Atheist Preachers

[flobadob]

We all know about jehovas and the like who go around with their spiel but are there such a thing as atheist preachers who go around telling people there is no God and such?

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah they are all on AB.
Did you miss them ?

[Obiter]

Nice one, OG.

[Buenchico]

Blast!

I've just worked on a door-to-door survey in Didcot for the past few evenings and I forget to preach a bit of atheism at the same time. It's an idea for the future though, Flobby! Thank you ;-)

[mikey4444]

I have thought for some time that there needs to be a concerted effort by rationalists to combat the evil of religion...look at all the harm that religion has done in the world, and is still doing.

[naomi24]

You might find a few at Speakers’ Corner, but I know of none who go knocking on doors.

[4candles]

As far as I know he doesn't go knocking on doors, but Richard Dawkins is a pretty good ambassador.

[mikey4444]

But he is not enough 4candles. If you asked the average man in the street who Dawkins is, they wouldn't have a clue.

I remember seeing David Attenborough on a talk show once, when he was surrounded by people that believed in the literal truth of the Bible, including a Bishop. He openly asked them if they really thought that the Grand Canyon was made 6000 years ago, and when they said, yes they did, his open-mouthed incredulity spoke volumes.

I rarely miss an opportunity to challenge the backward thinking of theists...more of us should do the same.

[sevenOP]

"Yeah they are all on AB.
Did you miss them ? " > Old_Geezer

But are they as lacking of proof as the believers ?

[keyplus90]

They don't go anywhere. They stay here on AB.

[naomi24]

//But are they as lacking of proof as the believers ?//

Not really. Believers present their holy books as evidence of a supernatural, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent creator god who goes by various names, most commonly Yahweh, Elohim, Jehovah, and Allah. Whilst atheists can no more disprove the existence of a creator god than believers can prove it, atheists who know the holy books well are quite capable of rationally, and unarguably, negating the evidence presented that this particular god is what he is claimed to be. Quite simply, if such a god does exist, logically, it can’t be him.

[Clanad]

I'm quite sure the Atheist Preachers are on station in Africa or some other of the myriad under-developed countries seeking to alleviate the hardships suffered by millions… you know… building schools, hospitals and the like as well as bringing in food and medicines...

There were four individuals (including me) working with some homeless families in a town near us here in the U.S. just the other evening… I didn't ask, but anyone one of them could have been an atheist I suppose...

[naomi24]

Clanad, //I'm quite sure the Atheist Preachers are on station in Africa or some other of the myriad under-developed countries seeking to alleviate the hardships suffered by millions....//

I'm not sure that atheist 'preachers' are on station in Africa, etc., but other than that, you'd be right. Oxfam, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Unicef, The Red Cross... I could go on...

[sevenOP]

So it is only the 'book' god atheists claim that they can 'prove' does not exist ?

[Clanad]

Haven't checked every possible listing, naomi, but according to this: http://www.answers.com/Q/Is_oxfam_a_Christian_charity, Oxfam may now be non-secular (which doesn't mean atheist) but started as a Christian based unit… same with the Red Cross, according to this: http://jliflc.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/irrc_858_ferris.pdf (page 314).

But this doesn't consider families from small churches here in the U.S. (and elsewhere) that are supported only by that church. One I know personally moved to Nairobi just after they were married some 20 years ago. Been there ever since. The wife is a nurse and the husband is a teacher. Their oldest daughter just entered college after returning here to the U.S. All three of their children were born in Kenya.

This isn't an unusual event, by the way...

[pixie373]

You can't prove something doesn't exist and you don't need to. It's up to those making the claims to prove existence. And they can't.

[naomi24]

Clanad, from your link: // Saying that Oxfam is Christian would be like saying that given churches commissioned painters, that makes painting a christian hobby.//

This from Wiki: Oxfam was originally founded in Oxford in 1942 as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief by a group of Quakers, social activists, and Oxford academics.

A few Quakers may have been on the initial committee, but you can hardly claim the whole thing started as a Christian based unit. It didn’t. Not a mention on its website of religious affiliation at any time.

This from the Red Cross website.

http://www.redcross.org.uk/About-us/Who-we-are/History-and-origin/Beginning-of-the-Movement

http://www.redcross.org.uk/en/About-us/Who-we-are/The-international-Movement/Religious-neutrality

The family you talk about – I know it isn’t an unusual event – a friend of mine, a Christian missionary, was hacked to death in Zimbabwe. That said, as unsavoury as it might be to you to acknowledge reality, it’s very clearly not unusual for the genuinely altruistic to work without religion as their guiding force.

[naomi24]

sevenOP, //So it is only the 'book' god atheists claim that they can 'prove' does not exist ?//

I said that the evidence presented by believers indicates that he (the ‘book god’, to use your words) cannot be the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent creator. Other than him, which gods would you like us to have a look at?

[atalanta]

If there were an atheist organisation which was prepared to appoint me as a preacher, I'd cheerfully go round preaching logic, rational thought, common sense, demands for proof/evidence, clear thinking - I could go on and on . . .
But there is no such organisation, alas.

[sevenOP]

You are the one that brought up the 'holy books' naomi.

So do you think that people need instructions from a book to believe in a god ?

[naomi24]

sevenOP, not necessarily. I've answered your question - now answer mine.