Atheism:

Atheist symbols

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Background:

Adrian Barnett noted:

"A subject that often crops up on atheist newsgroups is "What is the atheist's symbol?"
After all, Christians have their cross, Jews have their star, Muslims have their crescent moon and so on. What can Atheists have?"

The Darwin fish is seen fairly often -- either as shown here or with the name Darwin in its body. This has the potential disadvantage of being mistaken as a symbol for belief in evolution. Also, it may be regarded as a cynical attack on a common Christian symbol: the Ichthus (fish):

Another potential Atheist symbol would be similar to the logo of the band Bad Religion. It consists of a black cross on a white background inside a red circle with a diagonal red slash. We don't show it here because it is copyrighted. It can variously be interpreted as "no Christians here" or "Christianity forbidden." This has the serious disadvantage of being an explicitly anti-Christian symbol instead of a pro-Atheist logo.

The following are some suggestions that Atheists have promoted:

American Atheists' symbol:

When American Atheists (AA) was founded in 1963, they chose the atomic symbol as seen in the center of the above graphic as their logo. The use of the atomic symbol flowed from their belief that human progress can best be achieved through the scientific method and rational, open inquiry.

Some of the features of this symbol:

	The lower part of the symbol is broken or open ended. This refers to the incompleteness that is inherent in the science. As AA's web site says: "Not all of the answers are in."
	The incomplete vertical electron orbit forms the letter "A" which represents Atheism.
	The letter "A" in the center of the symbol does not represent Atheism. It stands for the first letter of the name of the country where an AA affiliate group is located -- America in this case. 1

Unfortunately, many people associate this symbol with danger, nuclear waste, hazardous radiation, nuclear bombs, etc. It has not found general acceptance.

A logo based on the mathematical "empty set" symbol:

Wayne Otero has suggested this stylized version of the "empty set" symbol.  It is used in set theory -- a branch of mathematics. The empty set is the unique set that contains no elements. For example, among triangles, the empty set would be a set of all four-sided triangles. Another empty set is composed of all integers greater than 8 but less than 9. The term "null set" is occasionally used in place of "empty set;" however its use is not recommended because it is ambiguous to those not familiar with set theory.

The empty set symbol was derived from a letter in the Danish and Norwegian alphabet. An alternate symbol is "{ }."

The Wikipedia entry on the empty set states that:

"An empty set is not the same as nothing; it is a set with nothing inside it, and a set is something. This often causes difficulty among those who first encounter it. It may be helpful to think of a set as a bag containing its elements; an empty bag may be empty, but the bag itself certainly exists." ₆

There is a close analogy between the empty set and an Atheist's concept of God. A consensus exists among Theists, Agnostics, Atheists, Theists, Polytheists, Henotheists, etc. that God certainly exists as a concept. There are tens of thousands of faith groups in the world who believe that they know without qualification that God exists; further they "know" his/her/its/their attributes. Unfortunately they cannot agree on what God's attributes are. If they had been able to agree, there would be tens of millions of people, and their descendents, whose lives would have been spared during religious wars and holocausts.

Atheists:

	In general are unaware of the existence of God.
	Strong Atheists are firm in their belief that no God exists.

Thus the concept of an empty set fits very well with the Atheists' concepts of God: God exists only as an empty concept. A full scale copy of the symbol is online. ₈

The Invisible Pink Unicorn:

The Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) web site recommends this symbol to represent Atheism. They write:

"It is a fusion between the mathematical void symbol and the stylized representation of an unicorn. The void symbol (empty set) is an allusion to nothingness and in this case meaning 'no faith' or 'no god'. The unicorn is a reference to a kind of story that atheists often tell to make their point." ₂

According to Wikipedia:

"The Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) is the goddess of a satiric parody religion aimed at theistic beliefs, which takes the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink. These attributes serve to satirize the apparent contradictions in properties which some attribute to a theistic God."

"The IPU is commonly used to highlight the perceived fallacious or arbitrary nature of supernatural beliefs by, for example, replacing the word "God" in any theistic statement with "Invisible Pink Unicorn". A quote from the alt.atheism FAQ sums up this use of the Invisible Pink Unicorn:"

"The point of this silliness is to prod the theist into remembering that their preaching is likely to be viewed by atheists as having all the credibility and seriousness of [the atheists'] preaching about the IPU." _3,4

The Invisible Pink Unicorn's web site sells T-shirts displaying this logo. ₅Ring of Fire Enterprises sells inexpensive car emblems and gold and silver finished lapel prints and pendants. ₆ These products provide a mechanism by which Atheists can recognize each other without offending Theists.

Some Atheists postulate the existence of a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It serves some of the same functions as the IPU. It doesn't exist either. However, it does not seem amenable to representation as an elegant logo. It is a rather repulsive mess.

Two more atheist logos based on the empty set symbol:

  Adrian Barnett notes that a simple black donut symbol was suggested "some time ago on alt.atheism, IIRC." He also suggests an alternate version containing the words (shown clockwise from the twelve o'clock position: AGNOSTIC, HUMANIST, RATIONALIST, FREETHINKER, SECULAR, INFIDEL, NONBELIEVER, ATHEIST, HERETIC, and GODLESS. ₉

A scarlet script "A":

Richard Dawkins, one of the world's most famous Atheists, has founded the "OUT campaign." Its purpose is to encourage Atheists to come out of their self-imposed closet and go public with their beliefs. Their symbol is this capital "A." Their campaign offers for sale various T-shirts containing this symbol. It seems to have been around among Atheist circles for quite a while.

Dawkin's campaign web site says, in part:

"As more and more people join the OUT Campaign, fewer and fewer people will feel intimidated by religion. We can help others understand that atheists come in all shapes, sizes, colors and personalities. We are laborers and professionals. We are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and grandparents. We are human (we are primates) and we are good friends and good citizens. We are good people who have no need to cling to the supernatural.

"It is time to let our voices be heard regarding the intrusion of religion in our schools and politics. Atheists along with millions of others are tired of being bullied by those who would force their own religious agenda down the throats of our children and our respective governments. We need to KEEP OUT the supernatural from our moral principles and public policies." ₁₀

Unfortunately, a scarlet letter A in script also triggers memories of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic work of historical fiction, "The Scarlet Letter," in which the red letter A refers to the adultery of Hester Prynne.

Additional symbols:

	See: "One more symbol for atheism" at: http://www.helsinki.fi/
	"Diane531" created this elegant symbol and has generously released it into the public domain. It has been endorsed by Atheist Alliance International
	Gus Heist created this novel symbol and has also generously released it into the public domain.
	Cafe Press sells baseball caps, T-shirts, bumper stickers, license plate frames, cups, etc. with the word "Atheist" hidden in the symbol at the top. It is more easily seen if the background and foreground colors are reversed:
	Still more suggested symbols.        However, the right hand symbol composed of a  A and a T (for ATheist) inside a circle has a very strong resemblance to the symbol used by the Appalalachian Trail. 11 which may already be copyrighted.

References used:

1. "The American Atheists symbol," American Atheists, at: http://www.atheists.org/
2. Invisible Pink Unicorn's web site is at: http://www.invisiblepinkunicorn.com/
3. "Invisible Pink Unicorn," Wikipedia, downloaded on 2007-MAR-05, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
4. Michelle Malkin, "Welcome to alt.atheism!," 2000-SEP-30, at: http://web.archive.org/
5. Invisible Pink Unicorn's T-Shirts can be reached at: https://www.spreadshirt.com/
6. "Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU)," Ring of Fire Enterprises, at: http://www.rof.com/
7. "Empty Set," Wikipedia, 2007-SEP-27, at: http://en.wikipedia.org/
8. A larger version of the image is online at  http://religioustolerance.org/ This is a PDF file. You may require software to view it. Software can be obtained free from: 
9. Adrian Barnett, "Atheist Symbol Suggestion," at: http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/
10. "The OUT Campaign, at: http://outcampaign.org/
11. J.S. Conn, "AT - Symbol of the Appalachian Trail, at: http://www.flickr.com/

These are not sponsored links; we just think that they are neat!

Emblems, stickers, T-shirts, etc:

	Flying Spaghetti Monster emblems, stickers, T-shirt, pendants, bumper sticker, lapel pins, and books at: http://www.evolvefish.com.
	Invisible Pink Unicorn pins, pendants and emblems at: http://www.evolvefish.com.
	Robert B. Tapp, "Ecohumanism," -- a book on ecology as viewed by Humanists, and many other buttons stickers, etc. on the environment at: http://www.evolvefish.com/

Copyright © 2007 to 2019, by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update and review: 2019-AUG-15
Author: B.A. Robinson

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