(April 8, 2014 at 6:49 am)alpha male Wrote: There are lots of threads in which atheists consider coming out as atheist to family, coworkers, friends, etc. The problem is that coming out will likely cause some emotional turmoil for some or all of the people involved. That said, why bother even considering it? Why not just keep it to yourself?I've mostly kept it to myself, a few friends and family and a couple of co-workers are aware. I suppose that for many people, their religious belief is an identifying mark; I know that it was important to let people know that I was a JW and lots of people wear religious emblems from time to time. I know that for some people who know me, learning that I am an atheist would change how they perceive me, even if our relationship never had anything to do with religious belief.
I think that most religious people treat atheism as a religious stance, and so for those who deconvert, they may be tempted to treat atheism as an identifying trait on the same level as they did with their religious belief.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
