"Movement atheism"
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/04/atheism ... disbelief/
Emphasis mine:
For those atheists whose non-belief comes as naturally as breathing, movement atheism is indeed an odd thing. Nevertheless, it is a thing. The atheist movement comprises more than 2,000 groups and organizations in the U.S. today, but the movement, in composition and purpose, has failed to establish a coherent cause outside of validating non-belief, extolling the advancement of science and offering platitudes toward protecting the separation of church and state.
More significantly, movement atheism has failed to articulate an identifiable moral cause, and any progressive movement that chooses to dismiss the great moral challenges of its time will be rightfully dismissed itself. In other words, movement atheism, as it stands today, risks facing its end times, or, worse, becoming a passing fad.
In an interview for Salon, Chris Hedges was once asked for his opinion on Christopher Hitchens. “I think he’s completely amoral. I think he doesn’t have a moral core. I think he doesn’t believe anything. What’s good for Christopher Hitchens is about as moral as he gets,” answered Hedges.
While I don’t necessarily agree with Hedges’ sentiment, and it must be said that religion is no more moral than the absence of it, his reply speaks to the failure of movement atheism to broaden its appeal beyond predominantly upwardly middle-class white males. “If mainstream freethought and humanism continue to reflect the narrow cultural interests of white elites who have disposable income to go to conferences then the secular movement is destined to remain marginal and insular,” writes Sikivu Hutchinson.
Additionally, black american atheists have voiced their concern about atheism and its dominant constituents
Shockingly (but not really) the black community has turned to religious leaders for help:While atheists generally consider themselves an accepting people, black atheists have decided their concerns are not being reasonably heard. They met at the Moving Social Justice conference to share and promote their own ideas and goals for society. Disappointed with the minority representation at most atheist gatherings, leaders in the black atheists community decided to hold their own convention to focus on issues that they felt were not sufficiently represented in the white dominated mainstream atheism.
http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religi ... ing-issuesSurprisingly, some speakers included religious leaders for multiple significant reasons. Both religious and nonreligious groups are fighting for equality among the population, and the organizers of the conference stated that their communities simply do not maintain enough financial resources to branch out on their own, so black atheists must collaborate with religiously affiliated institutions to help collect the necessary funding for such events.
And last, but certainly not least, I've mentioned before the problem that women have with the exclusivity and chauvinism of movement atheism:
Emphasis mine:
http://www.salon.com/2014/10/03/new_ath ... s_partner/Sam Harris, a prominent atheist author who has previously been criticized for his knee-jerk Islamophobic tendencies, recently came under fire when he added women to the category of people he makes thoughtless generalizations about. Washington Post religion reporter Michelle Boorstein interviewed Harris, and during the interview she asked him why most atheists are male. “There’s something about that critical posture that is to some degree instrinsically male and more attractive to guys than to women.” He added, “The atheist variable just has this— it doesn’t obviously have this nurturing, coherence-building extra estrogen vibe that you would want by default if you wanted to attract as many women as men.”
So, Mr. Harris, atheism simply doesn't have enough estrogen for women, eh?
What an idiotic thing to say.
The new atheism movement seems completely hollow.
It has been in circulation for 10+ years (after 911).
Atheism in society has always been an uninviting group that eventually alienates its members and itself from culture.
Promoting disbelief with nothing to offer in turn, and neglecting people that are "different" can never amount to anything practical.
Ant
