Welcome to Positive Atheism & Secular Activism

[crazyfingers]

Below is a description of the purpose of this forum and how it relates the Secular Lifestyle forum and Church State Separation.

(1) Positive Atheism and Secular Activism: A forum for those seeking an answer to the question "Okay, I've rejected religion. What do I do now?" Defining what a nontheist is *beyond* lacking a belief in gods, discussing secular ethical and philosophical codes (humanism, etc.), nontheist fellowship and community developments, the role of the Internet (and the IIDB), labels for the community of nontheists (including "the Brights"), and issues of secular activism (including rallies, conventions, future GAMOWs, etc.).

(2) Secular Lifestyle: Individual trials and tribulations of daily life as a nontheist. Deconversion tales, coming out to family, dealing with fundy relatives, seeking support in trying times, and other "life as a nontheist" issues.

(3) Church-State Separation: Political secular issues, discussing pending court cases, deconstructing stupid school prayer spam, alerting the community to pending CSS happenings, and anything in the political or community arena dealing with theism treading on nontheism.

Topics related to secular activism are being moved from Church State Separation and into this new forum.

[Writer@Large]

Yes, welcome to the new forum! I'm personally very excited. I'll be writing up a permanent Welcome soon, but for now the description above will serve to lay out the standing that PA&SA has with its related fora. I hope this forum is new and different for the IIDB, and that everyone finds it valuable to read and participate in.

Thanks to Mageth for sparking the idea.

--W@L

[Mageth]

And welcome from me, as well. This is my first foray into forum moderation. And I'm quite excited about this new forum - I think it fits right in to the stated purpose of the Secular Web.

Writer@Large credits me with sparking the idea. A short history, for those interested:

A few weeks ago, while reading a short book on Atheism that talked about the positive aspects and defendability of atheism and secular philosophies, it occurred to me out of the blue that there was really no forum on the IIDB that was specifically dedicated to that purpose. I put the thought in the back of my mind, meaning to perhaps suggest it at some point.

Then, on a thread (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1504787#post1504787) started by Writer@Large, he indicated that he'd been thinking something similar - that most fora on IIDB were more or less oriented to theism vs. atheism discussions. That prodded me to remember the idea for a new forum that I had filed away, and to mention it on the thread. When Writer@Large expressed strong support for the suggestion, I made a formal suggestion here (http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=80415).

After gaining overwhelming approval by the administration and moderators, thanks largely to the efforts of Writer@Large, Writer@Large took the idea and hammered out the details and thus, today, the new forum is born.

So, while I was the spark, Writer@Large was the tinder and the firewood. :notworthy

[suspirar]

Based on what I've observed, women and young people tend to get turned off by the negativity that some atheist groups have. As a young woman, I have experienced that myself.

I'll describe my own solution.

Personally, the amount of time that I would want to spend with an atheist organization is about once or twice per year. If it's going to be once a year, I would like it to be something very visible, since it's rare.

I'm not the first person to come up with the idea of "Atheism Day," but I think I'm the only person to ever own http://www.atheismday.org

In 2003, my local atheist group (http://www.atheistsnsd.org) tried it for the first time. We held "Atheism Day." We advertised it in local newspapers for free, and people saw the advertising. It was a happy, social potluck. Out of my own money, I paid $25/hour for a room in a community center, which we decorated. That's cheap compared to the amount of money I would donate to a church each year, if I were a theist.

I'll admit that only about 48 people showed up. But many more than that saw the advertisement. Interestingly, Local 8 news (part of CBS), asked if they would be allowed to videotape the event to air on TV! Because I was not prepared with any public statements to say, I turned down the TV station.

I'm going to throw the Atheism Day party again this year. This year, if I hold my act together, I'm going to have posters of novas, the planet Earth including a statement that it is approximately 4.6 billion years old, and the universe, because the theme will be "Creation--from an astrophysical point of view."

[Demosthenes]

Thank you for posting here. That's a great idea you have there! It's a nice way of getting good public exposure and nework wth valuable contacts. I'm curious, why 4th Saturday of August? Is there anything special about that date?

[suspirar]

. I'm curious, why 4th Saturday of August?

I polled peopled from around the world about a good day for atheism day. After reviewing all their suggestions, the last Saturday of April actually seemed the best. However, after choosing the last Saturday of April, several atheists who belonged to various atheist organizations "jumped on me" to NOT use that day of the year. Their main complaint was that it was too close to the National Day of Reason in the USA (the 1st Thursday of May). Since I didn't want to antagonize so many atheist organizations, I backed off of the April date.

The next best day was the 4th Saturday of August.

I chose a Saturday because a day on the weekend is more likely to be celebrated, especially with parties. I avoided Sundays, so that the parties would not occur embarrassingly next door to church services.

In August, in the northern hemisphere, there is still more daylight than night. In the southern hemisphere, in August, the amount of daylight is increasing with each day, so people are optimistic.

There are no major holidays in August.

I avoided choosing the last Saturday of August (which is not the same as the 4th Saturday) because in some years, the last Saturday of August collides with Labor Day weekend in the USA, when many people travel for fun. The 4th Saturday of August never falls on Labor Day weekend.

[Writer@Large]

There are no major holidays in August.

Well, there IS my birthday ...

--W@L :p

[dayton]

I polled peopled from around the world about a good day for atheism day. After reviewing all their suggestions, the last Saturday of April actually seemed the best. However, after choosing the last Saturday of April, several atheists who belonged to various atheist organizations "jumped on me" to NOT use that day of the year. Their main complaint was that it was too close to the National Day of Reason in the USA (the 1st Thursday of May). Since I didn't want to antagonize so many atheist organizations, I backed off of the April date.

The next best day was the 4th Saturday of August.

I chose a Saturday because a day on the weekend is more likely to be celebrated, especially with parties. I avoided Sundays, so that the parties would not occur embarrassingly next door to church services.

In August, in the northern hemisphere, there is still more daylight than night. In the southern hemisphere, in August, the amount of daylight is increasing with each day, so people are optimistic.

There are no major holidays in August.

I avoided choosing the last Saturday of August (which is not the same as the 4th Saturday) because in some years, the last Saturday of August collides with Labor Day weekend in the USA, when many people travel for fun. The 4th Saturday of August never falls on Labor Day weekend.


All religions have holidays so this sounds like a good idea, but of course there will be fundy protesters.


Dayton

[suspirar]

We didn't have any fundy protesters last year. People had to call a phone number to find out the location the party. In that recorded message, I told people who wanted to disrupt the party to please have some tolerance and respect.