{"id":180,"date":"2011-03-23T19:40:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T19:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/03\/proud-to-be-atheist\/"},"modified":"2012-09-26T01:17:53","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T05:17:53","slug":"proud-to-be-atheist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2011\/03\/proud-to-be-atheist.html","title":{"rendered":"Proud to be Atheist?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

It\u2019s A Week<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Uh, perhaps I should clarify. \u00a0It\u2019s essentially Atheist Pride\/Awareness week (the Supreme Council of Atheists didn\u2019t contact me for naming advice). \u00a0The organizing group recommends you set the image above as your facebook profile picture for the week to remind your friends that atheists are all around and are \u201cgood without God.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s basically analogous to the British campaign to remind atheists to check \u201cNo Religion\u201d<\/a> (as opposed to Jedi<\/a>)\u00a0on the Census.<\/p>\n

The instructions are\u00a0straightforward\u00a0enough, but the question of what, exactly, we\u2019re affirming is left unanswered. \u00a0Hermant Mehta of Friendly Atheist realized the message might be lost at the most basic level, since not everyone will realize the A<\/em> is meant to\u00a0connote\u00a0atheism. \u00a0He passed on the suggestion that you make your own personalized sign<\/a> for your pic. \u00a0The diversity of messages participants have chosen<\/a> highlights the familiar problem of defining atheism. \u00a0There really not much content we\u2019d all stand behind. \u00a0Defining myself as an atheist, when the definition of atheism is so inchoate can be a problem.<\/p>\n

Jen Fulwiler, the former atheist turned Catholic of Conversion Diary took issue with the entire idea of atheist as a self-definition in an article for the National Catholic Register titled \u201cThe Danger of Atheist Pride<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0She finds the whole spirit of the week to be unhealthy. She writes:<\/p>\n

To say that your guiding belief system is atheism literally means nothing more than not theism<\/em>. There\u2019s nothing positive to focus on, nothing higher than yourself to which you can submit selfish urges. The process of fleshing out your own views is a process of constant rejection\u2026 And, as I know from personal experience, that mentality of constant dismissal of other ideas can fester to the point that the sin of pride becomes your driving force in life.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this is not the case with every atheist; some of the most kind and humble folks I know self-identify with that label. It\u2019s also not the case that adhering to a belief system based on positive principles automatically makes you a moral paragon (and I count myself as Exhibit A there). But these two different types of belief systems put people on radically different paths: Atheism is ordered toward rejection and pride, where as positive-principle-based belief systems are ordered toward acceptance and humility.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I\u2019ve written before<\/a>, even though atheism in isolation is pretty boring\/useless, I still think it\u2019s important for me to think about the public perception of atheism and take action in solidarity with other atheists. \u00a0For starters, the public definition of \u2018atheism\u2019\u00a0is not limited to disbelief in gods. \u00a0As some of the commenters on Jen\u2019s article and her piece itself make clear, atheism is associated with license and immorality. \u00a0Atheists are seen as without limits<\/em> and thus uniquely untrustworthy.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to use a weird virtue ethicist type of atheist like me as your counterexample (and given the flak I catch, you probably shouldn\u2019t). \u00a0The point is to set up something<\/em> to stand against the stereotype. \u00a0The content of the A Week initiative is embodied in the character of the atheists who come out. \u00a0The goal isn\u2019t to define atheism, but to weaken the prevailing and inaccurate idea.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s A Week! Uh, perhaps I should clarify. \u00a0It\u2019s essentially Atheist Pride\/Awareness week (the Supreme Council of Atheists didn\u2019t contact me for naming advice). \u00a0The organizing group recommends you set the image above as your facebook profile picture for the week to remind your friends that atheists are all around and are \u201cgood without God.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-atheism-is-boring"],"yoast_head":"\nProud to be Atheist?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's A Week! 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