Atheists who are hush about their atheism. I really can't see a problem with this.
Offline Recently, I had dinner with a Molecular Biologist who works at University of Notre Dame. He is a doing cutting edge basic science research in gene therapy for cancer. He has a generous salary and he is a tenured full professor. He is beloved by all of his colleagues and his courses are rated very highly among undergraduate students in science. He is hush about his atheism being that he works at a Catholic institution. And he is not particularly troubled by this.
He has a great job and a great life. He makes good money and he was able to put his children through college. He will retire in about 5 years. So why rock the boat? What he believes (or I should say disbelieves) in personally is a private matter and he has no major qualms with his theist colleagues. Privately his theist friends at Notre Dame are fully aware of his atheism but publicly he does not express his freethinking sentiments owing to any possible resentment he may face.
Yet despite this discrimination, he has no overwhelming desire to be open about his atheism at this time. Going public will have absolutely no practical utility for him or his family. And he has absolutely no problems with this. He really couldn't give a fuck what anyone else believes. He has his own personal views which are kept private. He feels no compelling need to shout from a rooftop or give any declaration in a public square his unbelief. He feels that fighting this discrimination is not going to make his life better for himself or his family. He is extremely happy with his life. Maybe after he retires he may spew out some atheist diatribe. But then again who cares? It really isn't going to amount to a hill of beans for him personally.
Furthermore, if he goes public with his atheism it's not like this will make the lives of extremely successful atheists such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or George Soros any happier. Bill Gates chooses to live in theist America and he's not exactly fleeing from oppression to seek refugee status in atheist nations such as Sweden. In fact, he banks on American consumerism to stay wealthy. For Gates, reaping rewards from capitalism ultimately trumps any injustice (if any) he may feel being an atheist in the United States.
I am sure there are hundreds of thousands of atheists like this in many places where theists dominate. So if you are personally happy and content with your life overall, what's wrong with being hush about your atheism if you choose?
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I think it is ok to not advertise your beliefs, but if asked about them you should not feel you have to lie.
"Take all the heads of the people
and hang them up before the Lord
against the sun.” -- Numbers 25:4
I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all, in fact, I think most atheists in the US operate the same way. I choose not to discuss it with Christian people because I see no benefit from it. If I were devoting my life to turning people away from Christianity then that would be a different story. However, I just try to enjoy my ONE MORTAL LIFE as much as I can. If people weren't so hardwired to believe, I would consider enlightening people through my day to day affairs, but there's just too much hate and ignorance surrounding religion. Also, I live in Texas so it's just pointless. Even Christian people who I might get along with fine don't regularly talk about their faith, so by becoming some sort of activist would be no different than going door to door asking people to believe in Jesus.
However, I support those who do wish to take a more active role like the members of this site and people like dawkins, hitchens, and harris. Perhaps later on in my life I might change my views and speak up - fight back.
It's up to you to decide who you want to know what your beliefs are. If he's led a successful life and doesn't see it as a big deal, why should it matter to anyone else? I personally wanted my parents to know, and like Marshall said if someone asks me I'm honest, but outside of that we don't necessarily have to walk around wearing scarlet A's (Sorry, Professor Dawkins).
On the other hand, like FSM said, if you want to be an activist for logical thinking or intellectual freedom for children etc. you should probably be open about what it is you believe.
"Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven. Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. And recks not his own rede."
Has he ever considered that whatever gains in scientific understanding and medicine his work may achieve may be cancelled out by being silent? Because his University is irrational about the role of science in society. So if he's just interested in the money and not rocking the boat, fine. But he shouldn't think he is really working to improve anything if he sells out.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Thus far have, gains in basic science research in medicine have not been suppressed or cancelled out even if such research is conducted at religious institutions. Why is this so? Because even the hard core fundy who believes the earth is flat and only 6000 years old will be the first in line to receive an experimental treatment such as gene therapy for an incurable cancer. How do I know this? I looked after a fundamentalist Christian suffering from a malignant brain tumor and he was enrolled in a gene therapy clinical trial. During life and death situations most theists (barring a few nuts such as the Jehovah's Witnesses) in the United States typically put their world views on hold. Molecular biology research takes up a significant portion of the NIH budget and this was the case even when Bush was in office. If therapy from stem cells was shown to be effective without adverse sequelae in humans suffering from a particular condition (eg. Parkinson's disease) even this knowledge would not be censored by the theist majority. So I do think my colleague is working to improve human happiness and scientific understanding and far from being a sell out.