David,

"...What we need to learn is that apathy towards religious intolerance in society should be equally balanced with apathy with what atheists are on about..."

But the vast majority of atheists aren't "on about" anything.

"apatheists"?

Might I suggest that New Atheists might in future refer to their "movement as "Pugnatheism".

"Crapathiesm"... Poirot?

I think "Pugnatheism" is a wonderful word, Poirot. I hope they like it; we know from prior experience how sensitive they are about such expressions as 'militant' or 'strident' or even 'new'.
After all, not believing in supernatural deities is very serious business.
You could go to hell over something like that.
On reflection, I think I could survive being called an apatheist.
I'm so tuff...

Priorities, Mr Nicholls?

>>Your priorities might be submissions to government<<

I have no such "priorities". I was simply suggesting that if indeed the AFA purports to be some kind of lobby group for a fair go for atheists, they might consider some such action. Obviously not, for reasons that you make amply clear:

>>...four years of putting on two of the largest atheist conventions that have happened on the planet with the enormous amount of hours involved...<<

Which is exactly what I pointed out.

>>The AFA is obviously very effective at doing that as is seen by some of the inanity and fear induced comments...<<

An interesting KPI. Your mission is to generate inanity and fear. I'll remember that.

>>I wonder if you might explain what the self-promotion you prattle on about is and what are the gains in that to whom or what? A sensible answer is required<<

I thought I was being quite clear.

Your entire motivation seems to be the promotion of your society as some kind of focal point for activism. Yet there is no such activism in evidence, as Yabby observed, and a quick visit to your site confirmed. There is on the other hand plentiful material there that denigrates religion in general, and excoriates the religious for being so stupid as to hold the beliefs that they do.

If you see your mission to convert the religious to atheism, I suggest that simply sneering at them will not achieve your objective. If on the other hand you see your role as addressing government agencies on the wealth of favours that they variously provide - financial and otherwise - to religious organizations, you are clearly open to a charge of sloth.

>>I'm still quite exhausted from the last convention and am in no mood for petty idiocy<<

So, what are you "in the mood" for, Mr Nicholls? 

Adulation?

>>I’m always intrigued by atheists whose main talent is knocking others who are actually achieving something<<

And you have achieved what, precisely?

A platform for self-congratulation and mutual backslapping.

Well done.

Grim,

I wasn’t being sarcastic and you have missed my point. I possibly did not explain it clearly enough.

The AFA is well aware there are apatheists in the population. It seems that apathy is a part of human nature.

The main reason the AFA does not directly tout for members is that to do so can create a false image of the atheist demographic. If apatheists do not want to react against the bad parts of religion then that is how it is.

All the AFA attempts to do is to put the information out there so people can have another point of view. That information does not have to be accepted.

If apatheists all over the planet decide to let religion ride-roughshod over them and in the process the world annihilates itself, then that also is how it is.

There are a growing number of atheists who are not apatheists for various reasons, maybe education, upbringing, genes, who knows or cares really. All I am saying is we exist and we are pointing out some basic errors in human thinking that create harm to other people and are threatening the planet.

Atheists are not better than others, whether they are religious or apatheist.

As a general statement the religious dislike the atheist message no matter how mild it is or how it is given. Which leads us to how some apatheists, who know the content of the message from atheism is reasonably spot-on, but who constantly whinge that atheists are actually stating it. This leads some to pick on the delivery method no matter how it is given or by whom.

To me this is counterproductive without good reason.

I feel doubly lucky in not being religious or worse, an apatheist without a cause. :)

David

Thank you, Pericles - great post.

"Self-congratulatheism" seems to fit nicely as well.