{"id":2209,"date":"2012-03-19T11:33:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T15:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=2209"},"modified":"2012-12-10T13:39:17","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T18:39:17","slug":"now-you-see-me-now-i-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/03\/now-you-see-me-now-i-what.html","title":{"rendered":"Now You See Me. Now I… what?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Remember you can vote once per day for the About.com Atheism Awards. \u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0one of five nominees for Best Atheist Blog<\/a>. \u00a0More details here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s A Week<\/a> again.<\/p>\n

No, not Improper Capitalization of Indefinite Articles Week, but a call for quiet atheists to come out of the closet and change their facebook profile pictures to something like the image above, to remind the people in their lives that they know atheists and that we don\u2019t eat babies. \u00a0Just like last year<\/a>, I\u2019m having trouble getting too excited about the campaign.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not open about your atheism, by all means take the opportunity to come out (if the revelation isn\u2019t going to put you in physical danger or get you kicked out of your house as a minor). \u00a0But for a lot of us, A Week is superfluous. \u00a0It\u2019s hard for my friends to not<\/em> notice I\u2019m an atheist, since I post links to this blog with some regularity. \u00a0Changing my profile pic or cover photo isn\u2019t going to be a revelation to anyone on my friends list. \u00a0And I can\u2019t help but feel it would be wrong to rob them of my current cover photo:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So the question is, for those of who are out about our atheism, what\u2019s the next task? \u00a0For LGBT people, being out can feel like a constant\u00a0responsibility\u00a0to witness. \u00a0Getting married to your gay partner? \u00a0Well, you\u2019d better never ever get divorced or do so much as fight in public, because when ever you go out as queer, you\u2019re carrying our entire civil rights struggle with you.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s less clear what counts as a tactical error for an out atheist. \u00a0One of the big\u00a0stereotypes\u00a0we seem to be trying to dispel is that you can\u2019t be a moral person without a belief in a\u00a0supernatural\u00a0lawgiver (see the video below). \u00a0That\u2019s the driving force between collaborating specifically as atheists to do charitable work<\/a>, instead of only doing it as individuals where our religious beliefs are less visible. \u00a0I guess you could channel that into a week of charitable action, but, personally, I prefer to give money for other groups to use than to offer my unskilled labor for a few hours. \u00a0(But I\u2019m counting this as another ping on my new charitable giving plan<\/a>).<\/p>\n