AMERICAN ATHEISTS, INC.http://www.atheists.orghttp://www.americanatheist.orgFor more information, please contact:Ellen Johnson, President (973) 625-6900Dave Silverman, Communications Director (732) 648-9333STUDY OF “MOST DISTRUSTED MINORITY” UNDERSCORES NEED FOR GOV’T TO STOP PROMOTING RELIGION — ATHEIST GROUPReacting to a study by the University of Minnesota, a nationwide Atheist civil rights group today said that by promoting religion, government is partly to blame for the negative perceptions of nonbelievers in American Society.Researchers found that “Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in ’sharing their vision of American society.’ Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.” Dr. Penny Edgell is quoted in a U. of M. press release adding that Atheists “offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” and suggests that today’s Atheists”play the role that Catholics, Jews and communists have played in the past.”Ellen Johnson, President of American Atheists, said that one reason for the findings is the unconstitutional promotion of religion by government and political leaders. “Politicians have draped themselves in the mantle of religiosity, and shamelessly promote the myth that religious belief is the basis for ethical, sensible behavior.”The survey found that “acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one’s exposure to diversity, education and political orientation . . . “Dave Silverman, Communications Director for the group, said that educated Americans were more likely to accept Atheists. He added that the study may indicate that the growing activism and visibility of Atheists may be responsible.”Nearly 30 million Americans profess no religious belief,” said Silverman. “A smaller number may use the term ‘Atheist,’ but over the past five we’ve been building coalitions, lobbying in Washington and forming political action committees. Controversy and hostility are always the first steps for any group fighting for its rightful place in society, whether it’s people of color, women, or sexual minorities.”"We’re just the last group, the ‘last minority’ to be speaking out,” said Silverman. “Americans are generally a tolerant group. I think in five or ten years, studies will show that Atheists are being accepted in our culture just like everybody else.”AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists; works for the total separation of church and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.
I’m still waiting for them to pronounce it right… they call it “Am’rilla” instead of “Amaree-oh”… and since I’m of Mexican background… I often forget and pronounce it wrong
BTU becometheunknown
If you are truly interested and have NOT started or worked for a charitable org prior to now. You might try an affiliation with second harvest. Their web add is here.
http://www.secondharvest.org/
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. You can start your own food collections or money donations under their umbrella until you have become successful. If you do it in conjunction with your school you would be able to create a legacy for the young people who come after you, The important thing to remember is that you are setting up an organization that helps feed people and your group is not influenced by religion. You could accept any person who wants to help. Believe me when I say it is interesting for people to donate food to feed the hungry and they realize your a non-believer. It makes for interesting conversation. We become people to them and those people on the fence who don’t go to church ussually will join in to help. Also I know the bible pretty good (well) and I am not afraid of shaming them into donating. Such as Jesus saying what you do to one such as these you do to me. Be creative and read some bible to help your cause. Or not. It could backfire if you let it. The main point is Second Harvest has the infrastructure and knowledge behind them already. You just get coordinated and start a food club for your town and go from there. Good luck to you in what ever you try.
For what its worth,my thoughts on an Atheist charity.
Feeding the hungry is a good thing and all, but has no lasting effect,(I sure hope noone would preach to the recipients the evils of religion like some xian based food kitchens preach to theirs).
I like what Habitat For Humanity does. This can permanently change people’s lives. But they depend largely on corporate contributions for materials, something we would be at a disadvantage to get.
What I do myself is try to help someone I know who for whatever reason really needs it. It can be as simple as inviting them over for a big meal when you know they’re worried about feeding their family. Or helping them fix their car, or at a gifting situation, give a slightly larger gift ( like a $50.00 Walmart card) when they give you something of much less value or homemade. I don’t like to loan out money, cause though I can afford not being repaid, if they can’t pay you back they’ll avoid you like the plague.
If you get to know them good enough, learn they have some skills, good work habits, etc., you might be able to get them hired where you work for a better paying job. This is risky and can backfire on you.
In doing all this sometime religious orientation will come up. This is where you can let them know what you think and show Atheists as positive role models.
Some might say all I’m doing is what you do for a friend. To me my friends are more or less my peers, what I attempt in my “charity” is to help raise someone up to be a peer, not by being condecending or preachy.
This is one version of charity begining at home.
Notice how atheists come up with good things to raise charity for. None of this “spreading the word of god” crap. See those captured christians in Iraq, the ones who just got rescued? I guess some people don’t like having beliefs forced upon them. Wish I could do the same thing to the bloody mormons who come to my door every week.
atheist charity been thinking about this for about a month i was thinking about disaster relief,poverty reduction,after school education,but i like the idea for distribution of aids medication but probably should add sex eduction and contraceptives
TomSD,
I love soup, my wife and I make a big pot of vegetable soup at the end of the week with what ever vegies we have left. Great for a hangover.
I was thinking about basic education, reading, writing, critical thinking, etc. I’m sure that with all the brain power we have here we could improve the education of the children around us. So if a kid gets stuck in a crap school he has another way of learning.
Spanders,
Thanks for the offer for help, espeically since it is not really your cause. Your web expertise may be useful. Your insights and people skills I think will be invaluable.
My vote would be for dealing with the corruption which gets in the way of iad getting where it is needed. (Mainly the corruption based on greed, not need. Two different problems). This is a tough nut to crack, but has the biggest potential payoff.
There is no reason why more than one could not be established if enough people with enthusiasm for something get together.
anadrol,
What sort of education?
BTW: Soup is the #1 best way to get ALL the nutrients from a given substance into a person. Nothing is lost as in other forms of cooking (since you drink the water which would otherwise leech away nutrients). This is why it has been so popular historically. The important thing is to get the right stuff into the pot.
Now you’ve hurt my feelings,
Ok, as you don’t want to continue this, I won’t, except to say that 1) I apparently wasn’t writing clearly and 2) I mostly misinterpreted you. Other than that, it was a good exchange.
Ha Ha Ha,
Another great piece from the onion and relevent too.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/46451
Education!
Becometheunknown,
Thanks for your response (and enthusiasm!) The idea of networking with colleges has quite a few good points: people there are more educated and open-minded, often come from other countries so have different viewpoints, etc.
What problem the charity will focus on is the first thing that needs to be worked out. The requirements I see are:
1) It needs to be selfless, not something which atheists as a group profit from
2) It needs to be something which takes advantage of the basic beliefs and priorities of atheism (or non-belief in general)
3) It should be something atheists can be proud to be associated with
4) I think it would be better to be something which is not adequately dealt with now
jimmerone mentioned secondharvest, which deals with hunger, which is eternally a problem. One of the problems I saw when volunteering at a local feed-the-poor program was that the nutritional value of what the people ate was very bad. This was partly because they were stuck with whatever food was donated, partly because people were making poor choices in what they ate. Perhaps a starting point would be nutrition education? (Now that the government has caved in to corporate pressure and made their nutritional advice pretty much worthless there is more need for this).
Another problem is the corruption which keeps needed food and such from getting where it needs to be. If there are people from many countries at your college, perhaps there are people with contacts who could help bypass the worst of this?
Just a few thoughts. The trick at this point is to have something which catches the imaginations of as many people as possible.
I’m for any charity. If you want to set up an atheist charity, I can lend my skills as a web designer. Perhaps R4D and I could collaborate. There’s a lot of excellent people here. Who knows what could be accomplished? I would love to see a charity helping the poor, but a charity promoting science might be a good way to go forward.
Reluctant, I haven’t forgotten that I want to put together a site for you.
My wife will kill me if I volunteer for yet another thing, but I guess that’s what life is about… helping where you can. I might not be able to do it right away, but I’m hoping in a month things will settle down a bit and I’ll be able to do something to help.
Do you guys have ideas of what you would want the atheist charity to accomplish? What would be a good cause?
I have a suggestion for the name of our charity organization: The Hands that Help. This comes from one of my favorite quotes from Ingersoll, “The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray.” Imagine the conversations that will arise when the Christians eventually ask us where we got our name from…
Anyway, I think an Atheist charity group would be a great thing. Perhaps we could compete with all the Christian anti-drug programs and all those testimonials of people who say “I got saved, and now I don’t do drugs anymore” with our own anti-drug efforts. Think about it: we believe this is the only life there is, there is no afterlife, so if this is all there is, why ruin it frying your brain out on drugs? I think we could do a better job than the Christians, teaching addicts to embrace and joy this life, the only life we get.
That sounds pretty good. Prove to people that there is logic in improving your life, not just blind religious dogma.
Dagny2,
I love your proposed name and your idea for the charity is the best I have heard so far.
Other things I have been thinking about include anything which saves peoples lives: medicine, ambulance services and so on. The problem with these is that they all require a lot of specialized training to be effective. Atheists might also be the most effective aid workers in regions where there is a lot of religious tension. We are only interested in saving lives, not their souls: we don?t believe in souls in the first place.
One thing which psychology claims we need to be happiest is caring about something larger than ourselves. This is supposedly why religion works well in rehab. If we get rid of the religion, it probably needs to be replaced with something else. Since drugs and violence often go together, perhaps anti-violence and working to improve the lives of those worst off in your own neighborhood would be a good part of a drug rehab program? Help your friends and neighbors make the most of their lives? This could tie in with the educational stuff others have suggested. I admit that my knowledge of drug problems and rehab is pretty limited.
TomSD,
I did a little reasearch on Habitat For Humanity. I found that they’re an “ecumenical” xian organization,( had to look up what this means, which is all xians share certain traits and should work together for world domination). But I saw nothing on the website overly religious. In their FAQs they state volunteers can be of any faith or no faith at all.
In the Houston area a sponsor group needs to put up $50,000 to insure a house is built properly. Plus “sweat equity” of the recipient and what the volunteers put in.
I don’t know if they would allow an atheist group to sponsor a house or not.
And I can’t resist this take on an old charity saw, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he sits in a boat and drinks beer all day”.
When Dagny2, in explaining why “The Hands that Help,” which he got from a quote by Ingersoll, would be a good name for an atheistic charity, writes, “‘The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray.’ Imagine the conversations that will arise when the Christians eventually ask us where we got our name from….” he supposes that the true believers will even know who Robert Ingersoll was, which I kinda doubt.
Esperdome,
I like Habitat for Humanity as well. I have donated money to them for years (though I have never made the time to help build). If people want to help out on there own there are many good non-religion-based charities. Doctors without borders and Children of the Californias are two I especially like. Donating blood is also something almost anyone can do, even if cash and time is tight.
But I am still hoping that we can put together something ongoing that is entirely atheist-based. I don?t know why I care so much about this considering I consider myself an agnostic rather than an atheist. But I read too much unhappiness here and think it would be good to have something selfless that atheists could claim as their own and be proud of.
TomSD,
I’d like to do something big, something solely atheist but is society ready for it? If, say, an atheist group raised through bake sales, car washes, and other means the 50K for a HFH sponsorship, and it was ok’ed by HFH, who would want the resulting publicity when the media got ahold of it.
Someday more openness will exist and this won’t be an issue.
You may sense unhappiness here, but that may be because many use this blog to vent and get off their minds things they can’t to people around them and expect a sympathetic ear.
I know I do at times.
I also like “The Hands That Help” . I always confuse the two quotations “Hands that help do more than Lips that pray” and the “two hands working do more than 1000 clasped in prayer” and “the hands that help” sounds a lot better than “two hands working…” So I’m agreed.
I learned something cool today while talking with Rob Scott from the School for Designing a Society (check it out, I may go there next semester: http://www.designingasociety.org/). Rob said he had been talking with the head of Habitat for Humanity, and it turns out that that lady is actually an atheist! This could be the overall head, or it could be just the Urbana, IL head, but in anycase I thought that was cool. (Atheist Habitat for Humanity/Habitat for Atheist Humanity? -Rob)
Is society ready for atheist charity? When will society be ready for atheist charity? What will make society ready for atheist charity? Let’s make society ready for atheist charity through atheist charity. I don’t want to wait for society to change! Sure they could batter us with the usual rhetoric, but in the end our actions will do the speaking- and if the media doesn’t buy it, at least the people we help will know the truth.
I favor a Habitat for Humanity style charity, it’s more visual and hands on. There is the chance for people to come up to us while working and ask us “why?”
As for a mission statement, I was thinking along the lines of Madalyn Murray’s statement in the 1959 case:
‘An Atheists loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist thinks that heaven is something for which we should work for now – here on earth- for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, subdue and enjoy it. An Atheist thinks that only in knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.
“Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to ‘know’ a god. An Atheist knows that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist knows that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.
He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He knows that we cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a hereafter. He knows that we are our brothers’ keepers in that we are, first, keepers of our lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is now.”
Obviously that’s a little long- but that’s a statement that actually gave me the chills the first time I read it. Our mission statement should be no more than a few sentances or a single sentence the size of three (just as long as it fits on the back of a t-shirt!)
It’d be good to get something set up, website wise, where the folks that are seriously interested in starting this could really begin talking and getting to know one another. This blog is cool for now, but it’ll be hard to keep all our ideas sorted when written down in such a uniformily linear pattern. Maybe a forum?yahoogroup?chatroom?other idea?
I said it before–I’m excited!
becometheunknown@gmail.com
Thanks Zac!
Remember — any woosie can stang up and cheer for the majority.
We are NOT woosies!
I tend to agree with becometheunknown that the purpose of the charity is to make society more accepting of atheism (I also like the Madalyn Murray quote). However, Esperdome?s concern about society?s reaction is something I take seriously as well. Take for example, the idea of building a home as a part of Habitat for Humanity. While irrational and hateful statements from objectors would tend to bring moderates to sympathize with us, I am concerned about the possibility that the people who live in the ?atheist house? could be ostracized. I also think it very likely that some lunatic who thinks he is ?doing god?s will? would burn the place down. Not that I care all that much about the building itself (it could be insured), but I dislike the pain this would inflict on the residents and neighbors. Not to mention the frustration of all those who put all that work and caring into building it. I think that this would not be the best approach for the beginnings of atheist charity. I think something which benefits a larger number of people a relatively small amount would be safer than something which gives a larger benefit to only a few.
If Dave likes the idea of this charity, perhaps he would be willing to open a thread to discuss it? The advantage of having this here is that there are many people attracted to this site, so there is more potential to bring in interested people. Once we achieve a critical mass, then it would probably be best to create our own spot. Possibly a multiple-poster blog on blogspot.com?
That’s a very good point, and perhaps building should not be the focus, or at least at first. It would be difficult to start out by doing that anyway. So what can we do?
This website does get a lot of traffic, but I do like the idea of something on blogspot.com–I’ve been doing some google searches, and this atheist charity idea has been floating around for a while, though it never has really matured. If we had a website we could start finding other people online who are intrested, and getting their input/support.
I can see a lot of great ideas being generated, but I’m not sure how to go about getting it rolling- we are all random people from accross the world: how do we get together and put this dream into action?
Hands that Help….guess who already took that name and website:
http://www.handsthathelp.org/
also (but much happier than the previous link)
http://alabamafreethought.org/archives/press/6apr1998.htm
however thehandsthathelp.org is still open.
The more I think about it the more I feel that roughly organizing this thing (name, mission, etc) should be done sooner rather than later, so we can get a web presence. Personally, I don’t think that we will have much trouble getting funds (once we have actually DONE something good). It’ll be that very first step to get us going that’s hard.
lukasiwicz, You’re right, the Christians probably won’t know who Ingersoll is, but I’m sure they will understand the meaning of his quote, which is that prayer accomplishes nothing, while actually getting out and doing something about a problem will accomplish much. I’ve heard the other quote about two hands working being better than a thousand clasped in prayer, but hopefully, our group will get more than just two hands working
The Hands that Help is definitely better.
To all who liked the name I suggested: Thank you
Comment from: atheiststatic [Member]
Can any atheist here cite any specific examples where they were discriminated against? I’m very curious about that. Please share.
check out my blog
well I was thinking about disaster relief and the like such as after Katrina
I have to say, Amazon is pretty good. Do you think this gift list is right?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R1XGUTJLEKFAB7/002-1570185-9588015?%5Fencoding=UTF8
sorry, just found it when I was doing a bit more research on Ingersoll. As Dagny suggested, I wasn’t really familiar with his works.
I just watched “Good Night and Good Luck”. Man, I love Murrow. I always have enjoyed the little I know about him. Here’s a couple of my favorites
Sorry, please continue brainstorming about charitable ideas. Udonman, I helped start http://www.frombuildersforrebuilders.com, which is a form of disaster relief. I do really think you’re on to something with “The Hands that Help”.
spanders:
Just saw that myself: “Good Night and Good Luck”.
Another hero goes on my list.
Lots & lots of Ingersoll data on infidels.org.
I’d love to do charity work, but can barely afford to drive to work every day (my car’s having problems too: transportation is quickly becoming a problem).
I write letters & sign online petitions, don’t know if that really counts.
Sorry about the delay in getting back to this: it has been a long and rather frustrating weekend for me. Some problems with the charity I am trying to overcome are:
1. It has to work with people spread all over the place rather thinly
2. Right now there are only a few people who seem actively interested, but I expect this to grow once things get going, so it has to be scalable.
3. Not sure what talents and interests we have in the core group: this will determine what area we get into.
Some sort of informational web site seems like a good start. This could be expanded into a more hands-on approach once more people join up.
The pet project I have been working on lately has been trying to get people to get past their emotional biases/self interest to seeing the world and issues more clearly. This seems an almost universal problem, even with otherwise rational scientists and such. On the other hand, I have not had much luck in finding good ways to communicate this.
The interest in drug addiction is still a possibility. We could start by collecting all the known facts about drug problems in one location and go on from there. I read an interesting article in Time magazine about Jane Buxton who has been doing some good research on drug addiction in Vancouver. I also found that the (not very useful) information from the US government web site (http://www.samhsa.gov/) ended with 2003. Perhaps funding was terminated? Anyway, there seems a real need for accurate info. Jane Buxton mentioned that information from the police is of limited use since the number and type of arrests varies depending on how much emphasis each department is putting on drug control at any particular time.
There is a brights group meeting here on Monday night. I am going to try to bring this up there and see if they have any good (I will not say you-know-what) ideas.
This thread seesm like it may be running out of steam. Anyone who wants to contact me directly about this can email me at:
godless_charity@cox.net
Reluctantatheist,
I think you are not the only one. So many people are stressed out one way or another these days. What I am trying to come up with is something which almost anyone can contribute to in one way or another. Your writing skills and ways of thinking may end up being more useful than hands-on work. I am thinking the name might end up being more like “helping hands and thinking minds” since much of what atheists and such have to offer is their way of looking at the world.
TomSD:
Thanks for the high praise.
Let me take a shot at this: “The hands that help, the thoughts that heal.”
Something w/a simple rhythm, almost a jingle, not quite. Soothing. Difficult to challenge.
Tom i am very multi talented ive done every thing from machine work welding and the like to building and framing houses i would defintly be hands on as much as i wanted to i couldnt really get down to new orleans to help
and reluctant i might be able to help diagnose whats going on with your car and mx would also be able to help just email me the basics like what type of car what is it doing or not doing just let me know
Looks like that hate and distrust is being turned into action (more hard hitting journalism by Zac for the No God Blog):
A group of fundies is putting together a conference in DC to address “The War on Christians” Look folks, we are probably the first group on the chopping blocks. Sounds like they have it in for secularists.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060327/cm_usatoday/awaronchristiansno;_ylt=AmFRd0ysiHkubFV19IHBJzWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YWFzYnA2BHNlYwM3NDI-
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49044
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/33696/
In case anyone here is interested, a webcomic I read, MouseWax, is doing a storyline on this issue.
http://www.mousewax.com