“This weekend, leaders of seven like-minded but distinct national groups will participate in the Minnesota Atheists Conference, which organizers say will be an unprecedented gathering of freethinkers of various persuasions,” the newspaper articles states.
“Free thought has an ecumenical movement somewhat like religion does,” says one attendee. “As does religion, the movement needs a little nursing from time to time. This conference gives us a chance to get together, exchange ideas and see how much alike we are.”
“It started with the Godless American March on Washington,” another points out. “We’ve been bringing groups together that might have otherwise operated separately. We see strength and unity in numbers.”
“Humanists and non-religious make up about 14 percent of the population,” states a third. “If we want to have the influence we deserve, then we need to lobby legislatures and be willing to work together. With the Bush administration, the atheist-humanist community has seen a need to become more organized and cooperative than ever before.”
And this, my ‘favorite’ if you will: “We do more than just disbelieve in God. We support human rights. Our basic philosophy is that because there’s no heaven after we die, we try to improve life to have heaven here on earth.”
Atheists seek and find their comfort in numbers. An atheist, by any other name, might be called a humanist, an agnostic, a naturalist, a secularist, a rationalist or a skeptic, the newspaper reporter writes.
The writer overlooked one additional name: a fool (Proverbs 14:1).
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I agree with the philospher Descartes who wrote that what is said by atheists against the existence of God depends either on the fact that they ascribe to God affections which are human, or that they attribute so much strength and wisdom to their own minds that they even have the presumption to desire to determine and understand that which God can and ought to do.
When I talk to an atheist, I tell them with a straight and serious face that they represent the walking dead and there is no way to make heaven on earth. I also inform them that they need to come up with another word other than "heaven" as that is God's description. I also inform them that I have a perfect word for what they are making "HELL"!
