As a law firm dedicated to defending religious freedoms,we are thrilled that Judge Kavanaugh has finally been confirmed to the Supreme Court. Judge Kavanaugh has a solid history and commitment to protecting the religious freedoms and First Amendment rights of our citizens and has demonstrated in his many years on the bench a deep respect for the proper role of the judiciary.
Razib Khan points out in Discover Magazine, "most secular nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed 'Confucian societies'. It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s atheists are actually East Asian." Historically, Evangelical Christianity grows amidst economic/political instability (see: Economics and atheism ). Christianity is seeing explosive growth in China (See: Growth of Christianity in China ). Veteran investor Dr. Ed Yardeni, President and Chief Investment Strategist of Yardeni Research, predicts that President Donald Trump will win his trade war with China and the victory will send the U.S. stock market roaring upward. Newsweekdeclares, "Trump Is Winning the Trade War With China." Newsweek also recently published an article entitled Trump’s trade war has revealed China's surprising vulnerability China data shows pressure is building on the Chinese economy. Chinese stock marketsbattered by trade war fears. No bottomin sight for Chinese stocks. National Public Radio (NPR) indicatesDonald Trump's latest threatened tariffs could affect China and its leadership (And therefore its atheistic, communist leadership which advocates atheism and persecutes religious believers). Ronald Reagan accelerated the downfall of the communists in the former Soviet Union. Will Trump accelerate a weakening/downfall of Chinese communism? Donald Trump brought American atheists activists to their knees and caused them to become very despondent (See: Donald Trump and American atheists). At the 2018 American Atheists National Convention, the ex-president of the American Atheists organization David Silvermandeclared about atheist movement post President Donald Trump's election:
It is a hard time to be an atheist activist. This has affected us. And it has affected our community...
...it has really affected us. We are suffering a level of defeatism that I have never seen before...
We feel the loss. And we feel like we have lost. We feel like we lost the election... We see this cascade of attack coming down at us over and over from all different directions and we feel like it's over. I have heard so many times it makes me sick. It makes me sad. It feels like we lost.
The apathy that follows. It doesn't matter. We can't win anyways. It's useless to fight. This apathy is infecting us. It's hurting us.
And people are reacting to each other now. And so that is causing a division. Lots and lots of division in our movement. Hard, bad division... And that has resulted in a splintering and factioning of the movement that I have never seen before and none of us have.
In other words, we're in a bad situation and it's getting worse.
Later in 2018, Silverman was fired due to allegations of financial conflicts and sexual assault.After Silverman was terminated from his job at American Atheists, The Washington Post declared concerning Silverman, "Since then, he has lost his job, longtime friends, sleep and weight." In 2018, the morale of American atheists was very low! Imagine how low it will become when Donald Trump causes the growth of Christianity to accelerate in China!
3. Origin of the universe and atheists: On top of these two disasters for atheism, the atheist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking dies. Who is going to spin implausable tales for the origin of the universe now Mr. Atheist? Atheist and physicist Lawrence Krauss? Krauss is mired in scandal! See: A shambolic atheist community faces some tough choices
4, On August 27, 2018, the left leaning newspaper The Guardianpublishes an article entitled Religion: why faith is becoming more and more popular which declares:
If you think religion belongs to the past..., you need to check out the facts: 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group. Members of this demographic are generally younger and produce more children than those who have no religious affiliation, so the world is getting more religious, not less...
At the 2018 American Atheists convention, the ex-president of the American Atheist organization David Silverman declared:
It is a hard time to be an atheist activist. This has affected us. And it has affected our community...
...it has really affected us. We are suffering a level of defeatism that I have never seen before...
We feel the loss. And we feel like we have lost. We feel like we lost the election... We see this cascade of attack coming down at us over and over from all different directions and we feel like it's over. I have heard so many times it makes me sick. It makes me sad. It feels like we lost.
The apathy that follows. It doesn't matter. We can't win anyways. It's useless to fight. This apathy is infecting us. It's hurting us.
And people are reacting to each other now. And so that is causing a division. Lots and lots of division in our movement. Hard, bad division... And that has resulted in a splintering and factioning of the movement that I have never seen before and none of us have.
In other words, we're in a bad situation and it's getting worse.
Later in 2018, Silverman was fired due to allegations of financial conflicts and sexual assault.After Silverman was terminated from his job at American Atheists, The Washington Postdeclared concerning Silverman, "Since then, he has lost his job, longtime friends, sleep and weight."
The website Atheism and the City wrote about the 2018 cancellation of the first major atheist conference to be held in New York City:
But none of this is going to happen now because the event has just been canceled. The reasons why are complicated, but it started out difficult enough. The atheist community has splintered into a million shards in recent years. There are the atheist feminists and the atheist anti-feminists, the social justice warrior atheists and the anti-social justice warrior atheists. The pro-PC atheists and the anti-PC atheists. There are pro-Trump atheists and anti pro-Trump atheists. Atheists are split over gamergate, elevatorgate, whether we should organize, or whether we should even call ourselves atheists at all. The divisions go on and on.
In 2018, the atheist PZ Myersquotes an atheist activist who declares: "It’s quite depressing that movement Atheism has turned into such a joke. I valued it so much once." In addition, Myers says the atheist movement is in "shambles" and this is "quite depressing" for him.
The 2018 Global Atheist Convention has been cancelled.,
According to the Atheist Foundation of Australia, Inc.
The Convention Committee secured Victorian government funding, a great program of speakers and the same venue that housed the successful 2010 and 2012 conventions. With those elements, the AFA proceeded with the Convention. However, ticket sales have been substantially below expectations and below the levels for previous conventions, so, unfortunately, the Convention cannot proceed.
The atheist Jeremiah Traegerwrote about atheist conferences:
"As for conferences, I could imagine a number of reasons why they are getting smaller. Isn’t it possible that atheism, as a movement, just isn’t really as exciting or novel as it was 7 or 10 years ago?"
The atheist Jerry Coyne said about atheist conferences which he attended:
But to me the speakers and talks have often seemed repetitive: the same crew of jet-set skeptics giving the same talks.
...a few things bothered me, most notably the air of self-congratulation( which I excused on the grounds of enthusiastic people finding like-minded folks for the first time), the “fanboyness” directed at some of the famous atheists (they hardly let poor Richard alone, and I’m not sure he liked that!), and the lameness of quite a few of the talks. Again, how much new can you say about atheism?[
Atheist David Smalleywrote relating to atheist infighting: "And we wonder why we’re losing elections, losing funding, and our conferences are getting smaller." In 2017, The atheist activist Lee Moore said about atheist conferences, "Most conferences are gone now.They're either gone or in some kind of life support form."
