Do any of you atheists who live in America admit that you're atheists in real life?

[PrinceAli94]

No way. Growing up I've had bad experiences with admitting my disbelief in gods

 

 

I live in North Carolina, and don't let the name fool you, we're more southern than northern. About 10 years ago I had my first negative reaction due to church and prayer. I was 9 at the time in the third grade, and one of my class mates at lunch was praying over his cafeteria food. When he finished I kinda chuckled and said "why would you thank god for this nasty food?" Of course, in hindsight, if I had known all the problems that would spawn from that one inquiry, I wouldn't have said it.

 

Needless to say, the kids at my table seemed shocked. The expression's on their faces indicated that they had never expected to hear such a thing. The imperssin I get now is that they were very much so facing the truth ("This cafeteria food does taste terrible") but were too conditioned to think otherwise. We were 9, after all.

 

They started asking me other questions with wide eyed looks, did I pray before sleep, did I go to church, did I want to go to heaven, etc. I answered all accordingly, that I was sure all of it were fairy tales and that church was boring.

 

Once we got back to class before I even sat down our teacher, in the loudest possible voice, screamed "Ali you hate church!?"(Not my real name BTW)

 

I quickly explained what had happened, but the damage was done. People started picking on me for seemingly unrelated reasons, but looking back I'm sure it was because of that.

 

From then on, I learned to keep my mouth shut about what I really thought of god and religion, because the reactions scared me. Starting in middle school, however, i became more outspoken. I let slip that I didn't believe in god during class one day, and was bombarded with questions by people in the hallways about my lack of faith. Some would even ask me if I were a satanist!

 

High school was pretty much the same. Somebody once told me I was gonna burn in buckets' of gasoline in hell. I would never even go around and shout it, because young people can be ignorant and stir up arguments and fist fights over the religion stuff. I keep it to myself mostly.

[shoesies05]

I am not an athiest but I've known many and also I've grown up in the bubble of CA which is more liberal- so that is my background on this topic.

 

I think there is a stigma then at many people have towards atheists and you will encounter many people who will want to show you how you aren't seeing the "truth" but at least over here most people judge you based upon who you are- not what you believe.

[The nihilst chick]

Ya most don't because people literally think that because god isn't looming over a atheists head threatening to burn em up they will rape,kill them in their sleep.It only shows how many religious people THEMSELVES are sick, evil because it seems like a spanking god is the only thing keeping them from shooting everyone as they please as if they are dumb animals.

[MrWindupBird]

I'm really fond of admitting my atheism. I don't push it on anyone, but I'm happy to talk about it with anyone that wishes to talk to me. I'm a naturally warm and friendly person, but I try to live as logically as possible and my physical appearance doesn't exactly inspire most others to blatantly disrespect me, so the result is that my beliefs have inspired more friendly dialogue and outside interest than heated debate or bias.

 

I hold the belief that most Americans are truly atheist. They just for some reason don't like to admit it. If you look at the typical American's hedonistic lifestyle, it's a stark difference from the life the biblical Christ supposedly led. I believe it's the herd mentality, and atheist statistics seem to rise every year.

 

I've found that many of my friends and family have found a lot of relief and comfort in either coming to grips with their atheism, or in dialing back the level of commitment to their religion they're realistically willing to maintain, all by virtue of me being more open with the beliefs I've had since I was a child.

[NoMagicBullet]

It seems that atheists in America are seen in the same way as pedophiles are seen in the UK.

 

It's really shocking.

 

Is it really that bad in most of America?

 

I'm thinking would I want to admit that I was an athiest if I lived in America, and I don't think I would do. I'd hate pretending to be something I'm not, but it seems that admiting you're an atheist would just make live very difficult for you and would make you hated by most people.

 

It is that bad in most of America, at least geographically. There are areas where it's probably safer to be more open about it, especially in or very close to university towns, but for the most part, even if even someone doesn't get in your face about it, odds are good there will be a negative impact somewhere. It may be against the law to discriminate against someone on the basis of religion -- or lack thereof -- but people can always find other reasons to not give you a job, a promotion, or a chance. Even if you're a demonstrably nice person and not judgemental about other religions. The people I find being most "out" about being atheists tend to be young people, who don't have much to lose and/or are very idealistic, and older people, who are retired or otherwise financially independent.

 

Nightsky's attitude shows you exactly why. Religion is very tied to politics here in the US, and I think the history of the US and communist countries is why. The US feverishly embraced religion in the mid-20th century as a way to set itself apart and above "godless communism". With the fall of the USSR and neighboring communist countries, US attention has shifted elsewhere (Middle East, terrorism), but the religious attitudes have stayed. The world would have been a very different place, I think, if Stalin had never come to power... but I digress. Anyway, you can see that some, like Nightsky, believe atheism is synonymous with Marxism & communism. And the US is still very anti-communist, even if it's not as overt as it was in the 20th century.

 

I'm not a historian, so take all that with a grain of salt. That's just my interpretation of it. If I've got something wrong, someone please feel free to correct me. Anyway, if you're an atheist in the US, best to choose carefully who you tell that to, unless you are financially independent or are activist enough about it that you feel you must.