Several years ago (on what was then called the World Wide Web), I did some research to find out if there was a symbol for free thought. After a surprisingly difficult search, I discovered a great article that discusses all of the various symbols. It explained why each symbol was associated with free thought and atheism, and weighed the pros and cons of each. Though they have since changed their opinion, the article convinced me that the perfect circle fully represents the philosophy of freethought.
Reasons why the perfect circle is an appropriate symbol for freethinkers:
- It’s perfect. This doesn’t presume that freethinkers are perfect, only that we should strive for perfection. And since perfection can obviously never be attained, the emphasis is on the constant drive towards perfection.
- It’s a circle. True circles don’t exist in nature as far as we’re aware. Many things are circular, but no one has yet discovered a place in which an actual circle exists. But the concept is simple enough that almost anyone who has ever lived could understand and recognize it.
- It has an infinite number of sides and infinite angles, a reminder of the boundless ideas of a mind free of religion.
- It’s symmetrical. Balance is an important concept to freethinkers. Balance of philosophy, of nature, of ideas, etc.
- It resembles sub-atomic particles, atoms, bubbles, balloons, moons, planets, stars, etc.
- It can be easily reproduced in almost any medium.
- The ancient symbol for the sun is a perfect circle with a dot (another circle) in the middle. We are, after all, made of starstuff.
- Humans who lived ten thousand years ago knew what a circle was, and humans ten thousand years from now will know what a circle is.
- It is a motif that is repeated unconsciously by billions of people all around the world. It appears in religions and non-religions in infinite varieties, transcending ideology and dogma.
- Before we can speak, we can recognize a circle.
- It represents the number of gods and/or religions that freethinkers believe in. One could even argue that it represents all of them as opposed to none of them.
Rationale
Some people do not feel that atheists and/or non-theists need a symbol. After all, why wear a button that says, “I don’t collect stamps.” But atheism isn’t about disbelief. Sure, the term atheist necessarily implies that they do not believe in gods, but that is not what being an atheist is about. Atheists don’t sit around and un-pray to nothing. When they get together, they don’t talk about how much they don’t believe in things. In fact, they’re often talking about the things they do believe in; things like science, art, and beauty.
Atheism isn’t a religion.
That’s true. However, contrary to popular opinion, atheism is a belief system. It is not a half-hearted lack of belief in gods; atheists actively believe that there are no gods.
Atheists don’t need a symbol.
Sure, they do. Symbols are just a super-efficient form of communication. You don’t have to wear a symbol on your shirt, on your skin, or on your car. The symbol can just mean something to you. But if you do want to show off your beliefs (as humans are often wont to do), then selecting a universally-accepted symbol is a good way to go about doing it. The question is: What do you want to communicate?
Other Symbols
Recently, I stumbled upon a great article about the atheist symbols that may be the descendant of the website I saw so many years ago. In it, they decide that a perfect circle is probably the best idea, but (for reasons that I feel are too concerned with commercialism and modernity), in the end, they decided that the circle would not work.
On that one point, I couldn’t disagree more. I don’t think branding or recognition by theists that it’s the symbol for atheism should be part of the decision process. The symbol is meant to represent my ideals, and I wear it only to assert those ideals to whoever is paying attention. If I really wanted to be as in-your-face about it as, say, Christians, I’d wear a shirt that just says: God isn’t real.
I do like almost all suggestions I’ve seen about the symbol, but so many of them are aimed at the wrong audience.
- The Darwin fish is a wonderful icon, but it represents the fight against those who don’t believe in evolution. Hopefully, atheists won’t always have to fight this fight.
- The invisible pink unicorn is great, but its whole purpose is to mock religious ideas, and I don’t see mockery of anything as a defining feature of atheism. Most of my favorite symbols are like this, but just because they make me giggle doesn’t mean they are representative of atheism.
- The American Atheist’s logo is neat because of the reference to the fundamentals of nature and the open-ended loop that represents incomplete knowledge, but it’s trademarked (bleh), it’s more of a representation of science, and the letter A immediately takes it out of the realm of the universal.
- The empty set symbol (ΓΈ) is a nice one, but it has an important flaw. It looks like a NO symbol or a symbol that something is forbidden. Atheism is not about forbidding things.
- The asterisk, or athterisk, is easily one of the best suggestions I’ve seen because it is relatively simple and represents concepts like “anything” and “We have the footnotes to prove it!” And it does have a resemblance to the pansy, a symbol for free thought. The resemblance to a flower is actually a reason I vote against it, because people will be apt to confuse it with an actual flower. And as far as the asterisk symbol itself, it’s commonly recognized as a symbol in a language. Far too provincial for a symbol that represents something as grand as I’m thinking.