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The Atheist Club

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TheEllipticalDisillusion
Post subject: The Atheist Club
Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:09 am
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If you had an Atheist club, what would you and your membership do? I see little value in having Atheist meetings once a week or so because what is there to say from week to week? "So, still no god. Okay, meeting adjourned." Boring snoozer.

My friend and I were discussing this today because there is an Atheist club at Columbia where he attends school and they are close to disbanding because of exactly what my reservations are: no point in discussing your disbelief in god every week. My friend and I were talking about other things the club could do, like discuss different mythologies (christian, greek, norse, indian, jewish, etc.). I was thinking godless bowling. Or a bar night with god-free chicken fingers.

What would you do with you godless membership?

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LalaithUrwen
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:38 am
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So, let me get this straight--you meet once a week and discuss your beliefs, maybe even celebrate them?

:D Sounds like church to me!


(Sorry, carry on serious discussion now.)


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tolkienpurist
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:39 am
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I think it would depend on whether the atheist club in question intended to be purely reactionary, i.e. "Religions say that there is a god and they are wrong," or to develop a cohesive secular philosophy of its own. I could see an atheist club being a venue to discuss ethical, philosophical, even spiritual issues from a secular vantage point, divorced from any God-infused theology. And, to me, that would be a way for atheists to stand for something affirmative, rather than merely standing against what others have devised. Either approach is, of course, fine - but the affirmative approach would provide something to do at weekly meetings; the reactionary approach makes those meetings darn boring. If there is ever some Divine revelation, then the atheist club will have some meeting and contemplating to do; however, if the atheists are correct, then they will have to come up with some way to fill their meetings during week after week of...absence of revelation. :)

BTW: I'd attend meetings of an atheist club, just like I attend meetings of a religious club (synagogue services :P). As an agnostic, I find I don't care much about whether the people I'm around believe in a god or do not, so long as (1) they don't dictate to me either that I must or must not believe in a god and (2) they are more focused on their actions in the here-and-now than loudly proclaiming their belief or lack thereof.


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The Watcher
Post subject: Re: The Atheist Club
Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:54 am
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TheEllipticalDisillusion wrote:
If you had an Atheist club, what would you and your membership do? I see little value in having Atheist meetings once a week or so because what is there to say from week to week? "So, still no god. Okay, meeting adjourned." Boring snoozer.

My friend and I were discussing this today because there is an Atheist club at Columbia where he attends school and they are close to disbanding because of exactly what my reservations are: no point in discussing your disbelief in god every week. My friend and I were talking about other things the club could do, like discuss different mythologies (christian, greek, norse, indian, jewish, etc.). I was thinking godless bowling. Or a bar night with god-free chicken fingers.

What would you do with you godless membership?
Oh thank you, thank you, TED, you seriously made me crack up at the seems bursting out in laughter after a very trying day...



:LMAO: :LMAO: :LMAO:

I dunno, go after the Discovery Institute and Ben Stein, it might be worth a few weeks of serious over the top and overly earnest and serious fact dredging and quote mining.

Ya know what? At this point in my life I do not need to explain myself to anyone and it is often humorous when I see the results. Just two weeks ago I went with my ex to take TJ - my youngest child - in to learn all about the episcopal church that his dad belongs to, and I actually was in favor of it, thinking he could then better make a decision regarding faith and the importance of it in his life and all. What was the first question out of the ten year old kid's mouth? "Where did you guys come up with God from?" It did not get better after that, and I SWEAR I did not coach him - I actually wanted him to participate and try and agree to go and at least learn some things. Even his dad gave up at the end of two hours, no one was angry or upset with TJ, but, like Ethel (from TORC and TOB) says repeatedly, I think I do not have the God gene or something, and I guess the lack of it got handed down to my kids as well.

Last edited by The Watcher on Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:56 am, edited 2 times in total.

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TheEllipticalDisillusion
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:55 am
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Discussing secular morality and philosophy is an excellent activity to add. At least it could give an Atheist club more purpose. I am almost tempted to start a club, but then I'd have to moderate and I don't have the time right now. What kind of winter holidays could Atheists create? "Bring-A-Dying-Tree-Indoors-For-A-Couple-Of-Weeks Day"

tp, would you attend godless bowling?

lali. A joke? :scratch:

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Faramond
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 6:57 am
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There's already an atheist winter holiday.

humanlight, on December 23


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TheEllipticalDisillusion
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 11:52 am
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You see Watcher, the point of the Atheist club should be, in my opinion, a place where you do not have to explain yourself to anyone. Instead you can just engage in heathenistic and god-free activities or discuss things. Maybe godless trivia night (no the answer is not always "no god").

Thanks faramond.

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Dave_LF
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 1:15 pm
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I'm always saying that "atheist" is a bad label because it defines people based on what they're not rather than on what they are. This is a perfect example of that. Change it to a humanist club or something and there'd suddenly be something to discuss.


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democritus
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 1:26 pm
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Dave_LF wrote:
I'm always saying that "atheist" is a bad label because it defines people based on what they're not rather than on what they are. This is a perfect example of that. Change it to a humanist club or something and there'd suddenly be something to discuss.
I was going to say the exact same thing. I belong to a Humanist and a Secular organisation that does a lot of socialising and discusses developments in religion, politics, education, science, secular philosophy and so on. Atheism is only a starting point, for atheists where things get interesting and worth discussing is everything that flows on from that (as is the case for theists). I'd recommend that the club in question consider changing its name and focus to "humanist" or "secular" (secular is primarily a political idea related to the seperation of church and state in the public sphere).


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LalaithUrwen
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 4:04 pm
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TheEllipticalDisillusion wrote:

lali. A joke? :scratch:
:( Well, it was supposed to be slightly amusing. Sigh. But then again, I'm notoriously bad at telling jokes.

It just sounded like church, which I found ironic.

Carry on.


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Axordil
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 7:23 pm
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There are plenty of organizations that are de facto atheist/humanist clubs. Ethical Societies come to mind--even St. Louis has one. :D And yes, they are all about constructive and not reactionary action.

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Dindraug
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 8:41 pm
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Dave_LF wrote:
I'm always saying that "atheist" is a bad label because it defines people based on what they're not rather than on what they are.
:scratch: That misses the point somewhat.

To define an athiest as somebody who doesnt believe in god is a bit like defining a vegitarian as somebody who doesn't eat meat. There is more to it than that.

A better definition of a athiest would be somebody who does not use god to define and explain the universe.

As for what they would discuss. Well there is art, science, maths, sport,.......

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Crucifer
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 9:47 pm
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Engage in scientific experiments to prove the theory that there is no God. That'd show those God-fearing freaks...

:blackeye:

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Dave_LF
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Posted: Tue 27 Nov , 2007 9:50 pm
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"Vegetarian" actually suffers from some of the same problems. Someone who shuns meat purely for health reasons probably won't have a lot in common with someone who thinks meat is murder. There are some things they could talk about, like how to get adequate nutrition on an all-vegetable diet, but they really belong to two different food ideologies and definitely wouldn't get anywhere trying to discuss ethics. Same thing with (say) humanists, Maoists, and apatheists. They're all atheists, but they'd have far too little in common to behave collectively on any nontrivial ethical or philosophical matter. A common ground based on things you have in common tends to run deeper and bond tighter than one based on things you "not have" in common.


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yovargas
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Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2007 12:11 am
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Dindraug wrote:
As for what they would discuss. Well there is art, science, maths, sport,.......
A group to talk about everything besides god seems a tad, um, unfocused.


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Axordil
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Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2007 3:17 am
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And not unlike some message boards. :D

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Riverthalos
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Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2007 7:57 am
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Crucifer wrote:
Engage in scientific experiments to prove the theory that there is no God. That'd show those God-fearing freaks...

:blackeye:
Speaking as a scientist, it's one helluva lot easier to experimentally show that something is true than show that something isn't. Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence and so on.

Just sayin'...

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Crucifer
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Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2007 3:33 pm
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Well then. They'd have lots of experimenting to do. Every time someone comes up with evidence that there is a God, they'd have to disprove it, for a start. Then they could get back to proving that there is no God.

By the way, it is impossible to prove anything... you always have to take something as a given, somewhere, and that's cheating. It is impossible, for example, to prove that 1+1=2 without taking as given somewhere along the line that 1+1=2...

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Axordil
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Posted: Wed 28 Nov , 2007 3:45 pm
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Having axioms is cheating? An axiom may be flawed, or turn out to be insupportable, but that doesn't mean axioms as a class are. It simply means one has to acknowledge that they are an accepted starting point, not Truth.

There's a reason that statements of proof in mathematics start with an If.

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Crucifer
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But nothing can be proven. Only explained...

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