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Atheist News for May 2020

Posted on June 3, 2020July 15, 2020 by Atheists We Are

Here is a list of atheist news for May 2020. Did we miss something? Email info[at]atheistsweare.com.

- Republican Atheists announced friendship with Ugandan activist Mpagi M. Michael. Link.
- Atheist Alliance International responded to allegations made by Mr Oz Atheist on Twitter. Link.
- Atheists challenged a school in Texas for putting up a “Just Pray” marquee. Link.
- International Association of Atheists introduced the International Atheist Chamber of Commerce. Link.
- Atheist Republic spoke with Atheist Alliance International about collaborating to help atheists who are in trouble for blasphemy.

- Mandisa Thomas, founder and president of Black Nonbelievers, was interviewed by Lucien Greaves. Link.
- Kevon Cameron, Black Nonbelievers New York City member, was interviewed by Moral Misfits.

Michael Sherlock, executive director of Atheist Alliance International, discusses his role in the organization. Link.
Republican Atheists released a list of atheist Republican elected officials. Link.
Republican Atheists announced friendship with secular conservative published author and speaker Heather Mac Donald. Link.
International Association of Atheists bumper stickers are available. Link.
Atheists for Liberty was interviewed by David Silverman. Link.
International Association of Atheists announced the Secular Underground Network, a program to help atheists in danger. Link.
Atheisten Österreich, an atheist organization in Germany, became an affiliate with Atheist Alliance International. Link.
International Association of Atheists announced three new board members. Link.
A documentary is scheduled to be produced about Peter Boghosian, a board member of Atheists for Liberty. Link.
Jeff Pastor, a Republican on the Cincinnati city council, announced he is atheist. Link.
International Association of Atheists became a partner with Atheists in Kenya Society. Link.
“Being a Republican Atheist is not an oxymoron: an interview with founder Lauren Ell.” Published June 13, 2018. Link.

Atheists We Are icon Atheists We Are is an organization focused on showcasing atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Atheist News for April 2020

Posted on May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by Atheists We Are

Here is a list of atheist news for April 2020. Did we miss something? Email info[at]atheistsweare.com.

Atheists for Liberty Advisory Board member Michael Shermer was featured on the Rubin Report to discuss his book Giving the Devil His Due. Link.
Republican Atheists attended CPAC for the first time. Link.
Mandisa Thomas discussed Black Nonbelievers And The Atheist Community on Point of Inquiry on April 23, 2020. Link.
Republican Atheists is seeking to connect with atheist Republicans who are elected officials. Link.
Atheist Republic hosted a patron meetup on April 21, 2020. Link to video recording.
Atheist Moms has volunteer opportunities available. Link.
Atheist conservative published author and speaker Heather Mac Donald was published by The Hill on April 18, 2020: “Keeping the coronavirus death toll in perspective.” Link.
Nick Fish and Debbie Goddard of American Atheists were featured on Atheist Experience. Link.
Dennis Paul Himes, Connecticut State Director for American Atheists, penned a letter in the Journal Inquirer, regarding Governor Ned Lamont’s religious exemption for gatherings in CT. Link.
Atheists We Are blog: “Here are five new atheist organizations that recently emerged.” Link.
American Atheists joined Center for Inquiry and American Humanist Association in filing an amicus brief in the Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania case, one of the most important religious exemption cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term. Link.
Michael Sherlock has been announced as the new executive director for Atheist Alliance International. Here he is featured in an interview. Link.

Atheists We Are icon Atheists We Are is an organization focused on showcasing atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you World Religion News for the spotlight

Posted on April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 by Atheists We Are

World Religion News, a website dedicated to publishing religion-oriented news updates, published a snippet on April 16, 2020, about the launch of Atheists We Are’s monthly atheist news blog. We want to thank World Religion News for the spotlight!

World Religion News did not contact us about this snippet, but simply re-hashed information published on our website. Fine with us! Thanks again.

This is the first official publication mentioning Atheists We Are.

View the published piece here.

Atheists We Are icon Atheists We Are is an organization focused on showcasing atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here are five new atheist organizations that recently emerged

Posted on April 11, 2020April 11, 2020 by Atheists We Are

Here are four new US-based atheist organizations that emerged within the last few months.

Atheists We Are

Mission: Atheists We Are is an organization focused on showcasing atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Atheists United for Israel

Mission: Atheists United for Israel is an organization representing atheists who support the country of Israel.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Atheist Moms

Mission: Atheists Moms provides a community for moms who are atheist.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Atheists for Liberty

Mission statement: Atheists for Liberty is an educational, nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting for and sustaining individual rights and the separation of religion & government. We work to defend the fundamental freedoms that support the human quest for knowledge.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

International Association of Atheists

Mission: International Association of Atheists will focus on bringing evidence-based education to theocratic countries, ending blasphemy laws, supporting atheists in danger and providing tools for the atheist business owner.

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

Photo by Juhasz Imre from Pexels

Atheists We Are icon Atheists We Are is an organization focused on showcasing atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Atheist news for March 2020

Posted on March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 by Atheists We Are

Here is a list of atheist news for March 2020. Did we miss something? Email info[at]atheistsweare.com.

Republican Atheists announced it has a new Correspondent in the state of Missouri. Link.
Hemant Mehta, primary manager of the blog The Friendly Atheist, announced he was a contestant on the popular game show Jeopardy. The episode he is featured in will be aired on April 1, 2020. Link.
International Association of Atheists partnered with Child-Friendly Faith Project, an organization that helps fight religious child abuse and neglect.
Atheists for Liberty President Thomas Sheedy and Board Chair Michael Trollan were guests on the Mythinforned 12-hour stream to help raise money for the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a charity helping the victims of COVID-19.
Republican Atheists published rare photos of atheist conservative and terrorism expert Jillian Becker. Link.

Atheists We Are icon Atheists We Are is an organization focused on showcasing atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Missouri atheist groups appear to be “resistance” fronts on Twitter

Posted on March 28, 2020March 29, 2020 by Atheists We Are

There are two atheist Twitter accounts representing Kansas City (“Kansas City Atheists“) and St. Louis (“St. Louis Atheists“) in Missouri that do not appear to represent atheist groups, but rather serve as “resistance” fronts specifically to challenge Trump. There were other similar affiliated Twitter atheist accounts that were also based in Missouri that have since been deleted since I began investigating these groups.

After briefing through these two Twitter accounts a number of times, I noticed all they did was re-tweet anti-Trump content from random users, and did not share content about their groups. They also had unusually high numbers of followers, ranging in over 10,000 for each account. Both groups mention “resist” in the descriptions, and most of their followers use the hashtag #resist on their profiles as well as an image of a blue wave, associated with the term “blue wave” that means vote Democrat.

I sent a message on Twitter inquiring if the Kansas City atheists Twitter account was affiliated with an actual group, and received a response that said the account is not affiliated with a group, but that there are multiple people managing the account. The person mentioned to follow the St. Louis atheists account, to which I replied that I had unfollowed that account due to excessive anti-Trump content(it was actually filling up my feed to the point that it was difficult to see content from other accounts I was following). The Kansas City Atheists user responded that their account is not much different from the St. Louis account, said, “You may as well just get off Twitter,” and then subsequently blocked my account.

Kansas City atheists

One of the Twitter accounts that had been deleted (called “River City atheists”) mentioned on their profile to search on Google for their meet up group. So it seems these accounts are affiliated to a degree with atheist groups that meet in person?

There is one group that does appear to be official, known as Kansas City Atheist Coalition. This group is an official 501(c)3 non-profit, and has a more realistic Twitter following of over 500. It does not re-tweet anti-Trump content en masse like the other Missouri accounts.

I messaged Kansas City Atheist Coalition inquiring about the strange Twitter accounts based in Kansas City and St. Louis, but have not received a reply. It would be ideal for them to reply and straighten out what exactly is going on with these Twitter accounts, because it makes Missouri atheists appear to just be “resistance” fanatics.

The reason why Atheists We Are takes interest in this observation is because we have observed groups in the past parade around the term “atheist” while only promoting left leaning politics in their groups and social media platforms. As a result these groups are not effectively representing the atheist community, but rather a political ideology.

Lauren Ell is President and Founder of Atheists We Are. She has launched various organizations geared towards the atheist community, politics and Scandinavia, such as Republican Atheists, Atheists United for Israel, Nordic Republicans and Americans Sweden. Connect with Ell on Facebook and Twitter.

Atheist organizations that should be labeled atheist humanist

Posted on March 14, 2020March 14, 2020 by Atheists We Are

There are a number of organizations that are often mislabeled “atheist” organizations. When looking closer at these organizations, many of them are affiliated with promoting a doctrine known as humanism, therefore a more correct label for them would be “atheist humanist” organizations.

Why does this matter? This matters because not all atheists identify as humanists. Humanism is a doctrine that people must read about to apply it to themselves. It is important that individuals are aware when an organization is connected to a doctrine such as humanism, and that the general public is aware that the organizations are actually promoting atheist humanist ideology.

Here are “atheist humanist” organizations that often promote themselves as atheist organizations.

American Atheists

American Atheists’ Wikipedia page lists the organization’s purpose as, “Promote atheism and secular humanism; oppose religion in the public sphere.”

Secular Student Alliance

Secular Student Alliance’s Wikipedia page states, “The Secular Student Alliance (SSA) is a US-American educational nonprofit organization whose purpose is to educate high school and college students about the value of scientific reason and the intellectual basis of secularism in its atheistic and humanistic manifestations.”

Atheist Alliance International

On Atheist Alliance International’s Wikipedia page, it is noted that, “AAI continues to assist the Kasese School in Western Uganda. This is a humanist school that provides secular education in a remote area of the country.”

In this blog titled, “This Ugandan School Dares To Offer Humanist, Evidence-Based Curriculum – Here’s How You Can Help,” humanism is blatantly promoted.

International Association of Atheists

In a blog published by International Association of Atheists, a statement noted, “In just one week, you have given us over $5000 and 105 proud members of this global humanist organization.”

There are other organizations that are often labeled “atheist” and are connected to humanism, such as Secular Coalition for America and Freedom From Religion Foundation. Atheists We Are ultimately does not view those organizations as “atheist” organizations, but rather separation of church and state organizations, therefore we do not include them in organizations that apply to our audience.

Why I launched Atheists We Are

Posted on March 7, 2020March 29, 2020 by Atheists We Are

For years I have been observing general US-based atheist organizations online, and have thought they are not doing the one thing I expected them to, which is to showcase a wide variety of atheist individuals, atheist organizations and atheist news. Instead they tend to be focused on separation of church and state issues, pushing ultra-progressive policies and demonizing Christianity. This led me to launch Atheists We Are, an organization that is actually focused on what is happening in the global atheist community.

Another experience that led me to launch Atheists We Are was witnessing my other organization, Republican Atheists, be routinely ignored by atheist organizations who claimed to be representing atheists. I was not expecting them to be enthralled by Republican Atheists since most US-atheists tend to be ultra-progressive, but I was surprised that they did not have the courtesy to inquire about the organization Republican Atheists or me, a person launching the first organization representing atheist Republicans in the United States. Atheists We Are will have an open-minded approach to showcasing atheist organizations (or at least try to as open-minded as we can!).

Finally, I would like to showcase more of what is going on in the atheist community, such as changes within atheist organizations, atheists being featured in media, etc. Information posted can be good and bad. I am not one to speak positively of atheists at all times.

Atheists We Are will be a unique atheist organization since it will be managed by a Republican. I am not sure how the organization will develop over time since it is a side project for me, but we’ll see where it goes!

You are welcome to send feedback and tips to info[at]atheistsweare.com.