The Humanist Symposium Inaugural Edition
As I mentioned earlier, there is a brand spanking new blog carnival in town: The Humanist Symposium. Atheists tend to spend a lot of time evangelizing against religion. This regrettably fills our time with negativity focused on the problems we perceive in theism. This new carnival hopes to change that by collecting articles which focus on the positive aspects of humanism. It looks like there’s a lot of good reading ahead. I can’t wait to dive in.
![[Earth Flag]](../../../../wp-content/images/earth-flag.png){kind=small}
![[Gadsden Flag]](../../../../wp-content/images/gadsden.png){kind=small}
![[Old Glory]](../../../../wp-content/images/old-glory.png){kind=small}
April 30, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
Wow!
I have always scratched my head and wondered why the heck atheists are so dang consumed with posting negative responses to Christianity. Thanks for the head’s up–I look forward to exploring the carnival! I came here by way of Jewish Atheist.
April 30, 2007 @ 6:01 pm
Welcome Sadie,
I think we spend all that time on Christianity because we’re passionate about our ideals, not because we’re mean-spirited (at least not most of us). I think it’s good for us to focus on the positive sometimes so that we remember what we’re trying to achieve.
May 1, 2007 @ 8:52 am
I don’t know, man. I’ve run into some *VERY* mean spirited atheist blogs. They’re usually the popular ones.
May 1, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
I can’t deny that they’re out there. I think there is a certain adolescent audience that uses atheism as their outlet for rebellion. Religion is a great way to stick it to the man in a religious society. That’s too bad because I’ve started to become a much more loving, forgiving person as I’ve embraced naturalistic humanism. They’re giving atheism an undeservedly bad name.
May 2, 2007 @ 12:34 am
Honestly I think every belief system has it’s good and/or nice people and every belief system has it’s hateful and/or obnoxious people. The thing is that when it’s a belief system you aren’t a part of, the mean ones stand out and look like they’re attacking you whereas you don’t notice the nice ones. (And you’re more likely to see your own group’s haters as justified…)
It’s the same from the other side: When you’re an atheist reading some of the smears and stereotypes religious people write about atheists, it’s very easy to get the impression that religious people are mean, bitter, hateful, and unwilling to coexist peacefully with those who believe differently — even if the majority of religious people aren’t like that.