David Brill of SBS Dateline (Australia) reported that a growing number of Australians reject religion and deities, and some headed to Houston, TX, late October to 'hear the word of no God,' given by 'preachers' (a pun used by Brill) such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. One of the common themes expressed was that atheists are moral and just as good as Christians.
At the conference, Nick Lee, President of the Atheist Alliance of America, pointed out that the meeting was taking place in the Christian heartland of America.
We're here, we're proud and we're not going away. And our worldview is just as important as the Sunday afternoon preachers … Imagine, you're sitting here in Houston, Texas in the heart of Rick Perry Country. Can you believe that? And we are sitting here in defiance.
Before announcing that he was running for president, Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry hosted an evangelical Christian prayer rally called "The Response," which was funded by the American Family Association and featured endorsers and speakers associated with the New Apostolic Reformation movement and 7 Mountains Christian dominionism. Lee told Dateline that he would not have been active as an atheist had he not moved to Texas:
I discovered after my career of moving around the world, living in various places even in the United States, where I never felt the oppression of religion. When I moved to Texas, I did feel it. In the Texas state constitution, there is, 'There shall be no religious test for holder of public office as long as he believes in a supreme being.' If any candidate stepped forward in Texas and ran on an atheist platform, they would have no chance of getting voted dog catcher.
Despite suffering from cancer, Christopher Hitchens attended the conference, where he was presented the Freethinker of the Year Award by Richard Dawkins, who praised his efforts in promoting the "honesty and dignity of atheism." Thin and showing the effects of stage 4 cancer, Hitchens continues to be riled by religion, characterizing it as sadistic and masochistic. "If Jesus wasn't the son of God, he was a hideous wicked imposter, whose words were vain and empty," he said.
Religious people like to criticize Hitchens and Dawkins for "their blind faith in their own opinions." Dawkins says he "doesn't give a damn about anybody's opinions." He only cares about the facts:
I am against the propagation of outdated, rather unimaginative, ideas about the world which is so much less exciting, so much less enthralling, so much less thrilling than the truth. I am against religion that teaches people to be satisfied with non-explanations for things when in the 21st century, we have extremely good explanations and we're getting even better ones.
The conference was well-received by attendees. One came from an evangelical household and is the only atheist in the family. He was grateful to be able to get away from all of the crosses and bibles in the house for awhile.
An 8-year-old girl attended the conference, where she asked Hitchens about good books to read. She floored him because she had already read all of the books he suggested. She wants to grow up to be a freethinker. "Remember the love bit, also," Hitchens advised her.
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