Since Atheist, as a title for a church, doesn’t seem to have a lot of panache, how about calling it Gahantian?
It’s too early to tell if it’s a trend. But surely, I’ve noticed that couples in the late 20s to early 40s are becoming scarce in my church. It might be a combination of the child molestation claims and the economy. Church can take a lot of time, if families aren’t able to set aside the time, sometimes they just stop coming. And even if there hasn’t been a single incidence of child molestation charge at your particular church, cautious parents simply aren’t going to take a chance.
Me lawyer, me write words good. 
'Twas a compliment.
As for pchaos who knows if he’s a lawyer. I made some guesses, but I hope he’s not the lawyer he puts forth as his internet persona. I hope we’re getting trolled like a mf’er. Otherwise it’s just rather sad. But if pchaos isn’t that attorney he’d probably ought to run now as Simple Linctus’ call will likely cause the game to end quickly and litigiously.
In fact it’s very easy: go away for a couple of days, say you had some kind of revelation and god either dictated a bunch of new rules or gave you some stone tablets, and say you’re the new prophet. Tell people to give you all their money and say you have permission to have as many women as you want and you’re good to go. (The hard part is getting other people to buy all of this, but some people have been astonishingly successful with it.)
No, it’s a definite trend. The number of religiously unaffiliated people - which isn’t just atheists, but includes them - has more than doubled over the last 40 years. Your lack of awareness and refusal to acknowledge it is not a surprise.
Well, how long would you consider it takes before it’s a trend? Here are the US Census data for religious identification in the US since 1990. “No religion” as a group rose from 14,331,000 in 1990 to 29,481,000 in 2000 to 34,169,000 in 2010. That’s well over 100% growth in 20 years. And since you’ve suggested that people don’t change their beliefs after their 20s or so, that number - according to your own opinion, mind - is not likely to go down.
No, however, at least if atheists were organized they could tell potential adherents we have a real alternative.
Alternative to what? I’m pretty sure most people know that the alternative to believing in a god is not believing in a god.
Atheists are smart enough to figure out an alternative without being told.
True. Apparently this is not true of some theists who shall go unnamed. Seeing as how the non-religious group is growing, some are obviously able to figure it out.
What was the point of this thread, pchaos? You are already arguing this matter in this thread, so what was the need to start another one in GD?
I’m pretty sure atheism is the default position and we go on from there.
And since atheism isn’t a religion, you understanding of “adherents” remains flawed.
I’m an optimist, so I will assume that being pitted is an honor. Thank you, thank you,…how do I get unpitted?
Rite of passage, maybe. Not an honor.
You could stop doing everything you have been doing in your first few months on the board and become an open-minded, thoughtful poster who asks probing questions, thinks carefully about the answers, and tries to learn without presumptions and who doesn’t whine when people don’t accept his arguments.
And I’d like a pony.
Lotta questions regarding this answer:
So, if you don’t want atheists to rule the world, why are you advocating for an organization that would have the political pull to do just that?
There are fifty million squillion Christian, Islamic, Jewish and other religious denominations out there; who exactly is is lacking for an “alternative”? And why do we need one more?
Why are you so adamant, I mean pages and pages worth of adamant, that atheists provide an alternative that you wouldn’t believe in anyway?
And one last thing.
No argument there. I’m just pointing out that lawyers in particular should take care to guard their identities since information about them is a matter of public record.
Stop being a jackass.
Reposting this from ATMB:
And it might be that ex-parishioners have thought about whatever variaton of Christianity they have been exposed to and feel that they just do not believe in the underlying concepts any more.
Did an atheist dump you at some point? Step on your toe? Not pick you for stickball? In a multi-page thread filled with non-arguments and blatant unsubstantiated-- and, indeed, unsubstantiatable-- statements about a subset of people to whom you do not belong, this is by far the most ludicrous thing you’ve posted in a couple of days. Are you drunk? What the ever-loving hell do you mean by that?
You know, I graduated from a well-known Christian university, and while most of us were pretty intelligent and open-minded, we ran across your type often enough: passively aggressive solopsistic assholes.