Are Atheists the New Mormons?

[rug]

Atheists are holding their annual convention in Salt Lake City, but things have been surprisingly cordial. Maybe these uniquely American groups have more in common than they think.

04.18.14
Michael Schulson

It’s a bit like holding the Republican National Convention in Berkeley: This weekend, the American Atheists are gathering in Salt Lake City for their annual conclave. Attendees can hear a keynote speech by outspoken former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, attend workshops with titles like “So you want to debate Christians?” and mingle during a karaoke night and a costume dinner.

The whole event is taking place at a downtown Hilton, just three blocks away from Temple Square, spiritual and administrative capital of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The convention has its official opening on Good Friday. It concludes on Easter.

Mormons believe that, shortly after his resurrection, Jesus made a quick trip to the New World. They celebrate the season with passion plays and church services. The American Atheists, right next door, are passing their time drinking traditional convention cocktails: Madalyns (named after American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who launched the atheist organization, America’s first, back in 1963) and Hitches (in honor of Christopher Hitchens, and featuring Johnny Walker Black Label).

Dave Muscato, the public relations director for the American Atheists, admitted to The Daily Beast that the timing is “kind of a poke in the eye to religion that makes us laugh a little bit.” He notes, though, that holding the convention on Easter weekend is also practical: “Atheists tend to have little else to do, and we can actually get quite a bargain at convention centers, because few other groups want to have a convention on Easter weekend.” As for the location, “We generally go for cities where there’s a good religious population, because those are the places where people tend to be the most oppressed by religion.” Muscato explains that the goal of the convention is to reach suppressed atheists in Salt Lake City, not to convert Mormons.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/18/are-atheists-the-new-mormons.html

[msongs]

1. not until atheists run a corporate business using religion as a cover nt

[rug]

6. That will never happen.

https://www.atheists.org/donate

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Future headlines just as stupid

"Are Black People the New Klansmen?"
"Are NASA Astronauts the New Flat-Earthers?"
"Are Introverts the New Extroverts?"
"Are Barbershop Quartets the New Boy Bands?"
"Are Ailurophobes the New Ailorphiles?"
"Is Exxon the New Greenpeace"
"Is Rush Limbaugh the New Martin Luther King?"

[Riftaxe]

13. Absolutely perfect!

I would not change a thing!

[tazkcmo]

3. Of Course!

No magic underwear, drink caffeine and don't go door to door. Other than that, exactly the same.

[2pooped2pop]

4. and I didn't even know they had meetings

Let alone a yearly get together. Most people I know who are atheist, would not want to get together over it. lol

[rug]

7. All I could find was a recipe for a "Raymond Hitch".

http://www.absolutdrinks.com/en/drinks/raymond-hitch-cocktail/?_rt=1&status=success&_uv=1397849480&_r=forget&_p=u&_y=1950

Vermouth and orange juice.

[longship]

8. That's worse than Jack Daniels.

Hitch was a known scotch drinker. How could anybody get that wrong?

Oopsie! My bad. Johnny Walker <> Jack Daniels. I am not much of a scotch drinker these days.


Self delete my faux pas.

[immoderate]

9. I only object to the title.

The article was OK and pointed out some parallels of two outside groups. Being objects of discrimination accounts for at least some of the convergence.

The title evokes a response like: "No, we've got our own problems."

--imm

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Oh boy, an organization with less than 3,000 members nationwide did something somewhere.

Clearly this is representative of all athiests.

[Leontius]

11. Just like Westboro Baptist, right?

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Sure.

I don't blame all religious people for their actions.

Granted, they aren't even really Christians, they seem to go on and on about the psychopathic monster god of the old testament.

[Riftaxe]

14. If you take the next step beyond that...

and just blame people for their own actions...someday you might be a liberal.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. You don't know me, so I'll let that unsourced bullshit slide.

Next time do me a favor and link to where I actually do what you accuse me of.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. Link please.

[AtheistCrusader]

18. No link? You just going to throw out an accusation like that and walk away?

Smooooth

[AtheistCrusader]

19. Riftaxe messaged me, and I think this was a misunderstanding.

I don't think that poster knows what the Westboro Baptist Church is, and thought I was attacking, rather than what I was doing, which was defending religious people/Christians from association with the actions of the WBC.


THIS is the WBC:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church

IN NO WAY do I hold Christians directly responsible for the actions of the WBC. That would be completely unfair.


Every single official Baptist congregation has denounced the shit out of the Westboro Baptist Church. In my humble opinion, the WBC cannot possible be accused of being Christians, because they don't seem to have read the new testament, based on their signs and the shit that comes out of their mouths.

[rug]

20. That's a classy post, AC.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. You and I actually had a discussion a while back

(and it did get a bit heated but) about whether the general un-falsifiable belief in a supernatural being shared among all believers might in some way lend credence to a group like the WBC, because as an outsider I cannot tell whose claim is true, but even in that context, I still cannot blame, nor would I try to blame all Christians for the WBC's behavior.

I do try to be fair, even if this forum does end up looking like a battleground from time to time.