It’s Openly Secular Day

April 23, 2015 • 11:30 am

I forgot about today being Openly Secular Day, a day to “come out” as a nonbeliever and opponent of religious incursions into government. There’s a website on which you’re asked to tell one person that you’re openly secular (I presume this applies in the U.S., not Pakistan!).

I don’t know anybody who doesn’t already know this about me, but I’ll try to find one. In the meantime, if any readers want to offer testimony in the comments that they’ve “come out” about their nonbelief, please feel free to do so. Or if you’ve discovered people who you didn’t know were nonbelievers (John Davidson is a big one on the internet now), put their names below, too.

Here’s the video from that site:

After it’s finished, the video will continue on to other people’s recorded testimonies.

 

67 thoughts on “It’s Openly Secular Day”

  1. Mostly everyone I know knows I’m an atheist so I decided to treat 4/23 as if it was a holiday. I brought doughnuts and candy to the office so that my co-workers could help me celebrate. Everyone’s response has been really positive so far.

  2. I don’t know who I can tell that doesn’t already know… other than random people on the street. And even they can see this red “A” on my vest. 😉

  3. For me it’s simple: I began smelling a rat as I reached my teenage years. I sensed something wasn’t quite right about my Catholic upbringing. I began to think about “holy” water. How is differential diagnosis achieved? If there are two vials of water before me, and you, the believer, tell me that one vial contains ordinary water and the other vial contains “holy” water, how am I to know? How do I tell the difference?

    This is typical of religion: believers make super-natural claims (deliberate hyphen for emphasis) about the nature of All Things, and yet they want to play in the sandbox of science when making these pronouncements (asserting their beliefs). To suggest that mumbling certain words accompanied by a choreographed gesticulation while standing in front of a vial of water somehow changes the nature of that water… well, that’s quite an extraordinary claim. I would like to see the extra-ordinary evidence for that, thank you very much.

    “Oh, it’s just a metaphor.” No, sir. As adjective is to noun as unevidenced is to belief, “holy” is modifying “water.” To say that water is “holy” is to say there’s something about holy water that distinguishes it from ordinary water.

    Coming to my senses on this non-dilemma was the turning point for me.

  4. Good luck to and well done our American secular cousins.

    Here in England being an atheist is not at all controversial. In fact talk of god and Jesus is a social embarrassment. We’ve had our religious wars and gone beyond them.

    Here instead it’s St George’s Day – the patron saint of England, and so another excuse for a booze up.

    Today is also celebrated as Shakespeare’s birthday.

  5. ‘Openly secular day’ is something we don’t really need over here in the UK. People don’t talk about religion much but when they do, saying you’re an atheist doesn’t provoke much reaction in my experience. I was approached the other day by some people trying to convert me. I told them I was an atheist and they were perfectly polite about it. All my friends know and my close family are all atheists anyway.

    Hope that one day atheism in the USA will be just as unremarkable. The people who speak up now are the brave ones. let’s hope they start a trend. Good luck to everyone ‘coming out’ atheist in places where it’s still rare.

    As for how I became atheist, I was raised by an anti-theist father and a vaguely ‘there’s-something-out-there’ mother, who is now also atheist. I dabbled with christianity and witchcraft as a teen but neither stuck. Science makes the most sense to me and has the best evidence.

  6. Apparently it’s also international nose picking day – which is pretty much how I feel about most holidays of this nature. And “Talk like Shakespeare” day – per an e-mail I received from the Chicago Shakespeare theater.

    I never realized that being atheist was a big deal growing up (SE England) or even when I lived in San Francisco – where I did meet a few practicing catholics but religion was not so much an issue. Living in the American South was more of an experience, but it never occurred to me that this was something to hide or not discuss. It was probably more of an issue for my kids, although they never made a big deal of it and seem to be appropriately heathen. So I’ve just blissfully gone through life telling anyone who asked what I thought about the idea – and it has never been an issue.

    1. Same here, from a family of atheists.

      All my friends, including some vicars and their congregation members, know and it never enters the conversation. Unless we have that type of late night alcohol-fuelled discussion.

  8. There needs to be a “covertly secular” branch to eschew faith-based discrimination during mandatory background checks. Then again, maybe public pushback will help employers get over it.

  9. Under some pressure from her fundamentalist parents my mother made a rather half-hearted effort to get me and my sister into Sunday school when I was about eight years old – we ended up only going two or three times, as I recall. I don’t remember much about it except that I found the whole thing rather creepy and disturbing even at that age – I think I knew that I was being indoctrinated with nonsense even though I had never spoken to an “atheist” and probably did not even know the word.

    As for Openly Secular Day I did happen to buy a copy of Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ at a Goodwill store this morning.

    1. I know what you mean. To this day I cannot get to the point where I feel comfortable in a church.

  10. I’ve been openly secular almost as long as I’ve been secular–about 33 years. I had forgotten it was openly secular day, but everybody who matters already knows anyway. I’ll celebrate by posting a big red A on my blog.

  11. Which just happens to coincide with Shakespeare’s birthday (observed) and my birthday !

    I was given the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible as a birthday gift from a friend. : D

  12. I “came out” as an atheist to 2 (two!) either 7th Day or jehov Wit (how do you tell?) who came to my door with pamphlets. They asked if I had thought of jesus today and I said Why just today ? – politely, and they admitted we should think of him every day. To cut this short, I said that I believed in one less god than they did and bid them adoo. They looked puzzled and returned to their car.

    Does that count as a come out?

    (If this is a repeat, apologies).

  13. I don’t think I can go for this one — for the same reason I don’t want people coming up to me and proclaiming that they’re Christian.

    To me, true secularity is the absence of religion from the sphere of public affairs. We’re a good ways towards that; in many circles, religion just isn’t something you discuss.

    Seeking out like-minded people to share your interests with you is a very good thing. And indicating that you don’t share interests with somebody is a normal part of conversation; if you’re talking with a friend who’s really excited about a game of golf she just played, it’d be reasonable to let her know that golf just isn’t your thing (if it isn’t). If she’s polite, she’s going to limit her discussion of golf from then on unless you start to show some interest; if she’s boorish, that’s all she’s going to talk about. And if she’s a professional golfer and you can’t stand the sport, you two aren’t going to have much to talk about.

    Religion needs to be treated the same. I wouldn’t walk up to somebody and, out of the blue, proclaim that I don’t play golf…so why should I walk up to somebody and proclaim that I don’t have any gods?

    b&

    1. Because golfers aren’t spending their time trying to control government?

      Being openly secular would make no sense in a world where religion was a private affair. We don’t live in that world yet.

      1. We don’t live in that country. As a number of people have noted this is a complete non-issue in many places. In most of the English speaking world declaring oneself religious would be, if not complete political suicide, at least a big no-no

        1. I don’t see the point of this comment. Ben and GBJames are both from the US and are clearly talking about the society they live in, the US.

          More generally the context, starting at the beginning with the OP, is clearly parts of the world where being an out atheist can have significant consequences. Stating that there are places where this is a complete non-issue is both stating the obvious and non sequitur.

          I freely admit, though, that I am envious of you living in a society where this is a complete non-issue. Perhaps minor awareness raising campaigns like this will contribute in some small way to my society eventually achieving the same level of non-issueness as yours.

          1. I was noting (obviously not effectively) that the US is not the world.

            For the record I’ve lived in the US for the last 20 something years including 14 in TN (I’m now in recovery in Chicago). Being atheist has never been an issue, and wasn’t even something I thought about until the move to TN.

            Also, there are good data to support the idea that many in the higher reaches of government are golfers 🙂

      2. Oh, I’m all for countering religious intrusion into the public square, even (especially) with going full “strident.” A door-to-door Jesus salescritter deserves to have his mental competence fully challenged, as do any public figures who wave their gods in front of everybody.

        What I’m not in favor of is broaching the subject for the point of broaching it. Walking up to an acquaintance and announcing, “I want you know that I’m ____,” just isn’t cool, regardless of the blank. “I want you to know that I’m a Republican.” “I want you to know that I’m gay.” “I want you to know that I’m pregnant.” “I want you to know that I have herpes.” “I want you know that I love to eat bananas.”

        If somebody else has just said, “Republicans are the span of Satan,” “God hates fags,” “Pregnant women are smug,” “STDs are Jesus’s punishment for licentiousness,” or, “Bananas are icky,” then such a reply may well be called for. But to broach the subject yourself? Not cool.

        Cheers,

        b&

        1. “What I’m not in favor of is broaching the subject for the point of broaching it”

          The point of Openly Secular Day is not to borach the subject for the point of broching the subject and I’m quite sure you realize it. The point is to elevate public awareness of the existence and commonness of non-belief. The point is exactly the same point as it was for gay people to wear rainbow pins and to put “=” bumper stickers on their cars.

          Someday (maybe) we’ll live in a land where it won’t matter anymore. Until then encouraging other non-believers to be “out” is a priority.

          1. Yeah…I’m still not seeing the appropriateness of injecting that sort of thing into a conversation where it’s not called for.

            Even for somebody who’s gay. No need to stand up at the office and shout, “Hey, everybody! I’m gay!” Typical workplace conversations often turn to family activities outside of the workplace, and your orientation will likely come out naturally there. “So, Steve, do anything interesting last night?” “I went with my boyfriend to this great new restaurant downtown. Their lamb curry is to die for!”

            Same sort of thing for religion. “Say, Steve, my wife and I are going with our church group to a retreat up at the ski resort. Would you and your boyfriend like to join us for the weekend?” “Thanks, but no; we’re not the religious type. Maybe some other event?”

            I’m not one for bumper stickers at all, but, if you are, great; slap ’em on. March in parades. Get together at an auditorium for a rally. Hold a car wash fundraiser at the local gas station. Wear your proud T-shirt or jewelry. Set up a booth on the mall of the local university campus and hand out literature. Call church offices and offer to participate in public debates and / or ask for somebody to participate in one you’re already hosting.

            All that kind of stuff is great, if you’re into that sort of thing.

            What I’m not keen on is walking up to somebody and making a point of announcing something out of the blue.

            Again: how would you feel if a Moron walked up to you and said, “I just want you to know that I’m a Moron and we’re all normal regular people just like you!” You’d be damned creeped out, wouldn’t you? So don’t be that kind of creep, yourself.

            b&

          3. I’m late on this because I’ve been away, but I agree with you Ben.

            I’m also interested that on this site most people are conflating atheism and secularism. However, in the US, this has to be an openly “Secular” campaign because the word “atheist” has such baggage there that a majority of atheists don’t/won’t use it. They’re not actually the same thing, as we all know. But in the US it’s become a bit of a code word for atheist, and it’s turning theist secularists off the word imo, and I don’t think that’s a good thing.

          5. Fundamentalists typically adopt the stance set forth in red-letter text in Luke 19:27. All those who would not that Jesus should rule over them are his enemies and ultimately deserve naught but to be slain at his feet. The nicer ones will graciously permit Jesus to do the slaying come Judgement day, but at least some would just as soon get on with the slaying themselves, already, save for that whole inconvenience of facing charges of capital murder.

            b&

          6. Ben,

            I’m pretty much with you on this. At least, that’s how I *feel* about it, not having thought too thoroughly about doing this.

            It just doesn’t strike me as particularly strategic to just find some way to interject
            “I’m a secularist” into conversations. Everyone is annoyed when religious people do this, why would we want to act the same?
            And it would seem to play into the hands of people who try to depict us as “being just like proselytizing religious, shoving our atheism in people’s face.”

          7. Exactly.

            And it’s not just matters of religion or even politics. We’ve all met the guy who just can’t shut up about his new girlfriend, right?

            b&

          9. “And that’s just like the guy who wears a red “A” pin, right?”

            Not quite the same. If you’re wearing a pin, it tells the other person what you are (well, that one fact about you anyway) but they can choose whether to ask about it or not. If you say you’re atheist in conversation, it demands some response from them; so, more intrusive.

            Personally, I have no hesitation in saying I’m an atheist if the subject arises naturally (but of course here it doesn’t have the same shock value), but I wouldn’t normally go looking for an excuse to inject it into the conversation.

          10. Yes!

            And, GBJames, you might want to re-read what I wrote upthread. Specifically, the bit about, “Wear your proud T-shirt or jewelry[….] All that kind of stuff is great, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

            b&

          11. The point, Ben, is that you are equating the aims of Open Secular Day with walking up to strangers and making announcements out of the blue. Why you would intentionally be missing the point is a mystery to me. Nobody is suggesting that anyone wander up to strangers and hand them a non-tract.

          12. The point, Ben, is that you are equating the aims of Open Secular Day with walking up to strangers and making announcements out of the blue.

            From the very first paragraph on this page:

            There’s a website on which you’re asked to tell one person that you’re openly secular (I presume this applies in the U.S., not Pakistan!).

            …you were typing…?

            b&

      3. Golfers aren’t spending their time trying to control government? Check out the names with starting times at Burning Tree CC any given week.

        Of course, they aren’t trying to control government according to their golfing handicap; many of them are, unfortunately, trying to control it according to their religious handicap (if you’ll pardon the equivocating use of terminology here).

  15. This is a good thing, imo, but every day is secular day. Or rather, every day is godless. Every second the tide goes in & the tide goes out because of the laws of gavity. The sun shines because of atomic fusion. Living things are born, and they eat and maybe reproduce and die; and sometimes populations change by differences in survival and reproduction. We are all godless, but only some of us know that.

  16. I am also quite openly atheist, although there are probably people who know me who don’t know this about me. Those folks don’t know me very well, as I am quite outspoken in my opposition to all forms of fuzzy thinking. My mother was Catholic and I went through the usual traumas of parochial grade school and high school. My father, though, was not religious at all. He grudgingly went to church a few times at my mother’s request, but quite forthright in his observation that religion (like race) appeared to have no correlation with a person’s worthiness as a human being.

    I started college being what I’d call a social believer (I liked the feel good hippie folk masses of the time) but by the end of freshman year, I was calling myself an agnostic, mainly because the Encyclopedia Britannica entry on ‘agnosticism’ took itself much less seriously than its entry on ‘atheism’.

    As I am a professional scientist, I am surrounded by other quite secular folks, most of whom are openly atheist (some still call themselves ‘agnostic’).

  17. I would just hope that people do not hide the fact that they are Atheist. Nothing to be ashamed of and in religious crazy U.S.A we need organizations like FFRF to keep religion from running over us.

    Just reported by FFRF all three networks, ABC, NBC and CBS have banned their commercial. CNN seems to be the only one with the balls. They also remind us that the Roberts court has ruled against separation of church and state for 9 years. The first supreme court to do so.

    1. “Just reported by FFRF all three networks, ABC, NBC and CBS have banned their commercial.”

      I wonder how much money these good capitalists require to broadcast their commercial. Does enough money exist?

      1. I also meant to say that it happened to me again – I stepped into a Starbucks and made purchases totaling $6.66 – The Mark of The Beast! – duly noted by the barista – who declared the event “creepy.” I thanked her for so informing me; I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I wonder if the Starbuck’s CEO has a precious capitalist problem with losing that penny of income, “maximizing investor value” and all that, ya know.

  18. I walked out of Mass at age 14, after a reactionary priest gave a sermon calling Martin Luther King, Jr. (a personal hero of mine) a communist — calling him everything but a black Christian minister, as I recall. I haven’t been back in church for anything but weddings and funerals since.

    (It didn’t help the Catholic cause that this sermon occurred a couple weeks before James Earl Ray tore off a chunk of Martin’s face with a thirty-aught-six slug on the balcony of Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel. Truth be told, however, I left the Church mentally, in terms of belief in dogma, well before I walked out the back of the church physically on that cold Sunday morning in ’68 — if, indeed, I ever bought into any of the supernatural stuff in the first place. In some ways, nonetheless, I remain a cultural Catholic, as a matter of ethnic, working-class identity — a simulacrum of sorts, I suppose, of the secular Jews who nevertheless maintain a strong Jewish identity.)

    Given this history with the Church, I can’t see how anyone who’s anyone that matters doesn’t know I’m secular. But if any there be out there, I’m “out,” out here. See you at the next wedding or (sad to say is increasingly the case) next funeral.

  19. This is a bit of a non event for me because everyone I know is well aware I am an “unbeliever.” I live in the midwest so, of course, I have no friends. However, this strikes me as a great day to go door-to-door and tell people about atheism. There is a great YouTube video of a couple of atheists doing just that, in Salt Lake City of all places. Hilarious. I’d post the link but I’m afraid it’ll embed the video and can’t remember the instructions for avoiding that.

    1. Just remove the https:// from the link. WP will add it back on and it will appear as a hotlink, not an image.

      I remember seeing that vid someplace!

  21. I admitted to my boss today that Health & Safety was anathema to me. Does that count?

    (I will admit to a certain boldness in these matters, and an increasing casualness with which I regard my company’s policies and procedures. It’s probably related to the fact I’m retiring in a couple of months. I’m told the symptoms are often noticed in those approaching retirement).

    1. (I suppose I should add that, living in New Zealand, if I was to say to someone “I’m an atheist” their reaction would be puzzlement. “So what?” or “What are you telling me for?” The only people who would gratuitously mention their religion are door-to-door evangelists).

        2. I’m not quite sure where this is going. Is there an implication that GBJames might be knocking on my door proffering atheist pamphlets? 😉

          2. Whew, that’s a relief. But if you like to email me a pamphlet I promise to read it 😉

          4. 🙂

            I was of course kidding.

            I saw that website recently. Re one of them in particular, it struck me (even before I read the synposis) that “What does the Bible say about abortion” might be a rather short pamphlet.

  22. I can’t remember what we were talking about but in the conversation I mentioned I was an atheist …my friend to whom I was talking said in shocked tones…”No you’re not!” And it took me some minutes to make her believe that I really was…I have laughed about that quite often since.

    1. One will recall the incident a few years ago where Oprah Winfrey interviewed swimmer Diana Nyad. Nyad said she did not believe in a literal god, but referred only to a sense of wonder. Winfrey says, “Well, I don’t call you an atheist then!”. The conversation became increasingly more awkward as Winfrey attempted to deny Nyad her own thoughts.

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