December 21, 2009

Church Experiment #51: Atheist Meeting

My visit to Free Inquiry Group (www.gofigger.org) turned out to be one of the most interesting stops on this journey. I could write many pages about the experience, but I’ll try to keep it within reason.

First, I’ll give some background and details.

Local atheists erected a billboard in Cincinnati about a month before my visit. It read, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.”

Not surprisingly, the billboard sparked a bit of controversy in Cincinnati, and the landowner eventually took it down because he received multiple threats.

My friend, Brad, saw the story and forwarded me the information. I decided it would be interesting to visit an atheist meeting (by the way, there was a debate during the meeting as to whether or not the word “atheist” should be capitalized; most argued it shouldn’t, so that’s why I’m not capitalizing it). The best choice seemed to be a group called Free Inquiry Group (FIG) that meets once a month. In December, they brought in a professor of philosophy from New York, so I thought that might be interesting.

To finish reading about this experience or any of the reflections from my 52 visits, please purchase the full book here.