Voices of the Silent

Groups are filled with lots of different people. Even within groups, you have disagreements and in-fighting. Every group has its exemplars, every group has its heroes-- and every group has its fair share of assholes.

Atheists are certainly no exception.

Atheists, however, face a particular dilemma that Christians (for example) do not. Christians, in the United States at least, are already a majority. Now, Christians do have their fair share of assholes like anyone else. Easy example: Fred Phelps. But we know that these are extremists. Everyone knows a Christian. Maybe your neighbor, family members, or even yourself. We know who Christians are and we know that they generally aren't bad people. So it's easy for us to tell that people like Fred Phelps are the exception, and not the rule. We know they're a minority.

But with atheists, it's a bit different. Not everyone knows an atheist, or realizes that they DO know an atheist. Not only are atheists a minority on the whole, but many of us are in the closet. So when extremist "militant" atheists become vocal, and the majority of good atheists stay silent or remain totally in the closet, people have nothing else to judge us by. It's easy to assume that because any atheist they've knowingly come across is a bad person, that all atheists must be bad people; or that good atheists are the exception. When the reality is, it's bad atheists that are the exception, not the good ones.

You might not know this unless you happen to know a lot of atheists, like I do, but most of us are the "live and let live" type, believe it or not. Very few of us are vocal or militant. Most of us simply don't care what other people believe. And certainly, we all have our different reasons for not caring: some of us believe it makes no difference, others of us look at an individuals actions before one's beliefs, and still others are simply apathetic towards such beliefs all-together. But the fact remains that those who do care, and make a big stink about it, are actually in the minority. But the rest of us DON'T SPEAK UP.

Christians don't need to speak up for themselves because they're a majority; everyone already knows that most Christians are alright.

But it's not the same for us, as atheists. Too many of us are still in the closet. Too many of us are still quiet, and let the "militant" atheists speak FOR us, which is a VERY BAD IDEA. But when we remain silent, we are LETTING those militant atheists speak for us, we are LETTING them skew people's ideas of who we are as atheists.

All atheists are different. We all have our different reasons for being an atheist. We all believe different things. We have families and friends. We're people. We're as different from atheist to atheist as Christians are to other Christians-- perhaps even more so, since we lack any unifying beliefs.

So we need to SPEAK UP. We need to tell the world that we exist, and that the bad-mouthing, hateful, militant atheists are NOT the only atheists in existence. That they are in fact a MINORITY amongst us, just as Fred Phelps and his ilk are a minority amongst Christians.

So speak up. Tell the world you're out there. Do it for yourself. Do it for all of us. We need your voice. Stop being silent.