If you were ever a theist...

[God of Mr. Hanky]

In theory, labels aren't important except as a shorthand.

In practice, I think the "atheist" label is very important. There is a serious problem with atheists, whether they call themselves that or not, being socially ostracised or worse. Since the internet makes the world so much smaller, every "out" atheist makes it that little bit easier for the next one to come out, in my opinion. Each professed atheist acting like a normal person and not murdering people all the time (although of course, there are bad atheists too) goes towards dispelling some of the ridiculous myths about atheism. And it invites questions, as shown by this wonderful forum.

If instead atheists all used very different words to describe themselves, any kind of unity in the concept is lost. I liken it to when gays started to come out. If instead of announcing, "I am gay" each person said something very different and personal, it wouldn't have made it any easier to "come out gay".

This is my opinion, anyway. Of course, atheism is not a club. I'm not suggesting that. It's nothing, basically. But it's an important nothing, with the world how it is. So I'm proud to call myself an atheist and to show those whose minds have been poisoned that I am not the devil. And to show other atheists that it's OK to be one.

Since my deconversion, I have proudly gone with the label "atheist". I believe some people in other groups, such as "skeptic" or "freethinker", are essentially atheist, but the different labels (which I know are not precisely synonymous) provide what are perceived to be more gentle connotations when you fear "The "Big A". Then there is Daniel Dennet's idea "Brights", which never caught on - this was intended as an alternate label for actual atheists, and fortunately this never seemed to catch on. Much as I respect and admire Dennet, I can't imagine a more snooty sounding, snob-appeal inspired idea than this, plus it would inevitably become associated with ideology. What I like about "atheist" is that it describes exactly what's in the tin, no more and no less.