If any of you felt a disturbance in the force lately...

[trotsky]

it's because we evil, horrible, awful, uppity, fundie, bigoted anti-theists now have one less finger wagging at us.

Chris Stedman, self-proclaimed Faitheist and finger-wagger extraordinaire, has shut down his eponymous blog:
http://chrisstedman.religionnews.com/2015/01/29/farewell-faitheist/

Fortunately(?) he ends with one last parting shot telling all atheists what atheism SHOULD be, proving that his run at blogging about bad atheists taught him absolutely nothing about hypocrisy.

[RussBLib]

1. never heard of the bum

should I even bother?

[trotsky]

2. You are better off not knowing!

He was just one in the (relatively insignificant) group of enormously self-important people who, after loooking at a world full of suicide bombers, fanatics killing abortion doctors or flying planes into buildings, genital mutilations in the name of god, honor killings, and the like, decided the problem is that atheists aren't tolerant enough of religion and sincerely-held beliefs.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. I have seen that song and dance before... Hmm. Where was it... Hmm..

Oh, right, right here on DU.

Bigotry by the RCC against same-sex couples is bad, but atheists being big ol' meany-heads and pointing it out, is worse.

One would think such sentiments would earn a pizza, but for some reason, that one subject gets a pass here, where if anyone held the same position for any other reason, they'd be shown the door.

[Curmudgeoness]

4. If you are going to be a preacher,

even a Humanist preacher, you have to deal with things differently than most of the atheists. We don't have to find middle ground. We don't have to see ourselves as part of a greater community. We are just people who do not believe in god(s). There is no reason for us to make efforts to bridge any gaps between theists and atheists.

But apparently, he has to build bridges. It's his job. But he doesn't speak for me.

[trotsky]

6. "We are just people who do not believe in god(s)."

Exactly. But some people can't think outside the religion box. Atheists are somehow 'incomplete' if they simply lack belief. One of Stedman's constant refrains (repeated in that last admonishment) is that atheism had to OFFER something. Or somethings. And those somethings always seemed to be features of religion.

I'm guessing most of us here don't think like that at all. We see atheism as one thing, and humanism as another. Stedman never could realize they were separate and kept insisting atheists should adhere to humanism as he defined it.

David Brooks' recent steaming pile of shit was similar, starting with confusing "secularists" with "atheists." Yes, most (all?) atheist are secularists. But not all secularists are atheists. Anyway, he went on to ladle on more bullshit, saying that secularists just HAD to make themselves look like a religion. What an idiot.

[bvf]

8. The one thing a religion provides

above all else is a club mentality. Some people just don't want to belong to the Unicorn Club.

"Oh, what club do you belong to, then? You must belong to one!"

[trotsky]

11. Ha, that is very true.

Custom-built for tribalism.

[NeoGreen]

5. It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out...

...but were never there...

[onager]

7. If by "disturbance" you mean...

"A lack of pompous hipsterish flatulence stinking up atheism," then I guess I'm feeling that.

Add my vote to those who don't need anything added to my atheism, thank you very much. Gluing a bunch of unrelated humanist parts to atheism, no matter how worthy those parts in themselves, doesn't add anything to either and diminishes both, IMO.

"Hi, we're atheists who also believe in x, y and z social causes."
"Oh. So you're all Communists."
Or...
"Hi, we're a non-sectarian group raising money for a wonderful cause..."
"Yeah, I heard of you guys. Non-sectarian my butt, you're all a bunch of atheists."

That quote from Dr. Monica Miller puzzles me. "Adopt a brand of atheism or Humanism rooted in uncertainty?" WTF does THAT mean?

Again strictly IMO, viewing atheism as a "brand" - something to be sold - raises my hackles right off the bat.

"Rooted in uncertainly?" I think the word she's looking for is "skepticism." Which I firmly believe, if properly applied, will almost always lead a person to atheism.

But I guess I can see why the Faitheists want to avoid the S-word. Like they're trying to do with atheism, skepticism is something of a brand name these days.

Unfortunately for the Faitheists, it's a brand usually associated with icky people like Dawkins and others not noted for obsequious deference to religion. Therefore Un-persons in the current Great Crusade.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

9. If a pompous, long-winded, finger-pointing, nannying asshole falls in the forest, does anyone hear?

Does anyone even care? Fuck Stedman.

[trotsky]

13. Exactly. In fact, I can't imagine there are many atheists opposed to humanism.

But to insist that atheism needs to BE humanism, well, what? Stedman always kept trying to measure and judge atheism by what he and his fellow faitheists want it to be. But it simply isn't, and never will be.

[onager]

14. Ayn Rand and Madalyn Murray O'Hair...

To name just a couple, apparently. I'd rather not be associated with Rand in any way, but I guess we're stuck with her. And maybe that does prove the point that atheists are individuals, just like other humans.

Here's a Freedom Writer interview with O'Hair in 1989. This interview must have been poorly transcribed or something, because some of it just doesn't make much sense. I think she does make a good point about Popes being called "humanists:"

FW: Then, how do you differ from a humanist?

O'HAIR: Well, we don't feel that the humanists are God. We're just as concerned about the air, the sea, the earth, all the animals, the plants - my God, the trees that are being cut down! — as we are about human beings. We see them putting a special significance on humans.

In addition to that, they make the umbrella too big. When they say that Pope John XXIII was a humanist, that (term) curdles in my blood! Because as I read what Pope John XXIII was proposing at the Second Vatican Council, I cannot accept that at all. He was not a wonderful person. Going back through history, all of those persons who were humanists were not necessarily friends of the total earth and its animal and vegetable inhabitants.

Chris Stedman, predictably, also dug up some old O'Hair letters where she used anti-gay slurs. Trying to prove she was Not A Real Atheist or something, I guess. You can find it pretty easily at his site, it was from 2014.

In addition to being the Uber-Atheist, O'Hair made a career out of pissing people off. Here's another part of that interview where she compares Xians to nudists. That made me laugh:

FW: Do you support religious freedom?

O'HAIR: Oh, absolutely! I feel everyone has a right to be insane. And that they can do this any place at all. If they want religious schools, build them! My only problem with that is, do not ask for the land to be tax free. Do not ask for a government grant to build them. Do not ask for money for teacher's salaries, or more books, or anything else. Just go ahead and do your thing, and do it yourself.

Just exactly the same as if you were a nudist. They don't get a tax break for being a nudist. Somebody doesn't get a tax break for being a Mason, or whatever they're interested in. And I feel that religions can have administrative bodies, social services, hospitals, anything at all, as long as they pay for it totally them selves, and make certain that the people who are involved with them are aware that they are basing their premises on religious ideology.

http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/fw/8903/ohair.html

[trotsky]

15. Ha, figures!

Yet I can say - hey, YES - both Rand and O'Hair were atheists! No need to pull out NTS to disown anyone who doesn't fit my mold.

Interesting, I didn't know Stedman felt the need to pull decades-old quotes out to smear a dead person who happened to be instrumental in keeping our public schools secular. Oh well, she was wrong about that. But she was still an atheist. BFD!