Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheism Is Not Having a "Schism"

Scarlet letter
Today’s Atheist Meme of the Day, from my Facebook page. Pass this on; or don’t; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Enjoy!

The atheist movement is not having a “schism.” We have differences and disagreements. But this is not new — it’s been true for as long as we’ve been around. And we see this diversity as a strength, not a weakness. We don’t need to adhere to the same dogma to be part of the same movement. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.

{advertisement}
Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheism Is Not Having a "Schism"
{advertisement}

11 thoughts on “Atheist Meme of the Day: Atheism Is Not Having a "Schism"

  1. 1

    I always think it’s funny when folks talk about a “schism” in the atheist movement.
    It’s basically just a bunch of folks who don’t believe in gods.
    Don’t believe in a god? Cool, you’re in.
    That’s it.
    Of course people disagree over the best way to spread the message or spirituality or which scientist is right or who has the coolest hair… But that’s really got nothing to do with atheism.

  2. 2

    All theirs arguments are so stupid. This one is one of them. To have a schism:
    1. you must have dogmas, i.e. ideas which are not allowed to change. And dogmas are, in general, uncheckable, which make them difficult to decide who is right.
    2. you must also be organized as a religion community.

  3. 3

    I’m not sure this makes sense as an atheist meme of the day. I suspect that the vast majority of people who will see these facebook notes will not even have heard of the claimed atheist schism.

  4. 4

    What!!! Did you not hear about the Deep Rift that opened up over the mismanagement of RDF.net? Those folks practically had a nuclear war. Were it not for the Love of Jesus and the Mercy of God, the whole of the Earth might have been Destroyed by the violence and profanity exchanged in that war. It’s just like South Park predicted.

  5. 5

    I don’t know, Joshua. The Big Schism in the Atheist Movement has been in the news a fair amount lately. Sort of the journalistic equivalent of concern trolling. It’s not the biggest myth about us… but it seemed worth mentioning.
    But as I always say: Pass this on; or don’t; or edit it as you see fit; or make up your own. Or rather: How dare you question the righteous dogma of the Memes? Blasphemer! Infidel! Burn him! Burn him!

  6. 6

    Joshua, if you opened your heart and accepted Greta as your lord and saviour, you would feel the correctness of her arguments.
    You probably have come from a broken home and are a child of unmarried parents; this is, after all, the only reason I can imagine why anyone would hold the opinions you do, and if I can’t imagine something, it cannot exist.

  7. D A
    7

    I think it’s great that we can air our discussions so openly, and disagree so vehemently. It’s worth pointing out that no atheist schism that I’m aware of has resulted in murder, arson, or a blood feud, which already makes it that much less juicy than the action between any two major religions. And yet, while we haven’t killed anyone, we also haven’t gotten into the simperingly polite passive aggressiveness of interfaith dialogue. Atheism is truly the best of all possible worlds. People are better off when we struggle over the best way to do things rather than all follow one central figure or plan.

  8. Liz
    8

    I’m confused, there’s a schism? How? or is this part of the whole “to be nice or to be angry” thing? Which, um, it’s not like there’s a head of all atheism that anyone has to agree with, or an atheist hivemind, or something. sheesh.

  9. 9

    A schism , Oh goody a chance for a proper punch up, do we get to choose which side we are on or will it be like when I was at school and all the other kids got picked before me for the teams ?
    I used to be a god botherer and believe me schism was our forte, even the parish was divided, in that case the vicar did the team choosing and he could transfer you between the saved and the damned without you even knowing it. No one does conflict like the true believers in peace and love.

  10. 11

    I was recently at the Global Atheist Convention and it had a wide variety of attitudes. It occurred to me that one of the reasons I find theistic criticism of atheism so ridiculous is that it’s so damned weak in comparison to the thoughtful criticism atheists make of each other. It’s like the grown-ups are talking and some spotty teenager butts in to tell us how funny our long words sound.
    Thinking of how our diversity is our strength: Dan Barker talked about how the thing that started the erosion of his faith was encountering other evangelicals with a slightly different dogma. His fundamentalist’s ‘binary brain’ couldn’t quite handle it. That may be why theists point to our diversity crying ‘you all disagree’, and we go ‘Yeah, sometimes. So?’

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *