The Catholic League recently launched a campaign entitled “Adopt an Atheist,” for which they encourage their members to contact members of American Atheists with an email to show them that they “may come to understand that they were Christian all along.” The following is an open letter that Timothy Pate wrote to the Catholic League in regards to their project.

The following post was cross-posted from An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church

To Whom It May Concern -

The Catholic League's "Adopt an Atheist" campaign

My name is Timothy Pate, and I am an atheist. I learned today of your “Adopt an Atheist” campaign, and I would like to submit myself as a candidate for adoption into your program. I noticed that there are no American Atheist representatives in Colorado (which is how you are generating a list of atheists to contact), so I would like to volunteer myself to be part of your efforts.

I am an atheist focused on interfaith relationships, so I think that it is important to open the doors for conversation between atheists and theists to build toward a more positive, accepting future. If you choose to ‘adopt’ me, I will not be attacking you or your faith – I only want to give you the chance to explain why this campaign is important to you and what it means for your beliefs.

I am in no way attempting to lampoon your campaign. I genuinely would like to go through the experience of being adopted, as I believe that it is a unique opportunity for us both to gain knowledge regarding the other person’s worldview. Please take this proposal seriously.

If you are a member of the Catholic League living in Colorado or know somebody of that status, please email me at tmpate.csu@gmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best, and season’s greetings,

Tim Pate

Tim Pate is the President of Colorado State University’s secular student organization, Leaders in Free Thought, and creator of the interfaith blog, An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church. He is the sole atheist in the interfaith group, Multi-Faith Partners Roundtable. He is an undergraduate public relations student at CSU; a writer for Public Relations Student Society of America’s newsletter, PRogress; the Public Relations Coordinator for Ability Club (an organization for disabled students); and a member of the Campus Feminist Alliance. To enhance your internet experience, follow him on Twitter: @timmytop.

Atheist in Church is Tim’s way of advocating for the interfaith movement. Each week, Tim attends at least one religious service, at which he assesses the message of service and discusses with various members and leaders the importance of including atheists in the interfaith conversation. This column is intended to convey the experiences he has at these various places of faith.

This post has been cross-posted from An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church and adapted for Non Prophet Status.

Our greatest potential for learning lies not within our comfort zone, but beyond it – and luckily for atheists in America, we are nearly always occupying that realm beyond complete contentment. In a country that is so predominantly religious, atheists often find themselves in situations of exclusion; whether self-inflicted or imposed. In order for the interfaith movement to grow within the atheist community, atheists must embrace their minority status and immerse themselves in a culture heavily rooted in faith.

An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church is my attempt at stepping away from what makes me comfortable and discovering the benefits of journeying through a community in which many people think I do not belong. This week, I intentionally dived into two separate instances where I was the noticeable misfit; and as you might expect, I grew from the experiences.

Benefits of going to church - free doughnuts!

As part of my college coursework, I am enrolled in a class dedicated to exploring our creativity. As the class has drawn closer to a climax, we were all instructed to present the class with a demonstration of our creative passion. What else could I talk about but my gravitation towards the efforts of interfaith activism?

Standing in front of a class is difficult as it is – telling a class, which we can assume is predominantly Christian, that you are an atheist is terrifying. The looks that I received from my peers were indicative of a wide spectrum of acceptance, but the general attitude of the class shifted gradually to an increased understanding of my motives as the speech progressed. The question and answer session afterwards consisted of insightful inquiries, but it completely lacked disparaging remarks regarding my atheism.

Even more gratifying were the discussions held privately with students after the class was over. A few expressed appreciation for an atheist reaching out to the believing community; one or two invited me to join them at church; and one student came to confess her own atheism and to discuss the importance of atheists abstaining from ignorance in regards to religion.

Which is obviously one benefit of my project…

And thus I walked into the Catholic church on Sunday and knew that I would be out of my comfort zone (what with all the standing and sitting and rituals with which I was not acquainted). I have been to a handful of Masses in my entire life, and it has always been interesting to see the history of the church interwoven into its services.

As I had expected, the traditions during the service were routine for regular attendees, but difficult for the lone atheist in the church. A close Catholic friend accompanied me to the service, and she was kind enough to guide me through the service by example.

Observant church-goers usually can spot me as an unusual participant on Sunday mornings, likely due to the fact that I don’t pray or sing. However, my sore-thumbedness is exceptionally more apparent at services where Communion is taken. As the crowds rose from their seats and lined up for the bread and wine, I stayed sitting, awkwardly trying to stay out of the way of the congregation as they passed me to receive Communion.

As I said, learning the history of the church and why certain rituals are significant is a task that I find interesting and important for atheists. Throughout the service, my friend Evie taught me various things about how the services normally were conducted and why. For example (and you’ll recognize this tradition if you’ve ever attended a Catholic or Lutheran service), there are times of prayer by the minister that require responses from the congregation. The exact words that the people of the church are instructed to speak are dictated by a higher governing power of the church. For whatever reason, the Catholic church decided that certain words within the responses needed to be tweaked. What was the reasoning behind this decision? What beliefs does it reflect of the church as a whole? These are questions that believers and non-believers should try to answer so that we can understand why such a large portion of the population acts the way it does.

Attending church with a friend is one of the most basic ways that atheists can get involved in the interfaith conversation. Studies like this one indicate that college students are less likely to believe in Hell because they don’t like the idea that a majority in their diverse group of friends could be destined to eternal punishment. It then makes sense for atheists to cultivate relationships with their religious peers, because the reduction in the belief in Hell leads to a further decrease in extremist behavior fueled by this belief.

Isolating ourselves from the largely religious world is not beneficial to any goal of increasing understanding among humans. The benefits of replacing ignorance with outreach is great, in that it provides us with knowledge and experience outside of our comfort zones, and it leads to a culture of people willing to accept differences and abandon hate in favor of loving their friends. Therefore, I will continue to be the elephant in the room.

Tim Pate is the President of Colorado State University’s secular student organization, Leaders in Free Thought, and creator of the interfaith blog, An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church. He is the sole atheist in the interfaith group, Multi-Faith Partners Roundtable. He is an undergraduate public relations student at CSU; a writer for Public Relations Student Society of America’s newsletter, PRogress; the Public Relations Coordinator for Ability Club (an organization for disabled students); and a member of the Campus Feminist Alliance. To enhance your internet experience, follow him on Twitter: @timmytop.

Greetings, NonProphet Status readers! My name is Tim, and I have recently joined NonProphet Status as a panelist. I have posted on this blog as a guest once in the past, and you can find what I wrote here. As part of my interfaith initiative, I attend a religious service at least once a week, and write about it for my blog, An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church. Chris has given me the opportunity to share my experiences here, and I am excited to get started on my column for NonProphet Status – “Atheist in Church.”

The following post was cross-posted from An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church and adapted for NonProphet Status.

Being anti-theistic is an easy, natural path for an atheist to take. Indeed, anti-theistic atheists like Richard Dawkins often steal the spotlight from different types of non-believers, and thus the misconception exists that all atheists share his sentiments. I must admit, when I first left Christianity, hating religion was not a difficult thing to do. Let’s examine why this route is commonly the path most traveled:

The injustices of religion are prevalent and easily spotted once one has separated himself from the establishment. From the child-molestation of the Catholic Church to the greed of televangelists, from the hate-mongering of Westboro Baptist Church to the fraudulent apocalypse predictions of Harold Camping, from the radical Islamic terrorists to the Crusades and the KKK, one can become quite frustrated with the actions of the religious in our society.

Religious people play a strong role in the corruption of science. The vendetta against evolution is a laughable attack, yet its continued presence has detrimentally affected how we teach solid science and how students perceive it.

Finally, anti-theism can be absolutely entertaining. Lampooning religion, from debates with Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to the comedic prowess of George Carlin and Ricky Gervais, is something with which many atheists can relate – especially once one has really come to understand the horrific history of religion.

So, many atheists are attracted to the anti-theistic movement, and the two terms become essentially synonymic in the (majorly religious) public eye.

Let me here state for the record that I am in no way saying that injustices of religion should not be confronted, or that we should not continue to fight against teaching pseudo-science in school. However, it is important to distinguish what are the appropriate measures to take and what is totally unreasonable.

Attempting to completely eradicate religion, if you ask me, is about as ridiculous as pro-life protestors praying to completely stop abortion as opposed to investing in public health programs to confront the issue of unplanned pregnancy. There will always be religion, and whether you believe the world would be better off without it or not, the current state of our society would indicate that believers are here to stay.

Now, do I think that moving towards a society which is more focused upon skepticism and intellectual integrity might be a good thing? Of course, but you’re not going to win over any believers by attacking and belittling them. As Phil Plait states in this lecture, our minds are geared more towards belief than skepticism. If you choose to attack believers rather than show them the same kindness you desire from them, I find it highly likely that they cling to their beliefs with even more conviction rather than open their minds to your argument. Religion does a fine job of ingraining arguments against atheists in the minds of its followers, and it seems that the attack on the religious only encourages the victim to utilize these arguments – no matter how flawed they may be.

Furthermore, it is time that atheists stop pretending that there are no good religious people, or that religion provides nothing positive. And this is where my project comes into play. When I attend religious services week after week, it becomes inevitable that I see some of the beauty within the realm of faith. When we can approach each person with the goal of understanding them on a personal, individual basis, we can begin to find commonalities and move toward mutual respect.

So atheists, I challenge you to simply talk to your believing neighbors. Discover why religion works for them, and how it has impacted their lives. Don’t be silent in the face of hypocrisy or injustice, but understand which battles are really worth fighting. Be open-minded to the idea that religion can have its benefits. Maybe if you can find the people who positively represent religion, they can start to see why atheism isn’t so bad after all.

Tim Pate is the President of Colorado State University’s secular student organization, Leaders in Free Thought, and creator of the interfaith blog, An Elephant in the Room, An Atheist in the Church. He is the sole atheist in the interfaith group, Multi-Faith Partners Roundtable. He is an undergraduate public relations student at CSU; a writer for Public Relations Student Society of America’s newsletter, PRogress; the Public Relations Coordinator for Ability Club (an organization for disabled students); and a member of the Campus Feminist Alliance. To enhance your internet experience, follow him on Twitter: @timmytop.