The recent organizer of the San Diego New Atheists and Agnostics, Michael, was recruited to another city for a medical residency, so Pedro Sousa has returned to his previously-held post as Organizer of the San Diego New Atheists and Agnostics. The original name of the group was the San Diego New Atheists. The "and Agnostics" was added at a later date, for inclusiveness, I suppose.
Many of us (Assistant Organizers) in leadership roles are happy with Pedro's return, as SDNA (before the addition of & Agnostics - for inclusiveness, presumably) is an organization founded on the development of interpersonal relationships, not political or social agendas.
When I first joined the group, which I did upon moving to San Diego from Albuquerque, my comment on the group, after my first Meetup, was that it was as a friendly social group that is just that - social. I still feel that way. To me, discussing religions and their ills is boring and nonconstructive.
Religions' acolytes make travel to certain parts of the world dangerous for the likes of me, but considering the places that they find "holy" and valuable, like the deserts of northern Africa and the Middle East, I do not hold too much fear that my personal movements will be limited, as I prefer lush, water-rich islands and coastal terrain. If the muslims and jews want to fight a war over a patch of sandy and rocky desert, I would be just as happy let them slaughter each other. As long as they don't involve the rest of us who couldn't give a flying f*ck what name to assign to the deity in charge, I'm in favor of the religiously-minded killing each other off. This might sound cold, but in reality, I'd much prefer they kill each other in the name of fighting over who's god's bigger than that they kill nonbelievers who are all, in reality, innocent bystanders...
It appears that there is a faction in SDNA&A who are in favor of the group becoming a political vehicle for social and political change. While I don't want to deny them SDNA&A as a place to meet likeminded individuals, I don't find their preachy attitude very attractive. I believe that the last thing SDNA&A needs to be is a place in which one feels alienated if one does not want to be a political activist. Political activists have met each other in social settings before. Remember Stonewall? It remained a safe gathering place for those who needed it without becoming a political institution itself.
There are nonbelievers who have begun "Sunday Assemblies" which appear, in effect, to be ceremonies from which the religion has been extracted. I have yet to attend one, as I feel no necessity to "commune" with others in a fixed, structured way. In other words, I feel no need for ritual. One of the reasons I left religion was the weekly practice of comparing wardrobes, as George Carlin so astutely pointed out so many years ago.
If SDNA had been originally cast as a political group, I'm not sure I would have joined. I know others who feel the same way. What we want is not to rant and rave against any particular flavor of religion all the time, because such activities are, as I stated above, a TOTAL BORE. We'd simply rather enjoy each other's human and humane company because nobody is going to mention such repulsive fictions as Jesus Christ or Allah.
The Coalition of Reason celebrates diversity. The nonbeliever community, including SDNA(&A), always has a contingent at the annual PRIDE parade. However, I do not want SDNA(&A) to become synonymous with the Coalition of Reason's other member organizations. There are already groups that are more focused on the intellectual development of arguments in favor of rational thought and logic.
There are groups that are more politically-driven and who participate more actively in the table conversations in Balboa Park on Saturday mornings. But I believe it is vitally important to have a purely social group, and that is how SDNA(&A) was founded. I believe it can and should hold true to its founding charter to be a safe social space. Not a place for angry old atheists who only want to talk about how much they've been wronged by their respective religions, but a place of growth, joy, and love, free from the bounds of religious dogma.
No comments:
Post a Comment