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Happy Atheist Pride Day!

March 21st, 2009 by Foo-Foo McKinley

Yesterday was Atheist Pride Day. Happy atheism to those non-believers! Yes, I’ve changed my Facebook picture to The Out Campaign’s Scarlet A in honor of the day’s meaning.

However, I’m left wondering if having a pride day adds to the stigma that atheism is a form of religion. Is this our anti-religious holiday? It’s been my understanding that to be an atheist is to be an individual who happens to not believe in supernatural overlords. But in recent years, atheist “groups” have been sprouting up all over the world. Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s great that like-minded people are joining together to share in their nonbeliefs. I can’t help but feel, though, that it possibly fuels the fire with actual religious communities who claim that atheism is just another religion.

Things like Skeptics in the Pub, started in the UK, are a great way to hold rational conversations about pseudoscience, psychics and other bullshit. A great deal of people who attend them, in fact most people that do, are atheists. There are, however, people who maintain religious values while still being critical of woo. Don’t ask me for examples, however I do know some people who go to church regularly, but refuse to believe in homeopathy and the like. It takes a great deal of open-mindedness for both the people who are critical of religion and also the people who support it to maintain a civil get-together under those circumstances, and for that I commend them all.

What do you all think about having an Atheist Pride Day? I’m certainly not against it; I just have some underlying questions and feelings about it that I felt I needed to share.

Editor’s Note: Ms. McKinley had this post ready to go in time for the actual Atheist Pride Day on Friday. The necessity for past tense was my fault.

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