Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
This Christmas season, brace yourself for some atheistic evangelism headed your way through your television. David Gibson of AOL's Politics Daily explains:
It's two weeks before Thanksgiving and atheists who have tried to counter the religious reasons for the season with good tidings of godlessness have outdone themselves this year: They've launched publicity campaigns with a bigger ad buy than ever...
This year's [American Humanist Association] campaign...takes critical aim at "biblical morality and fundamentalist Christianity" by juxtaposing violent or sexist passages from the Bible and the Koran with more irenic quotations from nonbelievers like Albert Einstein and Katherine Hepburn, as well as AHA statements.
[...]
[T]his year's campaigns are more explicit in their aims of converting believers and rallying nonbelievers, or at least the growing number of Americans -- more than 15 percent of the adult population -- who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, or "Nones" in pollster parlance.
It's hard to discern whether the AHA's ad campaign is meant as an attack on people of faith, or rather as an attempt to validate those who lack faith. Whatever the case may be, I find it to be nothing short of downright depressing.
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May '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
There's a world of difference between an agnostic and an atheist. There are plenty of agnostics. True atheists (people who are certain God and/or spirits do not exist) are very rare.
It's amusing to see atheists rail against demographic reality when people ignore such whining or treat their derision of the faithful with scorn. It's sad and disturbing when the religious majority allow themselves to be cowed by political correctness and fail to defend their own beliefs.
May '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
I rather find the militant atheists too defensive. Why do they care what others believe? What is so offensive about Christmas?
It seems to me that these atheists are not comfortable with their non-belief for some reason. Maybe they are afraid they are wrong?
May '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Are they getting PR advice from Nancy Pelosi and the Prez? Talk about doing everything in your power to make yourself more annoying and more disliked....
Sep '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
I bet it will fail miserably and be counter productive to their cause. I don't always have faith but on this I'm quite confident. Nothing turns people off like pedantically preening about their own virtuousness.
Oct '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
When they've annoyed those of us who *aren't* religious but yet aren't atheists either (I'm a Christian-leaning agnostic who basically just doesn't think about religion much), they've succeeded in hurting their cause even more than if they had just kept their mouths shut.
Jul '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Albert Einstein?
From Wikiquote.
Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old one." I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.
Sep '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Does that really say the Koran? They're really going to take on Islam?
You know, this could get fun...
May '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
ConcernedCanadien: Does that really say the Koran? They're really going to take on Islam?
You know, this could get fun... · Nov 12 at 4:06pm
Seriously! I'm considering the implications of the American Humanist Association all going into hiding a la Molly Norris. The world would be... well, pretty much the same.
Jul '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Why would they advertise?
One would, generally, buy advertising in order to increase revenue.
"'We're going after that market share,' David Silverman, the president of American Atheists..."
And do what with them?
If they ain't selling something or begging for money, then they're wasting money advertising like they're wasting their lives. Do "atheists" really get that ticked off around Christmas? If they're so sure, why waste money in order to get approval from others? Ridiculous.
Aug '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Diane, don't we have some screenwriters/entertainment folks on here? Why not create a few counter-commercials featuring some atheistic luminaries and their gifts to world peace: Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, Himmler, Stalin, Goebbels, Lenin, etc. etc. That's almost too easy...
Edited on Nov 12, 2010 at 5:40pmRe: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Converting to what? Non-believing. Isn't that virtually an oxymoron?
I've always found the fervent passion of non-Bible thumping athiests amusing. They have found all the benefits of organized religion (community, service, the sharing of like minds) in hating religion.
But their un-Godly wrath at times becomes so extreme, they resemble the very fundamentalist religions they despise. And that's when I stop laughing.
Aug '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
In my experience very many self-proclaimed atheists and agnostics who lacerate Christian institutions at every opportunity nevertheless routinely insist that Islam is a religion of peace deserving of great respect and that any criticism of it is phobic, racist,etc.I will admit that this is a broad assertion with many exceptions but I believe it holds true in a plurality of cases? And as for the perception of these hypocrites I contend that the disdain which I,for one, feel for them pales in comparison to the utter contempt in which they are held by many if not most Muslims for whom the existence of God is (literally) unquestionable.
Oct '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
What I find ironic is that most humanists are happy to enjoy all of the benefits of western civilization attributable to "Judeo-Christian' values, while simultaneously seeking to undermine the moral foundation of that society. It is like the foolish man who goes out on the limb of a treee and saws off the very branch he is resting upon.
Jul '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Denise has it right. This "atheism" is just the opposite of a-theism. It is a full blown religion that simply worships a different God. They just can't stand the old-fashioned, morally judgemental one. They would rather favor the religion in which they get to be High Priests. They wish to be the Sadducees of materialist humanism.
Oct '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
As everyone here no doubt already knows, Theism places God at the center of the universe. Humanism places man at the center of the universe.
The militant subset of the latter are interested in placing their egos at the center of the universe. That explains their activism more than anything.
Jul '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
If you have a yen to see glittering-eyed fanaticism, stop by your neighborhood atheist. No need to ask; he'll start right up about God and religion. If he is a left winger as is likely, he also has a good many political opinions he wishes you to know. Stealing looks at your watch, you will be struck by how slowly time passes. I chatted once with Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of the American Atheist Association. An angry, bitter woman. She made her living off atheism and would warmly approve of this campaign. She was Larry Flynt's speech writer when he ran for president, so you see there are layers of moral squalor here. She liked to hire violent criminals, according to her son. "She got a sense of power out of having men in her employ who had taken human life." One of them kidnapped Madalyn and two members of her family, tortured and killed them and scattered the body parts. But most atheists are not violent people if we set aside Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and most likely Hitler. Roughly speaking, they accounted for between 100 million and 120 million murders in the 20th Century.
Jun '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
To be an atheist, you have to freely admit that 99.5% of all humans who have ever lived were living their lives by a fundamental ignorance, essentially that everyone around you is an idiot or at least ignorant to reality.
To be an atheist is to be a snob as my favorite modern philosopher (Peter Kreeft) says. Snobs like to prove how smart they are and how dumb everyone else is - in fact they live for nothing more than that. The mistake they make however is that we actually care what they think.
And, we don't care. Simply put, they can't 'prove' what they 'think'. Plus, everyone loves Christmas so bugger off.
May '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
I view this stuff with tolerant bemusement. The shallower the mind, the louder the keening wails- "I am really relevant, despite the fact that no one cares what I say!" Jeremias has it right. Weakness is desperation to put yourself at the center of everything.
Now on to some meaningful topic.
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
Samwise Gamgee:
To be an atheist is to be a snob as my favorite modern philosopher (Peter Kreeft) says. Snobs like to prove how smart they are and how dumb everyone else is - in fact they live for nothing more than that. The mistake they make however is that we actually care what they think.
While I get your larger point, I don't think it's necessarily fair to make this generalization. I'm sure many non-belligerent atheists simply just have too many hang-ups with the concept of faith. And this fact doesn't automatically make them a snob.
But I admittedly only know a handful of true atheists (as opposed to agnostics) and I really don't have a handle on how these folks think or how they're able to find meaning to their lives.
Jun '10
Re: Belligerent Atheists to Evangelize at Christmastime
To be an atheist is to say, I'm right and virtually every other person who has ever lived (other than the other smart atheists mostly concentrated in the modern West) is wrong. This isn't always malicious or in-your-face, but it certainly is snobby. Most atheists are also elites and 'well-educated'.
I think what you're talking about here is more of an agnostic point of view - to believe in the presence or the possibility of a higher power, without being a person 'of faith'. True atheists, on the other hand say, there is no G-d and we know this for sure, without a doubt. That is pretty straight forward. From my experience, most hard line atheists also believe they are one of the few smart ones and take a great deal of snobby pleasure in this. Not all of them are like this certainly, but my daily interactions with 'academic' atheists make me think the genteel atheists are in the minority.