WaPo's 'On Faith' Wonders if Atheists Need a Televangelist of Sorts
"Does atheism need a pitch man?" is the latest "panel debate" at "On Faith," the Washington Post religion news-and-views blog.
Yes, a discussion question on a religion blog about whether atheists need a Moses to lead them to the Promised Land.
Leave it to the mainstream media!:
Does atheism need a pitch man?
Atheist actor and writer Ricky Gervais is working on a new show, Afterlife , which features “an atheist who dies and goes to heaven.” If Gervais hopes to bring cultural acceptance of non-belief to mainstream America, he faces an uphill battle. Polls show that many Americans distrust atheists and nearly half say they would not vote for one. Should it matter whether or not a politician believes in God? As mainstream acceptance of other minority groups grows, will atheists still lag behind?
- Ken Shepherd's blog
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Comments
Fundamentalist atheists?
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 5:04pm.
What's next, different denominations of atheism? Will there, by necessity, arise Fundamentalist Atheism, Evangelical Atheism? Puritan Atheism? How must does atheism need to emulate religion before it will reach a wide audience? The very idea of emulating religion by any degree kind of defeats the purpose, the concept, of atheism itself, does it not?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
South Park
Submitted by ctophfranko on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 7:53pm.
Already skewered this. . .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_God_Go
Militant atheists seldom understand the inherit irony in their position.
Judging by the panel, it already has a pitch man
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 5:13pm.
But do bulemic women have a pitch man in the WaPo Food section on Sunday?
So they can worship a nonGod?
Submitted by deadeyedan on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 5:20pm.
When liberals worry about the Religious Right, it's time to worry about the Religiously Left.
Liberalism - government of the people by the theories and for the ideologists - deadeyedan
ClimateGate - the revelation that the pseudo-scientists at East Anglia University know just as much about the atmosphere as Harvard law professors know about the Constitution - deadeyedan
As an atheist. Why would an
Submitted by danbo on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 5:20pm.
As an atheist. Why would an atheist need someone to tell them what they do or, perhaps better said, don't believe? If you need someone? Maybe you need to look deep inside and decide what you are.
"You lie!" Rep. Joe Wilson R-(SC)
Clarification for Danbo
Submitted by nkviking75 on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 7:57pm.
Danbo, an evangelist's role is convert others to the faith, or non-faith. It's not the same as a pastor or a teacher, who instructs the fold in their faith. The MSM is really sloppy about this distinction. They automatically label any Christian with a mass-media minstry a "tele-evangelist". So these people want someone who can convert believers to atheists.
“Always love your country — but never trust your government!" -- Bob Novak (1931-2009)
When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.
If you "need" someone to
Submitted by danbo on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:36am.
If you "need" someone to "convert" you. Athiest, Christian, Muslim or what ever. You're someone easily led.
"You lie!" Rep. Joe Wilson R-(SC)
They have several already.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 5:29pm.
Donkey Face Maher, for instance.
Since when are Atheists underrepresented?
Submitted by Phryj1 on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 5:43pm.
The need for a pitchman for Atheism? Yeah, because there aren't ANY well known writers (cough, cough, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, cough), popular comedians (cough, hack, Bill Maher, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, cough), or highly paid TV producers (cough, ahem, Seth MacFarlane, Russel T. Davies, AHEM) promoting Atheism on a regular basis. (Sorry, I'm allergic to BS.)
Seems to be pretty well represented. I don't begrudge them the right to promote their worldview on the public stage, but it's just dishonest to claim Atheism isn't being marketed adequately.
Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.
Do Atheists think they are slaves?
Submitted by Rackie on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 6:25pm.
Moses lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and led them to the Promise Land.
As for the need of a "Moses" type figure to lead them, Las Vegas is not that all hard to find.
Las Vegas?
Submitted by whipnet on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:45am.
What an asinine thing to say. Are you saying that Christians have never visited Las Vegas?
*
Equating Moses to a "pitch
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 6:45pm.
Equating Moses to a "pitch man" tells you all you need to know about this deplorable feature.
don't be fooled
Submitted by MidAmerica on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 6:47pm.
Most of the effort to bring atheism to the masses is really just a disguised anti-Christian crusade.
So now they need to market literally nothing?
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 6:52pm.
How ironic it is that Atheists want people to have faith in non-existence. That is like filing a claim before you buy the insurance.
says who?
Submitted by whipnet on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:45am.
says who?
Next Up:
Submitted by Chris Norman on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 7:05pm.
"The Church of Atheism" with Sunday services?
Chris, I think the Unitarians
Submitted by motherbelt on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 7:21pm.
Chris, I think the Unitarians are working on that. ;-)
mb,
Submitted by Chris Norman on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:49am.
Ah, yes. "The Church of Everything Including the Kitchen Sink". :)
Most of those who are
Submitted by mattm on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 8:30pm.
Most of those who are described as atheists are really anti-theists.
they already have these
Submitted by jkwtrading on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 10:07pm.
they already have these services...the libs just don't recognize it yet...they are called horror movies.. all have same plot...nothing is good and you will be in fright then die. every horror movie much like an atheist service has the same message...nothing is nothing..
Whoops, someone twanged the line
Submitted by Coldsnap on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 3:40am.
Time to rally and find fault. Change and the concept of dying scares me, so let's huddle together and point at those who are obviously wrong to give ourselves a warm blanket feeling again.
A little bit of Christmas magic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS4G2f2Xy3w
Proving yet again...
Submitted by c5then on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 7:31am.
That Atheism is a religion like any other.
Seems kind of funny to me to have to recruit people into believing in nothing. It's also a rather depressing message and travels down the road that narcissism is the best philosophy because nothing matters anyway. With Atheists there are no absolute right or wrong. there is no moral foundation for behaving a certain way. The only authority in the Atheists world view is power and strength and might. You take what you can and have no regrets. Survival of the fittest.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Atheism is not a religion and
Submitted by whipnet on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 10:47am.
Atheism is not a religion and no one is recruiting. That's just christians looking for an angle of attack.
Whipnet,
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 1:17pm.
no it is just equivalency. If a religious person was telling an atheist what to believe you would call that preaching/recruiting would you not?
reflections in atheism
Submitted by Agnostic on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 11:00am.
Some of the more outspoken atheist have been extremely opinionated and thin-skinned. They become defensive at the slightest hint of anything religious. If a religious person was like this - the atheist would question the strength of their beliefs but they can't look at themselves come up with the same skepticism of personal beliefs.
I am an agnostic/atheist and as such there is no one that I look to in order to reinforce my beliefs other than those which educate and that does include religious text and sermons.
Atheist, in general, have earned the distrust of the population but not because they are incapable of holding similar value systems but because of how the more prominent atheist have consistently portrayed themselves as vessels of intolerance with a seeming lack of ability to reflect upon their own actions.
Possibly a coincidence but some of the most moral and even tempered people I've known are people who were once religious but lost faith over time or through tragedy. Many of these people may find their faith again and there should be nothing wrong if such an event occurs. But these people should also not be lumped together with the likes of Maher and Gervais.
Antitheists are necessarily antiscience, despite their pretense
Submitted by russedav on Thu, 07/21/2011 - 12:18pm.
I'll take the great scientist Newton, who was a Christian and a creationist, and his hard-data supporting creationism, over deranged clergyman Darwin and his factless spin stories that continue among his daft disciples to this day, any time. Moderrn evolution is nothing but a Wizard of Oz smoke and mirrors show, like in the USSR where true science collapsed in rubble after less than a century whereas the creationist US under creationist Von Braun, NASA head, took us to the moon before the communist evolutionists moved here and took over the show from the creationists, now ending true science as we know it in the manifest rubble of lies and frauds that have promoted the asinine fraud of "anthropocentric global warming" and terminated our shuttle, and manned space flights that American creationism originated with Alan Shepard's flight (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Shepard). See the evolution fraud exposed at www.creation.com. If people had any idea the bs that goes on in "scientific institutions" as exemplified at East Anglia and the many lies recorded there, they'd know that the modern "science" fraud is as bogus as the "consensus" of doctors in the days of Sir Joseph Lister who refused to listen to his warnings about microorganisms since they were too small to see with the unaided eye, and so continued to operate on patients without even minimal concern for his antisepsis proposals. Those who are opposed to creationism are ignorant foes of true science with no rational basis or evidence for their position that is contrary to the truely great scientists of history like the aforementioned, just the usual politics that the fascists who reject reality love.