Subject: Front-door Atheism Date: 6 Sep 90 17:24:37 GMT Sender: usenet@hayes.fai.alaska.ed

From: atdhb@acad2.anc.alaska.edu (BOWDEN DON H)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Front-door Atheism
Message-ID: <1990Sep6.172437.11188@hayes.fai.alaska.edu>
Date: 6 Sep 90 17:24:37 GMT
Sender: usenet@hayes.fai.alaska.edu (J Random USENET)
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Organization: University of Alaska Anchorage
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Jon Murray, director of American Atheists and son of Madalyn O'Hair, recently
came to Anchorage to install our new Alaska Chapter of American Atheists.  He
challenged us to come out of the closet and take the fight to the streets and
to the people.  He said the era of the court battle to secure civil rights is
past--we can no longer rely on justice and equality in today's political
climate.

Accordingly, we secured a booth at the Alaska State Fair and put the messages of
reason, logic, separation of state and church, equity of taxation, freedom from
religion and freedom from the dangers of superstition before the people.  Of
course, we we preached at and prayed over, and we received two bona-fide death
threats, but now thousands of people in Alaska know that atheists exist as
group with an agenda.  Scores of people came up to our booth with handshakes
and wide grins: "Man, am I glad to see you people here!  I thought I was all
alone."  Many more people passed by and waved or gave us the thumbs-up sign but
did not stop--poor, oppressed humans still deep in the closet but at least now
they know there's hope.  Best of all, new memberships are coming in.

It's wonderful to have a forum such as this one to discuss our views and
fine-tune our philosophies, but what are we doing to eradicate the sickness of
religion from our planet?  Locally, many of our members are retired and can
freely admit to being atheists, but others of us believe that public admission
to not holding mythological beliefs could result in loss of business or even
jobs.  Is this the spirit of the First Amendment?  I don't think we'll get
acceptance for the atheist community until we get out in front of people and
show them what we are--not baby-eaters but the most intelligent, ethical, and
moral people on the planet.

It's great that we're talking about it, but in an era when the idea of a Pat
Robertson or a Dan Quayle becoming president is not only a chilling
possiblility but downright probable, we've got to emerge from the shadows and
do something.

Jon Murray pointed out that the 60's was the decade for black civil rights, the
70's was the decade for gay rights, the 80's was the decade for women's rights,
and that the 90's are open to us--if we choose to accept the challenge.  What
can *you* do?

Don Bowden    atdhb@acad2.anc.alaska.edu       atdhb@alaska.Bitnet

                              JESUS IS LARD!