Ep#175 - Why did American Atheism lose its way?

The Godless Spellchecker Podcast

This week on The Knight Tube, Stephen Knight (@Gspellchecker) welcomes co-founder of Atheists for Liberty Thomas Sheedy (@SheedyThom). They talk about the controversy surrounding Richard Dawkins and the regressive descent of other American atheist groups into intersectional ideology. Where did it all go wrong for American atheism? And what can we do to course-correct?

0:00 Intro 2:19 Start of interview & About Thomas Sheedy 3:54 The creation of Atheists for Liberty 5:35 Why did the ‘Reason Rally’ fail so badly? 6:48 ‘Elevatorgate’ & the beginning of the end 13:45 Is going woke really hurting these groups? 21:09 American atheist organisations excommunicate Richard Dawkins 24:13 Why is the debate around self-ID and gender forbidden by ‘sceptics’? 29:33 Is far-left secular ideology making religion seem more appealing? 35:26 What atheist issues should we be paying attention to? 38:52 Can Atheists for Liberty claim political neutrality? 42:30 Setting up Atheist for Liberty stalls at conservative conventions 46:52 The rise of ‘Trumpism’ and the Capitol Hill attack 50:58 Is America on a political knife edge? 53:27 Wokeness uniting non-believers and believers in opposition? 59:30 How to support Atheists for Liberty

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Atheists for Liberty: https://www.atheistsforliberty.org/

Stephen Knight blog on Richard Dawkins Controversy: https://www.gspellchecker.com/2021/04/american-atheists-american-humanists-and-the-secular-coalition-join-the-woke-church/

Thomas Sheedy’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaR_8e3N15aLNGPABUhs_vg