Atheist Symbol Suggestion

A subject that often crops up on atheist newsgroups is "What is the atheist's symbol?"
After all, Christians have their cross, Jews have their star, Muslims have their crescent moon and so on. What can Atheists have?

There is a reasonable argument that states that it is pointless for atheists to have a symbol of any kind. We are not a group, or an organisation, and certainly not a religion. We are just people who don't have a god (and think that the whole idea is a bit silly anyway).
However, many think it would be useful to agree on some sort of general atheist symbol in order to simply identify ourselves to each other, in much the same way as the Christian "Jesus Fish" that you often see in the back of cars.

Suggestions for atheist symbols often revolve around other religious symbols, like the "Darwin Fish", or a crucifix with a red line through it. But that's not what we're about. Our symbol should have nothing to do with any religion or philosophy. We simply lack a belief in any deity - atheism is not necessarily anti-anything.

So, my suggestion is the image at the top (I am not the originator of this idea - it was mentioned some time ago on alt.atheism, IIRC. I just like it.). A simple black circle. It has the following characteristics in common with atheism :

It is simple
It is whole
It is unbroken
It is obvious
It is all-encompassing
It is strong
It has nothing to do with any religion or belief system

And, it makes for quite a small image file.

An alternative version could be something like :-

It should be noted that others may already lay claim to the circle as a symbol, as was pointed out to me recently in this email:

The simple circle is most definitely associated with a religion. Mine, in fact, that of Witchcraft. The circle is most definitely a sign of unity, of beginningless and endlessness. We worship in a circle in order to emphasize this concept, as a matter of fact. Also to facilitate looking at each other, as we worship naked. :^-) It is also the symbol we put around our five-pointed star, which becomes the sacred pentacle symbol.

I've also heard that one or more North American Indian tribes use a plain circle as their symbol. Make of it what you will.

In Use

SimSeven sent me these cool photos of him, his big black truck, and the Circle Of Atheism. Honk if you see him. =)


SimSeven and his Atheist T-Shirt	A close up of the back window