Are you an atheist needing some human contact? Call Joe, day or night.

ringing telephone
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ringing telephoneAlthough growing in numbers and with more than half a billion worldwide, atheists are the most distrusted and discriminated group in America.  A recent study found that people "found a description of an untrustworthy person to be more representative of atheists than of Christians, Muslims, gay men, feminists or Jewish people. Only rapists were distrusted to a comparable degree."

Given these attitudes, people who have "lost the faith" can feel quite isolated, afraid to let their peers or coworkers know that they are atheist.

The Internet offers a wealth of information and social networking opportunities for atheists, with Reddit's atheist community being the largest, with over 603,000 members.  Richard Dawkins has a vibrant atheism community, as does Freethought Blogs.  Another great source of news, information and entertainment is AtheismTV and The Thinking Atheist, who has a fantastic call-in show on BlogTalkRadio.

And, of course, there are Meet-Ups, groups, organizations and events such as The Reason Rally where freethinkers can mingle with others.

While there are a growing number of resources for non-theists, it is easy to get lost in the crowd of Tweets, comments, and gatherings.  People who are questioning faith or who are dealing with work or family issues because of their non-belief might feel embarrassed or shy about using social networking tools or approaching people in group settings to talk about their personal issues.  Or, they might live in a rural or small town setting where there are no networking opportunities with fellow non-believers.  What it boils down to is that sometimes non-believers just need another human being to talk with their frustrations or struggles.

Joe Zamecki

Joe Zamecki

That's where Joe Zamecki can help.

Joe currently helps run the Atheists Helping the Homeless program, the latest in a long string of activist activities.  He was one of the original co-hosts of the popular television program, The Atheist Experience, back in 1997.  Zamecki worked for American Atheists in New Jersey, and then returned to his home state of Texas to serve as American Atheists' Texas state director.

Having grown up in a strong Catholic environment, Joe knows what it's like to leave religion.  He also understands the need to vent, as he lives in a state that is saturated with religion.

Joe says he doesn't sleep much and welcomes calls from atheists needing someone to talk to, whether they simply need a friendly person to connect with, are struggling with leaving their religion, or want to get involved in activism.  His phone number, which is in Texas (Central Time in the U.S.) is 512-758-0060.

 

 

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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  • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

    I'm sure he would enjoy hearing about the insanity I have to deal with here in the Bile Belt.  He'd get a good laugh out of some of the crazy things some Xians say in these parts.

    • Deborah_B

      Joe's one of the nicest people I know, and yeah, he'd be a good person to talk with about it.  When we did the pre-recorrd for the last show, I think we ended up talking about 3 hours about the Catholic church.

      • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

         Pentecostal land is even nuttier I think.  More funny at least.

  • HelpShedtheFaith

    Wonderful to hear of anyone who extends a human touch to those who feel isolated or unable to speak up.

    Those of us in a Christian-majority environment need to be understanding of atheists in our midst, and vice-versa. Would you be unkind to a young child whose culture was different from yours? Later, would you be unkind to the adult whom the young child grew up to become?

    On another note, Helping the Homeless is a particularly worthy, urgent and important cause.
    Many of us distance ourselves from the issue of homeless for many reasons- it's difficult to face, it's a struggle, it seems hard to make a difference as an individual.

    For some of us, there's also an element of fear- leading the life of a homeless person seems so frightening that we 'protect' ourselves mentally- we don't want to imagine being in that position, so maintain an inner dialogue that goes 'That could never happen to me. People who are homeless inhabit a different realm from mine.' This enables us to block out the problem from consciousness and conscience.

    With time and careful, gradual exposure, we can learn to let go of our fear and sense of helplessness, to empathize and get involved- and realize that any one of us could be homeless if circumstances brought this about.

    • Deborah_B

       Great points,Help. 

  • http://twitter.com/rini6 irene haralabatos

    Yeah. My atheism is something that I can only share with a few people. I really feel that it would affect me negatively at work and with some friends if they knew. I don't lie… I just try not to bring up the subject. There's a difference between having friends and having friends who understand you as an atheist…

    • Deborah_B

      I think you drove home the point about what Joe is trying to do.  Maybe in a few years, this won't be so much an issue.  Thanks for sharing.