I just thought I’d write today about my personal experience.
I started wearing atheist shirts in public 15 years ago. The broad reaction was negative. Although few people said anything rude to me, I always heard them talking about me (just loud enough for me to hear), and about how wrong atheism is, and how much their god meant to them, etc., behind my back.
That was then, and this is now.
I took my daughter to Six Flags earlier this week, wearing my “Proud to be an atheist” T-shirt. We were in this crowded park for 8 roller-coaster-filled hours, and NOT ONCE did I hear anything negative. Not one dirty look — and I was looking. Four people, however, asked where they could get a shirt like mine.
Have you worn your atheist garb recently?
Note to xians:
When a reduction in discrimination counts as progress for the other side, you’re probably on the wrong side yourself.
.
Of course, that presumes you consider discrimination wrong. For those who hang the confederate flag next to their crucifixes, I suppose the good-ole-days of slavery and segregation keep slipping farther and farther away.
Is slavery,segregation by jews,muslims okay?Take a look around it isn’t white southern christians treating people like shit.It is muslims who still have slaves in africa,jews in israel treating arabs like garbage.
Agreed. Where you find religion, you find people being treated like shit, especially women, minorities, or the poor. My comment was more directed at those xians who claim their religion is morally superior. When one’s morality is as made-up-on-the-spot as one’s god, anything can happen.
I have a disadvantage when trying to gauge reaction to my Atheist t-shirts. I’m not the prettiest guy in the world to look at. I’m 6’3″, 280# and I look like a middle-aged biker with a broken tooth. So, it’s a rare person that would initiate any conversation with me, let alone a confrontational one.
Be that as it may, I have worn my “Proud to be an Atheist” t-shirt in public a few times. I’ve gotten baleful stares, but no audible comments.
Given that I live in Colorado and not New Jersey, I should probably consider it a positive development that terrified mothers don’t run out of their homes to sweep their children off the streets as I pass.
This is one thing I love about Dave Silverman. He wears his Atheist pride, not on his sleeve – that would be too small – but right up front, in any public situation, with family, and then he’ll encourage other Atheists to do the same.
Dave Silverman rocks.
I think AA needs to print up a whole lot more of those shirts, and we need to follow Dave’s example, including the encouraging more participation part.
Heck, I’d like to see a contest even: Who can get AA a photo of them wearing that shirt in the most impressive setting with the most impressive background, or with the most impressive people in the photo as well.
Example: I have a photo of a former Atheist activist wearing that shirt while standing on top of Mount Ranier. The background was very impressive, to say the least.
” A man without a god is like a fish without a bicycle”
This is the best and most popular shirt I have ever worn. People laugh, some comment and in one case it prompted a discussion between myself and a very nice theist.
The next time someone asks why we seem to have a grudge against religion:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10913297
Let me see a grown man on a roller coaster screaming we are going to die,get me off this damn thing.And you wonder why no one said anything.
I have a black t shirt with the word “ATHEIST” written in blocky upper case letters which I often wear around NC and have only had people ask me where they can get one. Never a single negative comment or even stare. Same thing goes for when I wear a t shirt which reads “Gay” on it in large prominent lettering. Nobody cares and thats a very good thing.
I dont ware my atheism, but when I hear it in my public space I ridicule it until it stops offending my deeply held beliefs….
it being religion
I wear my “Proud Atheist” hat, and have a bumper sticker stuck on my back windshield with “I’m the Atheist your parents warned you about”. I haven’t gotten any comments or stares in public. I live in Kingwood,Texas a suburb on the outskirts of Houston. BTW Kingwood is a very Christian town w/ a church on every corner. Nobody has made any comments. Actually, once when I took my car to get the oil changed, the mechanic noticed my bumper sticker, then smiled and laughed for a second because he though it was funny. That was it.
We’re now organizing! Please show sign up, and RSVP. We need your support!
http://www.kha-atheists.org