Introducing the Atheist Community of Tulsa

I really like seeing this in Tulsa. I grew up there, graduated from East Central High School in 1978. I became an atheist at age 14, in 1974, but I didn’t know any other atheists until I went to Washington University in St. Louis. The internet and social media have made it much easier for atheists to find one another these days. I would like to see more Tulsans mentally enter the 21st Century.

The end times delusion also had a lot of influence in the fundamentalist churches there, and I imagine it still does despite the Camping fiasco. The Sunday school teachers and preachers would threaten adolescents with Jesus’ sudden return to try to scare them into accepting Jesus as their savior, whatever that means. I had to put up with that nonsense in my upbringing, which probably explains why the whole Camping business really pissed me off.

By contrast, I’ve met a few people who have grown up as atheists, and to me they seem nearly like characters from some advanced, futuristic civilization out of science fiction.

Looking at districts, I sometimes wonder if there’s been some gerrymandering going on. There’s still a significant number of left wing people here. It’s not a total wash with just a few pockets here and there. Still, this is the bible belt. Oral Roberts is right here, and one of the biggest business buildings (a little outside of downtown) was financed by them with a dedication inside the primary building. Church is huge, but I would expect at least a few districts to come out with some leftist majority. The shape though is just bizarre, capturing very odd patches. The way Tulsa itself is divided up is also very strange looking. It’s something worth looking into, maybe some redistricting would move things a little closer to the middle come elections.

As it stands, it’s nice to see them make this. It’s obviously way too long to ever show up on TV, so I expect the most likely place will be the web site itself. I gotta say I should really consider joining this group. I have a few atheist friends, but it’d be nice to be (to steal a phrase constantly thrown at us) “part of something bigger than myself”.

I contacted the group’s organizer about the missing video. He said a member of the group complained because her likeness was used without her permission. They’re in the process of obtaining permission from others who appear in the video, and they plan to edit and re-release it.

@Mark Plus, I’m also an EC graduate…class of ’81, though, so I doubt we’d know each other.