American Atheists

[[File:American Atheists.jpg|alt=American Atheists|thumbnail|275px|right|Nate Phelps spoke at the 2009 American Atheists convention.<ref>http://lifewithoutfaith.com/?p=183</ref> <br /> <br /> <small>(photo obtained from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/martystone/3435459032 Flickr], see [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en license agreement])</small> ]] '''American Atheists''' is an American [[atheism|atheist]] group founded in 1963 by [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]]. [[David Silverman]] currently serves as the President of the American Atheists organization. Members of the group have been noted for performing poorly in debates against Christians (see section on debates below). Though officially supporting the "civil liberties of Atheists" and the "total, absolute separation of government and religion,"<ref>http://www.atheists.org/about</ref> material found on their website suggests that they are hostile to religion and may be more anti-religion than pro-atheist (see 'Excerpts' section below). == Excerpts from the American Atheists' Website == ''For more information please see'': [[American Atheists - Excerpts from their website]] In order to remain objective, this section of the article contains only direct quotes cited and taken from www.atheists.org. The following quotes may serve to display the general beliefs of the organization. *“One might naturally suppose that low intelligence is the main cause of religiosity. After all, thinking is so much harder than believing - hence the great preponderance of believers over thinkers in all ages and cultures. But what can one say when members of that small coterie we identify as thinkers are also believers? Low intelligence is not necessarily the problem.”<ref>http://www.atheists.org/Why_is_Religiosity_so_Hard_to_Cure</ref> *“The moment of silence idea is a method to inject forced prayer into the classroom.”<ref>http://www.atheists.org/youth_%26_family/questions_and_answers</ref> *“It’s not the Christmas season, it’s the solstice season. And that’s why it’s not a war on Christmas. It’s a war on the solstice, and the Christians started it.”<ref>http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x529734</ref> ''Note, this is not not a quote from the website, it is a direct quote by David Silverman, President of American Atheists.'' *"...The rebellious churches don't want to hand over their share of the taxes. They just want to intrude even further into our political process."<ref>http://www.atheists.org/Keep_Politics_Out_Of_The_Pulpit_or_Lose_Tax-Exempt_Status:_Opinion_</ref> ''From an opinion article on the "politics in the pulpit" issue.'' ==American Atheists organization's Performance in Debates against Christians== ===Madalyn Murray O'Hair debate with Dr. Walter Martin=== [[File:Frank Zindler.jpg|thumbnail|220px|right|The website [[TrueOrigin]] wrote concerning the [[William Lane Craig]] vs. [[Frank Zindler]] debate: "Dr. [[William Lane Craig]], tore his ignorant arguments to shreds so effectively that many atheists in the audience realised that Zindler had lost the debate. It was presumably to this debate that John Snowden was alluding when he wrote that a representative of the American Atheists, whom he used to support, lost a public debate to a “fundamentalist” (Skeptic 18(3), 1998)." <ref>http://www.trueorigin.org/noaig.asp</ref> <br /> <br /> <small>(photo obtained from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/martystone/3435210822/ Flickr], see [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en license agreement])</small> ]] Madalyn Murray O'Hair did particularly badly in her debate with Dr. [[Walter Martin]].<ref> http://defendingcontending.com/2009/01/01/debate-walter-martin-vs-madalyn-murray-ohair/</ref> For example, when she claimed [[Atheism and the Bible|there were supposedly were contradictions in the Bible]], Dr. Martin asked her to provide an example of one and Ms. O'Hair did not and could not offer even an alleged example of a Bible contradiction.<ref> http://defendingcontending.com/2009/01/01/debate-walter-martin-vs-madalyn-murray-ohair/</ref> In addition, Ms. O'Hair was ill prepared in terms of defending against the issue of [[Atheism and mass murder|atheism and mass murder]].<ref> http://defendingcontending.com/2009/01/01/debate-walter-martin-vs-madalyn-murray-ohair/</ref> ===Frank Zindler Versus Dr. William Craig Debate=== ''see also:'' [[Frank Zindler vs. William Lane Craig debate]] [[Frank Zindler]] is currently the editor of American Atheist Magazine and Director of American Atheist Press. In addition, Frank Zindler serves on the board of directors for the atheist organization American Atheists plus served as an interim president of the organization.<ref>http://www.atheists.org/about/Board_of_Directors</ref> The website [[TrueOrigin]] declares concerning the debate between atheist [[Frank Zindler]] and Christian philosopher Dr. [[William Lane Craig]]: {{cquote| A leading light in the American Atheists. Isn’t it amazing how so many atheists love [[Theory of evolution|evolution]] and appear to be threatened by the massive scientific evidence for [[Creation Science|creation]]? Zindler took the atheism side in an Atheism v. Christianity debate in front of 7,500 people at Willow Creek Community Church, USA. His opponent, Dr William Lane Craig, tore his ignorant arguments to shreds so effectively that many atheists in the audience realised that Zindler had lost the debate. It was presumably to this debate that John Snowden was alluding when he wrote that a representative of the American Atheists, whom he used to support, lost a public debate to a “fundamentalist” (Skeptic 18(3), 1998).<ref>http://www.trueorigin.org/noaig.asp</ref>}} == American Atheists and their challenges in terms of overweight leadership personnel == ''See also:'' [[Atheism and obesity]] and [[American Atheists and their challenges in terms of overweight leadership personnel]] [[Madalyn Murray O'Hair]], the founder of the American Atheists organization, was overweight.<ref>http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/229583104/</ref> One of the last pictures taken of Madalyn Murray O'Hair features O'Hair standing before a cake as can be seen [http://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/276262/ HERE]. As of December 28, 2010 the pictures of some of the members of their board of directors showed members who were facing challenges in terms of their body weight. <ref>http://www.atheists.org/about/Board_of_Directors</ref> The pictures of the American Atheists board of directors can be found [http://www.atheists.org/about/Board_of_Directors HERE]. Members of the American Atheists board of directors who are overweight as of December 28, 2010 include: [[Richard Andrews]], [[Monty Gaither]], [[Blair Scott]] and [[Ann Zindler]].<ref>http://www.atheists.org/about/Board_of_Directors</ref> == Controversial Billboard == The American Atheists organization sponsored an aggressive and controversial billboard and an interview with [[Fox News]] occurred as a result of the billboard [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XEgkViLbTk VIDEO]. The president of American Atheists [[David Silverman]] has a degree in [[marketing]]. But despite his degree in marketing, according to fellow [[atheist]] and [[evolution|evolutionist]] [[PZ Myers]], Silverman was stuck defending a "badly designed, ugly" sign.<ref>http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/01/that_controversial_oreilly_int.php</ref> == See also == *[[Freedom From Religion Foundation]] *[[Christian apologetics|Evidence for Christianity]] *[[Resources for leaving atheism and becoming a Christian]] *[[Essay: This year's best atheist debaters]] - [[satire]] == External links == *[http://www.atheists.org/ American Atheists] *[http://blog.al.com/living-times/2010/12/you_know_american_atheists_nat.html American Atheists' National Billboard Campaign comes to Huntsville] *[http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/atheists-conduct-de-baptisms/story?id=11109379 Atheists Break Out New Ritual Tool: The Blow-Dryer] *[http://twitter.com/americanatheist American Atheists] - Twitter *[http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/americanatheists American Atheists] - Atheist Nexus == Notes == {{reflist|2}} [[Category: Atheism]]