I don’t feel any obligation to admit my atheism, but I’m happy to do so. I have done so in talks, letters to the editor, guest columns in various media, on my web site and two books I have written.

However, I don’t beat people over the head with it. I don’t introduce myself as “George Ricker, the atheist” or even volunteer the information in most social settings unless someone else asks me.

If I were in a situation in which my personal safety or that of people I care about, my employment or anything important to me were jeopardized by the admission, then I probably would ignore the question.

Happily, none of those things seem to apply, so I feel no constraints about admitting my atheism and discussing it with people for as long and in as much detail as seems warranted by the circumstances.

Posted: March 12th 2009

See all questions answered by George Ricker

I feel no obligation, but will admit to it if someone is rude enough to ask. And if someone tries to preach to me, they’re going to get preached back at.

I consider atheism as trivial as not believing in Santa, so I don’t make a big deal of it.

Posted: March 9th 2009

See all questions answered by Dave Hitt

I freely admit my Atheism, but I also freely admit other very personal details of my personal and medical history… so maybe I’m not a good example.

If my life is an open book, I’ll never have to waste time on writing an autobiography.

Posted: February 16th 2009

See all questions answered by Reed Braden

Since I live in a secular community, there is seldom an opportunity to discuss religion/lack of religion. Once, an French acquaintance admitted to me that he was an atheist, that he did not have any belief in a higher power of any kind. I then told him that I also did not have any such beliefs. He said that he was amazed that I was an atheist since I am American! Another French friend described her small mountain church’s activities which sounded so intriguing that I asked questions about its history. She did not mention god once, and I did not mention my atheism.

Awhile back, an elderly aunt and I were talking on the phone. She just assumed that I was a practising Catholic. She offered to photograph the Pope while he was on American TV (it was very difficult not to burst out in raucous laughter as I suppose she thinks the Pope does not live in Europe or if he does, apparently he is banned from appearing on European TV!) and send me pictures of her favorite saints and photos of the 'Poop.’ I said don’t bother because such pictures/photos are very easy to get. But if she had asked me if I am an atheist, I would have said yes. Americans friends whom I have met on the Net, after finding out about my being an atheist, will often ask but aren’t you really just agnostic? I make it a point to spell my atheism out to them, that I have no god-belief whatsoever.

Americans come to live and work in the French city in which I live less and less through the years, but I always have fun with the openly religious ones. One insisted that I do not take the son of her god’s name in vain, and I had replied sincerely that I would try not to but it is a habit and I may fail in my resolve. And when she apologized for making her demand (typical passive-aggressive Christian), I just said, oh, I understand, if you were taking my husband’s name (insert a rather uncommon German name) in vain, and repeated it constantly and without any thought, it would make me mad also. She was speechless.

Recently, there has been a pair of American Mormons stalking my boulevard. They have approached my atheistic husband who chats with them about Salt Lake City and when they mention their religion, he justs says, I am not interested in that. I would, however, announce to them that I am an atheist, and therefore I am not interested in their spiel.

All in all, I regard Richard Dawkins’ Out Campaign to be important. As is emphasized in that campaign, atheists are working together to make it easier for non-believers to be up-front about their lack of belief, while recognizing that each atheist needs to decide what is best for them in any given situation.

Posted: February 11th 2009

See all questions answered by logicel

I don’t feel obliged to say I’m an atheist, but I quite like doing it anyway! If it’s to someone who knows me already, they’ll know I’m not all the bad things they might associate with atheism, and that might lead them to reassess their view of atheists; if it’s to someone who doesn’t yet know me but will get the chance to do so soon (a new colleague, for instance), well, they’ll soon realise that their assumptions are wrong; and if it’s to someone I’ll never see again, well, what does it matter what they think of me?

I don’t go out of my way to bring it into the conversation, but I don’t go out of my way to avoid it either. And I do have an atheist A on my car – though that’s really just a protest at the number of Christian fishes around where I live.

But I should point out that I live in the UK, where most people are de facto atheist, even if they don’t go round saying so and wouldn’t use the word about themselves. I find it hard to imagine a situation in which I would face seriously negative consequences by being open about my atheism. Perhaps if I was at a job interview and my potential employer was an evangelical Christian – but frankly, I wouldn’t want to work for an evangelical Christian anyway, so that would probably be a good thing.

I know the situation is very different in certain parts of the US, for example; and if I lived there I might well prefer to be more circumspect.

But I would encourage atheists who AREN’T at risk of serious repercussions to be fairly open about their atheism – after all, the more people who come out as atheists, the less easy it will be for the negative associations to survive.

Posted: February 10th 2009

See all questions answered by Paula Kirby

If I’m at all worried about anti-atheist prejudice or pro-religion bias and want to save myself some effort, I just say that I’m “not religious”, which is definitely true. I had that answer ready when meeting with the priest who will ultimately conduct my wedding. (My fiancee always wanted to get married in a big church, so we’re kind of stuck with him. Interestingly, he never bothered to ask about religion beyond where each of us was baptised.)

If on the other hand people ask me explicitly whether I’m an atheist, I say yes. If they’re after that particular information, then either they’re atheist themselves or they have something against atheists which I can then bring into the open.

Posted: February 10th 2009

See all questions answered by SmartLX

The religion I was raised in is not a very evangelical one, and I was taught that religion is a private matter.

I still feel the same now that I’m an atheist, and there are a number of cases where I’ve been asked and have declined to answer. When a group at work was discussing religion over lunch, I declined to participate. I can get over the fact that they are theists, but I have to work with them, and I’m not sure they could get over the fact that I’m an atheist.

Posted: February 10th 2009

See all questions answered by Eric_PK