Skye, I think we have to be careful concerning this kind of news. It's easy to smile, or be internally glad of their divisions, but it's nothing more than a reflection that apart from God, humanity's fallen nature will lead to mutual self-destruction and condemnation. The thing is for us followers is that we ought to know this more keenly than our atheistic friends.

The Church(Universal) is no better when she is disconnected from her Head. We would descend into chaos and bitter squabbles apart from the redeeming power of Christ and the regenerating presence of His Spirit.

I don't think it is cause for Christians to rejoice when atheists develop their own equivalent of hyper-Calvinists.

Imagine all the fundamentalist, hard-core evangelist and calvinist blogs on the web. Now imagine they are atheists.

And really? The fact that a secular group acts like a bunch of Christians when it comes to disunity and discord is a very harsh reflection on Christianity.

The one factor the atheists always discount is the human factor...when humans are involved in any endeavor, regardless of subject or motivation, there will be conflict, disagreement, and above all...hypocrisy.
So, Skye, has rightly pointed out the Achellies heel of the Athiests "faith" [and yes, I'm enjoying that lil bit of irony immensely], however, the larger bit of news that is hovering in the background like a noticeable subplot that isn't directly stated is that the Atheists are proving one point execptionally well...they're no different than the Christians, Muslims, Jew's, or any other group of religiously minded individuals.

Good thing G-d is involved in straightening us all out, or else we all would really be up a creek without a paddle.

The humor was, of course, the juxtaposition between reality and the reality that John Lennon, may God have mercy on his soul, imagined.

Well said, Skye, and superbly concluded. If there now are fundamentalists in any religion, why not in athiesm? People forget that America's most renowned athiest of a former generation, Madalyn Murray O'Hair was killed by her own followers, and that the athiest Joseph Stalin killed people by the millions. Athiests will be as feisty as any group in existence.

Oh, what is this but the foibles of human nature? This happened between NT Pharisees and all-other-Jews, happens between fundamental baptists and all-other-baptists, and now we're seeing atheists. Type A personalities fight against type B... Nothing new under the sun. When we're not walking in the Spirit, the law of the flesh will operate in our bodies: quarrels, debates, contentions, etc.

very sad, UrL...very very sad.

Not to persue personal vendetta against atheists and non-etheists, christian or Islam.
Non of those are God's agent, they are protcting their own life theories which is attached to culture and customs, dignity and power, they narmally refer to God.

But what really shows me that ideals can persist despite disunity and outside pressure? Are non-christian religions, for example, Hindus don't have God, yet even without God, with numerous restrictive laws, no converts, and many, many outside pressures (Moslems, Brits, Budhists, etc.) A group of like-minded people can nurture and carry on a shared worldview for millenia (4 thousand year and counting). A new, anti-religious view is brithing in our times, and it will either die out or grow strong.

Anti-religion doesn't need a forum, or leadership convention, Hindus have never had one, yet persist on and on. If this takes root, it could also last and make Christian's lives much less comfortable, I personally see this as a very strong wave. One failed convention will hardly put a dent in the sentiments of millions. The web is their source of communion for it (Anti-Religion).

What do atheists, Christians, and people of every conviction all have in common? Our fallen, corrupt human nature, of course--varying degrees of bondage to our egos. :-) So tell me again, John Lennon, why we don't need a Savior?

Van said: "If this takes root, it could also last and make Christian's lives much less comfortable . . . "

Well, I have heard more than once that persecuted Christians in China have been praying we comfortable Christians in the U.S. might experience more persecution to strengthen and purify our faith. Perhaps this will be part of God's answer to that prayer.

"If this takes root, it could also last and make Christian's lives much less comfortable, I personally see this as a very strong wave"

Atheism has been around for a couple of hundred years...in fact, three hundred years, though it was called something else...so, yeah it's been around, but as far as making "Christian's live much less comfortable" well...look around us now. I think we're very comfortable...unfortunately.

"Well, I have heard more than once that persecuted Christians in China have been praying we comfortable Christians in the U.S. might experience more persecution to strengthen and purify our faith. Perhaps this will be part of God's answer to that prayer."

Of course persecution would purify the church...but why would Satan go for the persecution when his current plan of making the Church irrelevant here in the US is pure genius?
What we're going through is worse than persecution...it's called conformity through affiliated tradition and cultural assimilation. In short accepting the world's view of reality by overlaying spiritual language to it, employing worldly methods for solving spiritual problems, and when it all fail's, berating ourselves or each other for lack of faith or lack of conviction.

No...persecution would be easier to deal with than this mess we're in...so much easier to deal with. /sigh

I can imagine many Christians would like to point out schisms in secular organizations in an attempt to discredit them for being suseptable to the same divisions theistic organizations tend to have. Initially, I was one of these, however as I thought about it, I began to realize that this is simply another display of the sinfulness we are all corrupted by. While I am certainly not rooting for the "away team" by hoping for unity among atheists, we all need to keep in mind that one of our common goals is unity among all nations, whether they (for the moment) be theistic or atheistic. John Lennon may have been wrong in identifying the cause of our disunity as humans, however the end result he was imagining is one we all should work toward. Even if this means working with those of a different (or radically opposite) religious perspective.

Doesn't anyone have a sense of humor or irony? "That right there's funny, I don't care who ya'are" sort of says it.

“without religion we can imagine all the people living life without peace”
This article goes to show that with or without religion there seems to be an issue with finding peace! Where do we find peace then? God is a God of peace we will find peace in him not by holding conferences to present our view, as shown with the atheist conference. The problem is that with every view there are different views with in that view. This will always cause conflict, but as Christians we can rejoice in a God of peace that will never turn from us no matter what conflicts arise, and we can always come back to him to find peace! Now the next question is among this conflict with the atheist split, where can they now go to find peace? How can they support their view in order to get rid of religion when there is no peace between two parties who believe the same thing? Yes Christians have this issue also, but we have one source to help us resolve our issues, God! We as Christians can go to show the beginning quote wrong!

I think that it is important to remember that in this situation we are humans and that we were created with a free will. With that free will we allow areas of sin to creep into our lives which can eventually explode and cause disunity even within Christian enviornments. It is so vital to keep Christ as the focus of our ministries, churches, and lives in order to help maintain unity. Am i saying that doing that working on mainting unity is going to be a quick and easy process, no, but in the long run it is going to bring honor to our heavenly father!