Comments on: Why don’t atheists protest?

By: Where are the Loner Atheists?

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:04:25 +0000

[...]This sort of piggybacks off this post by my friend Z over at It's the Thought That Counts. In the post Z wonders why atheists don't march in protests for their own cause verses just being part of larger crowds in other protests. [...]

By: Mike at The Big Stick

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:08:26 +0000

Since atheisim is really just the ‘absence of belief’ you really can’t build any kind of coherent movement around that fact alone. That would be like building a movement around the absence of a belief in the Tooth Fairy. As you point out though, atheists cross paths with lots of other movements, the defining factor being how they came to have the shared interest.

Even the notion of ‘skeptics’ societies is really just a support group for overcoming religious/social pressures to Believe. Nothing wrong with that, but the basis for a movement it is not.

By: Daphne

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:05:29 +0000

During the final days of the election when Elizabeth Dole ran those horrid ads about her opponent and the Godless Americans PAC I found myself wondering why there weren’t Atheists taking to the streets en masse to protest the whole idea that being Godless meant that you threw shady cocktail parties.

I agree – there are issues that trigger Atheist to protest but they are not ‘Atheist’ issues. The only issues that I can think of that are purely an Atheist issue is public perception of Atheists and the ignorance about what being an Atheist means. And those are issues that will not be fixed by protests.

By: Z

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:08:42 +0000

Unless you’re suggesting a protest against the literal truth of the book of Genesis, you’re referring to teaching creationism in public school as science. That’s something that falls under church/state separation, and it’s something lots of people and organizations are against, not just atheists. In fact, the link above on “other religious voices” goes to a page on the National Center for Science Education’s website with a list of religious leaders’ statements against teaching creationism in science classrooms. My point isn’t that atheists don’t protest, but rather that the issues they do protest about aren’t strictly (or even primarily) “atheist issues.”

By: Mike at The Big Stick

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:34:57 +0000

Wouldn’t atheists participate in an anti-Creationism protest?