To imagine how I felt about this post from Atheism is Dead, imagine standing outside under a clear, blue sky and someone tells you the sky is green. You've certainly never seen, or heard, of a green sky, but you look just to be sure, and the sky is still blue. "The sky is blue," you reply. "I'm looking at it right now, and it's blue."
Now imagine that this person not only stands under a blue sky and insists it's green, but they show you as proof various books and websites that also assert the sky is green. Imagine your frustration as they attempt to use logic and big words and obscure books to prove something that you only have to lift your eyes up to disprove.
That's pretty much how I felt when I saw Atheism and the Illuminati:
Beware and be aware my friends, for while the Illuminati are lurking in the shadows attempting to establish their new world order another group, a menace of massive proportions, is acting in the wide open: they are—the Alluminati who are attempting to establish an atheist new world order
Wow, that's the most amazingly bizarre sentence I have ever seen: the Illuminati, atheism as religion and the atheist new world order, all tied together.
Just to clear things up, Mariano, I am an atheist. I blog about atheism, I belong to atheist organizations and a (primarily) atheist message board, I have read atheist books and I have never heard of any plot to take over the world. Atheism is not a religion and we are not trying to take over the world. Frankly, until we can get atheists to agree on a symbol for atheism, I don't think we're anywhere near getting organized enough to dominate the globe. Which sounds like a lot more trouble than it's worth, in my opinion. I mean, once we enslave the christians, what are we supposed to do with them? I don't know about you, but I have better things to do with my time than oppress people.
There seems to be a common misconception of atheism being anti-religion yet, it is not—it is very, very pro-religion. They are anti-theistic-religion but very much so pro atheistic-religion. This is not only due to militant activist atheist such as Michael Newdow who has long argued that atheism is a religion or the fact that, as noted in Nietzsche Nails Atheism, Again, atheism (under whatever label) has long held religious services (aspects of Unitarian Universalism are an example of this; see here, here and here).
It is, quite rightly, said that the best place to hide something is in plain sight. True indeed, as I recall that perhaps the first time that I posted on atheists attempting to establish an atheist new world order in the form of an atheist one world religion someone commented thusly, “‘Atheist religion’???? Dears, you really are a 3rd class blog.”
Do you suppose it occurred to Mariano to ask the atheists what atheism is all about? Yes, atheism is not antireligion. (Some atheists are, but not atheism itself.) However, calling atheism proreligion is like calling the Pope prochoice. "Yeah, sure, we don't believe in any supreme being, but we love the worship of the nonexistent supreme being. It's great!" wtf?! Do you read what you write, Mariano?
I greatly enjoy, however, that all of his "proof" is posts from his own blog. "Don't believe me? See what else I have to say on the subject!"
And no, the best place to hide things is generally not in plain sight. If I steal a tank, I probably should not attempt to hide it in my front yard. (Yes, I do frequently get pissed off about cliches.)
Many people ask “Is atheism a religion” and there are some reasons for answering in the affirmative yet, the simple answer is, “Whether it is one now or not one thing is for certain; many influential atheists want to establish it as a religion.”
There are no reasons for answering in the affirmative, unless not collecting stamps has become a hobby, but let's put this another way: "Is Christianity a pedophilic cult created and maintained solely for the purposes of giving pedophiles easy access to a wide variety of victims? Whether or not that's true, many influential Christians do seem to use it that way."
What follows is a lot of quotes from philosophers like Rousseau and people like Hovind, and a few Godwins, all continuing in the vein of Teh Evul Atheists are GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!one!!!!
All I have to say is if there is an atheist conspiracy to take over the world, I'm really miffed at not getting invited.
