Community Makes It All Worth While - Especially If Its Secular!
Going to American Atheists Convention was a breath of fresh air!
Recently I went abroad to the Great White North to consort with a lot of likeminded people at the American Atheists convention. No, not THAT far North, it was just Minnesota! Minneapolis to be exact, but I have to say, it felt like a different country going there from central Iowa. They had a working long range public transit system, legal cannabis that could be purchased (even drinks for sale at a liquor store, NOT a dispensary. Whaaaaat?!), ethnic diversity, and a general vibe of “everyone is welcome” here. Between the gorgeous Prince murals on public locations to the pride and women’s rights stickers being the norm in shop windows rather than a rarity, it was definitely a place I felt happy to spend the Easter weekend in. But the reason I was there was for the con.
As someone who often feels like the Odd Man Out when it comes to many things, this feeling of being “out” was definitely a change on the atheism front. I was surrounded by hundreds of people who got what is really the most important but also one of the easiest questions in life correct: Is there a personal all-powerful god that thinks about me, personally, and that interacts in the world in any way? The simple “no” answer is right there for so many, yet it seems only a relatively small number of people can proudly stand up and proclaim it. Despite “none” being a more and more dominant position, answering a poll seems to be at odds with public discussions. At these conventions, it really does feel great to be in a room where its not a ‘thing’ to talk about. It’s a given, a tacit understanding, a shared response that allows us the freedom to be ourselves. In spaces like this, we all get at least that one important question right, so we can move on to build community on other things.
I gotta say, it’s good to be surrounded by folks who are brave enough to say “no” in today’s world, where being an atheist is often seen as a negative than a positive. When much of society builds their idea of good and bad based on centuries old texts, it’s not a surprise that those who stand against them are seen as somehow socially inferior. What being an atheist really means is that you’re willing to put down authoritative thinking and do the real work of being an ethical person all on your own. It means being willing to exchange ideas without fear of any kind of supernatural reprimand or some imagined reward. Being an part of organized secular and explicitly atheist groups means you’re willing to ask really difficult questions on things from the human rights of all peoples to what it means to take care of our planet for future generations. It was nice to be around folks who shared those values and ideas for a weekend, nice to know that a lot more folks out there are willing to do the hard work of being an atheist and a humanist.
And yeah, you know, it is hard work to be an atheist, especially an activist or community organizer.
How easy would it be for many in these communities to just fake it to make it? To go along just to get along? To get in good with that religious family member to secure a job at the family business? To make sure grandma thinks you’re going to seminary for that free college tuition gift? To build a business of “once I was an atheist but now I’m religious” podcasts or media tours that are so keen to pop up and take folks’ money? How easy would it be to just say, ‘you know its just not important to put in the hard work of being honest about these questions, I’ll just go along with this story to make my ethical answers easy and done for me’”
Taking an off ramp into religious thinking would be a very easy one for many folks at these events. Their lives would literally become easier overnight by simply walking back into a faith tradition or church in the culture we live in.
Yet, they don’t do that.
They don’t outsource their thinking about tough topics to a faith tradition or popularity contest. They rely on reason and science and seek to build community around that. The folks at these conventions put in the effort to share their experiences with others and find ways to build community for their neighbors. They see the value in building their lives about the future for our fellow humans, not out of fear of retribution or a promise of an eternal reward. This results in an open space to share ideas where everyone feels safe to be themselves. You’ll find its very difficult to cast aspersion on groups of people, especially ethnic minorities or the LGTBQ community if you remove a lot of superstition and authoritative moral codes from the equation. That isn’t a bug, it’s a definite feature of secular community!
Still, the hard work of secular community building is harder to do in the face of rising Christian Nationalism, but that also makes it much more noble and respectable. After all, disbelieving is easy. That’s simply the best and easiest correct conclusion to the god question. It is the figuring out how the world works and what it means to use reason and science and doing the work of building around secular philosophy that is hard. But this is what motivates these people forward. It’s precisely that we care about each other that people seek to build a secular community, not simply out of disbelief. It means recognizing that there is a shared humanity and its precisely because we care about others that drives these people to organize and share space together. They recognize the impact of bad ideas on the human condition with an eye towards the future for a better world, and an eye backwards, considering how life was worse when faith and superstition were in charge or at least equal to reason. Those were called the dark ages – when faith ruled supreme.
Lets fight back against that with the light of reason and community like was seen in Minneapolis.
Imagine how good it feels to be around folks who make space for others, not out of fear or obedience, but out of empathy and demonstrable care for others? Knowing that they have your back, not because you share in a belief or non-belief, but because they value you as a person as a matter of course. That’s a good feeling and building around these values is worthwhile. This is what I am happy to be a part of here in Iowa and what I want to expand going forward. I want to feel that feeling of community and shared goals more, with a rejection of the supernatural as the norm rather than as an outlier. I want a community where folks thank each other for their hard work and success rather than an imaginary deity. I want a culture that is accepting of everyone and recognizes the humanity in everyone rather than “means testing” humanity the way so many sectarian faiths do.
After being in Minneapolis, I know its possible. I know its real. I know its there, if we can just get through our own hang ups, mostly caused by economic insecurity that is literally built in to our awful economic policies, we can have a better world. No gods needed, only our collective humanity, to find a better tomorrow.
What better time to find that better tomorrow, than today?
Great story Jason!