At a Texas High School, Saying ‘Atheist’ Could Disrupt the Learning Process

The word atheist is disruptive because it brings out the worst in Christians.

Did he cross through it enough times? It seems angry when someone X’s through something like that. yumadbro?
Here’s a contact link to the principal
http://sc.lpisd.org/education/components/form/default.php?sectiondetailid=24691

When I was little, the word “Atheist” gave me the same butterflies in my stomach as other cuss words and “satanist.” Boy was I misled. 

Does this mean that teachers can’t mention atheism either (e.g. in social science, history, lit, my school had a philosophy class…)? Sounds like the principal re-invented a “Don’t Say Gay” rule here.

They better remove all dictionaries from the school then; they contain the word “atheist” as well. 

How can it be disruptive? It might explode those rigid religious pea brains. The ones that have never been taught how to think.

There is so much irony in that principal’s note that is hurts…

It’s probably disruptive at LPHS similar to the way pictures of Muhammad can be “disruptive”…

It is disruptive to the status quo not only at this school, but nationally.  The culture in the US is so hardwired to Christianity that the entire US economy and infrastructure will collapse (no it won’t) if a high school student offers an alternative to theocracy that “the right” is so close to instituting.  [So much for the myth of a liberal education system.]  
Funny part is, the entire US economy and infrastructure will also collapse (no it won’t) if Christians fail to hold majority status as well.  This is what’s so delightful about Christians – they fail to demonstrate an ability for abstract thought – “what if we were not the majority?” never enters their heads.  Or if it does, they go all Baby Jane on the idea – “but you are in the wheelchair Blanche!” and go on their merry delusional bullying way and violate the separation of church & state at every opportunity the way God intended (no he doesn’t).

And the Random use of Capital Letters….

texas is not going to handle the whole “round earth” knowledge movement as easily as the rest of the country. you have to remember, they’re the taliban of christianity down there. I’m surprised there aren’t modern day witch trials. Watch that episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon says (in front of his Texan mother) “i’ll just stay here and teach evolution to creationists”. His mother, who knows he is a genius, says at the top of her lungs “AND THAT IS YOUR OPINION” to which he calmly replies “facts are not opinions, they’re facts” and she replies even louder “AND THAT IS YOUR OPINION”. Taliban of christianity folks, taliban of christianity.

What learning process?

somehow “Texas” and “educational process” seems a bit oxymoronic.

Don’t give them any ideas. They’re already rewriting the science and history textbooks to eliminate all those pesky facts that don’t square with their religious dogma. Dictionaries could be next on the list.

Show your support for the Secular Students at LPHS & like their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LPHS-Secular-Student-Alliance/111614505622865

You can tell it’s a grown-up writing because it’s missing the obligatory smiley-hearts dotting the “I”s. 

Someone please explain to me how that could be disruptive…

JESUS!!!1!!!!1

I see we all noticed the hyper-emotional crossing out and capitalization. Clearly the “A” word and the idea of atheists being ok people offended the (almost certainly Christian) sensibilities of the principal. After seeing that I was a little surprised to see that the SSA meeting info was ok’d; you wold think someone so emotionally agitated would just reject the whole thing. Then I noticed that the rejection was written in cursive while the ok’d section was printed and in what looks (to my admittedly inexpert opinion) to be a different person’s handwriting.

anybody else get the impression that the principal had her hissy fit and the someone else further down saw the lawsuit danger and took mitigating steps?

whatchu crazy atheist commies tryin to say the earth aint 6000 years old and people didnt live with dinosaurs.. carbon dating my foot. (they dont even know how crazy this sounds)whenever christians talk, i hear voice of Early from Squidbillies talking about “america was founded by jesus”… makes me laugh.

 Christian, it’s not a bad word. It just means someone who believes in Jesus yet ignores most of his “love thy neighbour” teachings.

Atheistintexas, and you just made yourself look like a fool

Thanks for posting that Nick, I put a copy of the note I sent to the principal up on my website. I hope he gets some feedback from around the country asking to reconsider. 
http://cdogzilla.blogspot.com/2012/06/at-tx-high-school-saying-atheist-ist.html

In Texas, we don’t need Gods, we have principals.  They really are lord and master of their domains.  That makes them the sole arbiter of what is “disruptive.”  With no offense to the members of the La Porte SSA, they need to remember that their fellow classmates are probably not exactly enlightened.  Sure, we don’t find it disruptive but those red state rednecks are easily disrupted.

You’ve never experienced it? What about the article in discussion? Sounds pretty sick to me!

I’m an atheist and like most atheists, I’m secularist, but I’m pretty sure the words “atheist” and “secularist” do not mean the same thing. A secularist is someone who believes in the separation of Church and State. The president of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State is a Baptist minister, one of the board members is a Rabbi. So, why not define “Secularist” instead of “atheist” on the poster? 

 You haven’t spent a whole lot of time reading medical charts, have you?

Little defensive atheist in Texas? I have lived in Texas for 3 years at one time and Robert is pretty spot on

Yep.  He’s right. 

Not everywhere, of course, and if you’re not apparently a member of the clan they’ll put the front on and you won’t see through it…  but.  If you appear to be part of the family, the crazy comes out…. and it is the pure stuff, 120 percent straight religious/racial psychosis, the kind that’s beyond any form of treatment.

The principal disallows the definition of “atheist,” and allows the part at the very bottom about the SSA and its objective, BUT the principal seems to be too embarrassed to take a stand, yes or no, on the statement in the middle over the flag, “America was founded on equality, respect and tolerance.”

Perhaps he or she realizes it’s irony and hypocrisy if that statement is allowed, and it’s an ugly, anti-American attitude if it is disallowed.

I think the state of Florida, which I am a native, has to be the craziest christian state……for gawd sake the people here elected Rick Scott, and he has a huge christian base…..

I had butterflies when I caught a glimpse of the horoscopes in the newspaper, I would quickly turn the page with my face turned away. lol

That’s a very astute observation. Perhaps this is a glimpse of the intraoffice tension behind the scenes at La Porte High School.  Someone with a cooler head has learned how to deal with an emotional Principal by offering placating compromises.

Well, the Flintstones was a documentary after all…wasn’t it?

 Um, no – I’m reading “Texas High School” in the headline, with further reference to that state in the article.

And I fly helicopters and airplanes at least three times a week, yet, the general population does not…..and most people really do not use handwritten skills anymore.

GoodAfternoon,I am writing to you today to express my outrage at your blocking of a poster meant to inform students what the proper meaning of an Atheist is. I would like to ask what is disruptive about it? This is typical christianity at work. Block anything that has the potential to open peoples eyes to the fallacy of your beliefs. Do we not live in a country where all types of beliefs are allowed to be practiced and discussed? All these students wanted to do was inform other like minded (FREE thinkers) that there is a proper and friendly forum for them to get together and discuss their views, opinions and beliefs. Your action on this matter is the center of the problem in our country in regards to stifling the first ammendement. When something like this is shot down it looks nothing more then a theist questioning their own beliefs and “faith” and in fear rejects the opportunity for others rights to question said beliefs. This is a highschool where young minds are learning and growing to be the leaders of the future generation. Why would you stymie this process? Your actions are deplorable at best and i would ask that you reconsider such a poor decision….so i may have taken a more passive aggressive aproach but what can ya do. I hope he is inundated with emails. Thanks for posting the address.

Yup.

Here’s mine; http://mygodlesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/at-texas-high-school-saying-atheist.html

Is that like the most understated Godwinning ever?

I shouldn’t bother continuing to teach my children to write then, should I?

I don’t know but maybe thinking that it’s promoting a “religious” viewpoint? It’s also the reason I wouldn’t get into teaching – parents. It might instigate bullying, which would be disruptive, it might instigate parents of students who pull their kids out of school, or at best, have a witch hunt. The principal said it was ok to have meetings, even if he crossed out quite violently what the meetings would be about, and probably should have corrected the extraneous comma in the part that was allowed to be on the poster.

Although I do have an alternate viewpoint – that hindering open discussion is antithetical to the education process, perhaps heading off a lot of nonsense (rather than civil discussion of alternate points of view) was the goal. I can just imagine working in a school system is a lot of avoiding bullshit traps and uproars where nothing actually gets accomplished. As for the “atheist in texas” comments about us northeasterners, well, the Atheist “good without god” posters on the subway all got vandalized (some with vulgar or violent intentions, and I thought we were less agitated about religious privilege up here, and more of a weenie “coexist” sort of place – but not for atheists.  That’s just the subway in Boston, I can imagine a poster in a school in Texas isn’t going to get a lot of respect. Mostly because I think a lot of teenagers just aren’t thinking for themselves and if indoctrinated in thick Christian values, are going to act more impulsively. I know that’s ageist, a lot of teens aren’t like this, but the school has to act on eggshells as if this sign is a fucking time bomb, I wouldn’t push it. They’re allowed to have meetings, and even put the flag on their sign. I thought Christians thought they owned the flag. Seems a principal allowing a meeting of utter Communists in his school (I am speculating his plausible views), even allowing those commies to use the flag, is fine by me. They can tell the attendees what an atheist is when they come to see what this flag USA meeting is about.

They should post the flyers just like that.

Here’s what I sent to the Principal:

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To the Principal at La Porte High School:

It is very disappointing and alarming to see that you have
redacted a simple and accurate description of the word “atheist” in the flyer submitted
to you by the Secular Student Alliance, repeatedly crossed out with apparent
emotional intensity, and with the rationalization that it would “Disrupt the
Educational Process at LPHS.”

Apparently what you mean by “educational process” is a
process of indoctrination into Christian privilege and intellectual
intolerance.

If that simple display of the word “atheist” would be so
disruptive, then whatever control you have over your school is based on
authoritarian suppression rather than based on respect for various and
differing views.

Are you and the faculty and students at LPHS so afraid of a
mere word?  Are you all so timid
that a viewpoint that differs from the majority is so intimidating that you
must suffocate it?  If your
objection to a simple word has its roots in your religion, is your faith so weak,
delicate, and fragile that it cannot withstand even the thought that
non-believers actually exist, and that they’re perfectly ordinary and decent
people?  

Will your faith crumble if you give up your prejudice?

I noticed that you did not cross out the statement over the
American flag, “America was founded on equality, respect and tolerance.” Are
you too embarrassed by the irony and hypocrisy if you make it clear that you disallow
that statement too? You clearly do not agree with it.

I urge you to reconsider your ill-informed reflex and to
permit the entire SSA flyer as it was submitted. It is not negative, or “disruptive”
or inflammatory in any way. Let your students be exposed to the reality that
not everyone has to be exactly like them as if they were all stamped out of a
machine. If anyone makes a disruption about it, that will be a teachable
moment. That will be your opportunity to establish your authority based on
intellectual integrity and the principal of tolerance, rather than based on the
cowardly suppression of differing views.

Yours truly,

Richard Wade

NO he did not, you are generalizing, Texas is really fucking big, the majority of the population resides in 4 major cities, sure the small towns may have more than there fair share of the crazies but what small towns across the nation don’t.  Austin is as liberal and secular as could want.  Yes, there are way to many churches and they are vocal about it, but lets not insult people for not wanting to be generalized in with the crazies.

 Edward,

Is it even legal to ask that question?

In the cause of accuracy and to point out both that 1) atheists, like everybody else, can jump to unwarranted conclusions and 2) atheists generally find it easier to self-correct and abandon said conclusions, I would like to make the following correction.

Based on the gender terminology of other commenters, I was operating under the assumption that the principal in question was a woman. I did not do appropriate fact-checking until after I posted. I have since found out that the principal of LPHS is a man so: the last sentence should read “…the principal had his hissy fit…” My apologies for the inaccuracy. 

“You keep using those words, I don’t think they mean what you think they mean”

I don’t give a good damn what you do to your kids, as long as you don’t follow Catholic priest leads.

They should post an exact reproduction of that poster with the scribbling intact.

 There is apparently a huge disparity between the large cities and the bulk of Texas which is glaringly obvious in voting patterns.  I don’t have any maps that show this on hand, but I’ve seen them.

BAM! 
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/2010-general-election/2010-texas-governors-race-maps/

 If you think you need to educate people to accept it is a bad word  then it is disruptive.  Clearly the principle thinks it IS a bad word and he/she will censor opinions that disagree with his/hers.  Probably he/she thinks it is good to censor in this case because they believe their opinion not only just an opinion but is the objective, absolute truth of the matter.   In that case, education can’t be distinguished from indoctrination.  

where in Texas are you that you are around these people you claim?

Many stereotypes are blatantly false, actually. 

I’d send it around without approval anyways.

^This, when i saw the note and the “crossing” i immediately thought it was a kid’s doing.

So the principle advocates mob rule and might-makes-right. Religion brings out the worst in me, and is disruptive if I allow it, but since there are more religious people in that school, the rest have to appease them instead of having equal citizenship.

This is a small school district just a few miles away from my free-thinking home. I’m not at all surprised at the official reaction. The SSA might as well have tried to post an illustrated flyer saying, “All you can eat Baby Buffet, every Monday at  2:45!”

Don’t look for any prompt responses from the principal or the school board. I’m sure they’re too busy redacting the words atheist, Buddhist, Hindu, and Humanist from all dictionaries, and adding them to the list of forbidden words on the school’s internet firewalls. 

I grew up in San Antonio, have driven end to end across the state several ways (up/down, east/west, slantways/sideways), and still go back fairly often, and I completely agree with Athiestintexas’s appraisement of things, in the cities where the majority of Texas’s population is, the religious people tend to be run of the mill religious, there are plenty of non-religious, and everyone seems to get along.  In the smaller towns, especially the north east and parts of the panhandle, you get some real crazies (great example, Glenrose… (go there if you want examples of crazies in Texas to bitch about) but even in towns like Glenrose I would have trouble saying that EVERYONE there is a religious fundamentalist.  Looking at the whole of a state, I found the religious nut-bags to be far more prominent in Colorado (where I went to college) than they are in Texas.  There maybe some sampling bias there, but the area I grew up in in Texas is fairly conservative, and Ft. Collins, Co is really liberal, so maybe the bias is in the other direction. 

 As for the drug cartels and killings, very little of the violence is on this side of the border, and what violence there is is fairly comparable to gang/drug related violence in other major US cities.  San Antonio, where me and my wife are from is on one of the major travel routes from the border to the rest of the nation (i.e. where the drugs are going to travel from the boarder north and east) and drug related violence has not really changed at all in the time since when Mexico was considered safe 10 years ago and now.  My wife also lived out in west Texas about 150 miles away from the border and 4 hours from Juarez (which by west Texas standards is a hop, skip, and a jump away), in a town thats on one of the major highway routs from the border to the rest of the country, and it was a really safe town.  As mentioned above El Passo is reported to be one of the safest cities in the US and its directly across the boarder from Juarez.  So IDK where your getting your information from other than personal bias but I think you can stop now.  
 Robert Germanovich, your arguments about Texas sucking, aside from not being based on facts are completely off topic here.

It should go without saying, but apparently does not. There are good and bad persons of every  belief or non-belief system.  As part of education, everyone should be apprised of the meaning of the word. It should be rather innocuous to those secure in their faith.
To say atheism is foolish or factually wrong is one thing. To say it is evil is something entirely different. I suspect that it evokes fear in those who have a vested interest in the promotion of theism — especially their own brand of theism.

Your beach comment pretty acuratly describes the whole of the 3rd coast, which is in large part due to all of the under-regulated oil drilling done in the gulf (Florida has much tighter restrictions, so their beaches on the gulf are a lot nicer).  Not really a commentary on the state.  Id also really like to know where in Texas your living that people are such assholes.  Ive lived in several small towns and not seen this as well as in San Antonio which is one of the friendlier cities Ive lived in.  Also I dont see how you can compare it to other southern states you’ve lived in if
 you’ve lived in Texas all your life…  Your description of Texans as “people who will say “Praise Jesus!” while they’re thinking of who to stab in the back next.” probably accurately describes people in every state, but Ive not seen any evidence of it being especially problematic in Texas.  Maybe some parts of East Texas, but no more so than here in Louisiana where Im living right now.  I also found your coment about Texas being surrounded by so many nice states to be rather hillarious.  Louisiana is the kind of state where the issues mentioned in the original post here wouldn’t happen because there arnt enough people in a school who are non-believers to make a club much less have their posters rejected by the school, who would literally paddle them for trying…  Oklahoma is another state thats kinda a shining example of a state run by the religious.  New Mexico in my experience seems pretty close to Texas on these things, but they dont have a high enough population to make the news as often.  Finally, if you dont like living in Texas, what is it that has kept you living there your whole life?  I get a job keeping you someplace for a few years, or family for longer, but your whole life?

Before going all gung ho contacting the school, this was in march, we should find out if and how it was resolved before flooding the school with letters about something that may have been addressed.

I just graduated from LPHS last Friday, I remember attending the meetings that poster attempted to advertise. Other students kept tearing down the posters, but they couldn’t stop the meetings. I sure hope my teacher that let us use her rooms for the meetings doesn’t somehow get caught up in the middle of all this, she was a nice teacher

just thinking the same thing…  lots of negative emotion from the principal similar to crimes of passion…

If that simple display of the word “atheist” would be so disruptive, then whatever control you have over your school is based on authoritarian suppression rather than based on respect for various and differing views.

—- Dick, that was an absolutely brilliant deduction and fantastic tidbit to give to the principle. Truly.

That was well done.

i kinda think so, Cafeeine.

Justin wins the thread/. 

Um, you realize that show is not a documentary, right? It’s a comedy show, probably one not written by texans. I can take a joke, but I can’t accept it as evidence of anything relevant here.

I have family that will occasionally post something backasswards on FB, and when I try to correct them, they wiggle out of the discussion by accusing me of ‘intellectual elitism’ or similar, but we can generally agree to disagree. I also have family (including myself) who never voted for either Bush (and they are not from Texas, by the way) . Or perry, for that matter. I grew up in a small town near FW (not really a district town now, just a suburb) and I can tell you religion in schools is a-ok with a lot of people here. But now I live in Austin and we continue to fight the good fight despite long odds (and, as others have noted, other cities also have a strong liberal faction).

So, yes, we deserve a lot of the shit we’re taking here, but we are not uniformly republican morons. I think we’d do better to focus on the crime rather than the only-partially-deserved stereotypes.

I don’t disagree with you. Really there is nothing wrong with atheism or that sign. But the idea that the sign is being posted is likely to rise controversy over the subject over religion which a school does not want.

Overall, I agree with this, but ‘disruptive’ =/= ‘evil.’

My thoughts exactly!  No, really. I didn’t see your post and said the same thing above.  Great minds and all that. 

It is disruptive because it would actually open a discussion about it. The idea of people actually talking about something instead of just staying ignorant would take away from being spoon fed information about how they’re supposed to “think”.

Gotta straighten this out. I went to this high school. It’s not a bad school. Just like any other state in this country, there are some intolerant people. I’m quite sick of seeing so many Americans singling out Texas as full of “red neck retarded intolerant hicks”! Yes, there are some of those here, but I can assure you, from first hand experience, MANY intelligent and good hearted people have and will graduate from this school. In fact, my class was composed of some of the smartest most competitive people I have ever met.

Anyone notice the “Fellowship of Christian Athletes” under the extracurricular activities section? 
http://sc.lpisd.org/education/club/club.php?sectionid=2206&

But why are we allowing a group of people get angry over a simple word? Christianity is shoved in the faces of everybody but if atheist is posted at a highschool, it becomes a case of respect and tolerance of their belief.

So, is SSA going to call Americans United & take this to court?

The simple fact is that Texas is full of “red neck retarded intolerant hicks”. Their legislators continuously demonstrate this, and their citizens do so, as well (not least because they keep electing the same sort of cretins).

I fully realize that this does not mean that every Texan is a moron. But the state, like all those in the south, has more than its fair share, and I believe the stereotype is quite fairly used.

I agree with Scott Trimble on every point!

Robert, Texas is HUGE. You have to drive 8, 10 or even 12 hours to go from border to border. Even if crazed drug mules were pouring over the border murdering people (they’re not), most of us live nowhere NEAR that border. But there simply is no illegal immigrant-related violence on the US side of the border, apart from occasional border patrol agent excessive force against Mexicans nationals while in custody.

The only sign most Texans ever see of illegal immigration is Mexican laborers working for companies that enthusiastically invite them to jobs that pay far below minimum wage. The maintenance men in apartments and rent houses where I’ve lived, for example. They spoke no English, so may have been illegal… Nice, polite, working hard for pitance, but nonetheless, illegal.

I agree with Scott: The only things that make Texas suck are the unbearable heat and the conservative bent. He’s really being very mild, saying it’s too conservative. But I’d say  it’s got a lot of ultra-right wing, intolerant, anti-education religious extremist bigots, who have gerrymandered their chosen criminals (many of them convicted) into permanent positions of power, where they can wage their Jihad on the rest of the unfortunate citizenry, who just want to have an equitable society, protect the Earth for their children and advance science for humankind.

I went to a high school right next to this high school.  You are in denial.  Texas is CHOCK FULL of intolerant hicks.  Sure, not EVERYONE is an intolerant hick, but having grown up in this state and living here for 24 years, it is absolutely backwards in most places.

Oh and for the record my biology teacher taught creationism in class, my government teacher (a coach) ranted that if gays are ever allowed to marry then people will start marrying their dogs, and my volleyball coach said that the reason we kept losing games was because we weren’t praying enough, and then proceeded to make us read the bible during practice.  I complained about all of these teachers to the principal and no action was taken, probably because our principal was very religious (Christian) as well.

In short, Texas education is a joke, and I am speaking from first-hand experience.  Quit living in denial.

We certainly can’t have students learning that the nonsense they’ve heard about atheists isn’t necessarily true.  That would disrupt the “learning process”. 

I have no doubt that many intelligent, good hearted people, yada yada yada…we just lament the fact they are in the vast minority….

This principle needs the sack. He is supposed to be an educator – this is the antithesis of education

I have said this before, but I will say it again. If we are to have free speech, with the limitations it has now of course, then it is the responsibility of the listener to not be offended by what they might hear. That being said, open hatred and bigotry still require this, but obviously this is not the intent of free speech to bring out hate. Maybe I’m being too liberal with my interpretation of free speech, but I think people should be able to post a non-inflammatory poster that is purely educational. Sorry bible belt, get with the times please. 

The denial of gods disrupts education? I don’t want to live in that kind of world anymore :

Well they better remove all of the dictionaries from that school. Wouldn’t want someone to open it to the word atheist as it could cause a disruption to the learning process.

funny how you still only listed man-made ideas…

The Secular Student Alliance is not listed on the school’s Extra-Curricular Clubs/Organization page on the official school website, but the Fellowship of Christian Athletes is. 

The SSA meets weekly, 15 minutes after school is over for the day. The FCA meets weekly,  during second period. 
I am not at all surprised. http://sc.lpisd.org/education/components/sectionlist/default.php?sectiondetailid=93&linkid=nav-menu-container-4-38412 

Phill Kelsey,

Is global warming a man-made idea or just the recognition of reality?

With no understanding of global warming, would it be any less real?

Is evolution a man-made idea or just the recognition of reality? 

With no understanding of evolution, would it be any less real? 

Is God a man-made idea? 

With no indoctrination in any particular god, is God real? 

.

I get the impression that it is the definition, rather than the word, that is more turbulent.

Without an explanation from the principal, we do not know.

They may have dictionaries that provide a different definition of “atheist.” Perhaps the suggestion of more than on god is the problem, even though the Bible never says that there are no other gods. It only says not to worship them. o_O

.

I got the impression it was satire. 

I am from the northeast..

Where did anyone state that there are more atheists in Texas than in Germanovichland?

In what way does the relative number of atheists justify your bias?

.

 Mustn’t forget REVENGE. The death penalty is alive & well in many U.S. States.

//
Someone please explain to me how that could be disruptive…//

Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The students might start to actually think …. like –  for themselves!!!!!…….. That has the potential to undermine the whole system!!!!!!

I would have explained to the principal that because of the fine job he and the educational establishment are doing in molding young minds, most of the students probably couldn’t read the sign because it has multisyllabic words and no pictures.

Interesting article.  I think the “disruption” of the definition of a word is possible.  For example, I learned that I was an agnostic from a vocabulary word as a freshman in a Chicago high school.  (No problem there, of course.)  
I went to college at the historically black Jackson State University in Jackson, MS.  There I learned how twisted definitions could be.  I told someone that I was an agnostic and It was automatically assumed that I was saying that God absolutely doesn’t exist.  

I had to explain that I thought that a god may or may not exist, but that existence may not be verifiable.  Also, if a god did exist then the nature of that god may not be understood or correlate with any of the human developed religions.

My roommate was an atheist (AND a Republican–a double whammy at JSU), so of course he was in league with Satan.  Our differences led to a number of interesting conversations with our fellow Christians.

Could you imagine what would happen if people started to know what “atheist” really means?  It could lead to a subtle shift in power.  The word would be less demonized and some may come to realize that they are indeed atheist!

Actually, I’ve found that those words are much more acceptable than “atheist.”  Religious dialogues are more common between faiths than those between believers and non-believers.

If I could “like” it a gain, I would!  

”
I think if we cannot agree on a clear definition of the concept, we cannot really argue sensibly about the notions built upon it.”

Why argue about notions that we have no reason to believe are real?

This is just the God of the Gaps we do not even know about.

.