America's Top Atheist Aims To Build Jewish Support for Ungodly Agenda

[rug]

By Nathan GuttmanPublished March 20, 2014, issue of March 28, 2014.

Silverman considers himself a conservative. Yet organizers of the recent Conservative Political Action Conference, a massive gathering held yearly in the nation’s capital, did all they could to make him feel unwelcome. They even took away his presenter’s booth.

It was not just that Silverman was an atheist. As president of American Atheists, a national advocacy group, Silverman was there to represent an organization that fights for the rights of irreligious Americans.

Silverman was not discouraged. Instead of sitting at a desk, he walked through the halls of America’s biggest convention of conservative activists and handed out fliers advocating separation of religion and state. The fliers reminded members of the group most closely identified with bringing God into politics that millions of American voters hold no religious beliefs.

“I thought I would enter a room full of hate, but I did not find hate at all,” Silverman said as he completed his rounds at the March 7 conference. “In fact,” he added, “more than once I met people that finished my sentence

http://forward.com/articles/194890/americas-top-atheist-aims-to-build-jewish-support/?

I bet he did.

[AtheistCrusader]

1. Top Atheist?

By what metric?

[rug]

2. "As president of American Atheists"

[AtheistCrusader]

3. And?

I could make myself Grand High Poobah of all Atheists Worldwide. So what.

[rug]

4. Silverman would fight you to the death for that title.

[AtheistCrusader]

5. I'm genuinely curious how big AA is compared to, say FFRF or

other Atheist advocacy groups.

[cbayer]

7. FFRF is not an atheist organization. It is an organization of people interested

in the separation of church and state and is composed of atheists and theists.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Fair enough.

Still, how big is AA?

[cbayer]

13. No idea, but I suspect it is on their website.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. it isn't, that I could find, but Rug found a cite on the Wiki page.

2.2k people.

Not much of an advocacy group. Going to get smaller, or is small, if they mix conservative politics into the group.
Atheists are highly likely to identify as progressive or left in some form or another.

[cbayer]

17. There are a lot of groups and I'm not sure which are the largest,

let alone the most representative.

You are right about the demographics. I'm not sure what this guy's deal is.

[AtheistCrusader]

18. Me either. I predict either he will not last long as Prez, or

the org will remain small/marginalized.

[cbayer]

20. He's been the president for almost 20 years and AA has been responsible

for a great many of the billboards, etc.

I think he's really just very self-promoting - possibly the Pat Robertson of atheism.

Would love to see some new leadership or another organization step up to the plate.

[AtheistCrusader]

22. Rug's link suggests he was elected in 2010.

[cbayer]

23. This article says he has been the "leader" of AA since 1996.

[AtheistCrusader]

24. I don't know what 'leader' means.

I do know someone else was the president in 2009.


I honestly never heard of this guy until the CPAC kerfuffle that Rug brought to light here in this forum.

[cbayer]

25. I don't know either, but based on their calling him "America's Top Atheist",

I think they are playing with some loose rules.

He's been getting an increasing amount of press over the past few years and doing it by becoming more and more outrageous.

AA has spent a lot of money in billboard wars and it makes me wonder where they are getting it, since their membership numbers really aren't very high.

[rug]

9. AA claims 2,200 members.

American Atheists was founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O'Hair as the Society of Separationists, after the legal cases Abington School District v. Schempp and Murray v. Curlett (1959) which were later consolidated. Both Schempp and Murray challenged mandatory prayer in public schools. Over the years American Atheists has filed numerous lawsuits against public institutions it considers to have breached the wall of separation between church and state. The organization, which has approximately 2,200 members, is headquartered in Cranford, New Jersey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Atheists

Individual AA membership costs $35. Nothing more is required to be a member.

https://www.atheists.org/join



FFRF claims 19,000 members.

The FFRF was co-founded by Anne Nicol Gaylor and her daughter, Annie Laurie Gaylor, in 1976 and was incorporated nationally in 1978.[2] The organization is supported by over 19,000 members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_from_religion_foundation

Individual FFRF membership costs $40. Nothing more is required to be a member.

https://ffrf.org/get-involved/join-ffrf

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Thanks, I didn't see the AA membership number when I scanned through the Wiki page.

Doesn't seem like a very large org, even though, CBayer is correct, FFrF is not exclusively atheist.

[longship]

6. America's top atheist?

Talk of delusional thinking...


I do not support politically conservative organizations or those organizations who have an overtly conservative spokesperson, no matter if they support causes that I support.

[cbayer]

8. Agree. He is becoming a pariah, not the "top atheist".

[rug]

11. Don't forget Edwina Rogers and the Secular Coalition for America.

[cbayer]

14. Benedict Arnold and Tokyo Rose?

[cbayer]

16. "The idea that Israel is a home for all Jews is nothing more than a marketing scheme at this point,"

Silverman says, continuing to win the hearts and minds of those around the globe.

[rug]

19. It gets worse.

Still, atheists remain ranked as America’s least trusted minority group. According to a 2010 survey, most Americans would not approve of their children marrying an atheist. Other studies have shown that bias against atheists is higher among Republicans than among Democrats.

But Silverman believes that if Republicans overcome these sentiments they will find plenty of common ground with atheists. Many libertarians, a growing force among conservative Republicans and an increasingly powerful electoral bloc, share atheists’ disdain for government-sponsored religion. “There’s a big chunk of atheists that could be interested in the Republican Party but are not doing so because of the influence of the Christian right,” said Silverman, who described himself as a fiscal conservative who votes Democratic because of the Republican views on church and state.

He's a classic one-issue activist who will flip on a dime.

[cbayer]

21. Exactly. It's really all about him and the more press he gets,

the more outrageous he is going to get, imo.

Libertarians? Really?