It does sound a little strange doesn't it? Organized disbelief. The fact is we atheists need the odd revival meeting too. It is good to feel that you belong to a community with some ideas in common. For me atheism is much more than a lack of religious conviction, it is very positive. My atheism is positive, pure and at times even puritanical.
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I detest all shades of supernatural belief just as fiercely as Ian Paisley detests popery. I do not want my disbelief watered down by any inclusiveness and sucking up to witches, devil worshipers, tree huggers or oriental mystics. But if you too are a pure atheist I really want to bond with you. I have just spent a mystical few minutes myself, bonding with brother atheists from Texas through the marvel of Real Audio. (I checked myself from putting “miracle”, there is nothing supernatural about software, although it is marvellous). I was transfixed as I listened to three average guys talking about their beliefs. They were not students of psychology, theology or philosophy, they just wanted to talk about their experiences as nonbelievers in one of the most atheist-hostile cultures in the western world. I felt I wanted to share a beer or ten with them. There are lots of atheist organizations out there in cyberspace (pardon the phrase, it does seem to be appropriate, if a little vomit-inducing). There are also what amount to atheist churches run by the humanist boy-scout singing-songs-in-Swahili end of the movement. I want to run a mile from that load of hand wringing happy-clappy shirtlifters. I rejected religion well before I gave up completely in my efforts to believe in God, I do not want to keep all the trimmings, I do not want any of the trimmings. For weak atheists, those who simply do not know a God, the idea of an atheist community may seem a little strange. But it is a common enough phenomenon, a large number of people, but a minority within the whole population, share a common set of views or problems, some get organized, some do not. You do not need to belong to any club to be a vegetarian, a lesbian or a farmer; but all of these have their social clubs and political action groups too. I am quite sure that if atheism was the belief of the majority of the community I would not bother about either atheism or theology. It's them bleedin' Christians and other God fearin' loonies that made me as awkward and cantankerous as I am. NewsgroupsI like to have contact with people who share my beliefs, and my lack of beliefs. There are several atheist newsgroups out there, I have subscribed to several, they provide some of what I am looking for but not everything. They are infested with Christian evangelists and quite a few of the contributors seem to be from other planets. |
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