Join The Indianapolis Atheists Meetup Group
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Letter to a new member....
| From: | Bryan |
| Sent on: | Sunday, March 9, 2008 12:36 AM |
Hi!
Attached is something I wrote last week to 3 members of the 7th Day Adventists Christian Church in Bloomington to help explain why it's important to have a group like ours (they approached me at a lecture they sponsored in Bloomington called 'strong evidence for God' and this led to a 2 week email exchange.)
Like you, most of us start as very tentative in our secular viewpoints (atheist, agnostic, whatever we think we are) because we live in a Christian dominated society. IndyAtheists is a name for our group, but atheism is not a requirement to be part of our group...we want this group to be for anyone who isn't the stereotypical pushy, unaccepting, religious type...our group is inclusive, not exclusive. Traditional Christianity is exclusive in that it judges everyone as 'good' who believes in Jesus as Christ and excludes everyone else simply because they don't accept that (To members of the Christian community, a non-believer is inherently 'bad' and undesirable and unacceptable as a full and complete member of their community.)
NOTE: It's obvious that a believing Christian will be uncomfortably challenged as a member our group because we analyze belief and challenge Christian belief in particular (see attached) ..but this is really a conflict instigated by the Christian who isn't willing to be accepting of non-belief and is uncomfortable with what we know of reality and from history that conflicts with their belief.
When I first started in IndyAtheists (before we called ourselves IndyAtheists) I was very non-activist. I didn't call myself an atheist. All of the members of my immediate family are Christian and I have a lot of empathy and understanding for their beliefs. Their Christian beliefs are very important to them.
Consequently, one of the primary 'principles' of IndyAtheists is that everyone comes to this group in their own way and at their own speed. I grew into atheism as I found my own definition for atheism and I saw myself being consistent with that definition. It's a process of learning and growing to embrace and explore what it means to be a non-believer in a community dominated by belief. And this group, IndyAtheists, as a group, is not a vehicle for activism. Individuals and small groups of the larger group have the option to be as activist as they choose to be. But IndyAtheists doesn't have the expectation of activism for it's members. For myself, I have grown into my own level of personal activism...I'm much more willing to be an activist for non-belief today than the day we started IndyAtheists. That's the current result of my own personal journey.
Almost all of the members of IndyAtheists are also members of the Center For Inquiry, Indianapolis. Again, that's not a requirement of our group. CFI is for people who want to be a part of a larger organization that has the resources of a multi-national organization. I see a need and a benefit to the existance of CFI, and that's why I belong to and I support CFI. But I only participate to the level I want to. CFI has lots of events and activities which are good for the growth of our secular community and they serve the needs of secularists.
So, welcome, and good luck. You're exactly the kind of person that we created IndyAtheists for...the primary purpose for this group's existance is just to be here when others come looking - when a person starts to realize that traditional religion just doesn't match up to reality and they want to be able to talk with other people who think more like they do.
Bryan
Attached is something I wrote last week to 3 members of the 7th Day Adventists Christian Church in Bloomington to help explain why it's important to have a group like ours (they approached me at a lecture they sponsored in Bloomington called 'strong evidence for God' and this led to a 2 week email exchange.)
Like you, most of us start as very tentative in our secular viewpoints (atheist, agnostic, whatever we think we are) because we live in a Christian dominated society. IndyAtheists is a name for our group, but atheism is not a requirement to be part of our group...we want this group to be for anyone who isn't the stereotypical pushy, unaccepting, religious type...our group is inclusive, not exclusive. Traditional Christianity is exclusive in that it judges everyone as 'good' who believes in Jesus as Christ and excludes everyone else simply because they don't accept that (To members of the Christian community, a non-believer is inherently 'bad' and undesirable and unacceptable as a full and complete member of their community.)
NOTE: It's obvious that a believing Christian will be uncomfortably challenged as a member our group because we analyze belief and challenge Christian belief in particular (see attached) ..but this is really a conflict instigated by the Christian who isn't willing to be accepting of non-belief and is uncomfortable with what we know of reality and from history that conflicts with their belief.
When I first started in IndyAtheists (before we called ourselves IndyAtheists) I was very non-activist. I didn't call myself an atheist. All of the members of my immediate family are Christian and I have a lot of empathy and understanding for their beliefs. Their Christian beliefs are very important to them.
Consequently, one of the primary 'principles' of IndyAtheists is that everyone comes to this group in their own way and at their own speed. I grew into atheism as I found my own definition for atheism and I saw myself being consistent with that definition. It's a process of learning and growing to embrace and explore what it means to be a non-believer in a community dominated by belief. And this group, IndyAtheists, as a group, is not a vehicle for activism. Individuals and small groups of the larger group have the option to be as activist as they choose to be. But IndyAtheists doesn't have the expectation of activism for it's members. For myself, I have grown into my own level of personal activism...I'm much more willing to be an activist for non-belief today than the day we started IndyAtheists. That's the current result of my own personal journey.
Almost all of the members of IndyAtheists are also members of the Center For Inquiry, Indianapolis. Again, that's not a requirement of our group. CFI is for people who want to be a part of a larger organization that has the resources of a multi-national organization. I see a need and a benefit to the existance of CFI, and that's why I belong to and I support CFI. But I only participate to the level I want to. CFI has lots of events and activities which are good for the growth of our secular community and they serve the needs of secularists.
So, welcome, and good luck. You're exactly the kind of person that we created IndyAtheists for...the primary purpose for this group's existance is just to be here when others come looking - when a person starts to realize that traditional religion just doesn't match up to reality and they want to be able to talk with other people who think more like they do.
Bryan
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