ScienceWatch:
You know the answer. Just look at you as an Atheist outside the sacred INNER CIRCLE of Atheism. It just dont feel right. If you dont pay your membership fees you become like a thief taking a ride on a bus without paying.

Have you got your Atheist T-Shirt yet ? You can buy this “Religion – together we can find the cure” T-shirt from the Richard Dawkins Foundation store for just 7,206.03 Naira and contribute to the spread of reason, rationality, and progress!

A unbiased investigator into Atheism had this to say, "Last week during my journey back from Prague to Leipzig, where I live, I had a conversation with a German lady who was sitting opposite to me in the train. When I told her that I study religion, she remarked categorically that religion for her is nothing more than a scam on a grand scale to rip people off and take their money away. It is not surprising to hear such a view from a person who grew up in East Germany—the most godless place on Earth—and it is arguably an opinion that is shared by many atheists around the world, including the neo-atheist “saint” Richard Dawkins:

The God Delusion, p. 23-24

I am not writing here to argue against such a view of religion. It is true that many preachers, clerics, and religious organizations collect money from people dishonestly to enrich themselves, although I believe a lot of the money raised via religious channels is used for fair and charitable purposes. I would like, however, to point out that atheism too can be converted into a scamming enterprise, and Dawkins is apparently doing just that.


Today I have read an article with the title “The bizarre—and costly—cult of Richard Dawkins,” which claims that Dawkins offers members of his foundation, which is allegedly dedicated for “reason, science and progress,” some “valuable” benefits such as the chance to meet him in person!

However, this privilege is not available to ordinary members.
Membership is organized hierarchically in circles—depending of course on how much money you pay for his “non-profit” organization—called the “Dawkins Circles”. The “Reason Circle,” which is the cheapest option, costs $85 monthly and offers you discounts on merchandize from the foundation store, such as this cool T-shirt above, and the chance to attend events with “Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science personalities.”

However, 27,000Naira a month is too little for the karma you gain from having a private lunch with the “Holy Prophet” himself. Such a privilege is reserved for members of the “Evolution Circle” or “The Magic of Reality Circle,” which cost, again according to the article cited above, 31.4million Naira – $500,000 annually.

At first I thought the article, which is published on The Spectator, to be satirical, especially that today I had read a satirical piece about Dawkins in The Daily Mash titled “Dawkins now just telling random strangers why he hates them.” When I failed to see any indication that The Spectator is a news parody website, which to my ignorance turned out to be a prominent British conservative magazine, I went to the official website of the Richard Dawkins Foundation to search for any clues about the “Dawkins Circles.”

What I have found, to my surprise, actually confirms The Spectator’s article. If you look at the screenshot below, you can see clearly that one of the benefits of the “highest membership level” is to have a private lunch with Dawkins. The membership section of the foundation website, however, mentions only three levels of membership (“Reason,” “Science,” and “Darwin Circle”), but none of them includes the “sacrament” of sharing a private meal with Dawkins, which suggests that are higher membership options but they are not shown here for whatever reason. [UPDATE: Apparently the highest level of membership is called the “Dawkins Circle,” and so it is above the “Darwin Circle,” which suggests to me that Dawkins somehow sees himself above Darwin.]

I don’t think it is difficult to see the incongruous nature of what Dawkins is doing. He accuses Televangelists of “fleecing gullible people of their money,” yet he does not shy away from duping “gullible” atheists into paying 27.4million Naira to have the “honor” of dining with him. It seems that he is making good deal of money from his atheist activism. According to the The Richest, The Sunday Times estimated his net worth in 2012 to be around, 46 Billion Naira which is comparable to the net worth of some of the richest Televangelists around the world.

Atheists, it seems, are not immune to being scammed just like the followers of any other creed, religious or not. In fact, atheism seems to reproduce many of the characteristics of religion against which it defines itself.

A notable example is the so-called “Sunday Assembly,” where atheists gather to perform Christian-like ceremonies and rituals. This is perhaps why much of recent research points toward classifying atheism as a form of religion or belief rather than the lack thereof.

Recent research points toward classifying atheism as a religion !!

Really ? Recent research points toward classifying atheism as a religion !!

this is shocking. As I have said, I will see what I can do. It's hard to believe that Richard Dawkins is up to all this. BTW, Richard Dawkins is not an authority on atheism. No one needs to identify with Dawkins to be an atheist. Dawkins or no Dawkins, atheism remains atheism.

Martinez19:
what does Richard Dawkins do to atheist who don't pay up?

All selfish non-paying Atheists will be banished to the outskirts of Atheism and suffer loneliness and isolation. They are banished and placed at the mercy of unregistered cheap Nairaland Atheists. Ouch !!

If I was an Atheist, I would pay the membership fees of only 27,000Naira monthly to begin with. this will enable me to post my Athesim membership certificate on Nairaland so people debating with me will see that I am serious about my future.

I would also quickly sell my property, land, house etc and pay the prophet of Atheism 27.4million Naira that gains me entry to the first level of his INNER CIRCLE and his bonus offer of having one meal with him per year.

I will also pray, in the name of Dawkins that I get more money to progress through his other levels. The level I would go for is not the most expensive one, it only costs 314 million Naira.

Martinez19:
this is shocking. As I have said, I will see what I can do. It's hard to believe that Richard Dawkins is up to all this. BTW, Richard Dawkins is not an authority on atheism. No one needs to identify with Dawkins to be an atheist. Dawkins or no Dawkins, atheism remains atheism.

Yes it is hard to believe, but then it is also hard to believe and understand what Jesus meant when he said, "If you drink of my living water, you will thirst no more."

You got it wrong again Sir. Why ? Prof Richard Dawkins is the foremost leader and authority of modern Atheism.

No Atheist worth his\her salt would worship Atheism without Dawkins guidance.

Atheists here dont know that the methods, insults, childish questions, fake display of intelligence, etc etc are all based on Dawkins carefully engineered doctrines on Atheism. You must progress to the higher levels of Atheism to know this.

Martinez19:
this is shocking. As I have said, I will see what I can do. It's hard to believe that Richard Dawkins is up to all this. BTW, Richard Dawkins is not an authority on atheism. No one needs to identify with Dawkins to be an atheist. Dawkins or no Dawkins, atheism remains atheism.

The cost of a private dinner with the man behind the Selfish Gene? A mere 31.4million Naira.

How much did it cost to break bread with Jesus? How much did the mighty Jesus charge for dinner with him.

How Much will Prophet TB Joshua charge for a meal with him, when we all witness him giving out thousands of free meals world-wide ?

Consider what Prof. Jones have to say :

Professor James W. Jones wrote at a Oxford University Press website:
“We seem to be witnessing a broad reaction against the New Atheism movement by atheists as well as religious believers, whether undermining the idea of a long-standing conflict between science and religion, or taking a critical view of their political agenda. James Ryerson recently examined three new books (including my own) in the New York Times Book Review – a small sample of a growing body of work...

The modern Atheism movement is receiving a powerful attack from another side as well — the politics implicit in their worldview. Two books published this year exemplify this critique, in which militant atheism is seen as an anti-progressive “secular fundamentalism.”

C.J. Werleman, in The New Atheist Threat: The Dangerous Rise of Secular Extremists, himself formerly a militant atheist, describes the New Atheists’ uncritical devotion to science, their childish understanding of religion, their extreme Islamophobia, and intolerance of cultural diversity.

Sciencewatch, Richard Dawkins might have invented his own kind of atheism(according to you) and people might have dived in. Most atheist on nairaland like hopefulLandlord, HardMirror, Johnydon22, Seun himself did not become atheist MAINLY because of Dawkins but at of well founded reasons. There are some that didn't know Dawkins when they converted to atheism.

Before Richard Dawkins was born, there have been atheists. Two of the founding father's of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac, we're atheists. They were born way before Dawkins. People abandone religion worldwide not because they want to follow Richard Dawkins but because they have well founded reasons that religion is false and is a cunning fabrication.

If Dawkins was not born at all, there would still be a lot of atheists worldwide. Calling Richard Dawkins the prince and authority of atheism is an error on your own part. Atheism simply means the belief in the fact that there are not gods or a God. A person's character, wrongdoing, evil nature or habits has no bearing on what atheism is all about neither can it change the meaning of atheism. Stop putting atheism under the authority of Dawkins.

Martinez19:
Sciencewatch, Richard Dawkins might have invented his own kind of atheism(according to you) and people might have dived in. Most atheist on nairaland like hopefulLandlord, HardMirror, Johnydon22, Seun himself did not become atheist MAINLY because of Dawkins but at of well founded reasons. There are some that didn't know Dawkins when they converted to atheism.

Before Richard Dawkins was born, there have been atheists. Two of the founding father's of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger and Paul Dirac, we're atheists. They were born way before Dawkins. People abandone religion worldwide not because they want to follow Richard Dawkins but because they have well founded reasons that religion is false and is a cunning fabrication.

If Dawkins was not born at all, there would still be a lot of atheists worldwide. Calling Richard Dawkins the prince and authority of atheism is an error on your own part. Atheism simply means the belief in the fact that there are not gods or a God. A person's character, wrongdoing, evil nature or habits has no bearing on what atheism is all about neither can it change the meaning of atheism. Stop putting atheism under the authority of Dawkins.

I hear you Sir. Tell us under whose authority do you place Islam, Christanity and Judaism ?

Every respected movement has protocols to follow. The Prophet of Modern Atheism decreed that Atheists pay membership fees and then proceed through the various levels. An atheist that dont know their prophet Dawkins is like a Muslim that dont know the holy prophet Muhammed(pbuh) or like a Christian that dont know Jesus and so on.

If I was an Atheist, I would not create arguments to save money by refusing to follow respected protocol. I would quickly pay the membership fees that Prophet Richard Dawkins demand so that I can start to progress to higher levels. If I claim to be an ethical or moral Atheist I would discard selfishness and support my precious beliefs that consume so much of my data.

ScienceWatch:
I hear you Sir. Tell us under whose authority do you place Islam, Christanity and Judaism ?

Every respected movement has protocols to follow. The Prophet of Modern Atheism decreed that Atheists pay membership fees and then proceed through the various levels. An atheist that dont know their prophet Dawkins is like a Muslim that dont know the holy prophet Muhammed(pbuh) or like a Christian that dont know Jesus and so on.

If I was an Atheist, I would not create arguments to save money by refusing to follow respected protocol. I would quickly pay the membership fees that Prophet Richard Dawkins demand so that I can start to progress to higher levels. If I claim to be an ethical or moral Atheist I would discard selfishness and support my precious beliefs that consume so much of my data.

Religions are placed under the authorities of nonexistent gods people believe are real. Without the belief in these gods, religion collapses. It is not so with atheism, Dawkins or no Dawkins atheism will still be around. Atheism is man using his senses, reasoning and evidence to say that religious gods are bunks. Religion is man's foolishness in embracing claims without evidence. Christopher Hitchens became an atheist without Dawkins influence but you can't belong to any religion without accepting it's god or gods as real.

Don't make the mistake of associating the origin of modern atheism with Dawkins, atheism is atheism. Religious folks and atheists may have good and bad people but this in no way changes what atheism is. If you make that mistake of associating atheism with Dawkins sole authority, I will just ignore you henceforth.

Martinez19:
Religions are placed under the authorities of nonexistent gods people believe are real. Without the belief in these gods, religion collapses. It is not so with atheism, Dawkins or no Dawkins atheism will still be around. Atheism is man using his senses, reasoning and evidence to say that religious gods are bunks. Religion is man's foolishness in embracing claims without evidence. Christopher Hitchens became an atheist without Dawkins influence but you can't belong to any religion without accepting it's god or gods as real.

Don't make the mistake of associating the origin of modern atheism with Dawkins, atheism is atheism. Religious folks and atheists may have good and bad people but this in no way changes what atheism is. If you make that mistake of associating atheism with Dawkins sole authority, I will just ignore you henceforth.

I can agree with you that through out history their was a long line of ineffective prophets of Atheism. If you consider the Atheists numbers world-wide, would you be brave enough to at least agree that all those prophets were ineffective in unifying Atheists.

Or is that failure a serious symptom of the selfishness of Atheists that want to benefit from Atheism without contributing to the advancement of the movement ? Your argument leans sharply in this direction. Now when you hear that you must pay your way, you suddenly abandon your savior and mentor, Prophet R.Dawkins to wallow along the edges of Atheism without proper foundation and structure. Because of this weakness, there are abundant evidence on most Atheist blogs that they have no intelligent structure in their mission to destroy Christianity and Islam. All because too many Atheists are self-centered and selfish, which by the way is a symptom of a dark spirit. Low level Atheist sponge off the sacrifices others made at huge personal cost.

Pay the membership fees and become an Atheist with self respect.

ScienceWatch:
I can agree with you that through out history their was a long line of ineffective prophets of Atheism. If you consider the Atheists numbers world-wide, would you be brave enough to at least agree that all those prophets were ineffective in unifying Atheists.

Or is that failure a serious symptom of the selfishness of Atheists that want to benefit from Atheism without contributing to the advancement of the movement ? Your argument leans sharply in this direction. Now when you hear that you must pay your way, you suddenly abandon your savior and mentor, Prophet R.Dawkins to wallow along the edges of Atheism without proper foundation and structure. Because of this weakness, there are abundant evidence on most Atheist blogs that they have no intelligent structure in their mission to destroy Christianity and Islam. All because too many Atheists are self-centered and selfish, which by the way is a symptom of a dark spirit. Low level Atheist sponge off the sacrifices others made at huge personal cost.

Pay the membership fees and become an Atheist with self respect.

There is no such thing as a prophet of atheism. Goodbye

MONEYJOEE:


I don't mince word when I say religionists are mentally injured folks. Look at the poppycock scrawled by one of the victims of religion. I do not in any way see how his post relates to atheism. How long are we gonna continue drumming it into the empty heads of these simple-minded pitiable Yahweh's servants that atheism is not a fuckin' religion. You can only call atheism a religion when we start calling unclothedness a brand of clothing line. Atheism do not have any doctrine, no rituals, no prophet, no membership fee. As an atheist you save the money that woulda gone to the basin of the charlatans in suit and cassock.

Almost every website has a donate me, what has it got to do with atheism?

Then what is it? If your reasonless prophet is ripping you guys off of your hard earned money, the same for you guys are accusing religious leaders of. Any difference? Atheism is even a more worse cult than any known world religion

Martinez19:
Religions are placed under the authorities of nonexistent gods people believe are real. Without the belief in these gods, religion collapses. It is not so with atheism, Dawkins or no Dawkins atheism will still be around. Atheism is man using his senses, reasoning and evidence to say that religious gods are bunks. Religion is man's foolishness in embracing claims without evidence. Christopher Hitchens became an atheist without Dawkins influence but you can't belong to any religion without accepting it's god or gods as real.

Don't make the mistake of associating the origin of modern atheism with Dawkins, atheism is atheism. Religious folks and atheists may have good and bad people but this in no way changes what atheism is. If you make that mistake of associating atheism with Dawkins sole authority, I will just ignore you henceforth.

There you go again Martinez19, I am beginning to like you but the LOGIC man, The LOGIC !

Lets continue our debate but limit it to the use of the LOGIC, the lowest mental faculty ONLY.

Your LOGIC proves to you that as you claim, "Religions are placed under the authorities of nonexistent gods people believe are real. Without the belief in these gods, religion collapses." Ok lets take it from there !

Atheists also have a god, but they call it NO-GOD. So we all watch them running helter skelter over the internet protecting their NO-GOD.

Have you noticed how Atheists will insult you if you present a GOD that is in competition with their NO-GOD because they believe that their NO-GOD created the universe and all life and came into existence through the historic ACCIDENT CALLED THE BIG BANG.

Using only the lowest LOGIC we can examine just one more point you respectfully made here.
You said in your attack against your prophet of Atheism, "Christopher Hitchens became an atheist without Dawkins influence."

So using LOGIC we can agree that you are saying nothing meaningful in your defense of broke non paying members of Atheism/
A low level counter argument will prove that millions of Muslims became Muslim without influence of the Kalifar or for that matter the holy prophet Muhammed(Pbuh). Most Muslims will easily prove that they never met the holy prophet(pbuh)

Martinez19:
There is no such thing as a prophet of atheism. Goodbye

You come across as the most decent Atheist I have ever met on Nairaland. You are upset, yet you maintain a sense of respect toward your ILLOGICAL DEBATER.

Good bye, Martinez19 I learned so much from our dialogue.

But It would have been fair if you answered at least one of my questions, because I have dealt with most of yours.

Answer just one and we call it quits ?

Question 1 " If you consider the Atheists numbers world-wide, would you be brave enough to at least agree that all those prophets were ineffective in unifying Atheists.

ScienceWatch:
You come across as the most decent Atheist I have ever met on Nairaland. You are upset, yet you maintain a sense of respect toward your ILLOGICAL DEBATER.

Good bye, Martinez19 I learned so much from our dialogue.

But It would have been fair if you answered at least one of my questions, because I have dealt with most of yours.

Answer just one and we call it quits ?

Question 1 " If you consider the Atheists numbers world-wide, would you be brave enough to at least agree that all those prophets were ineffective in unifying Atheists.

I don't know how to answer this question, given the fact that there is no such thing as a prophet of atheism and how does the number of atheists have to with the unification of atheists?

Martinez19:
I don't know how to answer this question, given the fact that there is no such thing as a prophet of atheism and how does the number of atheists have to with the unification of atheists?

No Problem, The answers dont all come easy, thats why you must make time to get to the truth about that question.

Why have Atheist numbers dropped down to a low 1.8% globally ?

There is an Atheist you may know, he is called Hond on Nairaland. He is now in America recruiting only what he calls "Brave Atheists" The ones that dont troll religious sites to insult peoples beliefs. He sent me an email thanking me for asking him to make time to examine Emmanuel TV without bias, to my surprise he said that he was shocked by what he saw. It opened his mind to new possibilities.

He also commented that with the Atheists levels dropping so low, he is planning to choose a winning side. I said yes, it is typical Atheist thinking. Lol !!

Martinez19:
I don't know how to answer this question, given the fact that there is no such thing as a prophet of atheism and how does the number of atheists have to with the unification of atheists?

If Atheists were unified the numbers would grow and they would have a more effective strategy to destroy world religions.

The real problem is Atheists inherent selfishness. They wont pay there monthly Membership fees and get proper tuition.

ScienceWatch:
If Atheists were unified the numbers would grow and they would have a more effective strategy to destroy world religions.

The real problem is Atheists inherent selfishness. They wont pay there monthly Membership fees and get proper tuition.

you and Richard Dawkins ehn, na wa o.

On a serious note, atheist are free guys and their level of conviction differ. Some later become christians, muslims or mere deist. There have been strong atheists giving their life to christ or converting to deist on their death beds . In time past, being an atheist was like committing suicide except you kept it to yourself. Besides, atheism is not the popular choice, strong atheists are mostly those that abandoned religion . So all this may have played a role in limiting the number of atheist.

I checked about Richard Dawkins and I saw an article on his fraud, I will look into it. By the way, I maintain that religion is all lies and deception but I am not sure on the existence of a God. If there is a God, he is certainly not of any religion. However, the God people see in near death experiences make sense die.

Martinez19:
you and Richard Dawkins ehn, na wa o.

On a serious note, atheist are free guys and their level of conviction differ. Some later become christians, muslims or mere deist. There have been strong atheists giving their life to christ or converting to deist on their death beds . In time past, being an atheist was like committing suicide except you kept it to yourself. Besides, atheism is not the popular choice, strong atheists are mostly those that abandoned religion . So all this may have played a role in limiting the number of atheist.

I checked about Richard Dawkins and I saw an article on his fraud, I will look into it. By the way, I maintain that religion is all lies and deception but I am not sure on the existence of a God. If there is a God, he is certainly not of any religion. However, the God people see in near death experiences make sense die.

Converting on their death bed seems like a good choice. But then there will only be 10 minutes to quickly experience the knowledge of that ultimate God. But it is is better than nothing.

While investigating prophet Dawkins you will find that he is a worthy prophet of Atheism, Ruthless and greedy !!
It is interesting to note that you have just repeated your belief that religion is ALL lies, this is exactly what your prphet of modern Atheism preaches all the time.

I wonder why you would rather believe in a God that only reveals himself in near death experiences. Is it because Atheists chose to accept God on their death bed ?

It does not seem respectful to call your prophet a fraudster, I will rather leave that to you.

If you are not afraid of God you are a fool.

I know what he is talking even though I believe in God. But it was God who gave man the brain to develop and use for great and mighty things including medicine. This in itself is a great wonder.

Having witnessed and heard about deaths caused by religious fanaticism, refusal to take medicine and listening to many deluded men parading as pastors , it is high time that we detach our belief in God and the Christ from the madness that is going on in the black church, especially Nigeria and America.

Many of these so called pastor healers are charlatans !

frosbel2:
I know what he is talking even though I believe in God. But it was God who gave man the brain to develop and use for great and mighty things including medicine. This in itself is a great wonder.

Having witnessed and heard about deaths caused by religious fanaticism, refusal to take medicine and listening to many deluded men parading as pastors , it is high time that we detach our belief in God and the Christ from the madness that is going on in the black church, especially Nigeria and America.

Many of these so called pastor healers are charlatans !

It's not religious fanaticism, for a preacher of the gospel of Jesus, to CLAIM that diseases are fallout of sin (in garden of eden).

It's equally not religious fanaticism, for preachers to CLAIM divine healing. God commanded these doctrinal teachings.

You can't believe God, and reject or condemn God's rhema.

akintom:


It's not religious fanaticism, for a preacher of the gospel of Jesus, to CLAIM that diseases are fallout of sin (in garden of eden).

It's equally not religious fanaticism, for preachers to CLAIM divine healing. God commanded these doctrinal teachings.

You can't believe God, and reject or condemn God's rhema.

when christians tell me that, praying for your sickness by faith and refusing medicine is stupidity, I get annoyed because by strict bible principles, such is okay. Hypocrisy and denial is so much.

akintom:


It's not religious fanaticism, for a preacher of the gospel of Jesus, to CLAIM that diseases are fallout of sin (in garden of eden).

It's equally not religious fanaticism, for preachers to CLAIM divine healing. God commanded these doctrinal teachings.

You can't believe God, and reject or condemn God's rhema.

Lots of sick people in your churches, why are they not healed ?? SMH

frosbel2:


Lots of sick people in your churches, why are they not healed ?? SMH

Kikikikikikiki...........you didn't get the drift.

Your post that i responded to, indicate that you're a Christian. You went cherry picking on the doctrines of Christianity.

If you believe in existence of Yahweh and its Bible, you can't condemn (as fanaticism) the preachers who says "believe God's report and reject doctor's reports"