Infidels are growing in numbers, and getting paid for it.. - Polidicks

[quote] [quote] [IMG]http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/thumbnail/public/2012/12/01/faith-atheism_0.jpg[/IMG] ============================================================ A grant that may be given to an atheist student group at the University of Wisconsin reflects a shift in cultural attitudes toward nonbelievers. [/quote] American money may be inscribed with the words “In God We Trust,” but at least one group of young nonbelievers is happy to take it anyway. An organization of student atheists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is on track to receive the largest grant ever awarded by an American university to a nontheistic student group. The landmark grant, totaling $69,000, marks a cultural shift in attitudes toward atheists and other nontheistic groups as religiosity continues to decline around the country. The Religion News Service’s Kimberly Winston reported that UW-Madison’s Atheists, Humanists, & Agnostics, or AHA, will be the most well-funded student atheist group in the nation should the money be approved. The grant has already passed two stages of approval and is awaiting a final OK by the university’s student council, chancellor, and regents. Rejection at this stage is unlikely, RNS said. AHA is a member of the Secular Student Alliance, a coalition of 387 nontheistic campus-based groups. Jesse Galef, the alliance’s director of communications, told RNS that more than one-half of its groups get by on $250 or less. She said the sizable grant to AHA will help give legitimacy to atheists groups nationwide. According to the most recent “Global Index of Religion and Atheism,” a worldwide poll whose results were released in a PDF file by Red C Research & Marketing Ltd. in August, the number of people who identify as atheists is growing around the globe. In the U.S., the number of people who say they are “convinced” atheists has risen from 1 to 5 percent in the past seven years. Worldwide, the comparable current figure is 13 percent. The poll also found that 60 percent of Americans consider themselves “religious,” down from 73 percent in 2005. The Win-Gallup poll was based on interviews with 51,927 people from around the world. While Americans are decidedly less religious than they were a decade ago, the vast majority of the country still believes in God, although that number, too, is declining. A Gallup poll released in June showed that 89 percent of the country believes in some form of supreme being, down from 98 percent in 1967. Atheist groups say the number of nonbelievers would likely be much higher if not for social pressures to practice religion and anti-atheist information spread by religious organizations, which creates a mistrust of nontheistic beliefs. American Atheists, the country’s largest atheist group, has said that, despite its propensity for rabble-rousing, it is not interested in “converting the religious.” In August, the group’s president, David Silverman, told the IBTimes that the focus is on “trying to turn closeted atheists into outed atheists.” In its mission statement, AHA echoes that credo. One aspect of the student group’s mission is to “raise public awareness about the misconceptions surrounding nonbelievers.” That can mean organizing “secular support groups” where nonbelievers can meet with likeminded people. And, with $69,000 in the bank, the group will finally have the resources to do just that. The moral of the story? Don’t stop nonbelieving. ============================================================ Source: [URL]http://www.ibtimes.com/atheism-rise-its-finally-paying-913226[/URL] [/quote]

I'm good with this.

So what was the grant for, exactly?

[QUOTE=Splash Attack;38697092]So what was the grant for, exactly?[/QUOTE] "In its mission statement, AHA echoes that credo. One aspect of the student group’s mission is to “raise public awareness about the misconceptions surrounding nonbelievers.” That can mean organizing “secular support groups” where nonbelievers can meet with likeminded people. And, with $69,000 in the bank, the group will finally have the resources to do just that." sounds like they fund clubs and organizations for atheists to come together. also pr i guess to address the taboos of being a non-believer.

[QUOTE=yawmwen;38697142]"In its mission statement, AHA echoes that credo. One aspect of the student group’s mission is to “raise public awareness about the misconceptions surrounding nonbelievers.” That can mean organizing “secular support groups” where nonbelievers can meet with likeminded people. And, with $69,000 in the bank, the group will finally have the resources to do just that." sounds like they fund clubs and organizations for atheists to come together. also pr i guess to address the taboos of being a non-believer.[/QUOTE] Hmm, that seems odd that they would get a grant that large for something like that.

Please say they use the money on tolerant and informative messages instead of "god sucks, lol"

[QUOTE=Zambies!;38697224]Please say they use the money on tolerant and informative messages instead of "god sucks, lol"[/QUOTE] Unfortunately, most arguments against religion/informative messages about atheism will get misinterpreted as "god sucks, lol" even if they're well thought out and reasonable. But yeah, hopefully they can put the money to good use.

Inc circlejerk

[QUOTE=Jack Bryce;38697364]Unfortunately, most [B]arguments against religion[/B]/informative messages about atheism will get misinterpreted as "god sucks, lol" even if they're well thought out and reasonable. But yeah, hopefully they can put the money to good use.[/QUOTE] Well, they shouldn't be arguing against religion in the first place.

[QUOTE=Splash Attack;38697426]Well, they shouldn't be arguing against religion in the first place.[/QUOTE] Well, seeing as their stated goals are “trying to turn closeted atheists into outed atheists.” and “raise public awareness about the misconceptions surrounding nonbelievers.” you're probably right about that. They should focus on those goals instead of any overt attempt to step on the toes of the religious. Though I still think I'm right (in too many cases) about the informative messages about atheism being taken as "god sucks, lol" instead of what they really are; Genuine attempts to get rid of the negative perception of nonbelievers.

A Gallup poll released in June showed that 89 percent of the country believes in some form of supreme being, down from [B]98 [/B]percent in 1967. Holy shit.

The student group's blog says that they're planning to use the money like this: [url]http://wiscatheists.blogspot.com/2012/11/victory.html[/url] [quote] $200 for a "Kickoff Bash" pizza party. $300 to acquire books for our own "Freethought Library." $700 for a video camera to document all of our events on YouTube. $1,300 to send our officers to the annual SSA Leadership Conference. $1,350 for a computer and printer to furnish our new office space. $2,780 to enrich the university with our "Freethought Speakers Series." $5,000 on printing thousands of AHA flyers to be posted across the campus. $6,500 on advertising AHA's events and services in the student newspapers. $16,650 to fund our amazing FREE conference, the Freethought Festival. And, Are you ready for this? $30,000 for 8 paid staff positions to be filled by the AHA officers. Plus a handful of other things, for a grand total of about $69,000.[/quote] I thought it sounded high but I guess this might actually be on level for a yearly operating expense for a student group on their campus, taking into consideration equipment, bringing in speakers, hosting events, etc. They summarize the student group funding in this chart, [url]http://wiscatheists.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-historic-day-for-aha.html[/url] [img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PulA4yQdj94/UGlRAIHObMI/AAAAAAAAAcI/RJiOtq5RrDI/s640/gssf.png[/img] If I'm understanding what they said in their post, there is a total pool of money, the "General Student Services Fund", which is derived from a segregated fee that is part of the tuition to go to this university. It's from this pool of money that student groups are funded, and a select group of them receive amounts in the thousands of dollars. I think all universities have a version of this, but of course universities with larger student bodies (UW Madison has over 40,000 total students according to their site) will have more money to work with. The total funding they got from this fund is actually under the average for groups on their campus according to the stats up there. They apparently sent in a request for a 90,000 operating budget, but only had the 60,000 figure approved by the campus council in a 11-1 vote allowing the group eligibility to this larger fund. Speaking from experience in a smaller state college (10,000 or so), it was very difficult to get good funding from the college unless they were an established group, especially those part of a larger national group. I think the local atheist type group in my university was quite active but received no where near the same funding as our much larger religious groups. Students were obviously much more conservative minded on my campus than the stereotype often is about 'lol college liberals', and as such the religious groups were able to do the crowning achievement of any student group- pizza parties for its members and interested students. The atheist group was lucky if they could even rent out a room for weekly meetings much less give out goodies, getting speakers in, campus recruiting, etc., so they were usually paying out of their own pockets for the group's operations. This is hard to do if you're already having to deal with your own expenses, especially if you're living away from your parents. It also discourages potential members who don't want to put too much of their money into the group beyond a small one time contribution. I can't imagine the atheist group here earned more than a couple hundreds for its yearly expenses.