It was difficult not to make religious analogies on Sunday morning as I joined 2500 other atheists streaming into the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for The Rise of Atheism: the 2010 Global Atheist Convention.

Being a secular, literate city made Melbourne a safe choice to first take the Atheist Convention outside of the US. I saw only three protesters, despite a number of publicised church-based counter-gatherings.

Many participants came looking for techniques to discuss atheism with religious family, friends and door-knockers. Others sought like-minded people, and some came questioning their own position, preferring to describe themselves as agnostic. Even atheist poster boy Richard Dawkins, on a scale of 1 (believes in god) to 7 (atheist) describes himself as a 6.9.

It is difficult to organise any group under the umbrella of non-belief, but the Atheist Alliance International and the Atheist Foundation of Australia, convention hosts, achieved just that. The terms freethinker, humanist and rationalist were also frequently heard, used to alter the emphasis from being "against" theism and instead "for" scientific reasoning and logical thought.

Churches are social groups for many people, which is something atheists do not have, hence the popularity of this event which sold out six weeks in advance. Many small atheist groups were in attendance, raising their profile among the largest group of like-minded people ever gathered in Australia.

Several speakers commented that they had never addressed such a large group of atheists before, and there were a far greater range of topics presented than many expected. A question put to many attendees before the convention was, "But what can you possibly have to talk about? Nothing?"

The presenters shared some truly horrific stories of things done in the name of God or as part of some religious organisation, but the overall effort was not to paint all religions as always forces for bad. Much was made of the charitable works religious organisations do, but then, alternatives were presented. Charitable works do not need a veil of the supernatural in order to be effective, and you should not need a god looking over your shoulder, monitoring how much you are donating to disaster relief or to alleviate poverty. Peter Singer in particular talked about the evolutionary imperatives for fairness and for rendering aid.

It was not all serious discussion over the weekend. A lot of care had gone into the event to make the The Rise of Atheism a positive experience. There were comedians, and some wag had prepared a themed playlist to play in the background between sessions, including "Superstition" and songs from They Might Be Giants' "Here Comes Science".

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins closed the convention with a discussion on the probability of our existence, the luck of individual existence, gratitude, evolution and the illusion of design. This is potentially very dry and difficult subject matter yet Dawkins, known for his showmanship, conducted the audience skillfully through his argument. True, he was unable to mention the words god or creationism without trying to making the audience laugh, usually by the use of crude puns, but this is basic psychology and it is why he is so popular among atheists and why he received a standing ovation at the end of his talk.

However, when a Christian stood up to ask a question of Dawkins, there was a vibe not only of hostility, but impatience and frustration – even a sense of violation, as no one expected anyone with honest-to-god beliefs to pay the not-inconsiderate ticket price to learn about atheism. This was a great shame. Part of the challenge of atheism is extending our visibility and educating theists on rational thought. Continuing to play to the stereotype of being scary and intolerant will not help anyone.

Atheists need to develop a reputation for patience and approachability. "Out" atheists are a tiny minority, and public figures even fewer. As Dawkins said in answering a question of how to critique Islam without fear of reprisal, "We will not provoke you. Not out of respect for your beliefs, but out of fear." A reputation like that is the last thing atheism needs.