[lbo-talk] A time of doubt for atheists

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> A Time of Doubt for Atheists
> 
> Los Angeles Times
> By Gina Piccalo Times Staff Writer
> Mon Jul 18, 7:55 AM ET
> 
> Still, there are those outspoken nonbelievers doing
> their best to influence the masses.
> 
> American Atheists' Johnson, whose national
> organization claims 2,200 members, is a regular on
> news talk shows. She is also executive director of the
> Godless Americans PAC, and meets with politicians to
> build awareness and support for church-state
> separation legislation. She helped organize the 2002
> march on Washington and is organizing November's
> Atheists in Foxholes parade and ceremony. Yet, she
> acknowledges, atheism is a hard sell.

That should be no surprise, because organized religion is a parasite living
off the genuine human need for mystery, feeling connected to something
bigger than oneself, and yearning for answers in times of uncertainty or
despair.  Religions (most of them at least) use these genuine human feelings
as a Trojan horse to sneak in and infest human psyche an d brain with their
dogmatic creed, deference to authority, false certitude, intolerance and
groupthink.  

A better way to combat the scourge of religiosity is not a frontal attack on
all belief systems, but dissociating human need for "spirituality" and
"connectedness" from religious creed and dogma backed by the authority of
the state and churchly institutions - showing that the former can exist and
thrive better without the latter.  To my knowledge, Unitarian-universalists
do a decent job in this regard.   

Wojtek