Visit Michigan Atheists Home Website - www.michiganatheists.org.

Click here to see photos of the November 16, 2002 Michigan State Convention.

Click here to see photos from the November 3, 2001 Michigan State Convention.

Sunday Afternoon Gathering – 2006
First Sunday of EVERY month….
Michigan Atheists gather the first Sunday of every month
WHERE: Denny’s, 7725 N. Wayne Rd., Westland, MI
(Between Warren & Joy)
Phone: 734-427-2711
TIME: 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM (note time change)

Here’s the plan: Order what you wish from the menu and enjoy the privacy of their large banquet room, and the company of Atheist friends…

"Atheists are often charged with blasphemy, but it is a crime they cannot commit…

"When the Atheist examines, denounces, or satirises the gods, he is not dealing with persons but with ideas. He is incapable of insulting God, for he does not admit the existence of any such being.... We attack not a person but a belief, not a binge but an idea, not a fact but a fancy."

— G. W. Foote
"Who are the Blasphemers?"
in Flowers of Freethought

If you are looking for LEADERSHIP, FRIENDSHIP, ACTIVISM, or MORE INFORMATION, contact
Arlene-Marie at amarie@atheists.org

ATHEISTS

by Lee Helms

Whenever the topic of atheism is brought up in public, we can generally count on hearing at least one rather bellicose declaration about who Atheists are or what we’re up to. To set the record straight, we are not people who "hate god" or "worship the devil." In fact, we dispute the claims of their existence.

Atheists are people who are not convinced by the claims that others make about supernatural beings, forces and occurrences. We aren’t willing to just take someone else’s word for it that these things are real. Statements of personal feeling about why supernatural things "have to" exist, and hearsay stories about people who claim to have received "revealed knowledge" or witnessed supernatural "miracles," cannot take the place of credible, objective evidence. An empirically testable concept of the world is more important to us than the comforts of belief. Questioning and testing one’s assumptions scientifically –gaining knowledge through evidence and experiment rather than just believing certain assumptions on "faith" – produces a philosophy of life that has the most tangible and rational foundation possible. Some have argued that this means that one "would have to know everything," to know that there isn’t a god, in order to be an Atheist, but that is not the case. We’re not claiming to know for a fact that there isn’t a god, we’re just pointing out the fact that those who claim that there IS a god haven’t offered credible, objective evidence to back their claim. We also dispute the use of specious definitions, such as "god is love." Emotions and thoughts have never been observed to exist in the absence of a physical brain. Without credible evidence, claims about supernatural phenomena are unsubstantiated, and the universe appears to be godless.

Atheists feel no need to rely on a belief in the existence of anything supernatural to give life a meaning, a "larger purpose" or a veneer of adventure; to understand the rather common "miracle" of birth, human existence, suffering and death; to explain the origin of the universe or life or to account for anything else that is currently unexplained. Those who do use supernatural explanations to fill the gaps in human knowledge do so only by making the untenable assumption that what is unknown today will remain unknown forever. Human ignorance cannot support claims about supernatural beings because ignorance is not evidence.

Neither do Atheists rely on a belief in the existence of anything supernatural as a buffer against the idea that there is no ultimate justice for wrongs that go un-righted, or against knowing that death is the end of personal existence. We may not like certain facets of reality, but we recognize that wishful thinking cannot alter them.

Some say that without belief in an afterlife where one can be punished there is no incentive for people to behave morally, but Atheists dispute that claim, too. Basic morality arises from the demands of survival. Like many species, humans survive more readily when we live in cooperative social groups, group living requires a certain level of trust, and maintaining that trust requires restraint on certain behaviors: i.e. you do not kill your tribemates, you do not steal from your tribemates, you do not lie to your tribemates about important matters. Murder, theft and lying are acts that cause feelings of offense universally, often creating distrust intense enough to destroy the bonds of community.

Atheists recognize the need for and value of the rules of basic morality, and we do not readily violate them. At the very least, it should stand to reason that since we reject speculation about there being a life after death, we should be reluctant to risk wasting our precious, limited existence sitting in prison.

Religious/cultural morality is more problematic. These "moral" codes vary arbitrarily from culture to culture, dictating conflicting sets of rules about which worship practices one must or must not engage in, which marital/sexual/reproductive practices one must or must not engage in, what items of clothing or jewelry one must or must not wear, on which days one must or must not work, and so on. Since there is no empirical way to show that any one of these codes is any more "right" than any other, Atheists feel justified in resisting zealous adherents’ attempts at imposing any one of them on us by law or by any other coercive means. Theists should not be surprised by this, since their own freedom OF religion is necessarily freedom FROM everyone else’s religions. Atheists reserve the right to define our own culture or cultures.

Despite Americans’ rhetoric about freedom, some believe that the British colonies’ tradition of religious majority rule makes the U.S. a "Christian nation," First Amendment notwithstanding. They cling to the idea that a religious/cultural majority, or those who claim to speak for such a majority, might arrogantly disregard the rights, beliefs, interests, cultures and dignity of others. There are places where vociferous groups try to force the public schools to teach the Christian creation myth and compel students to speak Christian prayers – places where Atheists face intense pressure to convert, or at least kowtow, to the local majority religion. Some Atheists have lost jobs or have been harassed and threatened for resisting pressure to convert, and our seasonal displays have been vandalized or stolen.

One of the worst incidents I’ve heard of happened to Michael Bristor while he was a first-grader in a Minnesota public school. His teacher demeaned and harassed him daily, all year long, for rejecting her beliefs by refusing to participate in illegal classroom prayers. His classmates joined in harassing him, and when his parents protested the situation to school authorities, their complaints were ignored. The teacher also pulled a nasty trick on Michael, an honor roll student, at the end of the school year. She deliberately left his name off of the honor roll list so that, when the other honor roll students were called to the stage to receive their award certificates, Michael was left sitting alone in the front row, crying. The urge to stamp out religious/cultural non-conformity is a deep-seated, primitive instinct – even our distant cousins the chimpanzees, descended from a long-ago common ancestor, show xenophobic behavior – but most people claim that humans are better than that.

When people in power use government office or control over a captive audience to proselytize others, their beliefs become contentious political, social and educational issues – fair game for rational analysis, skeptical criticism and open debate. This has been denounced as "religion bashing," but when public expressions of belief turn into bullying, no one should be surprised that Atheists take offense and argue back. If believers expect their culture to be treated with respect, they need to treat other cultures with respect. They need to respect our right NOT to believe. Who are Atheists to insist on cultural equality? We are your neighbors, your co-workers, your friends and your family members.

Copyright © 2001, Lee Helms

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