Here's the Group Description:
" Atheists often feel under attack in this country, founded in secularism, yet with growing numbers of people who practice an aggressive politically charged type of Christianity. The challenge is to go beyond anger, to be firm in a reality based perspective while effectively navigating the polital social reality of our county. . "
The Group feature in this new DK4 is an evolving concept, to say the least. While Kos originally promoted it as an important new tool for locating specific content, his last article said that joining one was only important for one in ten thousand people.
At the least this group can be a meeting place, whether individuals want to use the group feature to channel their diaries or not. As of now the benefits of doing this is not clear. So, I welcome requests for joining and if it becomes a clearing house for diaries then those interested can be selected as editors, a task that if done seriously is challenging and often stressful (making constructive criticisms that are not resented.)
A little about me. I'm 70 years old, and a bit closer to finding out first hand whether there really is a God than most of you. My parents were both born into a Jewish enclave. My mother's was imposed by the legal system of Poland, and my father by the ethinic realities of Baltimore. The move to Washington D.C, where jobs were plentiful in the war boom of 1941 meant that they no longer lived surrounded by Yiddish speaking friends, and their children ventured into a Christian world that they were able to avoid.
My instructions were to do what the teachers told me to do. If it was to say a prayer, or to sing a song describing Jesus as "born is the King of Israel" then that's what I was supposed to do. I also went to Hebrew school, taught by a Rabbi whose values were formed somewhere in the middle ages, and who like my mother did not have to interact with those people who revered that person he referred to as the "mishugina" crazy rabble rouser. Needless to say, I ended up getting into a lot fights at both public school and Hebrew school--with the kids, and the authorities.
Now, I'm retired and can think and write about these things at my leisure. I was personally involved in a few San Diego County issues. I got to know the man who initiated the suit to remove a 42 foot high Cross from a prominant site on city property. After two decades of litigation, a referendum, the death of Phil Paulson, always prefaced in the news with the title of "Atheists" it is once again on the way to the Federal Court of Appeals, since they solved the problem of it being on city land, by transferring to the federal government!
I have many Christian friends, covering the spectrum of progressive demoninations to evangelicals and everything in between. And then there is Tom, who is a full throated new earth creationist, who dedicates his life and his fortune to this goal. Those who have the time can watch this video essay about my visit to his medical antibody facility in Tecate Mexico. (Suggest just the text, and opening the videos selectively)
Religion, and the lack thereof, is a big subject, and I welcome any who are interested to "join" Atheism in America, (believe the procedure is you send a request to my user name, arodb, and we will see how this Group feature evolves.
Al Rodbell