Christians are going too far when they start banning good-hearted atheists, agnostics, and other questioners from coffee houses. That’s outrageous. Why, you’ll have to pry my grande latte from my cold dead hand—and my copy of the Bhagavad Gita from my other one.
When I heard about this discrimination against the faithless via a Universist email, I was inspired to sign up today as a Salem (Oregon) sponsor of a Universism discussion group.
So far I’m the only member. But I just started the group this afternoon and I’m pretty sure I can talk my wife into joining, which will instantly double our size. Plus, Christianity started off slow too. In my grandiosity I’ve started to think of myself as a secular anti-Paul, helping to spread the good news about anti-religion.
The Salem Universists aren’t meeting yet, unless you count Laurel and me sitting down together every evening to worship at the feet of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. If you live in the Salem area, consider becoming a member so we can eventually have real meetings--sign up here.
There are just 1,685 Universist Meet-Up members and 67 groups worldwide, so you’ll be getting in on the ground floor of a much-needed movement. Here in Oregon there are fledgling groups in Eugene and Portland also.
As I’ve written before, I consider Universism to be a wonderfully kindred unfaith to my Church of the Churchless leanings. What the world needs now, more than ever, is less religion.
When the president of the United States calls for intelligent design, which is thinly disguised creationism, to be taught in schools, the need for countervailing forces like Universism is obvious.
Dear Brian,
It's a shame that ignorance and intolerance about atheism is so widespread. Talk about prejudice. If you accept on blind faith that every person who believes in God is a good person who does wonderful charitable works in the world and is a living embodiment of New Testament principles, you'd be in for a heck of a shock.
At the same time, folks who assume that atheists are all nihilistic amoral unethical psychopaths are missing out on a lot of really cool people.
Too bad belief in God is such a divisive issue in today's America. As I see it, it's an irrelevant distraction - an illusion of separation that is just one more polarizing force we don't need in this country.
Posted by: Andi Allen | August 04, 2005 at 05:33 AM