Is American Atheism Evolving Towards A Cult?

[Bella Fortuna]

Yes! Errr... I mean no.

There's a lot of denial here. Typical of cultists to say their not cultists.

Keep talking, we're circling the wagons...

[maiforpeace]

Yes! Errr... I mean no.

There's a lot of denial here. Typical of cultists to say their not cultists.

I gather you don't live in the US.

[Ian]

Yes. Yes we are. This picture is from one of our meetings:

[Jason]

Hm.. for some reason I feel you ought to be chanting "Renew!"

[rachelbean]

Yes: glad you can admit it. It wasn't actually a question, I'm always right.
No: clearly you're in denial. It wasn't actually a question, I'm always right.

[Coito ergo sum]

[Coito ergo sum]

Atheist Cult Leader Washing Your Brain:

[Coito ergo sum]

Remember - this is what we look like to the "believers"....

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Atheist Cult Leader Washing Your Brain:

I've seen him scramble a person's brains!

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[maiforpeace]

[Tero]

Well, if there is money to put ads on buses, it is at least a club if not a cult
http://unitedcor.org/national/news/athe ... ss-bus-ads

[Hermit]

Just considering how, especially in the US, a interest in atheism serves to seperate you from the mainstream community.

My experience is limited to Australia. While this country is nominally and culturally a "christian country", I have never had the feeling of living in a separate, atheist camp, let alone cult, during the over four decades I lived here, and my impression is that neither does the vast majority of the Australian population.

Also, I think your choice of the word "cult" is unfortunate. Almost all the given definitions are entirely inapplicable, and the rest can only be partially made to fit the tenor of what you seem to be driving at. From the American Heritage Dictionary:

1.a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
b. The followers of such a religion or sect.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5.a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
b. The object of such devotion.
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

[Atheist-Lite]

Who ever said the english language was rational?

[Jason]

Just considering how, especially in the US, a interest in atheism serves to seperate you from the mainstream community.

My experience is limited to Australia. While this country is nominally and culturally a "christian country", I have never had the feeling of living in a separate, atheist camp, let alone cult, during the over four decades I lived here, and my impression is that neither does the vast majority of the Australian population.

Also, I think your choice of the word "cult" is unfortunate. Almost all the given definitions are entirely inapplicable, and the rest can only be partially made to fit the tenor of what you seem to be driving at. From the American Heritage Dictionary:

1.a. A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
b. The followers of such a religion or sect.
2. A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
3. The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
4. A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
5.a. Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
b. The object of such devotion.
6. An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

It isn't a case of the majority of definitions fitting - who teaches people how to use dictionaries today? (honestly)

5.a and 6 could both easily be argued to fit certain segments of American atheists. I think it could be argued that there are groups of atheists, or more commonly anti-theists, who are 'evolving' toward, or already fit the cult status.

We had this argument many times on RD.net - Dawkins was supposed to be the cult leader and all of us were cult members. The argument always failed on the ground that the group was simply to large, too diversified, too individualistic for this to be the case - Dawkins did meet the criteria for being a cult leader, though some fools made pathetic attempts to argue against it. Nevertheless, I would argue that certain subsets of the larger group qualify, in themselves, as cults or pseudo-cults soon to fulfill cult status requirements. The problem I suspect many people have is that what the word 'cult' denotes in this particular application is at odds with its general connotation (think Jonestown) - thus it is used most commonly as a, sometimes (that is in some cases), technically correct slur. It is more a problem of language than a problem of atheism. One might similarly, and correctly, identify a fan club of any particular actor as a cult, the 'faddish' devotion to a particular music artist as a cult, the overbearing 'freedom or death' message so often put out by the American media and followed obsessively by many of the American public (How could you be against freedom??) - an obsessive devotion to and veneration of a principle if I ever saw one. In all these cases the affixation of 'cult' status would be technically correct as one or more denotation applies, however it carries with it the all together negative connotation of the word 'cult'.

In short, it's sophistry. A trick playing on the foibles of language to cast a negative light on something you wish to attack but cannot do so directly.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ ... -cult.html