Is it time to have an Atheist Coming Out movement?

[backscatter712]

I'm writing here as both a progressive Democrat and as an atheist.

But I had the random idea - wouldn't it be cool to have a coming-out campaign? I'm a bit inspired by Harvey Milk, who pushed hard for his fellow members of the GLBT community to come out to their friends, family and coworkers. The reason for this is because it made GLBT people a lot harder to demonize. When everyone was closeted, and most people did not know anyone who was openly gay, the right-wingers and fundies made political hay, ranting about those "queers" and the "gay agenda". When people learned that friends, family members and coworkers were gay, many of them rethought things and stopped buying into the right-wing bullshit, and as a result, a great deal of civil-rights progress has been made.

Perhaps atheists and agnostics should consider this. It's still nearly impossible for atheists to be elected into public office. It's still difficult, in fact impossible in many areas for members of the GLBT community to be elected, but Harvey Milk paved the way, being one of the first, and he made so many strides by putting a human face on the GLBT community.

That's what we need to do. There are a lot of closeted atheists out there, and it's time to be more open about it, thus showing our human face to the public.

And as a Democrat, I say this is a good strategy, as by getting atheists to come out, we can undermine the stranglehold that the religious fundamentalists have on so many areas of the country. It's one thing to demonize atheists when they're just that guy on TV, but when some of a person's friends and family members are atheists, it forces him or her to rethink things, and opens up the opportunity to reject the fundamentalist bullshit. Think about it. Where do members of the tea-party and the far-right get a lot of their right-wing ideology? AT CHURCH! Pull a few people off the pews, and you erode the Republican base and make more opportunities for Democrats.

It's good for Democrats, and it's good for atheists. What do you think?

Just a brainfart.

[DavidDvorkin]

1. I've long thought that atheists need to be open about their non-belief

Even aggressive, often with an in-your-face attitude.

A specific coming-out movement, or a coming-out day, is an interesting idea.

[MrModerate]

2. I'm not so sure. Being gay and being an atheist are not comparable . . .

Personally or politically.

One is an intrinsic fact of one's nature, and for which you can be denied basic human rights. The other is a frame of mind that says the universe is not driven by supernatural forces.

Sure there's a lot of hate for atheists, as there is for gays, and there is discrimination against atheists. But -- at least for me -- my embrace of the nonsupernatural is not an activist thing. While religion is silly and has often been evil, my rational beliefs are not religion's flip side and if they held a war of religion vs nonreligion, I just wouldn't show up.

I make no secret of my nonsupernatural world view, and am completely unashamed to describe myself as "not a religious person" (which gives the fundies fits -- you ought to try it sometime). And in a quietly subversive way I move in circles where the predominating -- and growing -- opinion is that no sensible person needs a sky-guy to be complete.

If I were gay, I'm sure I'd feel differently. But I'll pass on "coming out godless" -- I'm already out and don't really think I need to turn it into a political issue.

[backscatter712]

3. I've got to disagree with you there.

Religious beliefs, or the lack thereof, have very much been used as a justification to deny and destroy civil rights. We can look all throughout history from the Inquisition to the Salem witch trials to the Teabaggers harassing and hatefully demonstrating against Muslims ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgDAW5xk9Ks ).

There's plenty of stories of people being harassed, fired, ostracized, even physically assaulted here in the U.S. for daring to say "I don't believe in God" or even just for believing in a different flavor of Christianity than the attackers'.

We do live in a country that guarantees freedom of religion, which includes freedom from religion. At the minimum, we should damned well be demanding our civil rights. And part of that is taking the courage to come out, speak out, and show the world that non-believers include their neighbors, coworkers, friends and family, in order to make it that much harder for the fundies and the right-wing demagogues to demonize us, force us to stay silent, and coerce us into professing belief in their sky-daddy.

[MrModerate]

4. Your mileage may vary, but I haven't experienced significant restrictions of my civil rights . . .

Because of my atheism. Certainly nothing like harassment or assault.

What I have observed is intolerance between religions in believer-on-believer cage matches. And of course, in America sicko Xtians do rail against other faiths in a way that's quite disgusting. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and Iraq (to name just three) Christians are the object of fanatical Islamists.

Religious hatred makes the world go round.

There are any number of public moralists who maintain quite loudly that "freedom of religion does not equal freedom from religion" in a parsing of the First Amendment that rivals the battles (some of which you can witness at DU) over the Second. I don't buy that interpretation any more than I buy the ones on the Second with which I don't agree, but that opinion is definitely part of the landscape.

With regard to your statement ". . . taking the courage to come out, speak out, and show the world that non-believers include their neighbors, coworkers, friends and family, in order to make it that much harder for the fundies and the right-wing demagogues to demonize us . . . " I agree completely, but for me that doesn't represent any change in behavior.

And I take issue with the second part of that statement: "force us to stay silent, and coerce us into professing belief in their sky-daddy. . ." because I have never experienced that. (At least in the US. I did have a very interesting conversation with a heavily armed guy in Iraq who insisted that I acknowledge the supremacy of Allah, but he was disarmed before he could press his point.)

So my approach has always been "so you believe in the sky-guy? How droll. Moving right along . . ." And this has generally worked for me.

[lazarus]

5. I lost a job for being atheist

and was told that I would never get custody of my child if I didn't start going to church.

So there's that.

[MrModerate]

6. In San Diego? n/t

[lazarus]

8. In Alabama

years ago. I learned from that to deflect questions about my church going habits. It was difficult at times.

The custody thing, I just gave up. In many states in this country, the mother has to directly feed crystal meth to the kid before the father can get custody. I couldn't even get a decent lawyer, as all the lawyers in town worked for the state pursuing fathers for more child support.

[MrModerate]

10. Not to be a hardcase, but they don't call it the Bible Belt for nothing.

Sorry to hear you had to go through that. Myself, I haven't had to spend much time in that part of the country since I was a kid, and so my experience with religious bigots is waaay different.

[lazarus]

11. thing is

the majority of states in this country could technically be called the Bible Belt, the way they treat religion there. It's not just the deep south.

[MrModerate]

12. If by majority you mean 26 or more, I think you're probably right.

However, I've spent a fair amount of time in California, Washington, New Mexico, Colorado, New York, Maryland, DC, and Texas, and while those places had lesser or greater degrees of religiousity, in none of them was I hassled for being an atheist.

I guess there are just way too many lapsed religionists for the remaining religiousists -- or at least the ones I've run across -- to get overly worked up about atheists.

That having been said, I don't think you could win elective office in *any* of those places (well, maybe California and Washington) without at least pretending to some sort of formal religious faith.

[amyrose2712]

7. WTF? GRRR! nt

[toddaa]

9. We already have one

http://outcampaign.org

[awoke_in_2003]

13. I am very open about my non-belief...

but I am also one of the best at what I do- so zealots tolerate me (you can't fix a flight simulator with prayer)