Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why by Greta Christina (PDF)

Description

Coming out as an atheist is a powerful, liberating act. It makes life better for you, for other atheists, and for the world. But telling people you’re an atheist can be risky. What are the best ways to do it? And how can we help each other take this step?In this compassionate, friendly, down-to-earth how-to guide, popular author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless and blogger Greta Christina, offers concrete strategies and guiding philosophies for coming out as an atheist. Based on hundreds of coming-out stories, the book offers a map of the territory atheists are likely to encounter and ideas on how to pick the path that’s best for you.This accessible, empathetic guide reflects a wide range of coming-out experiences. It includes dedicated chapters on:FamilyFriendsSpouses and PartnersWorkThe InternetParentsStudentsConservative CommunitiesThe Already Marginalizedand much more.For atheists who are already out, it gives practical ideas on how to help others join you in the sunlight. And for atheists who are on the fence, it offers guidance on making that decision — and gentle encouragement to take that step.Inspiring and realistic, kind and powerful, Coming Out Atheist is the much-needed guidebook atheists have been waiting for.Author Greta Christina is donating 10 percent of her income from this book to atheist organizations, charities, and projects.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Witty, wise, helpful, and humane, this clear and engaging book is most timely. Coming Out Atheist is a great resource for the many Americans out there who have rejected religious faith and are moving towards embracing, acknowledging, and proclaiming their atheism.”-Phil Zuckerman, Ph.D., author of “Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion” and “Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment””Greta Christina’s guide to ‘Coming Out Atheist’ is chock-full of useful ideas; but above all it is wise and compassionate.”-Alan Sokal, Professor of Physics, New York University”There’s no doubt that it’s hard to be an atheist in America, but Greta Christina’s message will make you rethink keeping your beliefs to yourself. There’s an optimistic truth that ties her book together: By coming out publicly as non-religious, we are doing something courageous, powerful, and important. Given the choice between simply handing someone a copy of The God Delusion and telling that person you don’t believe in God, Greta reminds us that the personal message may be the most powerful weapon in the atheist arsenal.”-Hemant Mehta, blogger at FriendlyAtheist.com and author of “The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide””What an accomplishment! In ‘Coming Out Atheist,’ Greta Christina has pulled together a great resource for emerging atheists. She very thoroughly captures the reality that atheists are people too, including non-believing clergy.”-Catherine Dunphy, Acting Executive Director, The Clergy Project”Greta Christina knows that the philosophy of atheism is incomplete without practical and sensible advice about how to live in a world full of believers. Her fascinating life experience and astute observations of atheists, in or out of the closet, offers readers some of the most potent testimony for why coming out as an atheist will make a godless life better.”-Hector Avalos, professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, author of “The End of Biblical Studies” and “Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship””Millions of Americans are discovering that life without religion and superstition can be rewarding, fulfilling, and joyful. Greta Christina has done that growing demographic a great service, with this thoughtful and entertaining book that will inform and inspire those who embrace personal secularity.”-David Niose, author of Nonbeliever Nation: The Rise of Secular Americans”This is an important book at the right time by a clear thinker, elegant writer, and passionate human being. Greta Christina is one of a small handful of atheist authors I can count on to bring that happy combination home, time after time.”-Dale McGowan, Atheism For Dummies”Greta Christina is unmatched in passion and clarity of thought. Her writing manages to be both friendly and confrontational. Why Are You Atheists So Angry? quickly became the #1 book that I recommend to atheists and curious believers alike, and I can’t imagine a better or more complete guide to telling someone that you don’t believe than Coming Out Atheist.”-Gem Newman, Life, the Universe & Everything Else Podcast”Old and new atheists alike will find this book invaluable as a road map through the often murky waters of coming out as a nonbeliever. As an out atheist, I was struck by how much I learned about the coming out process and its intricacies. There is no doubt that it has made me a better advocate and voice in the movement. BUY THIS BOOK IT’S AMAZEBANANAS!”-Lauren Lane, Skepticon Co-Founder”With her trademark mix of clarity, passion, and empathy, Greta Christina has produced the definitive guide in ‘Coming Out Atheist.’ More than just a how-to, ‘Coming Out Atheist’ also empowers those already out in making our movement a more welcoming place.”-Neil Wehneman, Development Director, Secular Student Alliance”With this work, Greta Christina makes a sensible and reasonable case for coming out of the closet as an atheist. She points to a wide range of excellent real cases focusing on the many positive aspects of doing so. She is clear in saying that no one is looking for martyrs, but contends instead that coming out typically brings one a sense of well-being, happiness, and self fulfillment. As a popular author, Greta’s direct and to the point exceptional arguments are second to none among current authors for the secular communities. One great thing about this book is that it also takes into consideration minorities and other already marginalized groups, helping them deal with the subject of coming out as non-believers. This book offers something for everyone and Greta Christina’s unrelenting positivism makes it a pleasure to read both for the seasoned atheist as well as for the person still in the atheist closet. I strongly recommend getting two copies of this exceptional book: one to keep and one to give as the perfect present for a good friend.”-David Tamayo, Founder and President, Hispanic American Freethinkers”Greta’s new book gives advice on how to come out atheist to pretty much everyone you know — and even to those you don’t. Greta’s take-away message from reading and hearing thousands of coming out-atheist stories? Most of the time, despite the initial awkwardness or fear, it turns out all right. This is a great how-to-guide for cautious nonbelievers who may fear the consequences of coming out godless.”-Annie Sapucaia, New Books in Secularism podcast”Coming out is one of the most important decisions a person can make. Greta walks readers through that decision in a straightforward step by step process: if, when, how, to whom, and — perhaps most importantly — why. A guide for atheists and allies alike.”-Lyz Liddell, Director of Campus Organizing, Secular Student Alliance”Make the world a better place. Start living your life. Greta Christina shows you why and how (and how not) to escape the atheist closet. A must read for every new atheist and anyone who is considering becoming one.”-David Fitzgerald, author of “Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All” and “The Complete Heretic’s Guide to Western Religion Book One: The Mormons””Not only is ‘Coming Out Atheist’ a valuable compendium of information on the how and why of coming out, it is also a unique book on the importance of living an authentic life. Beautifully woven within its pages is a priceless collection of deeply touching coming out stories. It’s one of those rare books that is both an essential resource and a fantastic read. I highly recommend it.”-Bill Lehto, editor of “Atheist Voices of Minnesota” About the Author Greta Christina has been writing professionally since 1989, on topics including atheism, sexuality and sex-positivity, LGBT issues, politics, culture, and whatever crosses her mind. She is author of Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, and of Bending: Dirty Kinky Stories About Pain, Power, Religion, Unicorns, & More, and is editor of Paying For It: A Guide for Sex Workers for Their Clients. She has been a public speaker for many years, and is on the speaker’s bureaus of the Secular Student Alliance and Center for Inquiry. She is a regular contributor to AlterNet, Salon, The Humanist, and Free Inquiry. Her writing has appeared in magazines and newspapers including Ms., Penthouse, Chicago Sun-Times, On Our Backs, and Skeptical Inquirer, and anthologies including Everything You Know About God Is Wrong and three volumes of Best American Erotica. She lives in San Francisco with her wife, Ingrid. She tweets at @GretaChristina, and has been writing about atheism on Greta Christina’s Blog since 2005.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why by Greta Christina“Coming Out Atheist” is a handy reference guide on how to come out that covers a wide spectrum of situations. The book is based on over four hundred “coming out atheist stories”, data gathered from other sources and Christina’s astute observations. Iconic voice of the atheist movement and widely read blogger Greta Christina provides a much-needed coming-out guide for the masses, a great tool for coming out. This 396-page book includes thirty-two chapters and it’s broken out in three parts: 1. Why Come Out As An Atheist?, 2. Coming Out, and 3. Helping Each Other Come Out.Positives:1. Christina is a gifted writer. Well-written and well-reasoned book. Engaging, accessible and a treat to read.2. A great topic; how to come out as an atheist depending on the specific situation and circumstances. True to her title, Christina never loses focus. “The focus of this book is on telling people you’re an atheist, not on becoming one in the first place.”3. A very reasonable and sound approach. Christina never bites more than she chews.4. The appetizer is released before the entrée is served. “Coming out atheist can make your life better. Coming out helps other atheists. Coming out cultivates other atheists. And coming out creates a better world.”5. Compelling reasons to come out. “But ultimately, what changes people’s minds about atheists is simply coming into contact with us: seeing that someone they know, someone they love or respect or just think is a basically decent person, is an atheist.” Bonus, “Religion relies on social consent to perpetuate itself. And coming out atheist denies it that consent.”6. This book covers a lot of specific situations on coming out as an atheist in: conservative communities, progressive communities, theocracies, U.S. military, the Internet, etc.7. The reality of coming out. “There isn’t one magical coming out formula that’s right for everyone. So while it’s great to encourage each other to come out, we all need to do it on our own timetable, and in our own way. And we need to support each other in that.”8. There are many parallels between coming out LGBT and atheist and many of those experiences are shared here.9. The book is loaded with examples. One or multiple examples are bound to resonate with you. Funs stories too. “’Oklahoma tornado survivor Rebecca Vitsmun became a national atheist hero when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked if she was thanking the Lord for her family surviving the tornado, and she replied, ‘I’m actually an atheist.’”10. Coming out to your family provides a number of very interesting situations.11. The impact of the Internet.12. Quotes of wisdom, “I would rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I’m not.”13. The chapter on U.S. Military presents some eye-opening challenges for our atheist soldiers. “Atheists in the U.S. military have the right to have “Atheist” recorded as their official religious preference, on official records, ID tags, and military headstones. But it’s common for atheists to be pressured to list “No Religious Preference” instead—or even for their preference to be ignored.”14. Facts. “According to a 2013 Harris poll, 36% of Americans under age 35 don’t believe in God—a number that’s going up rapidly, and a trend that seems to be true around the world.” There is hope after all.15. Personality comes to play. “Depending on your personality—and on your school culture—a “Why should I care what you think of me?” attitude can be a powerful shield against hostility. Ostracizing atheists is unacceptable and messed-up—but it has less power if you make it clear that you don’t want their society in the first place.”16. An outstanding chapter on “The Already Marginalized: People of Color, Women, LGBT People, And Others”. I always learn something new. “For many women, coming out as atheist doesn’t just mean upsetting people’s view of us as good Christians or Jews or Muslims or whatever. It means upsetting their view of us as women.”17. Find out Christina’s favorite story.18. The importance of social justice. “And it’s especially important for men to talk about gender, and for white people to talk about race. I know that’s hard. Believe me, I know. It can feel like you’re walking in a minefield; it can feel like you’re going to put your foot in your mouth every ten seconds. It’s uncomfortable for me, too. We have to do it anyway.” Thank you.19. The snowball effect. “I would argue that the snowball effect is even more powerful for atheists than it is for LGBT people. After all, coming out gay isn’t going to turn anyone else gay. It’s just going to make people who are already gay feel more comfortable saying so. But coming out atheist does make other people atheist.”20. The Resource Guide provided is worth the price of the book alone!Negatives:1. Not necessarily a negative but a matter of preference. This is a more professorial Christina not the fiery, out-spoken Christina from her first digital book, “Why Are You Atheists So Angry.” I just so happen to prefer the fiery version, which resonates with my Puerto Rican roots.2. Repetitive. Though to be fair, this book appears to be constructed to allow readers to jump into their favorite topic. Those of us who read books from cover to cover will find the repetition in say how JWs treat apostates.3. Christina does share her personal story but I wanted to know more about what atheist arguments resonate most with her versus her disdain for the childish Pascal’s Wager.4. I would have added a chapter on people with high-visibility/celebrities who came out while in the public eye. Atheist comedians…something to that effect.In summary, a very solid reference guide on how to come out atheist. Christina does a wonderful job of covering a number of situations and provides guidance on how best to come out. Her advice is sound and optimistic. The reference material alone is worth the price of the book. If you are looking to help somebody come out atheist including yourself this is the book to get. I had more fun with Christina’s first book because it was an emotional experience but this one may in fact be a more important one to a movement that is dear and near my heart. I highly recommend it!Further suggestions: “Why Are You Atheists So Angry?: 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless” by Greta Christina, “A Manual for Creating Atheists” by Peter Boghosian, “The Friendly Atheist” by Hemant Mehta, “God Is Not Great” by Christopher Hitchens, “The God Virus” by Darrel Ray, “Godless Americana” and “Moral Combat” by Sikivu Hutchinson, “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “Why Evolution Is True” by Jerry A. Coyne, “Atheism for Dummies” by Dale McGowan, “Nonbeliever Nation” by David Niose, “Good Without God” by Greg Epstein, “Freethinkers” by Susan Jacoby, “Nailed” by David Fitzgerald, and “Think” by Guy P. Harrison.

⭐As followers of her blog and readers of her earlier excellent book “Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off The Godless” will know, Greta Christina has a beautifully clear, conversational writing style. Her writing is a pleasure to read, both for that easy style and because she has a talent for organizing her thoughts on a topic into a clear progression.”Coming Out Atheist: How To Do It, How To Help Each Other, And Why” has those sterling qualities, and also another which was hinted at in “Why Are You Atheists So Angry” but which truly comes out in this one: when Greta Christina decides to sink her teeth into a subject, she is *thorough* about it. This is a comprehensive treatment of the subject.Beginning with the “Why?” of doing it and continuing with an array of practical “How” strategies, not only does she give a compassionate and nuanced discussion of the pros and cons of coming out in the general, but also in the many specifics: she discusses coming out in relatively atheist-friendly places, and in religiously conservative places, in outright theocracies both official and unofficial, at work, in schools, and at home, to immediate family, extended family, friends and even complete strangers. She pays attention to arenas with particular issues, such as clergy who have become atheist, atheists in the military, in healthcare, and others. She has gathered and sifted through literally hundreds of individual stories from several countries and all manner of situations, and she has listed and organized these stories to illustrate both the commonalities and the differences.The book is organized such that a person can zero in quickly on her or his own situation, to a startling degree of specificity, or read through the entire spectrum to gain an overview. Because of that dual purpose there is necessarily some repetition of advice and description, but the keen notice she gives to how individual circumstances can alter cases prevents the text from becoming boring (at least, I was not bored reading through all the variations).Nowhere does the author become dogmatic or claim that there is any one right way to come out: in fact, she does not even insist that coming out is necessarily for everyone, and makes particular note of circumstances where it may be better not to do so, or to delay doing so, or to do so in stages. She does note that the overwhelming majority of atheists who do come out are glad they did so (in fact, while many regretted particular aspects of how they did it, only one out of the hundreds expressed regret at the *fact* of having come out), and is encouraging of closeted atheists to come out, but she emphasizes the personal nature of the decision, telling her audience not to allow themselves to be stampeded into it and definitely not to force others out. Her advice on the process is practical and realistic: have your personal and financial ducks in a row to the extent possible, be aware that it is difficult to stay only partially out for long, come out in a controlled way on your schedule rather than in a crisis if possible, and other such clear-headed advice is presented again and again with an eye on how those realities differ by situation. There are no blueprints here, but rather guidelines the person considering coming out can adapt to his or her own particular needs, with an abundance of examples of how others did it well or badly.Greta Christina is of course one of the most active members of the atheist community at large, and as the subtitle says she does not neglect to provide advice to atheists who want to help others through the transition. As she did in “Why Are You Atheists So Angry?” she provides a comprehensive resource guide at the end of the book to help both the individuals seeking to come out and those who want to be of help to them.The reason I chose to entitle this review as I did is that while I am sure others can, should, and will provide their own take on the subject, this book is so well done and so comprehensive that I believe it will remain the standard against which others of the same stamp will be measured, and that it will measure up very well against any others which do come along.Finally, I’ll express the hope that this book will become obsolescent to an increasing degree as being openly atheist becomes a norm. There will probably always be a need for some atheists to seek advice on this process of coming out, but I believe the day is coming when it will be a very common happening, and largely unremarkable.”Coming Out Atheist: How To Do It, How To Help Each Other, And Why” is a remarkable and valuable tool which will hasten that day considerably, and I recommend it highly to everyone interested in the process of coming out atheist.

⭐Greta seems immediately like family, and many have described her as the cool aunt they wish they had. Her guide on coming out recognizes that everyone’s situation is different. Some people live in very accepting families and have accepting workplaces. Some people are in college or otherwise financially dependent. High school students, soldiers, and people who live in theocratic countries where it is very dangerous to come out as an atheist. Even ministers who have stopped believing and are looking for an exit that doesn’t pass through isolation and poverty.She relates dozens of stories from her readers, to give us a sense of what we might encounter. And with a few notable exceptions (see “theocracy”), life is actually better after coming out. For one thing many people discover previously unknown atheists around them, and begin to enjoy the self-confidence of no longer watching every word and gesture.When I started to come out as an atheist, I made a few mistakes and was told by a close relative to just stay in the closet. But I’m very glad I came out, and wish I’d had this book when I did. Highly recommended.

⭐Great book! I bought the audio version and kindle version, so I was able to listen to Greta read it to me as I followed along. Kept waiting for Tinkerbell to ring her bell to tell me to turn the page (oh, the memories!) but not once did I hear a bell! (c; Great advice, well-written and worthy of every penny spent! You won’t be disappointed, except of course – if you were hoping for Tinkerbell, too! :::chuckle:::

⭐Encouraging text. You are not alone.

Keywords

Free Download Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why in PDF format
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why PDF Free Download
Download Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why 2014 PDF Free
Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why 2014 PDF Free Download
Download Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why PDF
Free Download Ebook Coming Out Atheist: How to Do It, How to Help Each Other, and Why