What can we do?

[Mike Cl]

OP, what can we do?  Push education and critical thinking.  Those are the biggest enemies religion will ever face.

[The Atheist]

The truly religious are a minority and always have been. In my opinion, the majority of a population more or less believes in religion, but for them it's irrelevant. They see heaven and God (or whatever their religion teaches) as a distant dream with little effect on their lives. Many go to religious service more out of tradition than for any "burning desire" of faith.

[josephpalazzo]

Atheism means lack of evidence in the existence of a deity. Any other belief is not part of atheism. Difficult to build a central organization around that. As it was mentioned, we're better off as individuals. Forums like this one helps members to sharpen their arguments. But other than that, theists are people who believe absurdly in a fantasy. It's a free country, and they are entitled to believe what they want. The only place we're in a fight is when theists try to impose their fantasy on the political system. That's where we must draw the line. And we can only win the fight if we know how to present logical, reasonable arguments why such absurd beliefs don't belong in the political arena. Secularism is a pillar of our society, and we must let it erode.

[reasonist]

Atheism means lack of evidence in the existence of a deity. Any other belief is not part of atheism. Difficult to build a central organization around that. As it was mentioned, we're better off as individuals. Forums like this one helps members to sharpen their arguments. But other than that, theists are people who believe absurdly in a fantasy. It's a free country, and they are entitled to believe what they want. The only place we're in a fight is when theists try to impose their fantasy on the political system. That's where we must draw the line. And we can only win the fight if we know how to present logical, reasonable arguments why such absurd beliefs don't belong in the political arena. Secularism is a pillar of our society, and we must let it erode.

True enough, however I don't think that logical, reasonable arguments work with theists. We have a good example right here how believers block anything that would shake their faith. Rational discourse does simply not work. So do we wait until some religious zealot pushes the nuclear button (Pakistan, Israel?)? We are still a small minority and the forces of theocracy have incredible influence on our daily lives.
The brother of a friend of mine is a Pastor at our local church. I am trying to join their weekly bible discussion, but no dice. He knows that we are on the winning side intellectually and won't take a chance. I might upset the flock with facts, and he won't have any of that!
So are we really limited to posting on forums and talk to the occasional believer who doesn't give a damn anyways? I believe that we need political representation, voices among the powerful faith based lobbying groups. A counter balance if you will. Just sayin......

[Baruch]

Atheism means lack of evidence in the existence of a deity. Any other belief is not part of atheism. Difficult to build a central organization around that. As it was mentioned, we're better off as individuals. Forums like this one helps members to sharpen their arguments. But other than that, theists are people who believe absurdly in a fantasy. It's a free country, and they are entitled to believe what they want. The only place we're in a fight is when theists try to impose their fantasy on the political system. That's where we must draw the line. And we can only win the fight if we know how to present logical, reasonable arguments why such absurd beliefs don't belong in the political arena. Secularism is a pillar of our society, and we must let it erode.

... and we must not let it erode ;-)

[Baruch]

True enough, however I don't think that logical, reasonable arguments work with theists. We have a good example right here how believers block anything that would shake their faith. Rational discourse does simply not work. So do we wait until some religious zealot pushes the nuclear button (Pakistan, Israel?)? We are still a small minority and the forces of theocracy have incredible influence on our daily lives.
The brother of a friend of mine is a Pastor at our local church. I am trying to join their weekly bible discussion, but no dice. He knows that we are on the winning side intellectually and won't take a chance. I might upset the flock with facts, and he won't have any of that!
So are we really limited to posting on forums and talk to the occasional believer who doesn't give a damn anyways? I believe that we need political representation, voices among the powerful faith based lobbying groups. A counter balance if you will. Just sayin......

My ex was a pastor.  Educated clergy (not all are) can't present even modern religious facts to congregations ... they would be fired by the congregation for doing so.  A congregation is a community, not a speaker's corner.  They are there to have their beliefs reinforced, not torn down.  So with all due respect to the brother of your friend, he is merely doing what he is paid to do.  Generally speaking, if you were a theist, thought outside of the group think of that particular congregation, would be opposed by the members themselves.  Not every congregation is catholic/orthodox ... with beliefs imposed from on-high, but are simply the idea fixe of that community.  As a freethinker, I am pushed toward a state of irreligious, because of the mis-match between any congregation I could be in, and my own developed personal opinions.  This is less of a problem for a person who doesn't free-think or who doesn't have developed personal opinions.