I went to ship a package a couple weeks ago, wearing one of my custom atheist shirts. It’s black, and has the atheism atom-shaped A above a quote by Benjamin Franklin. A woman at the shop, apparently not familiar with the logo, saw that my shirt had something to do with Benjamin Franklin. So, she asked where I got the shirt and I replied “Oh, I had it made custom.” To which she intimated how much she loves Benjamin Franklin, and asked what the shirt says. I held the shirt taut so that it could be read and as she leaned over the counter to read it, I couldn’t help but notice the crucifix on her necklace dangle as she read “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason - Benjamin Franklin”
She then said, “Oh...that’s...nice. You should make more and sell them.” with an oh-so-forced smile. I must admit, I felt a little bad. She wasn’t someone I was debating theology vs. reason with, she was just a Franklin enthusiast working at a shipping office, and I was wearing a shirt that quoted one of her heroes essentially deriding religion. Should I have felt bad? I don’t know. I guess if she were that into Franklin, she’d have come across the quote before. In either case, I think I’ll refrain from wearing that shirt too often. I have another that says I’m proud to be an atheist without deriding religion sans solicitation. After all, it’s the fundamentalists that really need lessons like that, and a non-offensive atheist shirt will get their attention just fine.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Making people rethink their heroes?
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2 comments:
I don't think you should stop wearing the shirt. She was the one that inquired. You didn't offer it up.
Well, to be fair, I did say I was going to stop wearing it "too often." I mean, I took the time to design it, ad paid to have it printed. I'm not going to just let it go to waste. I prefer the other one anyway. It has the "A" part of the logo in red, like the one in the header graphoc of this blog.
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