Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2022 March 28

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March 28

Atheist Day

Greetings,

Intermittently I follow sphere of Atheism related sources. Some sources show 1st April as Atheist Day since last few years 23rd March seems being celebrated Atheist Day. But I am still not clear enough since when and Who started celebrating Atheist Day , since which year and which one is real day of Atheists? and why did they prefer to choose that day (date)?

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 10:52, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Atheist day doesn't have a lot of well-known support in the U.S.; it appears instead the bigger day (in the U.S. at least) is the National Day of Reason. I'm not sure about other countries. --Jayron32 11:07, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

"I was an atheist for a while, but I gave it up. No holidays!" -- Henny Youngman. Maybe he spoke too soon? --<-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 11:54, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Every Day is an Atheist Holiday!  --Lambiam 12:43, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

The symbol of the 23 March version of Atheism Day may have been designed by a heptapod. The proclamation of this day seems to have been in 2018. The atheist website hosting this was launched in 2012, originally only advertizing merch.^[1] This is meant to be a worldwide thing. The April 1st version is labelled "National Atheist Day" and appears to be specific to the US. Reportedly, it started out as a joke in 2003.^[2] Before today I had not heard of either.  --Lambiam 13:11, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Where are you getting 2018 from? That torpedoes my theory.

Theory (AKA OR): March 23 2019 was the date when the Syrian Democratic Forces declared victory over ISIS. Atheist day appears to be of particular interest to ex-muslims whose lives are at risk if they come out as atheists. Searching the web for "atheist day 2018" doesn't give any results mentioning March 23 2018, but "atheist day 2019" appears on some webpages. So, this event could explain the choice of March 23, but I have no source to cite. Edit: confirmation that "first ever" March 23 atheist day was in 2019. And the day was initiated by an international ex-Muslim coalition.  Card Zero  (talk) 13:31, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

The web page announcing the "global event", proclaiming, "We atheists and atheist allies hereby declare that from now on, March 23rd is Atheist Day", was first archived on 27 March 2018.^[3] The day is announced on the website's home page on 19 February 2019.^[4] No explanation for the choice of date is offered.  --Lambiam 16:12, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

OK, next theory: it's the anniversary of the execution of Bhagat Singh, who wrote Why I Am an Atheist in 1930. Theory three: it's to do with the alledged 23% of the world's population who are non-religious, or 23% of the US population. Yes, I know, these are pretty untestable theories and not worth the pixels they're written in. Theory four: because it didn't conflict with any other celebration. (Not sure who Khadra might be.) Of course it does conflict with several - it's Pakistan Day, Promised Messiah Day, Bolivian Day of the Sea, Family Day in South Africa, and I think possibly Puppy Day, but we are awash with days these days.  Card Zero  (talk) 16:58, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

There have been Indian precursors, which had a connection to the execution of Bhagat Singh.^[5] While this does not establish a connection with the global event, it makes it more plausible.  --Lambiam 23:00, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

Intriguing. Though Bhagat Singh was atheist was not executed for his atheism. Quite likely the case of Indian atheists banking on Bhagat Singh's popularity in India. As of now connection with the global event, if any, seems unclear. Thanks Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 07:18, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Atheist Ribbon

@Lambiam While searching if any follow up events happened in India on Atheist Day, I ended up on some thing entirely different International Atheism Solidarity Day. The Hindi Wikipedia has a translated article about the same from 2012 (But seems unclear it is translation of which original source). And a different ribbon image as symbol. Again for that too I did not get much clue.

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 08:43, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

It seems very similar to the text found here.  --Lambiam 09:36, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

In Newspapers.com, the earliest reference to National Atheist's Day for April 1 (or any day) that I'm seeing, occurs in 1989, in a Lincoln, NE newspaper ad ridiculing the idea and inviting people to a church. --<-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 15:12, 28 March 2022 (UTC)

It took me a while to view the "symbol of the 23 March version of Atheism Day" (since it's 600kb and 2000x2000 pixels), but when I did, it was an obvious rip-off of the Zen calligraphic circle symbol. I'm not sure how changing the color from black to green transforms a Buddhist symbol into an atheist symbol... AnonMoos (talk) 08:30, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Given the color scheme, it looks more like a Nazi symbol. --<-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 08:54, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

This is an awareness ribbon

Not a Zen symbol but an awareness ribbon, the origin of which (in its present form) was the Atlanta murders of 1979-1981 - see our list of awareness ribbons. British politicians have recently been wearing blue and yellow ribbon loops in support of Ukraine. Alansplodge (talk) 11:49, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

This is a Buddhist Zen symbol (one variation of many)

Baseball_bugs -- I really don't know what Nazi symbol you have in mind, since the Nazis were not into irregular quasi-circular brushstrokes. There is no single color which by itself has Nazi connotations (there is no such thing as "Nazi black" or "Nazi green"[sic]).

Alansplodge -- An awareness ribbon looks like a short length of ribbon folded over itself once. It does not resemble an irregular quasi-circular East Asian calligraphic brushstroke, the way that https://i.imgur.com/UbsXZtJ.png does... AnonMoos (talk) 12:28, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Apologies, I was looking at the posted image and misunderstood your point. Alansplodge (talk) 12:34, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Enso.  Card Zero  (talk) 12:40, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Nazi flag colors: red, black, white. --<-Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots-> 21:41, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

What the heck does that have to do with https://i.imgur.com/UbsXZtJ.png which is green on transparent??? And if everything with black ink on a whitish background (such as the Zen symbol) is "Nazi", then 99% percent of books ever published are "Nazi"! Not to mention that there ain't no red involved. If all you can do is make irrelevant remarks dragging in non-existent Nazi connections , then you might not bother to comment at all. AnonMoos (talk) 23:52, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

For me at least, the association of red and black connotates the novel of the same name by Stendahl, a line in the song Ne me quitte pas by Jacques Brel and possibly anarchist symbolism, certainly not Nazis. To each their own, I suppose. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:E34:EF5E:4640:9C5D:1CFB:8247:3745 (talk) 16:42, 30 March 2022 (UTC)

Finnish Wikipedia seem to have an article Ateistien symbolit The new symbol still may have time to be entered there.

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 12:32, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Copy right over Circular symbol?

The link to the green circular symbol says This symbol is not trademarked. but does not talk about copyright.

Any chances Wikimedia Commons may accept it under fair use?

Bookku, 'Encyclopedias = expanding information & knowledge' (talk) 13:02, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Here it is (in black not green) for sale as an art print: Circle print, Scandinavian print, Scandinavian, Nordic, Trendy print... and here are many other instances of the same circle. I wonder which is the original? Perhaps it will turn out to be clip art. It occurs to me that any loosely painted green circle is still the same symbol, so it could be recreated and thus avoid copyright problems. But Commons already has most of the symbol uploaded.  Card Zero  (talk) 13:48, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

It should be noted (NOT LEGAL ADVICE), that usually designs consisting of basic shapes and typeset text is not normally subject to copyright as a work of art, and short phrases, such as the name of an organization or the like, are not normally copyrightable as text. A circle with a few words in it is usually below the threshold of originality that is necessary for copyright to be applied. For example, the Bass Brewery logo is not copyrightable, because it consists solely of a basic shape (a triangle) and text (the word Bass written in script logo). It is protected as a trademark, which is just means that other people cannot use it, or a mark like it (a red triangle) to label bottles of beer intended for sale. --Jayron32 17:47, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

This type of circle is called a "Zen circle".^[6] The selfsame image as the Atheist Day symbol is called a "Zen circle" here. See also the article Hitsuzendō.  --Lambiam 23:59, 29 March 2022 (UTC)