My weekend at #cvg2012

It’s going to take a few days to recover from last weekend — I was participating in CONvergence, a regional Science Fiction and Fantasy convention. It was a fatiguing load of fun, you should have been there. You should go to an occasional non-atheist/skeptic conference yourself! Trust me, it’s relevant.

I’m a guy who’s into promoting godlessness and science, and there are two kinds of events I go to. Right now, there are a growing number of atheist/skeptic conferences that promote our causes, and draw in large numbers of people who already support them; these are internal events that strengthen and reinforce the movement, and in which we can also emphasize specific strains of thought (I tend to push more science at these meetings, for instance). There are also events which are more outreach: talking to people who are not in this movement, but maybe share some common interests. It’s internal vs. external, movement building vs. outreach.

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An important correction!

I have mischaracterized Maryam Namazie! Fortunately, she has done an excellent job of correcting me:

I am an atheist not because the atheist movement cares about rights (it doesn’t) or has been overly supportive (which it hasn’t) but because I despise religion and Islam.

I have become an atheist – not because it’s pragmatic – but as a result of my battles against the Islamic Republic of Iran and Islamism. The Islamic regime of Iran recently wrote a piece on me called ‘Get to know this anti-religion woman’.

If I had to say what type of atheist I am, I’d say a militant atheist.

Brilliant! My listing could not possibly have been comprehensive, and anti-clericalism has long been a significant element in freethought. I should not have tried to shoehorn her into a poorly fitting category.

I’ll also join her in despising religion and Islam.

Why I am an atheist – Lesath

When I look at the world around me, I know that it could not have happened by chance or caprice. There is a divine order, a structure, a cosmic beauty underlying everything: from the awe I feel when I see the stars in the sky, to the beautiful scent of roses, to the sight of a burning sunset, to the love I feel for my friends and family. How could any of this have happened on a mere whim?

And that is why I am an atheist.

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Why I am an atheist – Ed Kroc

I am one of the very fortunate who has never had to fight my family on religious matters. My parents raised me in a very secular fashion and did not speak of spiritual matters when I was young unless I brought them up.

I was 10 years old. And like any nerdy 10 year old, I was in love with dinosaurs, sharks and other monsters of biology. I decided that I would read “Jurassic Park,” all on my own without any parental assistance. It took months, averaging maybe 5 pages a day, but I was resolved.

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A poll to determine whether Northern Ireland sucks

The National Trust of Northern Ireland should be embarrassed: they’ve taken one of the geological wonders of their country and slathered it in creationist bullshit in a visitor’s centre at the Giant’s Causeway.

The trust said that the exhibit gives recognition to the fact that, for creationists, the debate about the age of the Earth is still ongoing.

A statement read: "The Giants’ Causeway has always prompted debate about how it was formed and how old it is.

"One of the exhibits in the Giants’ Causeway Visitors’ Centre interpretation tells the story of the part the Giants’ Causeway played in the debate about how the Earth’s rocks were formed and the age of the Earth.

"This is an interactive audio exhibition in which visitors can hear some of the different debates from historical characters.

"In this exhibition we also acknowledge that for some people, this debate continues today and we reflect and respect the fact that creationists today have a different perspective on the age of the Earth from that of mainstream science."

The National Trust worked alongside the Caleb Foundation, which represents mainstream evangelical Christians in Northern Ireland, during the development of the centre.

Its chairman, Wallace Thompson, said he is pleased with the result of the engagement and the inclusion of the creationist view.

"We have worked closely with the National Trust over many months with a view to ensuring that the new Causeway Visitor Centre includes an acknowledgement both of the legitimacy of the creationist position on the origins of the unique Causeway stones and of the ongoing debate around this," Mr Thompson said.

Just because idiots disagree with science doesn’t mean there is a serious debate. There is no scientific argument over whether the earth is less than 10,000 years old or more then 4 billion, just as there is no scientific debate over whether stars are little holes punched in the firmament, or whether the moon is a great wheel of cheese drifting overhead. That a creationist organization is now claiming that their views have been legitimized by their inclusion ought to give them second thoughts.

There is a poll. Maybe Northern Ireland doesn’t suck too much, since it’s already going in the right way…but clearly they’ve got a lot of gullible faithheads in positions of responsibility in their government.

Do you think creationist views should be represented at the Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Centre?

Yes 21.0%
No 78.6%
Don’t know 0.4%

Why I am an atheist – Beth

I went to Baptist church and Baptist school until fifth grade. One day during religious class, after the teacher said that people who don’t take the lord as their savior go to hell, I asked what happens to all the people who never have the chance to hear about God. “Everyone has heard about God,” she said. That just can’t be true, I pointed out— there are still remote tribes being discovered in the Amazon, for example, and that was even more true 200, 300, and 500 years ago. There have been literally billions of people who never had the chance to hear the Bible version of God, did they all go to hell? She just stubbornly maintained that EVERYONE has had the chance. It was so completely and obviously wrong that whatever child-like faith I’d had broke and drained away in an instant.

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What kind of atheist are you?

I am accustomed to annoying people. A year and a half ago, I made this post about Dictionary Atheists that sent almost as much hate mail winging my way as desecrating a cracker did, and because I just love to poke people, I’m going to revisit it now.

I’ll admit that I took a rhetorically wrong approach that led many people to come away with the wrong impression. I was saying that dictionary atheists, those people who say they’re just atheists because they don’t believe in god, were simply reciting an equivalence and not addressing any of the interesting reasons why they were atheists, the stuff that we need to communicate to get other people to recognize our values and appreciate them. Somehow, in some people’s minds, this got turned into Tyrant PZ telling all the atheists what they have to believe, I think because they interpreted my criticisms of superficial explanations and a request to acknowledge deeper cognitive mechanisms to be a demand that there is only one good way to think, which is not true at all.

So I’m going to try something different. I’ve been reading all these “Why I am an atheist” stories, as well as various atheist blogs, and what I see is a couple of major strands of atheist thought. Let’s put together a brief and preliminary taxonomy of atheists! Maybe it will help clarify things, because I consider all of these ways of being an atheist as being perfectly valid, so it should be clear I’m not being judgmental or trying to shoehorn everyone into my flawless mold. But I do think we should all try to be aware of the underpinnings of our ideas.

I see four major categories of thoughtful atheists: scientific atheists, philosophical atheists, political atheists, and humanists. I’m going to describe what I think are the major strengths and weaknesses of each; you can tell me whether you think we need more divisions and better defining characteristics, but be warned, taxonomically I’m more of a lumper than a splitter.

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Why I am an atheist – Melody Wainscott

I could waste time being disappointed in myself that it took 50 plus years for me to realize I am an Atheist; a much better use of my time is to realize that I now know the full extent of work required to rewire the hardwiring of a thorough brainwashing. I know the value of this knowledge in helping me to understand the tactics of my enemy who did this to me when I was a small child.

My enemy is religion, specifically Christianity.

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