Jamie_L

I'm not vocal at all, though I don't hide it. I only mention it if asked directly. At work, it seems ill-advised to broadcast something potentially controversial that has little impact on my working relationships with people.

What I've found is that people take my admission of atheism as a challenge to their belief, and the conversation immediately becomes an arguement. I don't particullarly enjoy face-to-face arguements (I'm bolstered by the anonymity of the internet), so usually I stay away from those conversations if I can.

Of course, I'm vocal about some related topics. I often get on my high-horse about church-state separation issues, religious extremist nut-jobs, and and more general skeptical topics like psuedoscience and psychics.

I can count on one hand the number of people who know for certain that I'm an atheist.

Jamie

Yggdrasill

I don't tell people that I am an atheist unless they ask, and as it has nigh on never popped up in discussions I have had, I haven't told anyone. Most people assume I am somewhere in the spectrum of non-belief, but I haven't directly told anyone.

The only recent time it has popped up in discussion was in a epistomological discussion where me and one of my friends were trying to convince another friend, of the non-existence of objective truth, or at least the inaccessibility of it to anyone not omniscient. We used a example with godly intervention as a possible cause of the hypothetical immortality of a being. Thus leading to the hypothesis: "All beings will certainly die" to be false, and making his arguments void of validity.

But it kinda backfired, our using god as an example sparked him asking us if we believed in god. (Although he said it with a nervous undertone, as if he was an atheist that didn't want us to be theists. ) We just said no and continued with the discussion.

Sadly, there were no winners in the discussion. <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> Why can't everyone just conform to my paradigm?

Toto

So two quintessinally Jewish names (a king and a prophet, as I recall) straight out of the Old Testament are "Christian"? What goes here?

Shake

My sister, her husband, my wife, and a couple of co-workers know for sure. My folks have a good idea, although they think I'll come back (ha ha!). The co-workers know because we were discussing the Newdow case when it first broke and I was defending his position and doing some educating about the Founding Fathers not being Xian, and the US not being an Xian nation. They then confronted me with the direct question, and I responded that yes, I am an atheist. The one gave me some crap about it for a while, but when I didn't really respond to it, he gave up.

I also got one of those, "if you don't like this country you can leave" emails, full of falsities about the country being Xian, etc. I wrote back to the sender after including some education like what I mentioned above and said the only way I'd forward their email was with the attachment I'd written. So, I'm sure a lot of people in my address book at least have a clue.

But I usually tend to take a more neutral position in discussions to avoid the emotionally charged attack and sudden closing of others minds when they find out you're not like them. I play Devil's Advocate in a discussion sometimes, and will play around arguing both sides (even attacking my own beliefs a bit). This just shows that you know the issue without betraying your true feelings. In here, where things are mostly anonymous, I'm very open, but even outside, I'd never lie about it (unless perhaps my survival depended on it).

Edited to add: I recently finished reading one book and was considering starting Atheism: The Case Against God, but couldn't get up the courage to bring it to work and leave it lying around. There are some hardcore fundies around who might dispose of it if left unattended.

[ December 19, 2002: Message edited by: Shake ]</p>

Jewel

I happily mention it anytime the opportunity arises. Most of my co workers know, all of my friends know, all of my family knows and I don't mind telling strangers if they bring it up. I've met very few people that reacted at all to it.

Belle

I think the line of thought is that if it's mentioned in the bible its xian. In my mind I actually draw a line between old and new testament but often times xians don't. Hell often times they don't even know there is an old and new testament! &lt; Beating head against desk &gt;

Melkor

George H. Smith is a really good writer. Very articulate and thought-provoking. "Atheism: The Case Against God" is a good book. Also be sure to check out "Atheism, Ayn Rand, And Other Heresies" by George H. Smith as well. It has a wonderful section in in specifically addressing the best methods to use when arguing with Fundies...

Rusting Car Bumper

I don't mention it unless asked. However, if people say negative things about non-believers, make hellfire claims, relate god to morality, make religiously bigoted comments, and so on, I will speak up.

DC

PandaJoe

I try to make sure the people I know realize I'm an athiest. It usually doesn't get brought up often, but I do what I can. I'd like to let people know that athiests aren't evil, bad people.

PandaJoe

I try to make sure the people I know realize I'm an athiest. It usually doesn't get brought up often, but I do what I can. I'd like to let people know that athiests aren't evil, bad people.