There’s an Atheist Flag?

When I saw this article about the atheist flag going up over the Ten Commandments monument in New Hampshire, I thought “we have a flag?” Um. No thanks, I guess. I’m slightly new at this, (about 4 years) but my first instinct is this; I just left a belief system to navigate my own way in the world without the help or belief in deities and other superstitions and myth. I belong to nothing. No organizations, no clubs, no nothing. Is atheism a belief system to be held up on a banner? Is it wrong of me to not be affiliated with another emblem designed to group me with other likeminded individuals. Are there guidelines and a rule book shortly to follow? When do we fly it half mast? Could we, as a distressed minority fly it it upside down? I get the point of equal access and all the legality and fairness, it just doesn’t settle well with me. I am open to other thoughts on this. I am a little skeptical after what I’ve been through to trust someone else to speak in my behalf. Maybe I will change my mind? I value the knowledge and opinions of each of you and appreciate your experience and passion. What’s your take this? I may be old, but I’m slow!

Author: jimoeba

Alternatives to big box religions and dogmas

52 thoughts on “There’s an Atheist Flag?”

  1. I’ve never heard of “the atheist flag”, in all my 30+ years of non-belief. There certainly could be “an atheist flag” in that an atheist makes their own flag to fly personally. But there can’t be an “official flag” because we aren’t that organized, and I hope never will be.

    When it comes to raising competing symbols to point out the favoritism that christianity gets, I prefer to use something like Pastafarian symbols, because that is an actual religion (albeit a silly one.)

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    1. ⛳️. From what I’ve seen here everyone is so independently minded it makes an excellent culture of variety. But to group us as one would be a mistake. Kinda negates the whole idea

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  3. I’m also uncomfortable with official organization of atheists, as it only really makes sense in opposition to religions. Get rid of those, and one would see the silliness of organized atheism. If I had to fly some sort of flag, I’d fly the flag of the most awesome deity SMRGRHRLR, or Smergie as his devotees call him. He’s the friendliest tentacle deity ever, and he loves everyone equally as he drips jellied chaos on all our faces.

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      1. There were a couple of different versions I saw. This looked best for a blog post. Not sure which one they chose. Hey! Who is they, anyway?? Nobody asked us about this. See what I mean?

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  4. Well, even though I do have my honorable discharge framed and hanging on the wall above my computer desk, after W. Shrub and Mr. 5 deferments Cheney invaded Afghanistan and Iraq I flew my US of A flag upside down out in the country here in central Louisiana and guess what? Nobody seemed to notice!
    As to an atheist flag, I say bullshit, keep the damn thing. Oh, I had my 70th birthday less than one week ago, no I will not give the date, and I have been a heathen/pagan/atheist since I was 14 so I do have some seniority on you Jim. Not that I am pulling rank or anything, but I am with you on this silly assed idea. I did NOT join some atheist group, never have, and probably never will. I came to my unbelief in any doG by myself and do not need any group/flag/pin/etc. to make me feel good about my own decision.
    I try to live my life by the so called golden rule, which I am certain predates EVERY religion ever known to human kind. That is; treat others the way I want to be treated. Live and let live, without making the others feel like crap for how they live. As long as what they do is not harming others. An atheist flag? To paraphrase a good old film; Flag? What flag? I don’t need no stinking flag!
    Oh, I am NOT being sarcastic on any of this, not today. Honest.

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    1. If you weren’t sarcastic I’d figure someone hijacked your keyboard. I came to my own conclusions too. Each of us is very different that way. I just don’t like the idea of someone else speaking in my behalf.

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    2. Instead of the way you put the “Golden Rule,” try this on for size: I will do unto others only that which I would allow them to do unto me.
      First, it puts the onus on me, how other people act is up to them.
      Second, it takes the indefiniteness of “want” out of the equation. In one situation you might want one thing, but on another day you might want something else. This does not stop people from doing certain things to you just because they want to, but it puts your own limits squarely on your shoulders. If you would not “allow” something to be done to you, why would you allow yourself to do it to anyone else.
      I wrote this version of the GoRu back in the 60s, when I was a hippie. It’s been how I have lived ever since…

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  5. Um Jim, honest, I was NOT being sarcastic in my comment about this atheist flag thingy. I am serious, I don’t need some flag or badge. Am I proud of being an atheists? Beats me. I honestly never thought about my beliefs or lack of such that way. I formed my personal opinions/views and they can change as I learn more. My personal philosophy is like that old joke about the Chinese menu. You must have heard a version of it at some time, you know the one I mean; you get one from column A, one from column B, a desert, a drink, and an appetizer……etc.. I read books, web sites, whatever I feel like reading and use the bits I like to make my own world view. Of course it can change over time/with new knowledge and it has over the past decades of my life. I think it should. Do you really think that your opinion as say, a 20 year old should still be the exact same when you are 60? Maybe IF you have learned exactly ZERO in those intervening years, but even then, I’d almost feel sorry for you. Notice I said almost. Why? Because if one wants sympathy, it is in the dictionary, right between sex and syphilis. Honest, it IS between those words, look it up and prove it for yourself. And no, that is not meant to be sarcastic, Honest it wasn’t.

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    1. I saw total honesty today. I was just commenting on your not being sarcastic today. I missed my punch line. Again! Lol. Thanks for clarifying And checking in.

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    2. Am I proud of being an atheist?

      I’m proud of my non-belief in superstitions in much the same way I’m proud that both my feet point in the same direction, or that my body is, for the better part, symmetrical 🙂

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      1. Feels pretty normal, doesn’t it? Maybe a toe pointed in the right direction flag? I’m taking this in the “no flag” vote.

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  7. Although I’m not quite an atheist (I’m a deist), it seems to me like it’s just something to draw attention to a cause. Atheism is not a cause or a club. It is, from my understanding, just living your life the way you want to. You don’t need signs or billboards to do that any more than Jesus would need stupid signs outside a church trying to be funny as a means to raise attendance. It’s like having a gay flag. If you are gay, just be gay. All you’re trying to do is make others agree with you by having a flag. Not all will agree with you. Not all will agree with atheists or Christians either. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Don’t force it on anyone. Don’t waste your time worrying about what others think. Just live your life and be happy. It’s funny though. I live only about 40 minutes away from Somersworth, NH. There are stranger things (well, stranger people anyway) in that area than this so it doesn’t surprise me at all that this is how these people choose to get attention.

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    1. Out of all the comments today the votes were no. No one can accurately speak for me or anyone else following my blog. It is not a belief system. It is individuals making their own way. Thanks for stopping by.

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    2. I agree with you, CTBD, we are all individuals, yet tor me, that gives me the personal duty to care for, and about everyone else. Don’t know how you look at things, obviously, but I do believe we have a spiritual connection with all other living beings, and part of that connection is responsibility. If we deserve to live, so does evrryone else, and I do mean everyone else, no matter what species they are, or if they don’t even have a species.
      Do amoebas have a species? I don’t know, and I don’t care. They are alive, I am connected to them, and them to me.
      Just thought I’d throw you a curve ball, albeit a serious one…l

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  8. Ugh, it’s a scarlet letter A on the flag. Really? That’s the best they could do?
    It makes me think of Hester Prynne and the Scarlet Letter. I guess maybe it’s fitting because of the persecution by the Puritans.
    It’s terribly lame and why the hell do we even have a flag?

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    1. Good info. I guess “we” don’t have one. Some atheist guy has one trying to get equal footing with religion. Not really my cup of tea ☕️

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        2. If it’s all about the money, I hope this flag-flyer spent more on designing the flag than he ever made trying to sell it. Crazy thing, though, a WordPress friend of mine might see that flag, and believe it represents all atheists. She thinks atheism is “just a stupid religion” becsuse some people say it is. I doubt those people were true atheists, just wanna-bees. Or maybe it was Richard Dawkins, the man who won’t communicate with me because I am a spiritual atheist. To many people that is an oxymoron, but that seems pretty moronic to me…

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          1. rawgod
            I have been following your comments and they are great

            If it’s possible I would love to hear your story and hope to learn a thing or two

            Well, most importantly I would love to learn what spiritual atheist is ( I doubt I phrased this well) since I’m new to atheism ( not up to a year)

            If it’s possible would greatly appreciate your thoughtful insights

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            1. He is on to something that is also showing up in science with his views of LIFE as he calls it along with consciousness and matter coexisting as one or not at all is an intriguing investigation. Where ever you do this I’d like to follow it too if that’s ok.

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            2. Hi Jonathon, and thank you for your kind words. You can find my blog at rawgodsspiritualatheism.wordpress.com but you may have to sort through some things. I think the last few text posts (you can ignore the poetry and lyrics posts) will give you a decent idea of parts of my philosophy.
              But don’t worry about your phrasing, you basically have it right.
              As for a very basic thought on my philosophy, which is not scientifically provable, because spirit works on a completely different level from science, I can say:
              I believe that all life is related, since evolution tells us we all developed from the same one-celled beings, therefore whatever we are started 4 billion years ago (give or take) and therefore they bequeathed to us our lives, IN ALL ITS COMPLEXITY.
              But don’t believe everything I write, this is what works for me. What works for you is for you to decide. My one caution is, the best place to find answers is inside yourself. You can look at others thoughts, but they are just trial offerings. You are who you are, and no one else.

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  9. What if atheists had an actual political issue that they could rally around? For example, getting rid of all the state tax sponsorship of religion? How about a real, active antitheism that countered all the religion-inspired and religion-maintained anti-humanism – such as denying abortion services to poor women, or promoting world-wide war and weapons sales, or causing sexual and romantic dysfunction across young and vulnerable populations through “abstinence” nonsense and anti-sex promulgations, and fatuous veneration of hideous religious texts, and on down the line of actual social harm attached to institutional monotheism?
    Well then we would have an actual world of engagement, instead of this blase, who cares, let ’em-all-be-stupid atheism.
    Not that there’s anything wrong with that – it’s the world we’ve got.

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    1. Excellent points. How do you get there? We’re all pretty independent going our own way without a belief system, but organizing a neutral atheistic foothold could be a good idea and helpful

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    2. Sounds good to me, notabilia, but let’s leave our atheism out of it, and make it an actual religion. Why shouldn’t we get tax cuts too. Maybe we can call it THE CHURH OF RATIONAL STUPIDITY, or THE BIBLE ACCORDING TO ME, and we can each write our own canons (not cannons, or canyons, just canons!) and we can do like at the Wailing Wall, get together and all worship our own “dogs,” and all speak in tongues.
      I hear in the USA anyone can make up their own religion. Hey, we could all be Dogs, and spout our own brands of “Dogma!”

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    3. I have yet to meet an atheist (agnostic, add many free-thinkers of all ilk, including many believers) who does not agree with freedom from religion. We argue about damn near everything. But, not that. And it is a political issue.

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      1. THAT is a possibility, Bill, but somehow I don’t think it would fly, not yet. There is a lot of opposition that we would have to overcome. And the “ins” have the entrenched edge, while us “outs” have only brave, new words. But give it time, there is a new train a’comin’.

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  10. I think it’s good that there are some symbols to help communicate ideas like atheism.

    I don’t think I’d be to keen on there being some organization saying, “this is *the* atheist flag”, or any implications that all “true atheists” are part of or align with the organization. But it’s good that there are activist organizations challenging false and anti-human ideas such as those that come from religion. And perhaps this is not *the* atheist flag, but just *an* atheist flag? In which case, what’s wrong with getting people thinking/talking about new ideas?

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    1. I guess that smacks the “going it alone” with an add on. If that’s what you want and need to do that is your business. As it should be. Excellent insights!

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        1. Sure. The general consensus here in the comments is no, they don’t want a flag or representation. As I understand you pointed out that maybe we need some representation to counter the religious influences. If someone wants to do that, who am I to tell them what to do. That would go against each individual right to do what they want. I was trying to compliment your comment as I agreed. Obviously I wasn’t to clear. I do that from time to time.

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  11. Maybe a special secret signal that only atheists will recognize. My family uses the old two fingers hard up from behind the head with both fingers protruding above the scalp line and spread in a V shape. Perfect for line of sight signals. Lapel pins and cuff links for theatre night might be nice. Tats for Anti-theists, Counter fallacy rejoinders stickers. Now the cutting edge music group Steve Martin and the Steep Mountain Rangers perform “Atheists Ain’t Got No Song”. So apparently we do have a song. Then again what sense can be made about a song you can listen to that declares we don’t have cultural significance right there in the title. Anyone have Tyson’s email.

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  12. I am joining this a bit late but hope to provide some new insight. At first it seems that some form of organisation is needed for atheists to counter bad theistic ideas. But as with all organisations, there is a risk for them to appear dogmatic. Because in the end, all you want is for the members to fall in line which given our seemingly rebellious attitude will be hard to attain. However, on further consideration, I have found that many issues atheists fight for don’t actually require one to be an atheist. Just empathy and a good brain on your shoulders. Take religion for example, most would agree that it shouldn’t be forced on us. That every one should have the freedom to choose theirs (however absurd, and as long as it does not violate the rights of his neighbour) or not choose one at all. Does that need an atheist to understand? Separation of church and state is not only an issue for atheists. Women’s rights, all human rights, Science education… While all these require an open and often atheist mind to promote, Atheism per se is not required. A good example comes to mind, Obama is not atheist. We do not need an atheist flag and we don’t need to declare our lack of religion every time we fight for what is good.

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    1. Well spoken sir!! I think the light is turning on in many regards. Although it seems to be driven by atheistic views, little by little religion is adapting equality measures due to the pressure. Good to see you Doc!

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