I’m an atheist (and former Catholic) and I always took it for granted that it wasn’t a big deal to not believe in God – until I moved to the south. (I’d previously lived in the northeast and in Europe.) Suddenly people were asking me to go to all sorts of church events and when I would explain matter-of-factly that we were non-believers I would get responses like “we’ll pray for you” and “what are you exactly?” So whenever I hear that a celebrity is an atheist it makes me feel like it’s getting more mainstream acceptance. That’s why I was kind of thrilled to hear that Johnny Depp is slated to attend the Reason Rally, held by secular and atheist groups, in Washington, DC this June. Some of my friends are going to this, I don’t live far from DC and I might plan on going too.
Other celebrity attendees include Margaret Cho and Julia Sweeney (of SNL) along with scientists Bill Nye and Lawrence Krauss. I think Margaret Cho is a hack and she’s pretty awful on the reboot of Fashion Police, plus Johnny Depp is drunk and slurry most of the time, but it’s cool that he’s doing this. Here’s more:
Johnny Depp will bring a touch of Hollywood glamour to a planned gathering of atheists and other secularists at Washington’s Lincoln Memorial.
Depp, who once said “religion is not my specialty,” is one of the scheduled speakers at the Reason Rally, a project of seven national atheist, humanist and other secularist organizations slated for June 4. Other speakers include television personality Bill Nye, scientists Lawrence Krauss and Carolyn Porco, comedians Margaret Cho and Julia Sweeney and musicians Killah Priest and Mark White of the Spin Doctors.
“Up until now, for a celebrity, politician or athlete to identify as openly nonreligious has been regarded as career suicide,” said Lyz Liddell, the Reason Rally’s executive director. “The fact that these big, mainstream names are beginning to openly support our work and become involved in our community means that the entire cultural attitude towards nonreligious Americans is shifting towards acceptance and inclusion — and that’s wonderful!
Richard Dawkins, who suffered a stroke in early February and whose foundation is one of the sponsors of the rally, is also slated to speak, though his appearance will depend on his health, Liddell said.
The Reason Rally has been held twice before. Its main goal is to demonstrate the size and potential political power of those who favor a strict separation of religion and politics. In 2002, under the name “The Godless March,” it attracted a few thousand people — mostly middle-aged and white — to the National Mall, while 2012’s rally attracted several tens of thousands to the same spot, many of them young and nonwhite.
“Today, nonreligious Americans make up some 25 percent of the population, but there is not one single openly nontheistic member of Congress,” Liddell said. “The Supreme Court is five Catholics and three Jews, and presidential candidates pander to the religious right while throwing atheists under the bus.”
[From ReligionNews, thanks to Kaiser for the tip]
I think that the sooner we can get religion out of politics the better, and I like that Depp is throwing his weight behind this cause. You get the impression that he does not GAF at this point in his life, but I wish he would sober up a bit.
Also, I never knew Johnny Depp was atheist. The American Humanist Association has a list of the top 20 celebrity atheists along with quotes backing up their claim that these celebrities are non-believers. In many cases they seem to be reaching though and it’s extremely rare for a celebrity to come out and say “I’m an atheist.” (The only exceptions that come to mind are Ellen Page, Daniel Radcliffe, Julianne Moore and Brad Pitt. Oh and Ricky Gervais!) Many will admit they’re skeptics. The only thing I can find which Johnny has said to this point indicating that he doesn’t believe in God is that “Faith in terms of religion, I don’t [have], religion is not my specialty.” So this is kind of Depp coming out as an atheist.
Update: Thanks to those of you who pointed out that Amber Heard is openly atheist and that she’s a scheduled speaker as well.
photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
Nonreligious only make up 25% of the population?? Holy crap. I thought it would be at least 60%. I must be living under a rock.
It’s probably a little higher, as there are a few people who claim to be religious but really only identify with a religion because it’s the religion of their families, friends, and/or people financially supporting them. In reality they’re agnostics or sometimes even atheists.
Hoorah! Mess that the man is, he still has the power to attract attention, so it’s awesome that he’s bringing attention to this. Just when I think he’s lost me forever, he hooks me back in again…
Also, Bill Nye is amazing!! I might road trip to DC for this worthy event.
Also also, fellow southern atheist here. I thought “atheist” was a curse word growing up. No joke, if you had asked my 7-year-old self, I probably would have equated the word atheist with the word terrorist. Bible Belt mentality is a powerful (and sometimes scary) thing.
I thought atheist was another word for satanist and that satanists were people dedicated to the worship of evil for no reason other than they are themselves evil. It took a long time to see through the self serving definitions that christians push regarding others.
This.
southern atheist here, too. i remember in junior high, a teacher talked about how we all know god made the world and a kid raised his hand and flat out said “I don’t believe in god.” The rest of us fully expected the ground to open and hell to swallow him up while he was simultaneously smote dead by lightening. But it didn’t. Nevertheless, as a believer at that time, I prayed on a daily basis for his soul and that he would be saved! lol.
I’m from a super Catholic country ( and I’m a Catholic), but being an atheist is not a big deal here. None of my atheist or agnostic friends had any problems. Heck, our former prime minister was an antheist and our former president was an agnostic.
However, our new government is a right wing one, and for the first time ever they are referencing religion in their speeches and talk about abortion ( which has been legal here since the 50s). It’s scary. Catholicism has always been a part of our national identity, it was almost more of a social than a spiritual thing, but it was never front and centre the way it is becoming now
That is scary. Where are you from?
I hear you. My country (uber Catholic Mexico) is a secular State by Constitution. Catholicism and religion are part of our cultural identity but not of our politics (at least not so openly).
That’s why this past visit of Pope Fracis was so controversial. Our useless President made a visit from a head of State into a religious one and was talking about religion and God in his speeches, it was just awful and scary. Even most of us are Catholics, you’ll find that the vast majority of mexicans agree that politics and religion should never go together.
That’s really interesting, Saks. I did wonder about the Pope’s eventful visit to Mexico. I follow him because he intrigues me. He may be the first pope to live by the tenets ascribed to Christ by Christianity. I’m pleasantly surprised he’s still alive.
Also interested that Mexico values separation of church and state. Feel like I should do more reading on its history to understand the political culture.
I’m with you all on this one. Glad to see big names making it a bit more acceptable to be a non- believer. This almost makes Johnny a little sexy again. Now if he would just sober up a bit and shave…
@Locke: That’s cool that your country has had agnostic and atheist leaders. Scary about the right wing thing; good luck.
It’s more to do with he fact that no one cares about a politicians personal life. We had a minister who ran over people, got senteced to jail and held office until he had to go to jail, so until he physically couldn’t be there any more. He got out last year and is back in the parliament now.
Politicians’ wives and husbands, kids, etc. are mostly unknown.
Johnny looks good in the last photo. I love that outfit on him.
I’m fascinated by all these rallies that are just rallies and don’t seem to change anything. If anybody wants real change, you need to get up off your duff and VOTE! If everyone who said “I’m only one person, my vote won’t count” voted, maybe things would be different. All these groups can hold all the rallies they want. As long as people they disagree with (in this case, super religious people) vote in higher numbers, things will stay the same.
How can you vote for an atheist when none of the candidates are one?
Rallies like this are important to give a voice to the voice less. Atheists are consistently drowned out by the christian majority in America. They also inspire other people to see that ‘hey atheists aren’t evil like the church tells me they are’ and helps others to ‘come out’ as atheist without fear.
It’s a funny old world when Archbishops have nothing more important to do then to ban Girl Scout cookie sales because he doesn’t approve of their policy towards the LGBT community! Leave religion in the churches, and the rest of us will live within the law of the State as the Constitution intended. At last I have a reason to pat old Johnny on the back for something other than being slurry, and scarfy.
As long as we keep electing these religious nuts into elected office, it’s not going to happen! They’ll only reference the constitution when it works for them. Go vote, folks!
I don’t know if Johnny ever claimed to be an atheist before. I think he’s been moving between believer and non-believer all his life.
But Amber Heard is openly atheist…and a rebellious one, she was raised catholic in a catholic school, but after her best friend died at a car accident when she was 16 years old, she became a furious atheist
“I don’t believe in God any more than I believe in the Easter bunny” – Amber Heard
I think she’ll be at the rally, because i think all this change in Johnny from zero to opinionated (making fun of Trump), publicly speaking about religion, is also part of her influence on him. I think she’s pushing him to make his opinion to be known in all the matters
Johnny looks nice with shorter hair and less black eyeliner, like a handsome middle aged Jon Snow. Amber looks great in the red dress as well. I’m not sure religion will ever be divorced from American Political Landscape. Sadly, it’s considered a bad thing that President Obama might be a “secret Muslim”. In a land where religious freedom and separation of church and state are supposed to be paramount…
Long time atheist. People do not trust atheists. It doesn’t matter that I’m as morally upright as the next citizen. I just know that I do not need religion to provide me my moral compass. (Old Testament, anyone?) There is some real prejudice against us in this country.
We are growing in numbers but are still a minority.
It’s crazy that people don’t trust atheists, I really don’t understand that. I’m an atheist too and when some people find out about that they react as if I had just told them -“…and on the weekends I like to sacrifice babies to satan, good times!”. I read this quote a while back “You don’t need religion to have morals. If you can’t determine right from wrong then you lack empathy, not religion.” .
that is what angers me most about what some so-called “Christians” have to say about atheists. (I used quotes because I find that some Christians act in a most UN-Christian like way…What Would Jesus Do is not something they consider.)
that attitude that if you don’t worship some sort of supreme being, and you don’t follow a RELIGION’S moral code, that you don’t have any moral code, and what’s to stop you from just killing someone because yer a godless atheist?!
(NOTE: I am not an atheist, but (as I like to refer to myself) a Recovering Catholic.)
ETA: D, great quote!
Agree NeoCleo. I don’t need a book to tell me moral right from wrong. If someone does, they need to look inwards
I donate more to charity per year than any of the religious people i know…because I want to make positive change in the world. Change takes money. Whereas religious people often don’t donate because they think praying ‘helps’ and they also tend to care less about the environment because ‘god will fix it so no need to worry about climate change’. Also, a LOT (not all of course) but a LOT of Christians I know are WAY less compassionate towards animals because the bible says that humans can basically do whatever they want to animals and that only humans have souls blah blah blah.
Religion is often harmful in insidious, not immediately apparent, ways.
Actually, multiple studies have shown that religious people donate much more time and money to charity than those who are non-religious, so your anecdote means very little.
I heard about being an atheist in the south. I have a atheist friend who was raised in California, then moved to the South and had the same exact experience as Celebitchy. She was given the side-eye by just about everyone when she mentioned she didn’t belong to a church. That kind of freaked me out.
Compared to Venice 2015, JD looks positively radiant here.
I think it would be extremely rare for a British celebrity to come out as an atheist because being agnostic or atheist is the default position here, so it would be like coming out as straight! Also, we just don’t have religion as a public badge whether you’re a believer or a heathen. Not the done thing!
But Wiki has a good list of film/theatre/TV professionals who have actually spoken about their atheism. It might cheer you up, Celebitchy, as there are a good few Americans on there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_atheists_in_film,_radio,_television_and_theater
I read a great YA novel about a boy from Boston who moved to the Bible Belt and all the difficulties he encountered. On being assured by American colleagues that it was accurate, rather than exaggerated for good dramatic effect, I almost fainted! Misdirected by Ali Berman.
PS: why do all the most interesting topics on Celebitchy come along when I am rushing about like a fart in a colander and can’t play properly?!
Sixer, we moved to the buckle of the bible belt from Canada. We used to live in a very secular city and no one discussed church or god. Like what you describe. it was assumed that most people were agnostic or atheist. Now that we live in the South, we are inundated with Christianity.
When my daughter told her friends she is an atheist, they quickly informed here she was going to hell, another girl left bible verses on her desk. She had to put with all manner of proselytizing. Even the teachers here speak openly about Jesus etc. Last week, there were people handing out bibles outside my son’s high school. I thought religion in schools was illegal in the US. Anyway, it’s lonely being an atheist in the south.
I will recommend that book to my daughter.
This and the cakes make England sound like a wonderland.
Sounds interesting.
Ok, i respond myself and you, Celebitchy:
Amber not only will be there, she will be one of the speakers too (scroll down the page and the picture of Amber was added along with: “Amber Heard: Actress and self-described atheist, Amber Heard is involved with issues of social activism, from LGBT rights to the United Nations program Girl Up.” )
http://reasonrally.org/speakers/
Amber Heard is a less than stellar speaker. Her times at podiums are not memorable at all. She’s not only dull, but she’s also one of those pseudo intelligent people that uses big words to make you think she’s smart, she uses them wrong. She will be a good break for the crowd, so that they can go to the porta-potty to relieve themselves.
I think he’s going to a lot more events lately, and that’s good. I wish he’d just stay sober though.
Bring a rally to the west coast!!! Seattle or SF!!!
ive read the bible front and back. lol I don’t believe in an invisible man in sky or the ground. good for depp he still looks sick to me.
Does it feel lonely to be an atheist? I have always been on the fence but something always pulls me back to believing. I don’t know what it is and can’t quite put my finger on it but something always brings me closer.
I don’t believe in a religion but I do believe in a Creator. I’m a Deist. Whenever a teaching tells you to go against who you are and what you feel your purpose is in this world and begins to control you, your body, your choices, your life or your entire being, then it’s time to reflect, think and begin to see who benefits most from those teachings. It’s generally the people who are telling you that they represent God and if you follow them then only can you be righteous. Nature for me is enough to know what I need to know I don’t need someone to tell me if I do xyz only then………….
Wonder what the response would be if a mainstream celeb said she was a Satanist?