For the most part i'ld agree with you Matthew ..but it's something easier said than done ....I've lost jobs and been ostracized in DC over political/theological/philosophical bigotry. D.C. is a city of followers ..not "free thinkers"  

On Mar 27, 2013, at 4:20 PM, Mathew Goldstein <[address removed]> wrote:

I don't agree with that comment at all.  Atheists need to stop closeting themselves and speak as atheists against establishments of theism and reject the false accusation that by doing this they are placing themselves above others.

On Mar 27, 2013, at 3:28 PM, Don Wharton <[address removed]> wrote:

I fully agree with Mathew and Steifel on this.  We really do not have a single person in the House or the Senate who is willing to unambiguously say that they have no belief in the traditional notion of God.  Pete Stark said this and he lost with his next election.  Obviously, he had a long and very distinguished career and my guess is that he knew he was running a risk to come out as a non-theist.

 

This is the reason for my effort to organize the Secular Voter's Forum.  We need to increase the visibility of our secular community in the political process.   The comments underscores a basic problem with our community:

 

quote:

"It looks like they are just organizing and elevating themselves above everyone else for the purposes of spreading word of what they believe in. Which means my suspicions are confirmed, and the high Atheism community is kind of twisting itself into an organized religion. Which is kind of the biggest problem with religion in the first place, you get a few hundred million people together, patting each other on the back and confirming to each other that they are right ..."

 

The point is that we just don't do that.  In order to push back against the evil tribalism of the Christian right we need to find a better way to act together to puch back against those evils.  We do that to a profoundly minor extent.  We are just not tribal.  That will limit our ability to work for the common good where our respect for science and critical thinking will be the foundation of our political process.

 

I was listen to NPR today and someone was quoting the "One Nation Under God" on our money as proof that DOMA should be supported.  The mindless stupidity of this is endemic.

 

Don

 

 

 

From: Mathew Goldstein <[address removed]>
To: [address removed]
Sent: Wednesday, March 27,[masked]:10 AM
Subject: [atheists-27] Atheism is the next civil rights issue

I agree with this, Todd Steifel's perspective here is also my perspective.

http://io9.com/how-this-millionaire-activist-is-making-atheism-the-nex-459198569

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