Hello there!
I saw a few posts on these forums on atheism and society. For example I saw a post about an atheist state and how it would deal with theism.
It made me wonder. What place do you want atheism to take in a secular society?
What about a society with state atheism?
How do you see theism and atheism cohabit successfully? Or fail to do so.
Do you think the current secular republics in America or in your own country, are good enough? Or do you want more from secularism or atheism?
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I don't necessarily want a 'place for atheism' as much as I want theism to butt the hell out of my life.
The problem from my viewpoint is the carefully contrived hatred towards atheism. Atheism is a scapegoat for religions to focus their anger on. When I met true atheist I realize most don't want to be bothered with religion. no fight necessary. Except for the atheist who are angry at what religion has stolen from them.
So instead of focusing on atheism, our belief in no gods, I suggest we show the good that can be done without the restraints of religion. Mosts theist think were god haters. not true. we just care more about this life not our hope in eternity.
JamieB
Just to correct your definition of an Atheist -
"The LACK of belief in Gods." - not - "The belief in no God." - just saying so you don't get staggered if you enter a debate with a Christian since they think we "BELIEVE" in something no matter what.
Also, yes, it's a great misconception that we HATE God, we don't hate God, why would you hate something that doesn't exist?
Religion needs to get out of politics and government. I don't care if people practice religion, as long as they don't try to force it on others. Our founding fathers in the US tried to make our government secular.
I would love to see atheism/secularism overtake theism within my lifetime. We as a human race are constantly striving to better ourselves. I strongly believe as a race we would be far better off if we leave the old god fairy tales behind. They are causing far more issues than they are solving. And with today's understanding of the world around us, it should be much easier to shed this whole god fairy tale.
Fortunately we are seeing the decay of religion all around us. Two or Three hundred years ago, it would be absolutely unthinkable to the vast majority to even consider skipping mass on any Sunday unless it was a major emergency, or whatever their religion demands of them. Now the majority, especially, Christians skip Sunday church all the time. It is plain as day for all to see when all the "churches" get super crowded on major religious holidays like around Christmas or Easter, but are not nearly as crowded on any given Sunday.
Although I do suspect we will see an uptick in religious attendance as economic disparity continues to widen and precious resources grow tighter. Church attendance numbers as a % are tightly correlated with economic disparity and poverty in study after study.
The problem is ignorance and lack of education. The fact is that people that are theists are born into it. They make the choice to be believers. Later in their life, they may actually decide what type of believer they want to be, even opting to not believe, but 100% of the world's population is born into some sort of a god belief system. Yes, that includes China. Theists don't understand what SECULAR actually means. They think it means atheism. And they don't know what ATHEISM means. They think it means anti-christian and even devil worshipping.
I would like my nation, the United States, to actually uphold the Constitution. Particularly the Establishment Clause. "Freedom of Religion" doesn't mean that religion has the right to overlord every aspect of life. Religious freedom is an individual right, not a public or organizational right.