First, I am a female atheist. What does being female have to do with being an atheist? Well, honestly, everything. The fact that I’m female has shaped the world that I’ve grown up in just as much as my race, my social class, etc. The fact that I’m female has both helped me climb and pushed me back down in my life. But why is it so important for me to point out that I’m a female atheist? Because we are a minority in the secular movement; because I know that when I type on internet forums with gender-ambiguous usernames, the assumption that I’m male is often made. I got into the habit of pointing out that I’m female a long time ago because I got tired of that assumption. Then I added gender-specific information to my usernames (i.e. suchandsuchGIRL, herthisandthat, blahrose, roseblah, etc.) and linked everything to my Twitter/Facebook/whatever. Here’s the truth, folks: I want to expose myself to both females and males through my self-identification. I want other females to be able to better identify with someone in the secular movement and I want males to see that there are females out there (because honestly, the only dating I’m really interested in doing is with other atheists).

Second, I am an active atheist. What does that even mean? Sure, it’s true that I’m active in the way that our doctors awkwardly ask us about, but that’s not what I’m talking about when I say that. What I’m referring to is the way I present myself to the world: I’m out, I’m loud, and damn if I won’t be noticed. I’m active in the secular movement; I give my time and my money to different campaigns and organizations. I am the president of my college’s secular organization and continue to nose my way into other groups and affiliations. For crying out loud, I have my own blog and Youtube channel advertising my atheism! I go to conferences and rallies, I tell the people that I’m dating that I’m an atheist, and I don’t pretend to pray just to appease anyone. I guess it would make just as much sense to say that I’m an atheism-activist (atheist-activist? activist-atheist?) but active atheist just sounds better.

So that’s that. To quote myself: I self-identify as a female atheist, and an active one at that.

Today I was looking into the possibility of getting in touch with local atheists/freethinkers at Fort Eustis in VA (and I know there are some), so I began browsing this website. The first section that caught my eye was “Soldier & Family Resources” under which I spotted a link for the Fort Eustis Chaplaincy. Curious what it has to offer, I clicked the link; I was not surprised to see that if you’re Catholic, Protestant or Mormon, you’re good to go. Religious education, worship services, family counseling, grief counseling, marriage counseling, preschool, you can have it all.

I was, however, quite surprised to see that the site mentions Jewish and Islamic services. After lines of information, options, and contact numbers for Catholic, Protestant, and Mormon services, you see this:

Jewish Services
See the local telephone directory or search on-line for local synagogues.

Islamic Services
For information, search on-line Islamic Services for you local area or contact the Mosque & Islamic Center of Hampton Roads

I can’t pinpoint my feelings on this: on the one hand, I’m pleasantly surprised that they are at least acknowledging that not everyone out there is Christian; on the other hand, I am offended that the best resource they can think to offer Jewish and Islamic soldiers and their families is a phone book and Google. Honestly, they couldn’t have at least thrown in a few hyperlinks? Maybe they could have at least typed it up with proper grammar? (I know that’s irrelevant but it’s obnoxious nonetheless.)

I don’t need to mention that I’m bothered by the lack of acknowledgement that nonreligious soldiers and their families need resources for counseling (grief, marriage, family) and preschool, and my best idea at this point is to get in touch with larger local community atheist groups and see if there’s interest in reaching out to Fort Eustis atheists/freethinkers/other-non-Christians to better provide them with appropriate resources (beginning with a call to update the website with actual contact information for all soldiers, faith or no faith).

If you know of any programs in your area that work with military atheists and freethinkers, please let me know about them!

For now, here are the best online resources I can provide for those interested (though I might as well just tell you to “search on-line for” military atheist services):

• Military section of American Atheists
• Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF)
• Rock Beyond Belief
• MAAF’s constantly growing list of Atheists in Foxholes

1. 

I’ll have you know, I say “oh my god,” “oh god,” “dear god,” “jesus,” and “jesus christ” when I have sex. I’ve given thought to writing about why “but you say oh my god” is not an argument against atheism.

2.

As if the spelling error weren’t enough to put me off, this graph is ridiculous.

3. 

I love everything about this picture, from the bus ad to how happy the woman looks.

4. 

First I only found the original text (the text in white + the last line) of this picture and it made me furious. I was happy to see someone had already edited it appropriately.

5. 

I couldn’t NOT throw in a lolcat. Atheist human finds both of these kittens cute!

Born to Jewish parents, Zuckerberg describes himself as an atheist. He excelled academically throughout high school and college, though he dropped out of Harvard University after his sophomore year to focus on the Facebook project. But hey, we’re all familiar with his climb to success. I’d like to focus on what he’s done since he’s been successful.

In September 2010, Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to Newark Public Schools in Newark, New Jersey; this is supposedly the first project of an initiative he dubbed the Startup:Education Foundation. He is committed to “a bold and thoughtful program for improving education.” I look forward to seeing what comes of this program.

But that’s not all. As of December 2010, Zuckerberg’s name is featured on the list of signatories of the Giving Pledge, a list of billionaires who have “pledged to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.” And by majority, they mean majority: these people have pledged to donate at least half of their wealth to charity throughout their lives. He is the second youngest person to sign the pledge (the youngest being Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz). Did I mention that the pledge became a public phenomenon due to billionaires Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, also non-theists?

I have my eye on Mark Zuckerberg and am looking forward to seeing what he’s up to next.