I went to Bernhiem Forest today to enjoy some of the nice weather and get some ideas for the 'Dragonflies and Damselflies' theme for the exhibit I'm putting together.
While I was there I meet up with a couple friends who are also in the Naturalist-In-Training program and we went on an impromptu hike and were going around identifying trees and that sort of thing. When we were done we hung around for a while and just chatted at the trail head and one of them asked me what the symbol on my necklace was. It was my American Atheist necklace and for half a moment I wondered what to say, but then decided to just be straight forward about it. I told them that it is the symbol for American Atheists and then explained the iconography of the symbol (see: http://www.atheists.org/visitors.center/logo.html). I was a bit worried for a moment how they would react--as I didn't really feel like fielding questions about why I don't believe in god at the moment. But as it turned out we pretty much just went on to the next topic after I told them. I had a long and good conversation about belief and experience with one guy who turned out to be a relatively open-minded and enlightened Christian. So all-in-all it was a good experience.
I'm just proud to say that I'm finally getting to be bolder about telling people about my symbol for Atheism when they ask me. This was a big step, as I normally sidestepped the question when it came right down to it. I'm getting braver.
1 comment:
That's great! I'm glad you're getting more comfortable with your lack of belief ;) I'm to the point now where I'm proud of my opinions and I almost look down on those who believe in imaginary friends.
It helps.
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