Jim Downard is a Spokane native (with a sojourn in Southern California back in the early 1960s) who was raised in a secular family, so says had no personal faith to lose.
He’s always been a history and science buff (getting a bachelor’s in the former area at what was then Eastern Washington University in the early 1970s).
When legislators in the early 1980s tried to get Young Earth Creationism into public school science courses Downard began to follow that controversy and has continued down to the current Intelligent Design efforts, which he says naturally bumps his study into many issues of religion, politics and philosophy.
He learned about the Spokane Secular Society through a co-worker, and that connected him to the community’s atheist/humanist/secular citizenry. In that area he has put a similarly long-standing interest in films to good use by running his S3 movie night socials at his home (sometimes on secular related themes but usually just some ripping good movies).
For some reason when I click latest posts Jim’s questions and posts are not coming up….they did on my Dad’s older computer but I could not post a reply….here I can post a reply but cannot bring up the post…….well… the post was about atheists ‘evangelizing’ their point of view…here is what I had to say about that if it can find it’s way to the proper thread:
This is an odd question indeed. I am an atheist. I have been all my life (well..since the
age of 8…I will tell you the story if you email me at president@infreethought.org ). I have never tried to “convert” anyone to atheism. We have booths at both the Spokane and Idaho interstate fairs. We promote our secular groups and advocate for separation of church and state. We do not try and change anyone’s minds at all.
What you believe regarding the supernatural comes from a lifetime of exposure
around you…parents, preachers, teachers, friends, television, radio, the
bible, hopefully many other books…and so on. Coming to a conclusion about
what is essentially an epistemology; a way of determining what is true, what
counts for testable evidence, and what exposes what you consider to be facts
that guide your choices in life cannot be “evangelized” to you. It is
the culmination of years, maybe a lifetime of study and accumulating facts that
each individual puts together to form their view of life, any purpose that
might seem to be evident and so on.
This is not…or at least SHOULD NOT be something that is ‘evangelized’. It
should be a conclusion reached by personal investigation unhindered by the
‘borders’ of theism, atheism, or any other mind set. This is America after
all…where our Constitution protects individuals and minorities from the
tyranny of the majority imposing their opinions on others. And yes….good luck with that!
Jim, this is the link you’re looking for: https://favs.news/ask-an-atheist-why-do-atheists-seem-so-evangelical/