Why don’t you attend atheist events? What is there to discuss? “You don’t believe in gods? Me too! …. How about some coffee?” I mean, it’s just a short discussion. “Did you catch the baseball match? No. Me neither.” Most of the speakers at atheist events are just bitching about believers, explaining why believers are wrong, bring up the same nasty old passages of the Bible/Koran/Torah, etc. So you end up talking about the things you don’t believe in, and which have no value for you. I would have more fun at a convention for people who don’t eat food but live on air, or who don’t fart in bed (except I wouldn’t qualify), or who have overcome the challenge of chewing gum and walking at the same time (which would be distinctly devoid of politicians, I suspect). - Thanks Dean Van Drasek for the above.
I love Atheist events. I go to all events I can afford.
I do attend events mostly FFRF conventions (5 so far). They are always inspiring and FUN. My biggest issue is the money aspect. Would it be better to donate what it costs to attend such an event or spend the money for self-gratification. I would love to attend a Humanist convention but the cost is so high that I could not feel right in spending money when there are much better ways of helping this cause.
I agree it is expensive, but another way to think of it is at least we are not tithing and throwing our money way doing that!
Being out in the middle of no mans land, I would attend.. Its not about needing community has having something like this in common and feeling that it is a safe place to be. We share the somewhat the same ways of thinking and feeling about religion. It would be like any other gathering of sorts that take place.
Wait, we have events?
Too funny! Your answer makes me smile every time I read it!
I attend some, but many of the events are of little interest to me or happen at inconvenient times.
Any atheist meeting should have more than one event at the same time. So some could attend the main event discussing the social science, and others could attend a meeting on local events or a discussion about physics, mathematics, or space travel. Then I would attend these meetings.
There are no such events in my area the nearest are over an hour and a half drive and are at the universities where most attendees are decades younger.
I enjoy going to atheist events because I enjoy the lectures. They are intellectually stimulating. They aren't about "bitching about believers" but about interesting topics like morality, free will vs determinism or social issues. I like meeting others who believe in evidence instead of faith, skeptics instead of gullible people.