Atheism+

Agnostics, Atheists, New Atheists, Gnu Atheists, Secular Humanists, Apatheists, Secularists, Secular Humanists, Anti Theists, Freethinkers.

There are a lot of labels given to people who don't believe in god(s). A lot of it comes down to semantics - by some people's definition, I'd be an agnostic (as would Richard Dawkins). I'm just going to use atheist from here on in though...

To me though atheism's not that important - I became an atheist by myself, the more I though about religion, the more atheism made sense. I only started proactively speaking out about it after reading books like the God Delusion which successfully argued (to me) that religion is, on balance, a bad thing for society. People are free to believe what they like - so long as it's not going to be detrimental to others.

It wasn't just me that became more vocal about atheism though - more books, blogs and media airtime was given to the subject. Groups of atheists got together online and IRL, and unsurprisingly, shared interests in skepticism, science and such.

Turns out though, that when you have a bunch of people who have strong views; prize independence of thought; and like to be vocal about it, you end up with a wide range of interests and views on what needs to be done. Hence the plethora of labels for atheists - people come to it for different reasons, have different goals, and different values about what's important. Who knew?

Well, there's a new name tag in town: Atheism+

"We are…
 Atheists plus we care about social justice,
 Atheists plus we support women’s rights,
 Atheists plus we protest racism,
 Atheists plus we fight homophobia and transphobia,
 Atheists plus we use critical thinking and skepticism."

I like it - as I said before, atheism wasn't important. It was only when I realised that religion is on the whole a bad thing that I started to speak out and do stuff about my atheism. To quote a famous vigilante "It's not who I am underneath. It's what I do that defines me".

It's a shame though that this new wave of atheist action has grown out of the flaming misogyny from too many in the wider atheist community. I've barely touched on the issue myself, mostly because I've not had time to deal with the vindictiveness that comes from when you do. I wish I did have the time - one can only stop things like this by speaking out. So I doubt I'll have the time to be actively involved in Atheism+, much as I'd like to. But I wish them luck.

Some may say Atheism+ is just the same as Secular Humanism - may be it is? But who cares - it's what they do that will define them.