Here’s another idea to herd-the-atheist-cattle that won’t work. Even if it did work, it wouldn’t accomplish the intended goal.
There’s an OUT Campaign being run by the Richard Dawkins Foundation. They want people to wear the a t-shirt, among other things. It’ll help promote atheists coming out, reaching out, speaking out, etc.
It’s a cute shirt. No harm in getting one and wearing it proudly.
But it’s not going to change anything.
The shirt doesn’t even say “atheist.” Which I think defeats the purpose of everything Dawkins’ people are trying to do.
If you’re going to wear a shirt to declare your atheism, be smart about it. Be funny. Be in-your-face if you want to.
We’ve all seen clever atheist shirts. Over the weekend, I saw one on a friend that read “Proud member of America‘s Most Distrusted Minority.” I like that. It gets people thinking. and it’s specifically talking about atheists.
If you’re not going to wear a shirt that screams atheism, I’m not sure that wearing a weak symbol is any better.
No outsider will know you’re an atheist when you wear the shirt. I’m not even sure that most people would catch The Scarlet Letter reference.
And why are people gung-ho about putting the symbol in the sidebar of their blogs? If you don’t know that PZ Myers is an atheist the second you see his site, the sidebar A is not going to help.
Buy the shirts if you want to. Proceeds go to a good cause (The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science). But don’t get the impression that this is the way to come out as an atheist.
Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s vitally important that atheists be open about their beliefs. We shouldn’t do it in a half-assed, secretive way, though. Go all out and be proud of it.
[tags]atheist, atheism, The Scarlet Letter, Richard Dawkins, Pharyngula, PZ Myers, OUT Campaign, The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science[/tags]