Secularists, stand up
From my school's paper. 450 Papers were stolen that day, I guess I may have had something to do with it, or I'm just unfortunate.
To the editor,
A colleague of mine recently informed me that the Secular Student Association had failed to form because potential members didn’t believe it needed to be formed or were afraid to be identified as being atheist, agnostic, humanist or secularist. I’m very enraged at this. Ole Miss needs an “Atheist Out” campaign; what’s to be afraid of?
Fellow atheists, your friends will still be your friends. Those who are no longer your friends were never really your friends anyway. As for your family, honestly, how much about your college adventures do you tell your family?
Wouldn’t it be nice to stop being an atheist and conform to the people around you? It might, but you’d stop being who you are. And you shouldn’t go around pretending to be someone you’re not. You can hide it, but all the same, it’s part of your identity. Further, you should stand up for yourself if you’re oppressed or distrusted.
When people know what you are, they’ll better understand you and those like you. High school now regularly features those with disabilities to normalize them to the rest of the student body. When this is done, people are less apt to discriminate, hate, distrust or make fun of those with disabilities.
Similarly, everyone needs to normalize their friends and the general public to the kinds of people they themselves are.
Theists, I ask you to support your atheist brethren. We’re as human as you are, and we only wish to be open and honest about who we are. Certainly, we don’t agree about the existence of gods, but everyone has differences of opinions on political, economic and social issues. Why should our religion be any different? We’ll still be the same people you always knew, and we’re nothing to be feared.
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Alan White
Addendum,
I thought about signing as Orson Zedd, but then I realized that might be a tad hypocritical, all things considered.
To the editor,
A colleague of mine recently informed me that the Secular Student Association had failed to form because potential members didn’t believe it needed to be formed or were afraid to be identified as being atheist, agnostic, humanist or secularist. I’m very enraged at this. Ole Miss needs an “Atheist Out” campaign; what’s to be afraid of?
Fellow atheists, your friends will still be your friends. Those who are no longer your friends were never really your friends anyway. As for your family, honestly, how much about your college adventures do you tell your family?
Wouldn’t it be nice to stop being an atheist and conform to the people around you? It might, but you’d stop being who you are. And you shouldn’t go around pretending to be someone you’re not. You can hide it, but all the same, it’s part of your identity. Further, you should stand up for yourself if you’re oppressed or distrusted.
When people know what you are, they’ll better understand you and those like you. High school now regularly features those with disabilities to normalize them to the rest of the student body. When this is done, people are less apt to discriminate, hate, distrust or make fun of those with disabilities.
Similarly, everyone needs to normalize their friends and the general public to the kinds of people they themselves are.
Theists, I ask you to support your atheist brethren. We’re as human as you are, and we only wish to be open and honest about who we are. Certainly, we don’t agree about the existence of gods, but everyone has differences of opinions on political, economic and social issues. Why should our religion be any different? We’ll still be the same people you always knew, and we’re nothing to be feared.
“This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.”
Alan White
Addendum,
I thought about signing as Orson Zedd, but then I realized that might be a tad hypocritical, all things considered.