Atheist Television Channel
Offline I like some of the billboard posters on there. Would love to put a few of those up in this city of church billboards. Surprised this has not received much more attention to be honest. Today was the first day I found out about it. What will the overall content of the channel be ?
www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28616115
The stigma of being an atheist in the US
Atheists in the US are rallying together, launching a new TV programme and providing support for those who go public with their beliefs.
"Sometimes things need to be said, and fights need to be fought even if they are unpopular. To the closeted atheists, you are not alone, and you deserve equality."
So goes the rousing speech from the American Atheists president, David Silverman, in the opening moments of the first US television broadcaster dedicated to those who do not believe in God, Atheist TV.
A series of testimonies from prominent atheists then follows.
"It's one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life and I completely advocate people 'coming out'," says Mark Hatcher, from Black Atheists of America.
"Coming out" is how many atheists in the USA describe what remains, for many, a very difficult admission to make publicly.
At one of the biggest gatherings of atheist students in the country, in Columbus, Ohio, Jamila Bey from the Secular Student Alliance said there were many attendees who were nervous about being interviewed and had indicated so by what they were wearing around their neck.
"Red lanyards mean 'You may not talk to me'," says Bey. "A number of the students we have aren't 'out'. Their parents may not know that they are atheist or questioning their religion."
She said many were worried about being ostracised or were even scared of violence if they revealed they did not believe in God.
Lasan Dancay-Bangura, 22, is happy to talk to us. He is, after all, head of his university's atheist student group. He lets out a deep, sad sigh as he recalls the moment he told his mother he was an atheist.
"Things were really not good to begin with. She was so angry," he says.
"After a while I think she just accepted it. We still don't talk about it. It looks like she's not going to kick me out."
Dancay-Bangura admits that he still has not told his father.
"I don't want our relationship to be destroyed because of that," he says. "You hear it all the time."
"And you hear about people being kicked out, and sent to bible camps where they're forced to be religious. I don't want to lose my father to that."
The parents of Katelyn Campbell, 19, from West Virginia, have been very supportive of her stance as an atheist. Her problem has been other members of the community. "In high school, when I walked down the hallway it would be completely silent, or I would be spat on," Katelyn says.
Two years ago, she protested against the inclusion of religion and abstinence in her school sex education classes. She is still feeling the impact.
"Often times I'm really uncomfortable being out in public spaces in my community at home because people often bring that discussion to my face, which is a discussion of values that are very personal and very private," she says.
A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre shows Americans would rather have a president who was either in their 70s, or openly gay, or who had never held any public office than one that was atheist.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
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Astonishingly, a previous poll by Pew suggested respondents in the US regarded atheists as less trustworthy than rapists. One of Atheist TV's new phone-in programmes, The Atheist Experience, has already had a taste of how many Americans perceive "non-believers".
"So you were studying to be a minister, and now you don't believe in God? You're the devil," one caller tells the host. "You're a Marxist, you're an atheist and you're from Russia," says another.
At the atheist student event in Ohio, they are trying to change things.
T-shirts are laid out for sale on one of the vending tables. "Godless Goddess" says one; "This is what an atheist looks like" says another.
Beside the stall stands Andrew Seidel, an attorney for the Freedom from Religion Foundation. "Many Americans think they have never met another atheist, but that is because so many are afraid to publicly acknowledge it," says Andrew.
"The way we'll win this fight is because of demographics. Just like it was really important for the LGBT movement to come out of the closet, it's important for us to say it loud and say it proud, 'I'm an atheist!'"
Who is an atheist?
• 2% of US adults say they are atheists
• 67% of them are men
• 26% of them see themselves as spiritual
Source: Pew Research Center
And it does appear the demographics are changing, particularly among the young, where the proportion of those identifying themselves as "religiously unaffiliated" is rising.
But America has a much higher proportion of people who say religion is very important to them as compared to European countries.
"America is an anomaly because, number one, we were founded by Puritans," says Jamila Bey from the Secular Student Alliance.
More recently, particularly for the African-American community in the civil rights struggle, but also for many other minority communities, Bey says she feels religion became a way of gaining acceptance.
"It was a way to say 'I'm a good Christian, you shouldn't turn fire hoses on me, and you should let my child go to the school with little white children, Jesus loves us all'," she says.
The new TV channel is part of atheist groups' own civil rights movement.
But real acceptance, particularly for those serving in public office, in a country where no serving congressman or woman is openly atheist, could still be some way off.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Maybe they'll take the opportunity to take over from all the educational channels that turned into bullshit. I hope so. If all they do is atheist content they'll be out of material in a year, and it'll probably be a boring year.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
That would be nice, but it seems unfortunately Americans love their mind rot tv more than actually valuing science and math. I'd be lying if I said I do not have my escapism, IE ABBA and NFL, but we really do have fare more sugar coated bullshit on TV than we do pragmatic programing that actually teaches.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I happen to agree. A biker bro first mentioned this to me and when I asked what they would be talking about, his answer was : "Hopefull real science that is absent of aliens built pyramids, ghosts and all the other bunk".
I am hoping for a more rational overview of like the history channels of yore used to present. As it is now, I can hardly stand the History channel or any of the rest of them. They range from reality nonsense to bunk science.
Hate to admit it, but even their so called "anti-christian" stuff that theists bitch about is redundant (Jesus faking his own death, gospels of Mary and other quackademia writers with bestsellers to push). Just my feeling on the matter.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Getting to it can be complicated but I am watching on this link [it might be Canada only] http://www.atheists.org/atheistTV/live
Atheists can be kind of boring especially when your trying to fill in 168 hours a week, the talking heads from American Atheist are among the dullest, they need more content from other shows, like UNLEARN TV, JREF, Strange Frequincies Radio etc. Their best offering right now is 5 month old Atheist Experience reruns. Unfortunately their best stuff {David Silverman vs. fox news heads} they can't use because of copyright infringements.
I hope they succeed.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
Sounds like a snoozefest. Now if they got nonstampcollector and darkmatter together to make a cartoon series, that would be awesome.
If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy.- Malcolm X
That would be GREAT !
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
I was looking at the Channel Store on my Roku box and I saw this a few weeks ago. I watched, tried to watch it, for about two minutes. It was a live class or presentation from an atheist which was so boring that I not only stopped watching it that day I removed it from my channel selection and never watched it again. I was worse than watching and early Neil Tyson deGrasse.
And religious programming is interesting?? Nothing will put you to sleep faster than a ChristNUT channel!
Is this Atheist TV available anywhere in the USA? I have Uverse and it's not on there.
Click here to find out why Christianity is the biggest fairy tale ever created!! www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm www.JesusNEVERexisted.com
Too many repeats of old atheist stuff you can find elsewhere. This would have been better suited as a radio feed. Infidel Guy used to have a 24/7 radio feed. He had much more live to tape programing on rotation that was updated every week. This certianly will die quickly if it stays this way.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
JNE try the link I posted at the #5 post and tell me if it works. And any suggestions thou hath-ith make them to atheist TV; they could use the input.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?