#movement atheism

[entanglingbriars]

So movement atheism used to be a thing. There was a community, based online but with IRL conferences and support groups and meetings, of people talking about skepticism, atheism, the harm religion does in society, supporting people leaving religion, etc. It was huge. There were bestseller books, big names, the whole shebang.

It doesn’t really exist anymore. Over time, if you followed it, everyone started talking either about how feminism was terrible or how people who hated feminism were terrible. Oh, they still didn’t believe in God and would talk about that too, if asked, but it wasn’t their main concern. They weren’t even really focused on drawing in new unbelievers; their focus was convincing other people within the movement.

That, in turn, morphed into talking about other social and political issues. Always, yes, with atheism and skepticism as the background ontological and epistemological frameworks, but they weren’t nearly as important. They still identified primarily as atheists, but atheism qua atheism wasn’t what they talked or wrote about, at least, not nearly as much.

At this point, movement atheism doesn’t exist. There are still people writing about atheism, collecting deconversion stories, supporting people leaving religion. But they aren’t a movement; they exist at the fringes of a much set of two movements that exist primarily in opposition to each other and talk primarily about social justice, not belief.

[thecaptainisrolling]

Lawrence Krauss and How a Broken System Perpetuates Itself

Lawrence Krauss has written a denial letter regarding Buzzfeed's accusations against him--and it is a breathtaking view into the broken system of movement atheism.

It blew my mind, what he tried to say in that letter. This is not how harassment works, and this is not how addressing harassment works. Here’s where Krauss was very, very wrong, and why I find a cause for optimism even amid its wreckage.

[gtasoldier]

Militant atheism is just as bad and intolerant as religious (fundamentalist) indoctrination.

[entanglingbriars]

I don’t know how many other people read Terry Pratchett’s Nation, but it’s a fascinating book. It was written at the height of movement atheism’s success, just a few years before Elevatorgate and the schism, and it preserves, in a lot of ways, the attitude of the movement to the world. It could never have been written even a few years later, because after the schism it was impossible to reclaim the sense of boundless optimism, purpose, and pride the movement had. Movement atheism dissolved as a united front of reason (or what we thought was reason) so soon after it was published. What we thought was a movement that would, could, and should reshape society proved to be nothing more than a flash in the pan.

[entanglingbriars]

Everyone Has An Identity, Even Sam Harris

Sam Harris' refusal to believe that white intellectuals practice identity politics like everyone else leads him into a blind spot of giving aid and comfort to outright racists.

Continuing the documentation of the schism in movement atheism.

[entanglingbriars]

This is what is making the atheist movement irrelevant and ugly: that there are people who close their eyes to injustice, like David Smalley, and others who exploit that to turn the whole thing into foul nest of entitled asshats who prop up the status quo. Where once we were a radical force for a new perspective on humanity, now it’s a home for white nationalism and casual sexism and the same old dogmas, because too many of its advocates consider equality and human dignity trivial, petty concerns not worth calling out members for. It’s populated with people who cannot recognize the distinction between racism and criticizing racism.

This is a good summary of the present state of affairs with respect to the schism in movement atheism. For those not familiar with Elevatorgate, it provides a very brief summary of the event that sparked the schism.

[jjr1971]

Once again PAUSING the anime discussion to go off on another tangent. Your Anime micro-blogging will resume shortly. SUMIMASEN! In the meantime...

One of the many hats that I wear is that of Atheist Social Organizer. I belong to both the local humanist group and the organized atheist group on Meetup. The humanist group did manage (barely) to stay afloat on Zoom through all of 2020 with duct tape & bailing wire. The Atheist Meetup went into deep freeze during the COVID-19 lock downs and has yet to thaw out. Even before the pandemic, interest had begun to wane and attendance numbers dropped. On a few pathetic occasions it would be just me and one other member who RSVP'd. It was a far cry from our heyday in the early 20-teens...and attendance was highest during the GWB years in the early aughts, with the dawn of early atheist podcasting to boot. Many great shows I followed with interest have long since pod-faded and are lost to history. I still listen to CogDiss and Scathing Atheist because they're hilarious, and Eiynah's Polite Conversations because I like her outlook on things and her sharp critique of the IDW, most notably Sam Harris, whom both of us used to admire in what feels like a lifetime ago now. I remember with great fondness the best Meetups being with like-minded godless friends who, like me, were basically humanistic and left-of-center politically. We actually didn't talk politics all of the time, just acknowledged the latest GOP outrage in the headlines then diverted discussion to how our week went, movies & tv, books we were reading, etc, or if newcomers turned up, let them speak about their road to freethought and their path out of religion. The worst Meetups, by contrasts, were the ones when one or more Libertarians would show up...such smug assholes. I've detested Libertarianism ever since rubbing shoulders with them in grad school in the 1990s. That one Meetup I mentioned earlier, where just one person turned out....he was a Libertarian too. Seemed like some rich privileged asshole trust fund baby whose primary "job" was real-estate investing...buying and flipping houses; he lamented having been (unjustly, of course!) jailed in NJ for a brief time (probably for some shady financial shit, I surmised). I literally had NOTHING in common with this guy beyond our godlessness and it was a pretty awkward conversation that eventually petered out and I regretted even coming out that evening at all. Since under the current rules I'm not allowed to exclude Libertarians from either the Atheist Meetup OR the Humanist one (not for lack of trying) I really would rather just stay home and watch anime than organize a social Meetup where I have to make nice with selfish assholes. I think Libertarianism is not a respectable world view and I think they should pay a very high social cost for their odious, noxious views and socio-political stances, and that includes being shunned from polite society. I will NOT break bread with them anymore. I'm basically forced to go back to the drawing board and do what I did in Denton, Texas. Namely, start my own Meetup, because the existing groups (UNT Atheist & Agnostic Student Alliance then, Houston Atheists & Humanists of Houston now) weren't/aren't meeting my social needs. I freely admit that this move is purely for myself, first and foremost. I know with whom I want to hang out and with whom I definitely do not. By starting my own group, I can establish my own rules. Maybe it will fail, or never get off the ground. The only thing lost is the Meetup fees, which are kinda steep these days, but it's also paying to fend off loneliness and try to reconnect with people I like best and fend off jerks I don't. Since I was told I could not ban Libertarians from HA or HOH, I decided to make my own group where I can, and I can vet who is allowed to join in the first place. I'm not down with being told I have to make nice with assholes. Nope, no I don't.

[criticismofnewatheism]

Far from being a refuge from religious tyranny, mainstream atheism is just another microcosm of American gender and racial hierarchies.

“The recent decision by Atheist Alliance International (AAI) to hire the former leader of American Atheists, David Silverman, to its executive director position is yet another indication that this business-as-usual rehab strategy also applies to movement atheism, which can be just as corrupt, cronyistic, and swaggeringly hostile to women as corporate America. Last year, Silverman was fired from American Atheists after allegations of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety were made against him. The claims leveled against Silverman by two female accusers were extensively detailed by BuzzFeed‘s Peter Aldhous, whose 2018 article notes that one of the women was reluctant to use her full name ‘because of concerns about hostility experienced by other women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against prominent atheists.’”