Charities started by religious groups don't exclude atheists! Regarding explicitly atheist charities, do they specifically promote themselves as being atheist? I(I am not atheist bashing, I am asking out of genuine interest)
Would there be any point, "we are a charity of non believers, come help us". Be easier to just start up the charity without claiming any religious reasons whatsoever.
Atheism is the true path to enlightenment. None of that filling your head with bullshit about burning bushes and the holy undead, like a ******ed 7-year-old.
That was my point. They include members that aren't of the same faith or even of any faith at all, yet they're still regarded as religious charities. Non-religious charities that do so aren't regarded as atheist, however. Some of them do. They tend to be concerned with atheist issues, though. Even some of the organisations that are pretty openly atheist driven (Freedom From Religion Foundation) aren't explicitly atheist, though. Richard Dawkins' own foundation isn't either, despite it's aims being in direct conflict with the entire concept of faith.
They exclude in fact if not in themselves. Attending a church will give you far greater opportunity. That's understandable, but a huge shame.
The point would be to promote atheism. As a few posters have said on here, it is easy to knock religion - but at the same time you should be promoting atheism and showing the benefits of it to society as a whole. I don't see any tangible sign of that from those promoting atheism on this thread.
Thats the difference, we don't need to promote atheism. For me being an atheist, isn't about being part of a following, which is what I class a religion as, for me being an atheist, is about not believing full stop.
I totally respect that. But I also totally respect the rights of people to practice their religion. I find religious groups who try to impose their views on others as offensive as atheists imposing their views on people who practice religion.
I agree with you, I dont go out my front door and tell people they should stop believing, its up to them, however I will happily discuss my opinions during moments liek these. But I wont force my stance on anyone. However the same can't be said the other way around, too many times people hear you don't believe and dont shut the f*** up, and tell you that you should believe blah blah blah. Like I mentioned, you get the local mosque's with their bloody grammar phones preaching **** i dont wanna hear about (thankfully i cant understand it). You go to town and you get people giving you a leaflet about god. F*** off....i dont wanna know. Get them knocking at my front door preaching, never get an atheist at my front door. Maybe if religious circles stopped preaching to others, then others wouldn't get so wound up about it. But thats my experiences with it. I obviously don't speak for all atheists. They may be just as bad as religious groups, but I personally have never seen atheist groups go to lengths that religious groups do.
"atheists imposing their views on people who practice religion" Again, a common misconception. Because we are forthright about our views and why we stand by them we are "imposing our views" on others. Most Atheists - even pushy ones like me will say you go and believe whatever you want to believe if it works for you. I can set out a million reason why I think you are misguided but ultimately if you get some sort of comfort or fulfilment from believing then go for it.
Thought it was clear, sorry. It's a misconception because as I explained most Atheists don't impose their views on those that practice religion. Why is it different if a Muslim or a Christian sets out why they believe? Are they imposing? Of course not. As for the promoting of Atheism to benefit society as a whole, well if getting rid of most of the wars in the world isn't enough....
Justifiably. But where is the 'imposing'? I'm setting out, cogently, why I'm an Atheist and why I abhor all organised religion. That isn't imposing my views. I'm simply sharing them. If you don't agree then that's cool.
So there is no difference to someone sharing their views on Islam and telling you they abhor atheism. The crux of the matter is when some one tries to impose their view on the other.
...the one that the Christians nicked? And who's imposing? I still don't see it. In fact nobody here has said they abhor atheism and nobody has seen fit to set out why they believe either. If they did, I'm happy to debate.
