Whilst working on my AP Government “Scavenger Hunt” today I stumbled upon “The Ventura Atheists Meetup Group”. This seemed silly to me on several levels. My first thought was “What do they talk about, their lack of faith? How hard it is to avoid the faith?” As I perused the sight further I did actually discover, to some extent, what they were all about but this confused me even more. Their tagline sounds like a dating advertisement/ self help group: “Meet other local atheists and freethinkers for conversation and friendship” and listed among their discussion topics is not Atheism but ‘Atheists’. After continued reading I discovered that their primary objective is “trying to build a growing community of freethinking, rational atheists to advance the understanding and acceptance of Atheism, maintain the wall between Church and State and build a vibrant and active atheist community in Ventura County.” Other notable facts found in the “About Us” section “Paid membership to our parent group is encouraged but not required to attend and participate in the Ventura meetings”. Why is this notable? Well, as someone who has attended a fair few Catholic Masses in my time this was all starting to seem a bit familiar. I refer you now to the Our Lady of Assumption mission statement “We, as faithful followers of Jesus Christ, create, nurture, and maintain a community of love through worship, reconciliation, healing, formation, education and service” ( is it even necessary for me to mention the optional collection tins?).
I feel I should clarify though. I’m not against the goals in either group, nor do I object to their collection of donations in order to achieve their means; I’m even in support of separation of church and state but more than finding the similarities between the Catholic Church and the “Atheists Meetup Group” (which shall heretofore be known as “AMG” because writing out the title is becoming repetitive and I’m always inclined to add an apostrophe to their name) ironic I think I really hoped that an absence of religious doctrine would not so closely resemble a strict one. The “AMG” site says that they welcome “agonistics, free thinkers, rationalists, naturalists, secular humanists, etc.” but then immediately go on to state that they “are trying to build a growing community of freethinking, rational atheists to advance the understanding and acceptance of Atheism”. I’m all for tolerance, but let’s be real here, this isn’t tolerance, it’s conversion. But I’m not even sure that the conversion to Atheism (though a grand irony) is my real problem here, as it is certainly an ideal shared with your average Catholic Church (and virtually every other branch in the Judeo-Christian spectrum); I think what really gets me is the false advertising. An “AMG” seems like it should be a place where intelligent free thinking people, unbound by religious doctrine, are able to have critical discussions about moral ambiguity and their purpose in life rather than being handed a patented set of beliefs. Of course the Catholic Church is going to preach their ideals to you, but at least they’re straight forward about it. When did lack of religion become the foil to intense religion?
“When did lack of religion become the foil to intense religion?”
I think you and I both know another example of this.
Regarding the post in general, I must say I agree with you wholeheartedly. But I would like to eliminate the phrase “and virtually every other branch in the Judeo-Christian spectrum,” mainly because:
a. Most brances of Judaism do not put an emphasis on conversion. This is not theological as much as that Jews have been minorities in most of their countries, and therefore were never in the position to openly preach.
b. Many religions outside of the Judeo-Christian spectrum also support conversion. For example, Islam puts some effort into conversion (though I really could not tell you the specifics of this effort, as I am afraid I am limited in my knowledge of Isalm).