Atheism

Cause preachers can talk about Jihads against atheists on talk shows, but somebody says god isn't real and everything they are connected to gets examined for not complying with the first amendment.

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.

We're not afraid to come out, we just don't talk about it because religion isn't important to us and we don't feel compelled to have everyone believe in the same thing as us.

Now may you be touched by thy noodley appendage

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

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.

https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/in-2021-atheists-made-up-only-0-1-of-the-federal-prison-population/

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.

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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.

The US is a wild wild place. So backwards in many ways.

The boldest claim to make when it comes to the existence of a "god" is that we don't know. No one fucking knows. One thing I do know is that the fundamentals of physics are beautiful no matter how it came to be. People hate not being able to explain things so they made shit up as they went, such that the idea of "god" was created.

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

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.

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

Saying 'i don't believe in any of the mainstream man made higher.powers' is coming out? Strange times we live in.

duh. conservatives control both parties.

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.

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.

No stigma. I assume all such questions have an alternate agenda.

Like I know better than to talk about my stance with any religious nutter. Their beliefs are not grounded in facts and no amount of logic can overcome their emotional outlook. All you can do is make yourself an (enemy) outsider. Anyone that asks me to brand myself on some survey or upon questioning has an agenda, in my opinion. Why should I put my name on some witch hunting list. Witch hunts have always been attacks on academics and abject thinking.

Becoming a first generation atheist is a class in skepticism, misdirection, and manipulation. It is not easy rejecting your entire friends network and questioning foundational ideas learned when we were gullible little children. I'm not about to shoot myself in the foot by feeding the sky wizard monsters with no fundamental logic skills. It's as stupid as walking into a maximum security prison and opening all the doors. I'll always defer to answer such a question, select other, or nondenominational.

"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.

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.

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"