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I’m a bit surprised with the number of religious people I know irl tbh. I’ve only met maybe one other atheist at school. These people realized that their ancestors believed in another religion and were probably killed and forced to convert right? Probably about half are actually just agnostic and the remaining full believers.
I mean I’m not trying to convert anybody I’m just tryna understand why.
When you grow up in the church, it’s all you know. Not believing isn’t even a thought. Sure, the Bible/church might mention non-believers, but either in a “convert them” sense or a “they will be punished” sense.
The US is a wild wild place. So backwards in many ways.
And forward in others, a extremely dynamic mix of cultures.
Yes. Meanwhile in SOVIET RUSSIA… Even Soviet Russia was not so backwards as USSA.
yeah, I’d pick the US over Russia (at any point in history) every single time.
What if you’re black?
Russia is a lot more racist than the US lol
LOL
What is it with people like you that can’t see the difference between valid criticisms of a good country and an actual shit hole dictatorship?
poor default country problem.
I stopped mentioning my atheism because it’s so common among my sociodemographic environment that it’s not anything interesting.
If anything, when casually cracking another “religion bad” joke at work, I’d better check if someone is maybe religious, and I really don’t want to insult them.
– millennial yurobro
I was raised religious and walked away from my faith the day it became my choice, 18. I haven’t been in a church since – that was nearly 20 years ago.
Still to this day I’ll have to gently remind my family I’m atheist about twice a year, and they’re still equally shocked and horrified every time.
I really wish I’d left when I started doubting in my teens rather than spend another decade fighting them. I carry nothing from those years but regrets.
Still to this day I’ll have to gently remind my family I’m atheist about twice a year,
yeah… I don’t think my distant relations forget, they simply hope I’ll stop fighting for my own agency and/or return to the church.
it’s sad.
While I was in the angry atheist online camp when I was the only atheist I knew and needed a community, I’ve since evolved into an apathetic view of individual belief.
Screaming at the thumpers won’t do any good. Eye-rolls are more effective. And explaining religion to the young is as simple as saying it’s just something some people do, like sports.
explaining doesn’t do anything, screaming won’t do anything, but i have a suspicion that heavy satire and performance art might just get something across. At the very least it will provide amusement.
I see no more need to announce I don’t believe in the Christian god than there I see need to announce I don’t believe in Zeus. Both questions are completely irrelevant to my life
Not many Polytheistic Greeks trying to outlaw medicine in my neck of the world tho.
While they’re both similarly lacking evidence and therefore irrelevant, christianity is unfortunately still relevant, as it is being used as a justification for religious based laws nonstop.
Whether you like it or not, your reproductive rights (regardless of sex/gender) are on the line thanks in large part to christianity. Therefore it’s almodt certainly relevant to you. Same goes for a myriad of other social issues.
“Hesitant to identify because of the social stigma?”
This is proof they fear what they don’t understand. I exist without faith in a higher power. I don’t share “not believing in a god” because it’s like saying “my eyes are not brown”. It doesn’t tell you what color they are.
Me saying I’m “atheist” tells you absolutely fuck all about what I do believe. I do believe that humanity has the potential to solve all the problems we have right now, and it would be likely easier without religion interfering.
Murder, theft, intentionally harming relationships (etc.) and other crimes are things I simply don’t want to happen to me. So I won’t do them to others. Seems easy enough.
If we assume everyone we meet is suffering, and on their own path away from it, we tend to be better people toward them, and our own struggles help too.
I came to the conclusion a while back that all these religious nuts end up doing what an authoritarian tells them to do, because they understand the authoritarian, and fear everything else.
America as a whole needs to ensure following secular ideals for its public policies and laws.
I don’t mind people using religion in their personal lives for whatever reason, but it does seem like there’s a delusion driven community level effect that leaks out from temples, churches, mosques etc. It seems most of these people “mean well” but they don’t realize how much unintentional harm they’re doing. The Satanic temple type people adding fuel to the fire of religious zealots are making things worse.
In general, I hope it becomes taboo and outlawed to base rules or laws around mythology-based scripture. Where is this social movement? I get fuck cars and all, but secular humanism is seriously needed as a mainstream social movement everywhere, locally and globally.
your yearly PSA on the TST and COS:
some clarification here. The satanic temple, or the TST as it’s known is actually really based, while it is “satanic” that’s mostly a funny haha thing, the majority of it is mostly based around being a religion that isn’t awful. I.E. being nice to people, because you should do that.
A lot of flak they’ve gotten is for things like putting a satanic club into a school (that school had a bible study club) and various other shenanigans, notably the one satan con thing they had, where people protested, but inside it was pretty chill. It’s performance art and statement pieces primarily, which are perfectly apt, i feel. Freedom of religion and all. It seems perfectly reasonable to me.
Anyway, the point i came here to make was that the TST is the good one, and the church of satan, or COS, is the less based one, for instance, they believe that consuming blue cheese makes you gay. That’s like the religion religion one. Nobody likes that one.
Thanks for the clarification. Tbh, I just don’t like anything that markets itself as a religion
as a staunch believer in many a thing related to freedom, this is always something that irks me whenever it crops up. So i make this a habit from time to time.
That’s totally fair though, TST is kind of like the modern anti-religion. it’s only considered a religion because it would need to be in order to be an anti-religion. Personally that’s why i really like it, it’s primary purpose is respecting people, and it’s secondary purpose is to make a statement in regards to religion. Which i think is productive.
Maybe that’s just because i enjoy sociology and this is particularly involved in that sphere. But it is what is.
As a quasi-religious person I do agree that public policy and moral imperatives should have a secular basis. For example, when people look back at this point in history they’re going to see a particularly nasty stain in the way that 99% of the human population is responsible for a sort of perpetual holocaust of many other species of animal, all for nothing more than a little gluttonous sensory pleasure. That kind of morality is easily argued on a secular basis for all the substantial harms those lifestyles cause, and the sheer amount of tangible benefits for choosing a better way.
But secular policy is dangerous if it does not also support religious plurality. When one or two belief systems dominate, they invariably oppress smaller groups. Diversity of belief is a natural buffer against that.
That said, a religion does not necessarily need to base its exegesis on interpretation of arbitrarily chosen writings. One of the best things religious groups can do for themselves now days, if they want to adapt to the times and survive into the future, is embrace the scientific method in their own ways. Evolution shows us that the things that aren’t willing to change and adapt die.
The issue is core tenants of basically all major religions are incompatible with the scientific method.
That’s only true of institutions that are unwilling to change. Every major religion has sub-branches and other variant communities that have entirely different sets of doctrines, some more progressive than others.
When i lived in big cities on the West coast i was open in my Atheism. Now that i live in rural Michigan… I keep it to myself
Because theres nothing to fucking evangelize lol. “Excuse me ma’am, do you have time to discuss our lord and savior, nobody?”
Wtf does coming out mean? Atheists hardly proselytize, what is the process of “coming out”
Identifying openly in public.
I don’t openly identify as someone who is atheist for the same reasons I don’t openly identify as someone who doesn’t collect stamps. It just doesn’t come up if I avoid the places where people tend to ask.
i think specifically here, the first openly public exclamation of such.
It’s like coming out as gay.
I used to be more forward about it, just to make sure people were aware to try to avoid awkwardness down the road. Turns out, some folks just hyper focused on it and only defined me by the one thing.
- I had one person break down crying. That was the single most awkward as I got dirty looks from other people in the room who had no idea about the conversation.
- I’ve had multiple people tell me I’m unworthy of love and commitment. And while not said, by their actions might as well, unworthy of basic respect.
- I’ve had multiple people try “converting” me.
- I’ve had some people send people to my homes and stalk me. Primary reason I have a Nest doorbell and want to know exactly when someone is going to show up to visit.
- I’ve had multiple people try various intimidation tactics to try to “convince” me to join their church.
- I had one person bust out laughing at me when I said I more closely line up with secular humanism.
- I was questioned multiple times why I’d show up to someone’s wedding… (not a wedding crasher, they basically assume only religious people get married, and that atheists cannot support others in their life paths)
I’ve since stopped telling people or making it even known at all.
This was my thing. I’m not a atheist, but the moment I talk about religion, it becomes “the thing”. I imagine this is what vegans have to deal with, like the moment they share… It becomes a shit show of people questioning everything. And like bruh, let them eat vegan marshmellows and pray to Cthulhu.
I didn’t meant to type a long wall of text but here goes anyway.
Yeah, people here are dismissive of the news headline, but I have a similar experience coming out as agnostic atheist. Luckily, I did not get as much as negative experience as you have, but when I came out, I was tried to be invited twice on separate occasions into Christian prayer meetings. Naive me didn’t realise that both invitations are more like trying to get me “back into the flock”.
On the second invitation, I went along just to see how it was. After the second prayer session I attended, I said don’t want to go anymore. I had a long “debate” with the pastor on the phone to try to make me at least a believer in any religions. There was a bit of condescension in the conversation and kind of implied I am going to hell. The thing is, or rather problem for him, is that I don’t feel or see whatever religious folks see even when I was going to church. So, I don’t feel at least bit intimadated by threat of hell. The OG Judaism and Old Testament don’t even believe in hell so why should Christians and Muslims do as well?
Not to mention, religions across the world have conflicting claims of historical and scientific realities. If they all conflict with each other and could not agree which is the correct one, then religions themselves are false. If there are universal scientific truth to each of their claims and basis, then one religion in one part of the world should have the same or similar accounts to another religious belief on the other side of the world. But that is not the case.
I told the last paragraph to the pastor and we were pushing back each other. I do not like to de-convert people from religion but he was trying to re-convert me so I laid down all the heavy stuff to him, despite signalling that I don’t want to continue the conversation in the first twenty minutes.
I admit that I have had cognitive dissonance the following day and think “what if I’m wrong?” I simply re-think back that religious accounts conflict with each other and therefore not real. Also, it dawned on me that my emotions is probably more that I feel offended trying to be re-converted and being condescended. Conversely, the pastor must have thought I am a devil tempting him away from religion, lol.
Since then, I don’t tell people I’m agnostic atheist. Christians (and Islam) feel religious obligations to convert as many people as possible. That’s how they survive. I didn’t think much about proselytising before but I realised that the practice is rather condescending and gives them superiority complex. This is not to say that there aren’t militant atheist, but the religious zealots are more adamant from what I observed.
Where in the hell do you live?
Minnesota
Rural or urban? Have you tried saying, “I’m not religious”, there is a lot of fear mongering around the word “atheist.”. I only occasionally get a negative response from saying “I’m not religious”, but more frequently get a negative response when I used to say “I’m atheist”. However, it’s easy to say nothing about religion in Minnesota, I find most people avoid uncomfortable topics here.
I’ve lived in both rural and urban. Rural was worse by far (I don’t think that will surprise anyone). In the rural areas is where the stalking was the absolute worst. When I was a kid, I’d have strange men stop their cars and walk up to me, stop me from whatever I was doing and just demand to pray with me… then they’d leave. When I got older, a guy from a local church was stalking me at work and at my apartment.
In the metro, I’ve only had two show up that I know of (before the ‘answering the door procedure’ was put into effect).
When I just go with “I’m not religious” I’ve gotten mixed results, but yeah I’ve tried. I still try to avoid bringing it up unless directly asked
sounds like America
Sure as hell isnt here in Massachusetts.
Meh once you get out of camberville it’s not hard to find trump stickers and conservatives. I personally don’t really travel west of Springfield (or Worcester really) but I’m sure it gets worse
Same. There’s no benefit and everything to loose causally coming out. Most people will just assume you’re part of their religion, so it’s not like you even have to lie about it most places.
Just not even really worth ‘coming out’. Why deal with all the arguments that are likely to crop up from it? When I was the angsty teenage atheist I got off on that shit. Now…im over it.
Yeah, it’s not like you’re changing anyone’s mind anyway, so why waste the energy and social capital? I’ll sometimes ask follow-up questions to get them thinking, but no reason to poke the bear by announcing that you’re the devil.
It’s a bit sad that “coming out” as an Atheist is even a thing. Where I’m from it’s basically the assumption. I’ve met a few people that mention that they’re religious before and my reaction is always an astonished “but they seemed so normal.”
I want that to be the case in the US so much
Please tell me where you live because I’m going to move there tomorrow
It’s a tiny town called Finspång. I hate it here.
Sweden overall isn’t that bad though, if you can put up with the long nights and long days.
I see, thank you for the heads-up. Anyway, I’m booking a plane ticket :D
But jokes apart, it’s incredible that especially a small town has so many atheists. That’s very cool.
Religion here tends to be something people keep more private. It’s not something you announce loudly, or even subtly in many cases. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone wear a cross or anything like that.
Not saying there aren’t proselytisers - my old workplace was literally next door neighbours to a JW church (and they were assholes), so there are exceptions. But they feel comparatively few and far between.
In many ways, Sweden is currently the greatest country on earth.
You should consider yourself to be fortunate
It is a pretty nice country. The climate is woeful, but even so we have a lot of good things going for us.
I could only imagine the worst thing about your country being “it’s cold and dark a lot” instead of “we think some groups of people shouldn’t have rights.”
You’ve not experienced cold and dark. It’s one thing to hear about it and another to live it.
There are other problems too. Like the nazi party being the second largest party in parliament.
I think the absolute worst thing is seeing what happens in the U.S. and then see our right wingers go “we should do this.”Stop and frisk was a big talking point last election. And you should see how our war on drugs is going.
A 2017 study found that people believe atheists are more likely to be serial killers than believers, even though federal data suggests they are far less likely to commit crimes than religious people.
i think this probably has more to do with serial killers having disregard for shit in general, than atheists having disregard for religion.
Statistically it checks out that someone who doesn’t care about torture, murder, and violence, probably gives even less of a shit about religion lol.
I mean in the US at least, it could become VERY dangerous to not be an evangelical Christian cultist. (Much less a atheist)
If the Orange Man becomes dictator in November, shit is going to get bad quickly.
If the Orange Man becomes dictator in November, shit is going to get bad quickly.
I’m ethnically Jewish. My daughter is half-Jewish and queer. My wife is a librarian. We’re all atheists.
Needless to say, we’re making contingency plans.
My wife is a librarian.
I’m sorry but that gave me a chuckle.
Holy cow!
Which is quite fascinating since he’s made it very obvious that he himself doesn’t know jack shit about Christianity and that he’s not a believer. I’m an atheist myself and I’ve never seen a person more lost and uninterested when speaking about Christianity than him.
Christians know and do not care. All that matters is that they have more control.
You are describing any fundamentalist regardless of their religion
He’s describing the ones that are currently trying to bring us back to the middle age
I’d argue that most people in government feel very similarly to Trump in regards to religion, they just know its a powerful tool to use.
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