“I was disappointed with the image on the shirt,” [Principal] Melby said. “I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school.”

(It is fair to note that the shirts do not violate the district's dress code. They depict the evolution of man and mirror it by also illustrating the evolution of brass instruments. Each hominid/proto-hominid is holding a brass instrument, and the instruments and hominids "evolve" together.)

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• 23:42 RT @jamesmoran Help support LGBT marriage equality in Ireland, spread the word, contact your TD, or donate: www.marriagequality.ie #
• 17:50 RT @JC_Christian God, they have pills for that now RT @ejswensson God will not be mocked—especially when steeples fall #

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For the past couple of days, my humor community on Atheist Nexus has been holding at 666 members.

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So, let me get this straight.... It's okay for Christians to speak out against homosexuality. They can clamor against teaching the theory of evolution, or rail against teaching it without also teaching Creationism, or "Intelligent Design" (which is nothing but Creationism writ large). They can flail about the wonders of the time-disproven idea of Abstinence Education, deny women the right to decide what to do with their own bodies, and generally push their agenda across the weakening divide between church and State.

But it's *not* okay for a non-Christian to talk smack about the Eucharist.

That's just fucking rich. (And the ongoing whining, threatening and flailing is highly amusing.)

You know, I have religion riding up my ass every fucking day. Churches, for one thing, are everywhere. So are temples, although they are less common where I live. People wear religious jewelery without a second thought--like gold crosses, or those hideous little self-congratulatory rubber bracelets with Xian-flavored messages on them. And there are other legible items, as well--like tee-shirts and bumper stickers and flyers that arrive in my mailbox that unfold into my very own "prayer rug" upon which the BLEEDING EYES of FUCKING JEEBUS are supposed to appear if I stare at it long enough. Not to mention the pushy, parsimonious, pious pricks that show up on my doorstep trying to save me.

Really, religion is up. My. Motherfucking. Ass. And probably yours, too.

The thing is, up until recently, atheism has been all but invisible. You don't drive by fify-eleven Atheist Centers on your way to work, or see handmade signs for their fundraising bake sale in the convenience store window. You don't see atheist shows on television asking for your money. You probably see few (if any) atheist bumper stickers or tee-shirts, and if you do, they're probably a scant 1% of the non-secular shirts and stickers you encounter in a day without even *seeing* most of them, as we accept such displays as commonplace. Oh, and I am fairly certain that Atheists don't show up on your doorstep, question your beliefs, and then tell you that your soulless corpse will do nothing but fester in the ground when you die and to get over it already.

As a matter of fact, the most exposure that most of us get to atheism today is right here on Teh Intarwebs. There are articles, podcasts and YouTubed debates, there's Atheist Radio, shitloads of Blogs, and smart, articulate guys like Richard Dawkins and Chris Hitchens and Dan Dennett. And (depending on your social circles) some of you might actually get most of your atheist-exposure from me. (Which is unfortunate, really, as I am a highly undesirable poster child.)

The point is this. I don't *want* to shove atheism up your asses. I really don't. But as long as religions are visible and atheists are not, atheists will remain easy to ignore.

We're taking a cue from the GLBT folks, and coming out.

We *vote*, people--let's stand up and be counted.