The Atheist Blogger

A new atheist blog, The Religion Virus has an interesting article in which the author Craig A. James argues that 70-80% of atheist bloggers remain anonymous, either using a pseudonym (as Mr. James used previously) or a username such as vjack who runs Atheist Revolution. Craig James says that atheists have no reasons to be in the closet, and he issues a challenge for more atheists to get out.

I am one of the atheists he used as an example of a blogger “out of the closet” so to speak. Although I don’t see how he came to this conclusion. “Adrian Hayter” could just be a pseudonym to the casual observer. Unless he had been reading my blog for a few months, or had stumbled on my personal website (now defunct). In any case, I disagree with his argument that atheists have no reasons not to come out of the closet, even thought I admire what he is trying to do.

I am “out of the closet” because I live in the UK, specifically the south which is one of the most secular regions. Although the majority of the population is religious, there is a large number (supposedly 30%) of atheists in the country. I don’t feel threatened at all, and the closest thing we have to fundamentalist Christians are the people who go around protesting abortion and homosexuality, but they don’t post any kind of threat. Most of the time they are laughed at.

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