I just recently came across the OUT Campaign website, run by none other than Richard Dawkins. As the name suggests, the purpose of the OUT Campaign is to encourage atheists to come ‘out’ from hiding and let their atheism be publicly known to the rest of the world. This is obviously within the same spirit as this website.

How many of us are still hiding in closets or crouching under beds? Atheism will remain a distasteful or disdained position so long as we keep quiet about it. So let’s not keep quiet about it anymore!

Here is the full description of the OUT campaign from the front page of its website:

Atheists have always been at the forefront of rational thinking and beacons of enlightenment, and now you can share your idealism by being part of the OUT Campaign.

Atheists are far more numerous than most people realize. COME OUT of the closet! You’ll feel liberated, and your example will encourage others to COME OUT too. (Don’t “out” anybody else, wait for them to OUT themselves when they are ready to do so).

The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.

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, colours and personalities. We are labourers 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.

It is time to step up and…stand OUT.

You can also read an introduction by Richard Dawkins here.

The symbol of the OUT campaign is the scarlet letter ‘A’ – a branding of course to be displayed with pride rather than shame. I am displaying my scarlet letter ‘A’ on the sidebar to the right. If you have a personal website or blog, I encourage you to do the same and link back to the OUT Campaign website: http://outcampaign.org