We plan to do much more next year since we’ll have much more lead time for planning.

Jeremy Mullins
Organizer
Montgomery Area Freethought Association

You hit on a lot of concerns of atheists that those who are seeking to volunteer under the label of godlessness are doing so to appease others.

That is a possibility, and perhaps you are right. But you may also be wrong, and here is why: nontheists are not as wealthy as nearly every other group when it comes to social capital. Those who are volunteering may be looking to leverage social change, but to do that with little capital is futile. This is different from appeasement in that secular, social entrepreneurs endeavor to gain compromises and concessions with capital gained from socially valued action. In other words, trade and diplomacy.

How have historically antagonistic groups, like the USSR and USA for instance, drawn closer together? Trade and dialog. We already dialog with the “other side,” but we are lacking in trade. We can trade social capital, but we need to have some in the first place.

Well, why be part of “their” system, you might say? Isn’t that appeasement? I want to know what other system there is other than human relations. This is it. You must engage with your peers in order to gain power and respect. If you do not have respect, what reason would others have to protect your rights?

This is more complicated than many make it out to be. Atheists are not really humanized in the world’s eye, we would benefit from it being different.

Never compromise intellectually, but make concessions in a wise manner and profit from them.

But I have a huge problem with this on a couple of levels.

First, service should be voluntarily and not ordered. I know that’s not what they’re attempting to do but they could do the same thing just by pointing out that so many nonbelievers give and volunteer.

Secondly, we don’t have to prove a damned thing to anyone. Why do we have to go out of our way on a certain day to prove yes, see, we are willing to be nice. We don’t maim, and steal, and have orgies and eat babies…

I know there’s a lot of bigotry around but this does far more to support it than dispell it by acting as if we are going out of our way on one day of the year to make an effort as if we have something to prove instead of making an ungoing effort.

Just get out there and do your thing day to day. It’s dealing with secularists who aren’t what they’re made out to be that will dispell the stereotypes. Not bullshit declarations. The numbers on the loan charity you linked earlier was better evidence than this could ever be in a million years.

I’m not necessarily suggesting that you do this, but in a world where three billion people live on less that $1,000 a year, it’s absurd to think that driving a car that pollutes less is the epitome of service.