Atheists Get Place Of Worship??

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/atheists-temple_n_1231848.html?ref=religion

<ninja edit>Title should have a "WTF???!!!" at the end</ninja edit>

I know how the FFXIAH regulars probably despise such religious rant threads, but as an agnostic/atheist this wound me up beyond belief. Plus I felt it different enough to not constitute the standard religion bashing threads that go on (and I would appreciate it not becoming one thanks guyz ^^) and at least put it in the right category.


Now, my thoughts
This man is a money grabbing douche-bag, ill-representing atheists world wide. He is essentially the Joseph Smith of atheists. He will take advantage of the disillusioned people who need to be led to feel like they belong, while continually gaining bad press for atheists. Would surprise me not if he were on the Pope's payroll either.

This seriously irks me. Is this honestly trying to portray all Atheists as immoral hedonists? Any non retard can tell you there is much to be taken and learnt from religion. Most atheists I know have a larger understanding of religions inner teachings than generic religious "I go to church once a year making me Christian" folk.

If the author of this article had simply read a little about the author of these books, who's other works look close to "12-step self help" style nonsense. He would come across gems like:
"In August 2008, he was a founding member of a new educational establishment in central London called The School of Life (crazy?). In May 2009, he was a founding member of a new architectural organization called "Living Architecture" (that would explain why he wants to build temples)"
and a quote:
"The idea is to challenge traditional universities and reorganize knowledge, directing it towards life, and away from knowledge for its own sake. In a modest way, it’s an institution that is trying to give people what universities should I think always give them: a sense of direction and wisdom for their lives with the help of culture."

Does countering the pursuit of knowledge to "give direction and wisdom" while building temples of worship and demanding payment for your books sound bloody Atheist to you? No, it sounds more like 'The Way to Happiness'. Author L. Ron Hubbard


Basically he is taking the most fundamentally hard part about being atheist, ie. removing the prospect of some fluffy afterlife, not trying to answer "the meaning" of life with a two thousand year old self help book etc.; Then filling that void with his artificial life-purpose & "faith" books & temples to make living seem worthwhile again (presumably for those who feel they need these things in life for it to have validity) for the sake of lining his pockets. I get it, I do, He saw a market to making Atheism more accessible and easier for the semi-religious to migrate to... but it is not atheism, it is something fundamentally manipulative and evil and I would rather said people stayed religious for their own benefit and mine. I would rather they believed in a magical non-existent sheep that made them feel better about themselves, than a real wolf in sheep's clothing that slowly chomps on their leg. (metaphorically speaking, don't be insulted please)

It is the underlying attitude that life without "faith" of some description is somehow not worth living that angers me most about this and religion debates in general. I live a perfectly happy moral life accepting there is no purpose, safe in the knowledge that if there were a purpose, I would probably be conforming to it anyway by default simply by being alive.
I also highly respect those WITH faith as being people with a level of devotion to something I will likely never feel. Granted I still think they are crazies for believing nonsense (personal opinion, sorry) but I am not going to try and strip away from them the grounding in belief that keeps their life happy.

It almost seems wrong to paraphrase 'The Matrix', but in more ways than one it is a perfect analogy for my agnostic belief. A lot of people are simply not ready to wake up.


That is all

I see nothing wrong with it. Just because people disagree in their beliefs doesn't mean that they should be prevented from doing what they believe. People who are against it are hypocrites.

You clearly don't understand what the terms atheism/atheist mean then.

All you had to do was say "Atheists worshiping" and I knew it was all ***.

Ive considered forming my own religion since it seems to be a good money maker - that or become a banker and do extremely badly so I get a huge bonus.

L. Ron Hubbard

Good old Scientology.

I'm an Atheist, and this makes absolutely no sense. What am I worshiping when I believe in nothing? The whole idea of Atheism as an organized religion is quite ridiculous in itself.

Not surprised.

Isn't he the guy who gave talk about "Atheism 2.0" in TED?

Worship and Atheism are exclusive of one another.

RE.Video

That pitch would do well on Dragon's den, the entire thing felt like he was trying to sell me a product lol. He even brought up the ~$90bil the Catholics make when trying to persuade atheists to group together, do people just not notice?.

This is silly all around but what is to be expected in the flourishing secular world. You're always going to have people who take something try to spin it into a cash maker and you'll have religious folk commenting about how terrible it is.

It's up to people to see through the ***. This is really no different than the other pseudo-religious crap that you see spun all the time and turned into books.

Atheists/agnostics already have places to "worship", it's called our minds. The things that we use freely.

Not sure what else an Atheist/agnostic would be worshiping since that'd kinda be going against the entire definition of either, unless worshiping bacon requires a church of some sort.

Inb4 someone mentions Kim Jong Il, Hitler or Stalin.

Because personality cults = atheism.

Yadda yadda yadda, nothing new; either way, he's receiving harsh criticism from the atheist community. I guess this is where the lack of cohesion amongst atheists actually comes in handy.

We already have atheist temples. It's called the library.

Edit: If this were spun and pitched as a secular 'gulch' or haven, I'd have less of a problem, but still a problem. Atheism doesn't need a temple, a place of worship, a building. That's wasted money.

Also makes me lol when people refer to Atheism/Agnosticism as religions.

Yeah. And this guy isn't helping that issue.

How am I a hypocrite for thinking it's a waste of money? I won't picket or boycot, it may be a good tourist attraction, or has good intentions, but I still think it's a bad idea and that the money could be much better used to make a school in a poor neighborhood.

That's not to say that I believe we should stop all problems and work on strictly noble and optimal causes, however. But if you're going to make a grand ol' building to show how wonderful atheists are, you'd be more productive and helpful spreading tolerance, love, and education through schools, water wells, and other such things.

I was not aware that being atheist made someone anything other than a person that makes a conscience decision not to believe in god/gods. Everything after that is just the person right? Or am I wrong? It just seems like some use atheism as a personal identifier and give examples of other things/activities that define them as atheists and I don't really get that.

Also, I think it's hilarious that the op suspects that this guy is on the popes payroll...

Your description more closely resembles Agnosticism, but yea.

Atheism and agnoticism are not mutually exclusive.

tl;dr:

Gnostic Theist: I know there is a God.
Agnostic Theist: I think there's a God, but you can't know for sure.
Gnostic Atheist: I know there are no supernatural deities.
Agnostic Atheist: I see no evidence to believe in supernatural deities, but I could be wrong.

I thought agnosticism was the belief in a higher power but without subscribing to whats already out there.

Xueye explained it well enough, I personally see Atheism as a more extreme Agnosticism.

I may be way too tired to think right, but I think you either just described 'deism' or 'Spinoza's God'

For what it's worth, most atheists would identify as agnostic atheists. But only in the same way that they're agnostic to magical teapots and dragons in space.

That's pretty much the path that I subscribe to. While I'm all for a giant spaghetti monster in space that made everything that there is and ever will be, it's a completely ridiculous thing to believe in in my mind.