Long time "silent Atheist"

[bwendo]

Hi,
Impressed with the posts on this forum.

I have always known I was atheist but was either punished and told I was deviant or contrary or just plain too lazy to sit through the rituals and spell-mumbling of organised religion.

Now, in my thirties, my atheism is viewed by family members as an awkward indulgence and met with a shrug of the shoulders - as if atheism is somehow subversive and weird.

I now understand religion as this ridiculous construct that everyone really knows is nonsense but that many wink and go along with.

A family member summed it up perfectly when asked why she was sending her children to a Catholic Primary School when they didn't identify as Catholic or have a Catholic heritage.

"We'll send them to St Gus's and as they get older they can make their own decision about whether they want to be Catholic or not."
Is this is what atheists are faced with - people who agree with aethists but do not publicly identify as atheists? As if there is some shame attached, or atheism is something that will exclude you from certain networks?

Is the established religion/church 'mafia' something to fear - so much that we just maintain lip service to religious blarney 'just in case' for the future?
Let me know your thoughts, and please reassure me that everything is OK now I am firmly in atheism land.
Lots of questions first up - just had to get it off my chest.
Cheers

[wolty]

Greetings bwendo, welcome to the beautiful world of reality.
It is a much nicer place to live without religious baggage holding you back.
Hope all goes well in the future for you.

[DanDare]

Good one bwendo, great first post!

I encounter the "atheist cringe" a lot. My daughter is 14 and she and her friends at a public school (no less) have been herded into scripture classes and had chaplains and World Vision mentors dumped on them. I have fought the school tooth and nail, but many of the other parents, although disagreeing with it all, refuse to speak up because their children might get singled out in some way.

My daughter says they are wooses.

[Praxis]

Welcome bwendo

I have encountered "the atheist cringe" as well. I also call this "lazy atheism".

I'm pretty out about it. Just yesterday I described myself as "the anti-god botherer" to someone who asked me "what is this thing you're going to in March?" and when I said "the Atheist Convention?" she raised her eyebrows and said "atheist? convention?", to which I smiled and said "yep!" and gave myself that description. It was spontaneous and I don't know where it came from but I quite like it

Hope you enjoy the forums.

[Fearless]

Welcome to the forums, you'll be pretty safe here with the rest of us.

We do have occasional holy guests but they usually come dragging heavy baggage along and expect us to unpack their bags for them. They don't like it when we say 'no' and can get quite narky.

They can't even explain what's in the bags either, it's all pretty sad. Because we feel sorry for the worst of them, we let them stay on Fantasy Island with other baggage handlers.

Enjoy your stay

[bwendo]

It's good to know that although the all-donating, all-community-sing-alonging-hand-clappingly-cuddle-bunch may have hi jacked the easily amused - at least we have an alternative.
It is humbling to know we are alone.. lol

Great to be here and look forward to contributing every so often.

[Mentally Saturated]

Welcome to the forums, bwendo.

Good to see another Hunter resident here. I think there's a few of us, actually. We may even get together some time..

Gary

[bruceeverett]

Welcome Bwendo,

Addressing one of your points, It's been a reoccurring theme in the evolution of culture that identifying with an in-group through the vocal profession of common values, allows one to enjoy more in-group benefits. This in turn protects belief systems from competition by ensuring loyalty.

In a paper called The cultural evolution of beneficient norms, in Social Forces, P.D. Allison identifies a "marker scheme", wherein you "be good to those who act like you". Notably, this isn't to benefit the genes, but to benefit a culture instead (he falls short of mentioning "memes" though).

The trick is, that the more that someone has similar values to you, the more likely you are to share the same cultural ancestors and hence pass on the same culture to other people. Being nice to each other increases each other's chances of success and hence their ability to impart their values.

Put (overly simply), Christians that are good to Christians are helping Christianity, but Christians that are good to atheists may be letting the side down by enabling to opposition. So being good "to your own" is a trait to increase the evolutionary fitness of your own culture.

It's also somewhat reprehensible!

Again, welcome. ;-)

Bruce

[Loki]

Welcome bwendo

As if there is some shame attached, or atheism is something that will exclude you from certain networks?

This has been the case for a long time, and still is to a larger extent than people like to admit. By refusing to hide amongst mummy's skirts any more and being up front about it we will make it easier for others to think what they like. Theists don't like it when atheists stand up for themselves, as can be seen by all the bleating lately when theists are called on their baseless fantasies, but it lets others know they don't have to be ashamed for thinking.

[atheist_angel]

Welcome bwendo.