If you’re looking to get the word out to the general public about your local atheist group, consider looking into the possibility of local parades which will take all kinds of entries. Here in OKC, our local weekly paper puts on an annual Halloween parade, and the Oklahoma Atheists have showed up and marched for the last three years now.
Last night, I had the privilege of marching with a motley collection of pirates, pastafarians, and assorted freethinkers down the usual parade route. I’m pleased to report that we didn’t run out of candy this time, we received much less abuse from the assembled throngs than we did last year, and significantly more positive crowd response.
Just a couple of quick personal observations on the third annual night march of the godless. Somewhat surprisingly, several people immediately recognized and cheering for our animated effigy of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which was designed such that it moved up and down and side to side. My heartfelt congratulations to the Special Committee for Assembling and Articulating Parodic Creationist Monster Deities, which was in truly rare form this year. The videographer tells me that the film will be edited in a couple weeks, but for now, try to imagine this frightful incarnate god of pasta and meatballs looming and lurching down the street, powered entirely by an elite cadre of hefty godless volunteers. If your imagination thereof gives you a spine-tingling thrill, you are doing it right.
Embarrassingly enough, I am still somewhat nervous being out and proud as an atheist in public, even after all these years. Walking in the front, I had the chance to hear the crowd reactions when they first read our signage. Most people were just confused at first, apparently the connection between godlessness, piracy, and pasta hasn’t made it’s way into the mainstream yet. I heard maybe half a dozen “boos” coming from clusters of devout people, which was somewhat less than I seem to recall from last year. More often, people would cry out “God bless you!” or “Jesus loves you!” which is, of course, a much friendlier way of expressing theological disagreement. As usual, we tried to keep all our replies positive. Occasionally, I would yell out “ALL HAIL THE FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER” like a town crier, which seemed to cause just enough general bepuzzlement to keep the negative outbursts at bay. It’s hard to shout out hateful things when you are more confused than upset, and we just needed to stall the outbursts long enough for the candy runners to show up. It must have really put a few of the more devout parents on the spot, once their kids discovered that the godless heathens were running around handing out chocolate.
I would include many more photos here, but I’m afraid to inadvertently out anyone online. It is one thing to be willing to march in public, and another thing altogether to be immortalized in pixels which are easily passed around. I’d like to say a heartfelt thanks to everyone who showed up and marched with us, even that one guy in the scary mask whose identity could never quite be discerned. FSM bless you all!
UPDATE 10/29: The video is available now!
