This is your chance to finally be heard. This is our chance to stand up, speak out, and be counted. We want to provide a platform for atheists around the globe to see that they are not alone. Atheists come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and backgrounds. The only thing that we all have in common is that we don’t see any credible evidence to believe in a god. It’s ok to be an atheist, and we want the world to know.
WeAreAtheism.com will:
- Provide an outlet for atheists to feel comfortable to come out of the closet.
- Always let visitors know there are other people out there that are non-believers just like them.
- Help people find other atheists in their state, city, and even neighborhood.
- Give access to local, national, and international organizations to become involved in the secular community.
- Empower people to start their own organizations in areas that do not already have them.
We are not just here to let you watch movies; these are real people living real lives as atheists. We want
the world to know we exist and we will not be ignored. We will stand up, speak out, and be counted.
Who are the We Are Atheism Team?
Amanda Brown
Amanda Brown, Co-Founder of We Are Atheism
This entire idea and website was Amanda’s idea. It dawned on her at the Secular Student Alliance Conference in 2011 that is was time to “Stand up, Speak out, and Be Counted” and she knew that there was a need for a place or website like this in the secular community after hearing Jessica Alqhuist’s plight in her community and feeling alone in her area. So after talking to a lot of people at the conference about this idea she knew she had to find a way to make it a reality. She came home and immediately went to work with Kyle and her husband, Adam Brown, to make this idea become a reality. She knows this website and its resources will help build a united community that will be able to support each other.
Amanda was born in 1986 and graduated from the University of Kansas in 2012 with a B.G.S in Psychology, B.G.S in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies both with an emphasis in Human Sexuality. With this degree and experience leading the Kansas City Atheist Coalition in their philanthropic efforts she has helped develop We Are Atheism into a nationally recognized non-profit organization. We Are Atheism has become a platform for atheists around the world to tell their story and to engage in philanthropic efforts as a national community on a local and direct level.
Amanda is more than just her involvement in the atheist movement. She has a 5-year-old daughter, Lily, who has been the biggest motivating factor in her life to create change and be an example of how someone can truly be “good” without god. She has done many things since the birth of We Are Atheism click here to read complete list and plans to continue her fight for separation of church and state, women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQIAA rights.
Currently she tours the country speaking on Secular Sexualism, Adult Comprehensive Sex Education, Famous Women in Atheism, “Famous” unknown women in history, Free Conference Organizing, Community/Philanthropic Event Organizing, Management of Volunteers, and helping people to come out of the closet by filming them in the “Atheist Closet”.
Adam Brown
Adam is the marketing and graphic design genius of this website. He is the Co-Owner and Creative Director for Voss Visuals, who are THE Marekting, graphic design, printing, and web designers for secular organizations/groups and small businesses. He makes people want to come to your events and websites by making them look professional and imaginatively designed. He takes pride in philanthropic and activist activities which is why he is also the Director of Fundraising for the Kansas City Atheist Coalition.
He is also the partner of Amanda Brown and the two of them have an intelligent daughter, Lily, who is the main reason they do what they do in the secular community. They are both dedicated to making a difference in this world through creating change and living by example. His passion and drive in this community has been unparalleled. He edits the videos into the wee hours of the night because he believes in this project and knows that it will help build community and allow for a place to help “new” atheists come out and help us to connect and become a united movement that will help religion die a quick and painless (well maybe not painless…) death.
Dan Hettmannsperger III
Dan Hettmannsperger III is a retired Naval Veteran who served as a Gunnersmate aboard the USS IOWA(BB-61). His education consisted of Kemper Military Academy and later Delta College where his studies where mainly in History, Religion, Literature and Philosophy. He began writing where George Orwell left off, in 1984. In that time he has written mainly poetry and been published in more then three dozen magazines from England to India. He also served as the film critic for the now defunct Lucid Moon magazine, taught Aikido, and was also a Dharma Teacher at the Stockton Buddhist Temple from 2004-2006.
Dan converted to Christianity of his own volition as the age of 11 and abandoned it at the age of 16 after having read the Bible in its entirety. Since then he has come to embrace Atheism, Existentialism, Buddhism, and the writings of such varied thinkers as Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Voltaire, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Camus, Bertrand Russell, Walter Kaufmann, Carl Sagan, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Karen Armstrong, and Hunter S. Thompson. He lives in Stockton, California where he reads everything he can get his hands on and continues in his ongoing efforts to improve the human condition.
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i am a scientist and for many years an agnostic,sitting on the fence,then one day ddecided it was time to make up my mind. it took 20 minutes of listening to christopher hitchens to convince me that there is no god. i have found a “killer”question that no theist can answer
“if there is an omnipotent and loving god why do bad things happen to good people?”and use it whenever i can
i must admit that religion enriches my life -when i see the explanations/justifications offered for their beliefs i feel like a genius
“if there is an omnipotent and loving god why do bad things happen to good people?”
The answer is that God does not love everyone. The Bible is filled with many examples of God ordering his followers to kill other people. At the same time, one of God’s commandments is don’t kill. It seems that commandment should be Thou shall not kill unless I say so. Even as a horror fan, I cannot stomach that contradiction.
In answer to your question, I believe it is addressed in Ecclesiastes.
I am a 42-year old divorcee and mother of three. I grew up in a Protestant family but, to be honest, religion never made sense to me. I believe in living an ethical life, helping others, showing compassion and striving for fairness. We do not need to bring a god into the picture to live like that. I try to teach my children that being alive is a most amazing experience. The fact that we are complex organisms who have developed the ability to wonder and to ask questions about meaning is in itself a beautiful mystery and, rather than seeking to find myths and crazy stories to answer those questions, we should actually live our lives embracing and cherishing the mystery.
Re Graham’s “killer question” why do bad things happen to good people if God is a loving God. Clearly Jesus was a good person yet God let him suffer and die on a cross. Suffering is a core part of the Christian religion and faith. Some people don’t get it. That’s ok, but to refer to it as a killer question is naive in the least.
Atheists ARE killers.
Last I checked, Atheists didn’t fly planes into the WTC screaming to Allah.
Yeah, instead of killing Thousands, atheist set up Gulags and killed millions.
What are you talking about? It appears you are lumping people who do not believe there is a god with the Soviet Union government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems during the Stalin era, from the 1930s through the 1950s (borrowed off Wikipedia). Me thinks you are on the wrong website… just sayin…
In response to “Just Sayin” — there are a couple of factors that need to be considered with respect to Stalin and his atrocities. First, Marxism functioned as a surrogate religion. It was a dogmatic system far different from the critical rationalism practiced by most contemporary atheists. Second, Stalin was primarily about power. In the broad sweep of Russian history, he looks like a Czar. Many Czars were cruel and killed untold numbers of their human “subjects.” But the population of Russia (and the Soviet Union as a whole) was much higher in the twentieth century than in previous centuries, and Stalin had access to better technology.
I am currently reading Steven Pinker’s book The Better Agels Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined. According to Pinker, the Thirty Years’ War, which had a lot to do with religion and was certainly inflamed by religious passions, killed a number of people that would have been equivalent to a staggering 32 MILLION in the twentieth century, based on percentages. So, while Stalin’s atrocities are indefensible, it is hard to lay them at the feet of atheism, whereas religion has, in fact been resonsible for the deaths of uncounted millions.
Thats nothing. The Officially Atheistic Commie governments, which wanted to eliminate religion because of their atheistic hatred of it (which you see in some of the “new”atheists) killed 100 Million People in the last century alone.
Agreed. not only that but I do see a need for suffering to some degree in life. Whether it be given by god or not is totally irrelevant. Without suffering how could we truly know the meaning of joy or happiness?
Keiv,
I love this question “without suffering how could we truly know the meaning of Joy or Happiness?” I like to compare it to a baby. A baby in an environment where all of its needs are met will distinguish a difference between happiness and sadness. How does this child know the difference? Have they been suffering in this environment where it has been loved, well cared for, and all of its needs are met? NO. It knows the difference because there are receptors in our brain that light up when we receive a pleasurable outcome which is different for each and every person. Hence groupings. Some people group with athletes, book worms, etc. We go where we feel happiness/joy not because an all powerful being decided to let our life go to shit and then ta da! One day this sky daddy decides to drop a $20 bill from the sky so we can eat dinner that night. It just doesn’t work that way. Does that make sense?
Yea for Amanda for speaking out in defense of her father.
So “Still Sayin’” thinks that the massacres of the Thirty Years’ War were “nothing.” Really?
Well, here’s something more to think about: that war was just one of a series of predominantly religious wars during the Reformation Era. Of course, we could also point out other atrocities committed in the name of religion — the various Inquisitions (Spanish, Papal, etc) come to mind, as do the Crusades (the Albigensian Crusade was a particularly cruel one, and was not even directed as Muslims), witch burnings, persecutions of “heretics,” and so forth.
Further, “Still Sayin’” apparently did not see my other points worthy of a response, or perhaps he/she just doesn’t know how to respond. To reiterate, there is a world of difference between doctrinaire Marxists of the 20th century and the critical rationalism (this is a term borrowed from Karl Popper) exhibited and promulgated by most contemporary atheists (even if they don’t use the term). Second, people like Stalin were primarily about power, and Stalin is really no surprise in the context of Russian history. Many Czars, who were at least nominally Christian, were equally cruel, and would have killed just as many people if there had been as many to kill, and if they had the technological means to do so.
Perhaps “Just Sayin’” or “Still Sayin” or whomever would care to respond to those points?
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