A Shout Out to the Godless Graduates of 2017!

by Justin Scott, founder and Director of the Eastern Iowa Atheists

Please try not to barf because of that graphic. I wanted to find just the right graphic to set the mood...

To the countless atheists that just walked across the stage to accept their high school diploma or college degree this month, congratulations! It's one thing to look at your graduation and appreciate all the hard work you put into getting good grades while having good attendance and balancing the struggles that come with having a job, friends, family and everything else that goes with being a student. 

As an atheist activist though, I want to congratulate you on another aspect of your accomplishments.

To the high school graduates: You're probably the most godless graduating high school class in our country's history and it didn't come easy. You've survived four years marked by what seems to be an increase in attempts to bring more god into public schools. You've survived public school teachers and coaches trying to take advantage of their roles as government employees to manipulate your growing and impressionable minds. You've seen an influx of religious student groups spreading across the country and into the hallways of your school buildings. 

To the college graduates: Whether you entered college as an atheist or not, you stuck to your guns and made it out godless. While the attacks on the secular nature of your college experience may not have seemed quite as constant as your high school counterparts, you faced similar challenges as there were colleges offering prayer rooms for certain religious groups, you had major Division I college coaches using their official college sanctioned Twitter accounts to proselytize Christianity to unsuspecting players and followers of said account. In addition to this, you had college hotels that had to be reminded that its guests shouldn't be confronted with Christian bibles during their stays. 

Nonetheless, you persevered and to the atheists out there across the country we couldn't be prouder. You are not only the future of our country but the future of our atheist movement and effort to maintain a secular government. Your age group, let's say 17-25, have a unique opportunity to become the largest and most impactful generation of godless graduates our country has ever seen. 

Despite facing a future with even more uncertainties than many of us older atheists ever faced out of high school or college--the economy, job market, global terrorism and international relations...and Trump of course. 

But at the same time, there are so many more opportunities out there for you all to be the agents of change that our country, our local, state and federal government, our public school systems and our public colleges and universities need. 

Here's a few ideas of ways you can get involved as an atheist and make the world a better and more secular place going forward: 

- Join the Freedom From Religion Foundation. 

- Join American Atheists. 

- Stay up on current events in your community and report any potential church/state violations to FFRF and American Atheists. 

- Join the American Humanist Association.

- Join Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. 

- Join the ALCU. 

- Create a local atheist group (I've created two!)  

- Connect with an existing atheist group. 

- Bridge the gap between a student atheist group at your high school or college with a local non-student group. 

- Participate in a rally/protest/townhall but do so as an atheist. 

- Deliver a secular invocation at your city council. 

- Deliver an invocation at your statehouse.

- Speak out as an atheist for religious freedom, or in solidarity for a religious minority or persecuted religious group.

- Run for your high school's school board as an atheist. 

- Run for city council as an atheist. 

- Take part in a local political party and lobby about secular issues while promoting positive atheism REGARDLESS OF PARTY AFFILIATION OR POLITICAL IDEOLOGY. 

- Start an atheist blog (like this one!)

- Start an atheist podcast. 

- CHANGE THE FUCKING WORLD!

Kudos again Class of 2017 atheists! You are a bunch of badasses, now go be an agent of change in your community and for the larger atheist community! We have your back.

Email me at iowaatheists247@gmail.com with any questions as I'd love to help in any way that I can!