Friday, December 19, 2014

The Atheist Movement: Pour in more laxative

A quote from Faisal Saeed Al Mutar (December 18, 2014):
I am going to confess about something that has been bugging me for the past 6 months that I want to get out of my chest and I know that some people will disagree me about it.
Since June this year, I have "partly" quit the Atheist community in America and put full focus on human rights in dictatorships which has always been my interest since I read Christopher Hitchens's first book, when I went to the first Atheist conference last year in Austin, I was filled with excitement and joy, after finishing my last conference for this year in North Carolina, I was filled with fear.
This fear comes from an Iraqi who lived a civil war, there is so much inner fighting that happens in the Atheist movement that put me so many times in between choosing between two people that I both consider friends.
It's like being the child of a divorced parents who hate each other.
I am a foreigner to this country and I noticed this behavior to be extremely weird and destructive.
It's always to good to disagree and have a civil discussion about it but the movement doesn't seem to fulfill what it claims to aspire to.
I have formed a wonderful family in that movement and I am very happy about it.
I sincerely hope that things will be alright whether I will be dead or alive in future to witness it.
Best Regards
Faisal Saeed Al Mutar.
A freaking refugee from a war torn country.
www.faisalalmutar.com
 ---quote ends

My response:

One could well ask what type of movement the atheist movement is. Clearly one which requires a lot more laxative, to clear out those who very much prefer to have atheist groups be de facto religions.

I agree that examining the life work of people like Christopher Hitchens, and frankly the life work of the Monty Python group (seriously!) is key. Also make note of Steven Pinker, Dennett, Harris, and others who've chosen to push against both sides of the political & social spectrum - to push against dogmas which simply do not accurately describe human nature or facts on the ground about many matters.

Atheism Plus? Pour in the Ex-Lax.

Unitarian Universalism's fawning appreciation of Islam & Mohamed, with the help of religious curricula drafted directly from Reza Aslan works? Pour in the Metamucil.

A rejection 13.8 billion years of evolution by natural selection, basic good family values, basic biology, and evolutionary history - from the left? Add the Miralax. The left can deny human nature too (ref. Pinker as a start).

It's hard to have atheist groups which aren't echo chambers, and little petty cliquish mirrors of the pompous frantic idiocy of know-it-all-but-know-nothing college students.

Dennett's dangerous idea is that religion is a natural phenomenon. It's so damn natural that two or more atheists gathered in the name of a social or political ideology cannot help but form a de facto one, with heresy trials & excommunication all waiting in the wings as ready tools of belief maintenance and thought control.

There is a sickness present in American universities. The sickness of dogmatic political correctness. Dogma does not help humanity move forward toward the truth. What you're seeing in atheist groups is a symptom of this sickness.
A crucible of ideas cannot work in an atmosphere of stifling thought control.

Related thoughts:
The Atheist Movement needs more laxative - Making room for social & political conservatives!
http://jonathanshome.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-atheist-movement-needs-move.html