What Do You Call Yourself
I recently heard a discussion on christian radio about a person calling him or herself and atheist. The gist is that to call yourself what is essentially a negative, discounts your ethos. People in sobriety do not call themselves "non-drunks" but the more positive and self-affirming "sober". So, the question is, what do you call yourself and why? Personally, I refer to myself as an Evangelical Atheist because I am actively expressing my position and am always willing to join a religious conversation to expound the Atheist point of view. My wife, on the other hand, prefers nontheist. Whether there is a god or not, she could hardly care less and gives neither side any thought.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ava Wilson on -
Evangelical is a bit too close to religious jargon in an annoying way. But I get your point. Nontheist is a little bit of an annoying term too and I've noticed Atheists enjoy playing with semantics too much.
I refer to myself as an Atheist and a Secular Humanist.
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Permalink Reply by Jean Clelland-Morin on -
I usually use "agnostic". My feeling is that I don't have time to spin my wheels over how we got here, where we are going when we die or how the world got here. In any case, the made-up gods and myths, for those who must have answers at any cost, are pretty ridiculous. I'm busy enough trying to save the world from itself right here on this crumbling planet.
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Permalink Reply by Cat on -
Truthfully, it depends upon the people with me as to what I call myself. Usually, it's just atheist.
But with my family (except for my husband and kids and a few others), I refer to myself as a "free thinker". I will not be subject to the anger spewed, the chastisement, nor the witnessing to me in earnest... I just won't go there with my family.
During hospital stays, I generally mark Unitarian Universalist, as the nurses treat me better than when I marked "atheist".
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Permalink Reply by Alan Goldstein on -
Is god taken?
I’ve always liked “Enlightened Individual”.
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Permalink Reply by William C. Walker on -
Yeah - god is already taken - it's me. But you can always be another one, What the hell, people have been creating them for centuries,so I decided it was a good job & made myself one. I'm not a real prick like the Xian one. I don;t even want to be worshiped. And I don't need your money.Just don't expect very many favors or interference in either your personal problems of, for that matter - WORLD problems. I have a whole goddam Universe to look after.
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Permalink Reply by Jean Clelland-Morin on
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I know, William. Trying to save the planet from itself is really hard, and sometimes depressing, work.
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Permalink Reply by JD Rasco on -
labels are useless and lead to prejudice. I can myself a satan loving islamic terrorist atheist to see how dumb people really get. And yes they come that dumb.
ps i just use atheist...it's easier
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Permalink Reply by Jean Clelland-Morin on
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The last label I used was "non-believer". It was on a site of a woman who pushes her religion. I mentioned that I am also a volunteer for Secours Catholique here in France. I said I respect Christians who attempt to live a Christ-like life but have little respect for religious fundamentalists. I got a positive response. In this case, I needed to identify myself.
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Permalink Reply by Carol Whitt on -
I haven't really thought about what I consider myself. In most online forums/social networking sites, I'm atheist. If asked in person while my mother is around, I off-handedly say "I'm not religious". It doesn't invoke near as much retribution from her than if I said I was an atheist right out.
I've been reading through these comments and I feel like a newbie, or that I came to class unprepared, because I haven't heard of Secular Humanism before. Of course, as of this moment, all my non-religious debating/discussing takes place on the internet alone...so I can't say much.
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Permalink Reply by Jean Clelland-Morin on
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Carol. We come into this world innocent and vulnerable. We have different pressures, especially from family. It takes awhile to be able to be whom we really are.
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Permalink Reply by William C. Walker on
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On occasion, I have replied that of course I believe in Zeus - with a smile. (And prepared to accuse the other of being an Atheist if he didn't believe in Zeus.)
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