Hi there: I hope yall like reading!

[Bluewind]

Actually, I'm less sure of "a finite life," than I am of the lack of a God. I would say the two are NOT the same. In fact, my ankh pendant could reasonably symbolize ETERNAL life, although, to me, it simply represents life itself - regardless of the span.

I don't pretend to know what happens experiencially to the living when they die. (Perhaps the anecdotes, of near death experience, are only evidence of a grand hallucination, that might usher us out of this life, but does that negate the hallucination's usefulness?) Many Atheists believe in at least the possibility of post-life continuance.

It's more difficult than you think to SATISFACTORILY represent what is essentially a negative statement, about gods, with an inoffensive symbol. I think the best you can hope for is something like the symbol for Atheist Forums: throwing ALL religion in the trash. At least that way you're not picking on any particular group.

I never knew there were those like me who believed in an afterlife. I should have never assumed. I still feel it's a good symbol that I would like to share as embracing the importance of the life we have right now is what I was trying to go for. Plus it's pretty and might make someone a nice tattoo ;)

I wonder what to call myself now that I know there are some that believe in an afterlife and some that don't. If there's another term to add to my growing list?

[Solomon Zorn]

For me, the term is still atheist, although "schizophrenic" may apply to me, as well.

Here's the rest of my little self-portrait-avatar sketch (done with a Sharpie marker):


I like the symbol you are using as your avatar. It could be a nice piece done any number of ways.

I tried to get an ETSY artist to make me a 2-sided IDIC pendant made out of pewter and copper, with a turquoise stone in the middle. She wanted to do silver, as I recall, instead of pewter. Here's my drawing of the design:

[Bluewind]

That is just divine! I love the meaning behind it as well. I hope you're able to get it made ^_^

Your talent truly puts my sad attempt in perspective. If I am ever to find something positive that links us all like the IDIC (which is copyrighted I'm sure), I need to get to a computer and really brainstorm. I have to admit, as rough as it is I have fallen in love with my little emblem as it's the first thing I've designed in years. It felt good to create again. It's in bad need of some "fine tuning" ;) but I feel like it symbolizes me and what I believe in a positive way.

[Mermaid]

As a parasitologist, I cannot avoid seeing a nematode in this.

[Mermaid]

Oh, and hi Bluewind.

[Mike Cl]

I'll reply to everyone's posts in a few, but I just had to share what I've been working on! I've been brainstorming ideas for a universal symbol for non theists that's positive. I've been focusing on the idea that we all live our lives as if this is all we have. I liked the infinity symbol, but was having trouble coming up with anything but a infinity with a slash through it and that was too negative. Then my friend had the idea of trying to make a symbol of a BROKEN infinity and I ran with it. Here's what I can up with. Sorry about the pixelation, but I am limited on how I can draw.

This symbol looks like and reminds me of a butterfly.  Which is not a bad thing, but a very good thing.  Love butterflys.  They are beautiful to look at, do a very necessary job of pollinating; and look at their life cycle.  It is a good symbol, indeed!

[kilodelta]

I think it could be smoothed out and shared.

Challenge accepted. I'm just an amateur. But, I'll fiddle around with your design to see what I can come up with. Time for beer, music, and GIMP.

[Bluewind]

Challenge accepted. I'm just an amateur. But, I'll fiddle around with your design to see what I can come up with. Time for beer, music, and GIMP.

You ROCK Kilo! :D

Edit: You have my permission to tweak it if you like ;)

@Mermaid
Happy to meet you as well :)

@Mike Cl
Awww. Thank you Mike! That really made me smile ^_^

[gentle_dissident]

Interesting. Where did you get it from? I can't seem to find it online.

It's a play on "What dreames may come, When we haue shufflel'd off this mortall coile, Must giue vs pawse." Bill was, however, referring to life being annoying. It could now mean a spiral, a succinct life maze.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I kind of agree with Carlin about symbols and leave symbols to the symbol minded..

[kilodelta]

You ROCK Kilo! :D

Edit: You have my permission to tweak it if you like ;)

Alright... smoothing it out wasn't working too well. I'm sure someone better at graphics could have done it. So, I went with unsmooth. Here are a couple I put together that I am not too embarrassed about:





They may look better if they were smaller. I life the blue one best. If you have a color preference, I could make it whatever you want. Go ahead and do whatever you wish with them. They're your design. I just modified them. I now really want to take a graphic design course. But, I need to finish this blasted Master's degree first.

[kilodelta]

I kind of agree with Carlin about symbols and leave symbols to the symbol minded..

I'm not too keen on symbols myself. They're too easily coopted. Then a big stink could be left on them. Just look at what the Nazis did to the Buddhist symbol...

But, personal or corporate logos help with brand recognition. As long as one is willing to drop and change their logos to disassociate themselves with whatever negative connotations become associated with it, then they can be useful. 

[Bluewind]

@gentle_dissident
Thanks for the explanation! I appreciate it :)

@AllPurposeAtheist
To each his/her own. I think a universal symbol would be good for us though because I think it could help us spot others like ourselves, unify us as a group rather than being considered multiple tiny groups (like the LGBT+), have something that transcends all our various languages, and give us something that ties us to so many others who feel the same.

There's a reason I feel this way. I live in the bible belt where Christianity is thick and bigotry for our ilk is stronger than a lot of places.

I rather enjoy symbols and symbolism myself. I tried to create something that symbolized the positive side of what my beliefs mean to me. That we should live our lives as if this is all we have with our finite time here (symbolized using a broken infinity). It also symbolizes that deities have never been scientifically proven and that invisible does not mean exempt (comparing god to wind). Putting a dot in the center of each closed part (sorry, I went for details and it  got creepy) makes it look like eyes thus symbolizing that our eyes are opened.

@kilodelta
Lovely! The blue looks the best against black while the purple looks the best against white.

What are you getting a master's in?

I suppose brand recognition is the simplest way to put what I'm trying to accomplish.  :)

Update: I had told five people (dad, nephew, and 3 close friends) of various faiths that I was an atheist with good reactions. Then I got to the sixth. It did not go as well as I would have liked. He said he was cool with it and that it was between me and God. Then he starting asking me questions. I got drilled on if I believed in God, Satan, Angels, demons, and so on. I kept telling him I didn't believe in any of them. After we covered dieties, I got asked some pretty crazy (and somewhat offensive) stuff including if I worshiped Satan, practiced witchcraft, or "knew" the illuminate (who apparently worship Satan and control everything... WTF!?!). And yes, he was upset that I was hurting god and wanted to know how I would explain myself to him when I died. I tried to explain my feelings about it. He just circled back to saying I was wrong and how could I explain myself as I stand before God and explain all the sins I will have committed while not following the bible (which led to me saying that if I was just to look at the 10 commandments, I probably sin less than your average Christian). Then I covered why atheists don't just go around doing whatever like which led back to him saying atheists must follow the bible if we abide by the commandments (facepalm). He was respectful within the confines of his beliefs, but he still said some pretty insulting stuff. I told him I wasn't an anti-theist (believed that religion is just fine as long as it's not used in schools/government, used as an excuse for bigotry, or forced on me). That I respected his beliefs even though they weren't right for me. When he kept going on about seeing god, I said there are a lot of religions in the world that believe that their diety is the right one. That Christians take up 31% of the population, but broken down into groups, 17% are Catholic who believe in worshiping Mary and the saints and that you must confess sins to a priest while the 14% Protestant population does not, making them fundamentally different religions. That if a diety existed, it would be impossible for me to know which was the right one as every group is just as passionate about their belief that they are correct. We didn't get to finish our conversation because he had to go back to work, but needless to say between the insults, accusations, and conspiracy theories, I don't think I will ever see him the same way again.

[Baruch]

It is your sixth person, who will have to answer to G-d, not you ;-)

[Mike Cl]

It is your sixth person, who will have to answer to G-d, not you ;-)

And don't forget, the Tooth Fairy as well.  And Rough and Ready, too............................................I think.