National secular groups I can join

I know of the Secular Web already, and currently I’m looking for a secular group that would be in my area. Does anyone know of a national group I could join? I’ll bet Diogenes the Cynic does.

By this I mean a group like the Secular Web, a group of Secular Humanists who meet together to discuss secular ideas and how they loathe religion. Over the past month or so, I’ve come to hate religion more than ever before- in my mind, you’re either 100% for your religion (Christian, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, etc.), or you reject it as mythology and will help us work towards a secular world. Anyone who falls in between (and I know how huge a group you guys are), I honestly see as worthless. Honestly. But don’t worry, I’m not out to hurt anyone.

Somebody’s going to say this, so why not me? - what would be the point of joining such a cheerless group?

You’re therefore guilty of the exact same kind of silly black-and-white dichotomous thinking that is practiced by the very worst of the religious fundamentalists you claim to hate. Just thought it was worth mentioning that.

Sounds like a fools errand to me; if there’s any hope at all for the human race, it doesn’t lie at either extreme of the religious scale (IMO).

Sorry, I thought we were in GD; please ignore the above.

Exactly. I had already come to realize that. Not everyone who’s agrees with Sec Hum.s about religion wants to bring about a Secular world. And it’s not like such a world is possible, unless all but .0005% of the world (that of the Secular Humanists and those who are willing to work with them) dissapeared. And that’s not what I, or I think most, Sec Hum want.

That’s not a real stat. The real figure is probably much lower.

I may be showing a huge ignorant void, but I thought secular humanism was a derogatory term made up by the religious right, to put the rest of us in our “proper place” in the great catalog of life.
learn something new every day.

Looks like you want to join a group like American Atheists.

Or, if you’d rather simply focus on the “humanism” part, I’m sure that there are many non-religious charities and groups that would allow you to serve and help your fellow human. Of course, these groups are not specifically anti-religious, and probably have many religious people involved as well as non-religious.

http://www.secularhumanism.org/societies/va/index.htm
Secular Humanism societies in Virginia.

Check out:
http://www.csicop.org/

and its sister site:

Not nearly as cheerless as you want, but very pro-science, anti-religion grp that demands rational thought in public policy making. (Not so much anti-religion, as much as anti-religion interfering with politics.)

No, I wouldn’t want to be affiliated with atheists. I’m agnostic- I admit that it’s impossible to know one way or another about the mysteries of the cosmos, but it is NOT impossible to understand the origins and mysteries of MAN-MADE SCAMS like Christianity and Islam or MAN-MADE or mythologies like Hindu gods and Yahweh. It does not take infinite knowledge or understanding to understand this crap. All it takes is enough time and resources and an open mind, and you can overcome this shite and reach THE TRUTH.

Thanks! I think I’ll try to join the DC branch.

Cool! And if you like them, you must know of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

Actually, Andrew, both the CSICOP & the Secular Humanism site are affiliated with the Centers for Inquiry. Those are the flagship websites of two of the major publications (Skeptical Inquirer for CSICOP.org & Free Inquiry for secularhumanism.org) of the Centers for Inquiry. The Center for Inquiry was founded by Paul Kurtz, professor emeritus of the State University of New York at Buffalo. The publishing arm of CFI is Prometheus Books.

You might also wish to consider a subscription to one, or both, of those magazines. There are many members of the SDMB who are avid readers of those two periodicals (I have recently renewed my subscription to both). And in fact, David B of our Great Debates forum is a sometime contributor to Skeptical Inquirer.

Here’s one book review by him:
http://www.csicop.org/si/9909/book-review.html
And here’s a 1999 magazine article he co-authored:
http://www.csicop.org/si/9907/scientific-skepticism.html

Well there’s the Elks and the Kiwanis… Wait… Oh…Nevermind.

The OP and much of what follows, while containing some GQ answers, actually belongs in the Pit. Since the OP appears to have been answered, I’ll close it and anyone who wants to dicuss side issues can open a new thread in GD or BBQ.