Monthly Archives: March 2017

The Rev. Dr. Dwight Stevens is sharing his journey from science to spirituality.

The former dermatologist, the founder and pastor of The Paramount Church, talked about his story of conversion from atheism at a book signing last week at the Palm Beach Book Store. Curious people always ask him about it.

Ive lost count of the times, Stevens said. So, I wrote the story.

In his book, Atheist Doctor to Palm Beach Minister, he recalls the challenges faced when establishing the church, the experiences or nudges as he calls them that turned him away from atheism and the difficulties he faced connecting to colleagues in medicine after converting.

Only people who understand are the ones who experienced Gods healing power, he said. Otherwise people dismiss it.

Stevens said his first experience with Gods healing power was during a medical mission trip to Honduras. A woman with a tennis-ball-size mass in her abdomen, later thought to be cancer, couldnt be treated medically and resorted to prayer. Stevens, along with other members of the team, said they laid their hands on the woman while praying and were able to eliminate the mass.

As a scientist, you dismiss that, the minister said. But then when you begin to experience it personally, Gods healing power, I began to realize God still does miracles.

And Stevens said hes experienced that personally. More than 10 years ago, Stevens was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He claims Gods healing power keeps him well.

Ive never had a treatment, Stevens said. Never had a symptom.

Stevens practiced dermatology in Palm Beach for 15 years before opening the Paramount Church in 1994. His practice connected him to some of Palm Beachs most influential residents, many of whom became friends who played an important role in Stevens journey.

Of course, it was Gene Lawrence and Richard Moody who made it all happen, Stevens writes in his book. Lawrence, the late architect, helped design the church with the assistance of Moody, the general contractor. Both offered their services without charge.

Other friends helped Stevens with his two-year book project, which was new territory for him.

The challenges were never-ending, Stevens said.

Candice Cohen offered a hand. I read the manuscript, said Cohen, founder of the Palm Beach Book Store. I helped him pick the cover, too.

Among the crowd at last Tuesdays book signing were members of the Paramount Church. One of them was Kristi Witker-Coons.

Witker-Coons recalls when she first joined the church.

My husband died and I was just really lost, she said. After attending services at other churches, she felt Paramount was the right fit.

Although she had yet to read the book, Witker-Coons said she knows about Stevens personal life from attending his services. Its a fascinating story, she said.

The minister says hes happy to bring his message to Palm Beach a resort town for Americas wealthy, as he calls it.

He believes some residents have achieved great success and achievements but are left feeling unfulfilled, missing something, and that something is neither galas, private concerts, dinners nor cocktail parties.

Many people discovered that they have it all, Stevens said. But what they need also is a relationship with God.

Continued here:
Stevens speaks of his journey from atheism to founding church - Palm Beach Daily News

The only officially recognized group at ASU for students who are atheist attempts to combat the stigma around not being religious

Tann Cheevasittirungruang, left, and Angel Garcia, right, sit at their table at Secular Day at the Arizona State Capitol onMarch 21, 2017.

Although atheism is agrowing identity in America that is relativelypopular on college campuses, some feelASU lacks options when it comes to student-organized atheist groups.

In the ASUOrgSync,the search query "Christian" provided 52 results at the time of publishing. The "religious" category altogether listed 73 groups. "Atheist" turned up only two separate groups. One of those groupsis theSecular Student Alliance, a national secular student organization with chapters in most major universities.

Angel Garciais a junior double majoring in history and economics. He is the president of theSecular Student Alliance at ASU (SSA).

"Secular Student Alliance is a student organization where we seek to gather together students who are either secular or interested in secular issues," Garcia said."And with the club we'll either have meetings that revolve around different topics that are related to religion, secularism, government, society (and) culture. Sometimes we'll have social nights, and other nights we'll engage in activism."

Garcia said SSA is the only active, recognizedclubon campusthat serves as a meeting placefor atheists, even though the club's main mission is to promote secularism. He said that oneneed not be anatheist in order to be in favor of secularism.

"Secular Student Alliance is the only secular (or)atheist group on campus," he said."There was another one last year, but unfortunately what happened - and this can happen to clubs is that the members: a lot of them were graduating or already done with college and they weren't doing a good job with recruiting new members. And so their club ended up dying out."

There are other factors influencing how many students choose to be active about their atheism, Garcia said.

A stigma against atheism in American society is one such potential factor.

ThePew Research Center conducted a poll that determined Americans are generally unfavorable toward atheists. Using a "thermometer" scaleto measure general attitudes toward different religious identities from 0 to 100, Pew found that atheism was one ofthe coldest. On average, atheism was rated 41 on the scale second only to Islam, which was rated 40. By comparison, Catholics were rated 62, and Jews were rated 63 (the highest).

Read more:The atheist divide

Psychology seniorTann Cheevasittirungruangis the vice president of SSA. He thinks the novelty of the idea may have something to do with students hesitating to be active.

"I still feel like it's a new idea," he said."We pretty much just graduate from high school and come to college. We pretty much just hang onto that idea. I mean, we've been taught about that idea since we were children: about religion, about what's right and wrong, about what's promised to us when we die. The idea of atheism and secularism is still pretty new to us really."

With about70 percent of Americans identifying as Christians, manystudents come tocollege from Christian households. Cheevasittirungruangthinks this might contribute to hesitancy among students who are unsure of their beliefs or are newly atheisticto investigate secular ideas.

Curtis Peterson, a sophomore studying physics and mathematics, describes himself as an agnostic atheist. He said hethinks the stigma around not being religiouscould be somewhat relieved if atheists presented themselves differently.

"I think alot of atheists put out the attitude of being someone arrogant, or a lot of them put out the idea of being more enlightened," he said. "I think atheists need to put in the effort to try to wean out that sort of stigma. I don't even want to say stigma, but I think: yes, there needs to be more advocacy, but there also needs to be a definite attitude change on the part of atheists."

Peterson also said he wished there was more outreach and advocacy from atheists, but was unsure why so manyatheists shy away from activism.

"If we want atheist ideals to propagate through, I think we need to advocate through secularism," he said.

"The problem that we face, at least in the United States, is a degradation of a secular society. We have a lot of (states)that have attempted to teach Bible-ist truth. I'd much prefer to see advocacy against things like that versus ... (explaining)why we're atheists. I think people get the idea pretty well already. What I think a lot of people don't realize is how poisonous a non-secular society is."

Reach the reporter atparkermshea97@gmail.com or follow@laconicshamanic on Twitter.

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Standing alone: atheism club provides for students questioning their faith - The State Press

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When people think of minority groups, atheists rarely come to mind. For most, belonging to a minority group isnt a choice; whether that be race, sexual orientation, or gender identity, which is why atheism seems so unusual and mysterious. Although some might argue that having a predilection for reason and the truth is inherent in sensible people, atheism is largely a by-product of examining philosophies and weighing the evidence.

In a nation that purports to espouse Christian values, taking a dissenting ideological stance is seen as something subversive and vile. Numerous conducted polls show that atheists are more distrusted than Muslims and Mexicans, two of the most vilified and criticized minority groups in our country, presently.

Most issues arise from a lack of understanding; a fair amount of people are exceptionally critical of atheism because they simply know nothing about it. They have no personal connection(s). These people base their prejudices on atheist representation in the public and in the media.

Fortunately, we live in an era where differences are becoming more and more accepted, and even celebrated. Atheistic groups are sprouting like wildflowers (in schools, in communities, and online), there are even atheist churches, as weird as that sounds.

However, in a nation that glorifies pious athletes who pray on field and give thanks and credit to an omnipotent creator, the notion of having an atheist in office, let alone on a pitching mound, seems rather absurd. Republicans are viewed as less hospitable to atheists, but even the progressive democrats are hesitant to elect someone even suspected of being an atheist. Keep in mind, Bernies campaign was sabotaged by the DNC, because he might have been dangerously unorthodox.

This isnt something new or radical; our founding fathers wouldnt be described as traditionally religious (Paine was an atheist; Jefferson wrote his own, miracle-free New Testament; most of the others were deists), so having an atheist in office shouldnt that be that unconventional or absurd.

Without an atheist in office, many young atheists are without atheist role-models. As stated earlier, most athletes have some sort of religious inclination, and a lot of celebrities maintain some faith, so the only acceptable positions for atheists to hold are in the sciences or academia.

Not to mention that the way atheists are portrayed in the media is hurtful to the cause as well. Filmmaker Kevin Sorbo, in his Gods Not Dead film series, shows the atheist professor to be arrogant and closed-minded, and even spiteful and angry. In the hit show House, the titular doctor is portrayed as overly-critical, pretentious, and generally negative. While this might be who he is as a person, he is not the only atheist portrayed this way. The anthropomorphic dog, Brian, in Family Guy is a faux-intellectual and substance-abuser, perfectly in-line with his heathen lifestyle.

Its all just lazy writing that relies upon shoddy stereotypes. In fact, its a common trope used by screenwriters. Granted, there are negative and horrible atheists, but thats true for any group. But, with the proper representation, maybe atheist can enact influence in long sought-after arenas, and, above all, not be misunderstood. We dont all hate religion, and most importantly, we dont hate people; atheists recognize we are all we have.

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Atheists are often a vilified and misrepresented minority - SRU The Online Rocket