Atheist Pride Day: Why I am in.

Workout notes 4000 yard swim; 5 x 75 free, 25 back, 10 x 50 (drill/swim) with fins, 10 x 100 on the 1:45 (2 1:40s; the rest were faster), 500 odd strokes, 10 x 50 (25 fly, 25 free: fins), 10 x (25 off stroke, 25 free), 5 x (25 drill, 75 swim).

I got food poisoning and my stomach was tight the whole workout; several times I almost gave up. Instead I focused on form and technique, telling myself that I can feel bad and not swim, or feel bad and swim.

I slept for 3 hours afterward (thank you spring break).

The good news is that I talked to another swimmer; he is one of those who is swimming to recover from an industrial accident.

There are some interesting personal stories out there if one just takes the time to smile and say “hi”.

Atheist “Pride” Day (Facebook) Why I am going along with it.

I read about this at Friendly Atheist:

It’s a simple and powerful way to show your atheist pride.

This Friday, all you have to do is change your Facebook profile picture to the following:

And change your status to something like “I am an atheist” (or whatever).

That’s it!

For most of us, it’s a chance to show some atheist pride. For others, maybe it’s a way to come out to your friends.

I was going to blow it off; I am no more “proud” to be an atheist than I am “proud” to reject: Rah, Wotan, Thor, Zeus, Ganesh, Isis, etc. I am an atheist simply because the idea of some deity meddling in the affairs of this universe strikes me as absurd.

I can’t say “this deity made is all for us” with a straight face; I simply don’t believe it.

Now, of course, there may be some grand, even wonderful creative “spirit” (or whatever you want to call it) that exists and is unknowable by our tiny, limited brains. Or, maybe this entity may become knowable; I have no idea. Sure, I have no evidence for it, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. Of course that doesn’t even make it likely that it is.

But that has nothing, and I mean nothing to do with the current deities worshiped by most of the “faithful”.

So, when I call myself an atheist, it is to let others know that I find the idea that one can alter the course of current events by divine intervention (because of prayer, magic, etc.) to be absurd. I do acknowledge that prayer can calm and center a person; prayer and meditations can be good for one’s emotions just as yoga can be good for one’s back and hamstrings and one’s emotions.

But I see prayer, meditation and yoga as strictly secular tools that work.

Life as an atheist I teach at a university that has research requirements for its faculty. At such places, being an atheist is no big deal, at least to one’s group of friends. We have “believers” non-believers; no one makes a big deal out of it.

So, yes, there are times when I feel as if I am bobbing in a sea of stupidity when I read stuff like this:

PEORIA —

The city’s first homicide of the year was no coincidence, Mayor Jim Ardis said.

The murder of 19-year-old Mario McGee on Saturday morning was a challenge from Satan, the mayor said. But it’s a battle the community is ready to fight.

“It’s only going to make us dig our heels deeper,” Ardis said to a nearly full Peoria Civic Center Theater on Sunday night. “We will stand arm in arm, hand in hand until this happens no more.”

Coming together IS a good idea, but chalking problems up to an imaginary foe is beyond stupid.

But to be honest, I don’t normally associate with such people on any personal basis. Most of my friends “who know me” are themselves atheists or agnostics; many simply don’t even see the question as worth bothering about.

Even on the internet, I frequent the blogs of atheists and my favorite political haunt has this breakdown:

Click on here to see a larger version.

Of course, we are frequently called names:

We are called narcissists:

No, Governor Huckabee, non-believers are NOT those who believe in nothing greater than themselves. We just reject your sky-daddy just as we reject pixies and fairies.

We are portrayed as hedonists:

Here is another link.

In fact, tis is something like this:

Of course, many believers (not all) are happy to attack the religion of others:

You even see this in politics:

But here is my reaction: I find this absurd and comical; I was at the rally where this video was shot and I had to keep from laughing (the funny stuff starts at about 55 seconds; the rest is ok) I don’t feel oppressed by this.

Of course, people don’t understand us (watch the Fox News banner where they list “90 percent” believe in a god).

Surveys paint a rather different picture:

The top line shows that indeed 92 percent of Americans believe in a deity or a universal spirit. But look across the line: only 60% believe in a personal god; 25% believe in some impersonal spirit or force (what Dawkins calls “sexed up atheism”) and 7% have some different conception.

In short, as a whole, this country is not as blindly religious as some might think.
Even when you look at, say, Catholics, only 60 per cent of these believe in a personal god, only 25 per cent of all Jews, and 41 percent of Muslims! (6 per cent of Atheists too; I admit that I don’t understand that one )

But even though the percentage of self-described atheists is small, many people operate as if only natural phenomena affect the world. And, the vast majority of the elite scientists are with us.

Science Avenger points us to a video that says a great deal:

Note: Stephen Hawking is a British citizen and not an American, as much as we’d love to claim him!

So, why am I going to participate in this day on facebook?

The bottom line is that many, if not most atheists are NOT a part of a caring community; they might find themselves feeling a bit isolated and alone. Some are genuinely afraid of being shunned in their communities and of losing their jobs.

So, this will be my way of saying: “hey, you aren’t alone”.