((When a religious person (and there are a few) joins the skeptic community they expect the same “respect” they receive everyday in TRW, and are offended when they are given the same treatment that atheists receive daily in TRW. Its okay for atheists to be slandered and offended, but turn the table on the religious and you will hear them cry foul.))

So you see the believers who come to your group as the enemy already, and feel it’s just payback to offend them? Keep in mind that if they have even shown up, they are not likely the people who slander and offend atheists.

It really sounds like you’ve got an atheists group calling itself skeptical (not that it can’t be both, but you should be clear on the point when people inquire…don’t invite someone you know is a believer, make Stupid Christian jokes all night and then act all defensive when they don’t come back).

To be honest, I’m seeing the Skeptical Movement turning into the Libertarians in one way at least….a bunch of passionate people no one listens to because they can’t relate to ideas that are not 100% coldly rational. (I’m not saying we have to accept them, but we do have to understand where people are coming from). Religion is just so deeply baked into our culture it may be that it HAS to be a blind spot for a while.

I used to just smile and stay silent when i lived at home and heard some woo woo nonsense from one of my religious relatives that came to visit. Now i never let such BS go without comment. [BTW, how can one be a real skeptic and believe in an invisible friend with absolutely no credible evidence to back his existence?]

I remember one time riding in a car with my brother-in-law and a mutual friend one night when our mutual friend, a grade-school teacher no less, looked up at the moon and announced, “Did you know they’ve discovered there are pyramids on the moon just like the ones in Egypt?” My brother-in-law and i both had a good laugh. When i asked where he heard that, he said it was just common knowledge! He seemed surprised we didn’t know about it. I think just speaking out is a big step forward.

I have experienced this many times over as I have formed a local skeptic group, and attend just about anything skeptic I can afford to attend. It’s like a anti-religion fest, finally you can be yourself, not that person who has to guard their words around work and family. Not sure how to explain this clearly, but skeptics and atheists are finally able to relax totally in the knowledge that you are unlikely to offend others.

When a religious person (and there are a few) joins the skeptic community they expect the same “respect” they receive everyday in TRW, and are offended when they are given the same treatment that atheists receive daily in TRW. Its okay for atheists to be slandered and offended, but turn the table on the religious and you will hear them cry foul.

The funny thing is, the big skeptics groups already agree as well. The Skeptics Society, CSI, and JREF are all officially apolitical, are all officially concerned with testable claims, and all officially without any mandate to promote atheism.

So, in that sense, the skeptical movement already has a unified mission. The next problem is really to get the supporters (and leaders) of each organization to stick to the existing mandate, and to better define the boundaries between these and parallel organizations (such as the CSI’s sister organizations at the CFI, which are concerned with atheism and humanism).