church-state separation. One such useful link in this vein can be found here. I could go on about this, but I think capsaicin67 has done a pretty good job in his post.

Instead let me echo others and say, Welcome Kevbo! Look around and enjoy your stay!