
Atheism:Atheist symbols
Sponsored link.

Read a news feed of current topics, of interest to Atheists 
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. 
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 
Sponsored link:

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:

References used:
-
"The American Atheists symbol," American Atheists, at:
http://www.atheists.org/
-
Invisible Pink Unicorn's web site is at:
http://www.invisiblepinkunicorn.com/
-
"Invisible Pink Unicorn," Wikipedia, downloaded on 2007-MAR-05, at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
-
Michelle Malkin, "Welcome to alt.atheism!," 2000-SEP-30, at:
http://web.archive.org/
-
Invisible Pink Unicorn's T-Shirts can be reached at:
https://www.spreadshirt.com/
-
"Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU)," Ring of Fire Enterprises, at:
http://www.rof.com/
-
"Empty Set," Wikipedia, 2007-SEP-27, at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
-
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:
-
Adrian Barnett, "Atheist Symbol Suggestion," at:
http://www.abarnett.demon.co.uk/
-
"The OUT Campaign, at:
http://outcampaign.org/
-
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/ |
 Site navigation:

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

|