How Out Are You?
We live in a religion dominated world. Over the last few years atheists have been more public with our lack of belief in imaginary deities. The OutCampaign has helped that a lot, but how “out” are you? How “out” should we be?
When I go out to a store or a mall, it is not unusual for me to see someone wearing a religious shirt. Often times those shirts are actually aggressively religious. It goes without saying that Christians and Jews wear religious necklaces like the crucifix or a Jewish star. There are also a ton of religious bumper stickers on cars.
Should atheists wear shirts and necklaces that identify us as atheists? Do you have those things and how often do you wear them? I have a few atheist shirts, but I usually only wear them to atheist meetings and/or events. I worry that if I wore them while out in the general public, my family and I might be the victim of violence. I doubt very much that Christians have that same fear from atheists. What does that say about them?
I want to know what other atheists have experienced in this regard. I have not received a lot of problems from my atheist bumper sticker, but that is I think in large part due to the fact that on the road there isn’t much people can do. I have once been solicited by a Christian at a gas station though and have had some college kids yelling about god as they drove passed me. But nothing really violent has come from my bumper sticker. This might be in part due to the fact that people are more accustom to being bombarded with bumper stickers with messages they don’t agree with. But I think an atheist shirt in a Wall-mart may cause a larger issue. What do you think?
Filed under: atheism, culture war, People of Reason