Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 10, 2011 at 1:49pm

How is that going to work?  Atheists don't share the same politics.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 10, 2011 at 1:54pm

I know. Like herding cats into a bathtub. Filled with dogs. On crack. However, we have to try. Granted, our group will not be for everyone (we're very liberal), but if we don't attempt to organize, we are going to end up as virtual non-citizens. We're already discriminated against all the time. It's like the last acceptable bigotry.
The saying goes, organize or die. We may disagree on many things, but our right to exist is not one of them.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 11, 2011 at 1:24am

We have those, yet we have no representation in congress. One non believer out of 536 federally elected officials?
To me, this is not narrow. This is about the religious right out to make our country a theocracy. If we don't stand up for ourselves, who will?

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 11, 2011 at 7:29am

Only one who is openly an atheist.  We have seen the way a majority of American view atheism.  For most people it would be political suicide to admit being atheists.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 11, 2011 at 8:01am

Wasn't that the same way gay people were treated 40 years ago? Now, a majority of Americans favor gay marriage.
That didn't happen on its' own. It took years of campaigning, education, awareness and yes, agitation to get there.
We're being bullied into the closet, just like how gays were treated. I for one think we need to stand up to bullies.
It is naive to think putting a party together by and for atheists (which, by the way, does not exclude agnostics, secularists, or any other supportive people) will be easy. The system is gamed against us. However, it is equally naive to stick our heads in the sand and think it won't get worse.
Unless we organize.
I think it was Saul Alinsky who said "organize or die". It proves itself true every time.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 11, 2011 at 8:05am

How does a political party help?  The gays and the blacks didn't need political parties to advance their cause and neither do we.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 11, 2011 at 8:11am

Don't they? There was something called the Black Panther party, and there is a faction within the Democrats for gays called the Stonewall Democrats.
And yes, the Black Panther thing didn't turn out so well, but we're not wielding guns. But look at the Dems today. A large part of their support comes from AA's.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 11, 2011 at 1:25am

It could. I think it's worth the risk. What's the other option? Doing nothing? That's not working

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on July 11, 2011 at 7:57am

There are things related to religion that are high priority, mainly combating the religious right's being anti-gay, anti-environment, anti-abortion, anti-evolution, pro-feudalism, etc, (as well as the far left's Islamist enabling) but politically, "atheism" is not a high priority at all.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 11, 2011 at 8:05am

I completely agree, ProgRockGirl! That's why we stand against that agenda.
What, you think we're just a one-trick pony? ;-)
A political party has to have a complex platform, and we have a pretty good one to start.

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Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on July 11, 2011 at 8:06am

Which is?

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Permalink Reply by Joe Bruemmer on July 11, 2011 at 8:13am

I will be happy to post it, but I've run out of time and have to go to work.

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