This story is a nice contrast to a lot of what's going on.
What is an atheist doing at a religious freedom summit?
An atheist walked into an international religious freedom conference and picked up a microphone.
No, really, American Atheists president Nick Fish showed up — invited — to IRF Summit 2023 on Wednesday, and showed that he actually wasn’t out of place.
“Any nation that can take away your right to practice your religion can also force a religion onto me,” he said. “We’re all in this together. Every single person in this room, every group in this room, every denomination, every person on this stage, we’re in the shared struggle together, and it’s vital that we work to elevate FORB (freedom of religion or belief).”
...
What is, and isn’t, religious freedom?
One of the summit’s final panels considered what religious freedom is and what it is not, and it included Fish, the atheist leader.
“It is clearly something that’s pluralistic and not just a particular brand of secularism,” said BYU law professor Cole Durham. “It’s something that leaves open a real framework for us to live together, and it’s one of the things that, in my view, is one of the great modern keys of how we live together in our differences in peaceful ways. It protects the nonbelievers. It protects the believers. It protects the minority religions. It protects threatened majorities, as well. We’re very fortunate to have that.”
...
Fish and the other three panelists didn’t agree on everything, but the conversation never became argumentative.
What is an atheist doing at a religious freedom summit?
An atheist walked into an international religious freedom conference and picked up a microphone.
No, really, American Atheists president Nick Fish showed up — invited — to IRF Summit 2023 on Wednesday, and showed that he actually wasn’t out of place.
“Any nation that can take away your right to practice your religion can also force a religion onto me,” he said. “We’re all in this together. Every single person in this room, every group in this room, every denomination, every person on this stage, we’re in the shared struggle together, and it’s vital that we work to elevate FORB (freedom of religion or belief).”
...
What is, and isn’t, religious freedom?
One of the summit’s final panels considered what religious freedom is and what it is not, and it included Fish, the atheist leader.
“It is clearly something that’s pluralistic and not just a particular brand of secularism,” said BYU law professor Cole Durham. “It’s something that leaves open a real framework for us to live together, and it’s one of the things that, in my view, is one of the great modern keys of how we live together in our differences in peaceful ways. It protects the nonbelievers. It protects the believers. It protects the minority religions. It protects threatened majorities, as well. We’re very fortunate to have that.”
...
Fish and the other three panelists didn’t agree on everything, but the conversation never became argumentative.