Acknowledged Atheist
In Greta Christina’s recent post The Scarlet Letter: Visibility and the Atheist Logo she talks about her adoption of the a graphic of Richard Dawkins’ The OUT Campaign, which is essentially a signature red A as a sign of atheist strength in numbers. Popular on atheist blogs, it’s seen as a badge of pride by many.
When I first read about The OUT Campaign, I considered throwing the big red letter up on the sidebar here since “I have a blog!” and “I’m an atheist!”. But there’s a couple reasons why I didn’t, why I don’t, and why I probably won’t. Firstly, I enjoy the aesthetic control I have on my blog. While I don’t necessarily value the content less than the context, I wouldn’t be as proud of it if I had to post on, say, the MySpace blogging platform.
And then there’s the idea of what this blog is about. While it still feels like my writing voice is shifting more than that of a pubescent teen sweating his first debate club meeting, I’m at least getting a handle on what I like to write about. There are persons who blog about atheism, and their are atheists who blog about the personal. I’d say I’ve fallen into the latter category.
While I may occasionally write about my atheism, it’s not the central focus of this blog, and on the subject of modern atheist activism I don’t feel so completely knowledgeable. Which is why I don’t feel a need to adorn my sidebar with a scarlet letter, declaring to all my rejection of theism and the supernatural.
But my Facebook profile is a much different situation.
Where my blog gives me the freedom to compulsively structure and stylize, Facebook demands that the content posted fit within their strict blue and white style-sheet. At the same time, the assumption about what kinds of information is being presented are pretty different between a personal blog and a Facebook page. While some people use their Facebook pages as landing pads for almost everything they do online, I still see the site as a kind of internet rolodex; one that lets you know what you have in common in with people in terms of friends, interests, location, and other proclivities.
One of the default categories of information on a Facebook profile, and one that is displayed quite visibly and permanently at the top of participating pages, is the person’s religious views. Since joining the site, I’ve either ignored this option and left it blank, or put in something harmless like “never ending math equation”.
I considered displaying simply and truthfully “Atheist”, but there was something holding me back. Consciously or not, I didn’t want to announce my rejection of religion. This could have been partly because of how few people I’ve found, talking face to face, who would self-identify as atheists, and partly because of the cultural backlash that exists against those who actively reject the beliefs of others.
While I may find few peers and friends around me who would unabashedly declare themselves atheists, there is no shortage of well-spoken, proud, intelligent, and inspiring atheist on the high seas of the internet, of which Greta Christina is a great example. (She also writes about sex, science, and her cats.)
It was probably Greta’s widely read post Atheists and Anger that convinced me of the importance of displaying my religious beliefs, or lack thereof. So I adjust my Facebook page accordingly, and I got responses.
One of the most notable was from a friend who, as a result, also changed their displayed religious beliefs to Atheist. They described to me in an email an instance in which a strictly religious friend of theirs had denounced them as faithless, and therefore, morally vacant. It may have been a rude awakening, but it gave my friend reason to think heavily on the way their atheists are viewed by others, the fact that many people are strongly opposed atheism, and ultimately, the things my friend loves about what it means to be an atheist.
Granted, I’ve never lost friends over my atheism, though I have apparently surprised them with it. Maybe because I don’t talk about it very often, or maybe due to preconceived notions of what an atheist looks like, I’ve found myself trying to explain my wide-eyed, naturalist, and atheist worldview to friends who “just didn’t expect that”.
I believe really strongly in living by example, at least when it comes to parts of my life that I’m proud of. As an (admittedly sophomore) student of philosophy I don’t think it’s enough to try to determine what a good way to live is, but that we must also try to live ‘a good life’. An important part of my decision to display my explicit atheism was the fact that I believe not only that faith-based belief systems are unsupported by objective observations of the world around us, but that basing one’s decisions on a belief system that is fundamentally opposed to skepticism and empirical evidence leads to poor decisions. To be succinct, I don’t think it’s possible to determine and to do what is right without first being able to release oneself from absolute faith.
So this is what an atheist looks like.