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.

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Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on July 30, 2011 at 3:58pm

I call myself anti-theist because that is exactly what I mean. I grew up in a family with rampant domestic violence and all the perpetrators were honorable men with high social standing and strong community support for their behaviors. I married and created a family based on those principles and it turned out to be hell personified. When I finally began to question the attitudes, beliefs, customs, traditions and values of my family and culture and began to look around at other families and cultures, I realized I was caught in systems that did not protect me and maintained and perpetuated the obscenities of domestic violence. I very comfortably rest in the arms of reason and evidence and although I am not as militant as I once was, I am even more profoundly committed to surrounding myself with people who live with each other using skills that can very easily be learned: problem solving, conflict resolution, decision making, goal setting, listening, asserting, and many other skills that make reasonable and responsible life possible.

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Permalink Reply by Joan Denoo on July 30, 2011 at 7:41pm

Thank you for the compliment, however bravery had very little to do with desperation. There had to be a better way to live and there is.

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Permalink Reply by Meghan V! on July 30, 2011 at 4:04pm

I tend to avoid calling myself anything at first; I usually say I'm "not religious" or "do not subscribe to any religion." This works, because normally someone will ask me what my religion is, not whether or not I believe in a deity.

However, once someone comes to like me, I feel that it's important to let them know (and it will always come up some how...) that I'm an Atheist. This way, I avoid the risk of being shut out when I first meet someone, but I am still able to slip in the Big "A," in the hopes that it will remove some stigma.

TL;DR -- "Not religious" and then, when the coast is clear "Big Fat Atheist"

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy Lester on July 30, 2011 at 4:33pm

Atheist. No more, no less.

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Permalink Reply by Walrus T on July 30, 2011 at 6:07pm

I disagree with that premise
is it negative to say that I don't believe in flakery or woo? no, I don't think so. I see that as a point of strength. Maybe that is just me.
But there is also something to be said for self labling such as 'Free Thinker' or 'Critical Thinker' or even 'Sceptic' (or skeptic) of course a lot of flakey woo believers think of sceptic in negative terms.

But I don't think of atheist - that is NOT believing as a negative thing at all, so I don't see it that way.

The biggest problem with this is the attitudes others hang on these labels. the number of people that get it WRONG in so many ways. And the having to repeatedly explain myself only to be ignored. So more often than not I just don't bother.

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Permalink Reply by mel on July 30, 2011 at 8:13pm

I call myself an atheist because that's the generally accepted term for not believing in god where I live. That or normal.

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on July 30, 2011 at 8:16pm

While I'm fine with calling myself an atheist, skeptic fits better.

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Permalink Reply by Ava Wilson on July 31, 2011 at 3:39am

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 July 31, 2011 at 4:22am

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 July 31, 2011 at 11:53am

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 July 31, 2011 at 7:12pm

Is god taken?

I’ve always liked “Enlightened Individual”.

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Permalink Reply by William C. Walker on August 1, 2011 at 1:15am

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.