“Atheism is not sad”
Micki Krimmel works as the director of community for a video sharing site called Revver. Her job is to manage the customer support team and advocate the interests of Internet-creators to Revver. I have seen her in person at several video blogging events in Los Angeles. From my observations at these events, she appears to be bubbly, extroverted, the life of the party, and rather intimidating for a somewhat shy anthropologist. I thought about approaching her for an interview, but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. In some ways, I hadn’t realized I had felt shy toward her until I saw some of her more intimate postings on her blog.
I was intrigued when I noticed videos of hers that presented a very different, quieter persona. I began to realize that through her more intimate postings, I was warming up to her work and to her ideas in a new way. In navigating her blog, I immediately noticed a link to a video with the fascinating title “Atheism is not sad,” which was posted on November 29, 2006, 11:04 p.m.1 For me the video presented a persona that contrasted dramatically to the Micki I had seen in public venues. Obviously, we all have different parts of our selves that emerge for different purposes at different times. But I was stunned to see her in the atheism video in a soft pale blue shirt, wearing little or no make-up, talking directly to the camera in what felt to me to be an intimate setting that resembled a living room. In this late-night recording of her thoughts, she speaks with a low-key self-presentation, introducing the video by saying that it was prompted by a discussion with a coworker for whom she had a lot of “respect” and “love.” He had read a blog posting of hers on atheism and it made him “really sad.” He said he would buy her The Tao of Ching for Christmas. She found his sadness disrespectful and she wanted to talk about how her atheism is not sad, but rather beautiful, because her worldview is complete and does not require additional explanation. It is based on fact and does not prompt doubtful questions about the existence of higher beings.
I am not an atheist, but what struck me about the video was that it led to a reconsideration of my behavior and attitudes toward atheists. I will say that I have had atheists proselytize much harder at me than I think I have ever done to my atheist friends. Nevertheless, I began to wonder if I had ever told an atheist friend that I was “sad” for them. I wondered if it is okay to feel “sad,” if that is an honest emotion. If so, is it better to be honest about feeling sad or to withhold sharing that emotion to avoid being disrespectful? A number of other questions emerged, such as, How does being “sad” play out in larger, political ways? How does being “sad” for atheists create a situation that minimizes their ability to express their views in public? Are there issues in the news, for instance, that I am less supportive of on atheists’ behalf because of a deep-seated, unarticulated sadness or feeling that they lack something? Do I feel that encouraging diversity will complicate my own preferences for religious expression?
In the comment section, Micki says that it is important to keep up the “momentum” on issues of atheism. In a US political climate in which religion has taken on so much prominence, it is entirely understandable that folks who are atheist would wish to create a space in which it is possible for political candidates who are atheist to be more public with their beliefs. People who are atheist and agnostic left comments on Micki’s blog and on other Web sites thanking her for making the video. They were grateful that it expressed views they had held for a long time. Not all of the comments she received on her blog agreed with her position, but she expressed gratitude that people used the video blog to explore these issues in a frank and public manner. For me, the quiet, intimate, yet public exploration of feelings about atheism set in motion by a private conversation with a coworker prompted a reconsideration of how personal views may transform into political questions such as, How do internal attitudes translate into political choices that affect diversity? It also galvanized other atheists and agnostics to bring issues of atheism more openly into public discourse.
Anyway, thanks to all of you for leaving comments. I hope the discussion continues. And I’m super happy that this discussion is happening so much right now on the web and in our culture. Even if we can’t agree, it can’t be bad to talk about it. —Micki Krimmel
- M. Krimmel, “Atheism is not sad,” http://www.mickipedia.com/?p=616. [↩]
