SanshinDojo
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If it’s safe for you to be out as an atheist, please consider speaking up. The more of us who are out, the safer it becomes for everyone. https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/study-shows-many-american-atheists-hide-their-non-belief/
vhanW
Stigma and Violence: Isn’t It Time to Connect the Dots?
An atheist feels safer when a christian doesn't know their position in the matter. It's well known how Christians ostracize anyone who isn't subscribed to dogmatism. Christians would even agree with other religions in order to try and outwit an atheist. Their hatred of atheist It's so strong that they'll work with their enemy to try to defeat them. Some parts of the world it's illegal to be an atheist and must hold a religious belief.
KyleButNotThatKyle
I don't hide it. I just don't shove it down other's throats like the christian right do. If someone asked, I'd tell them.
depressedscientist
Yep. Living in the Bible Belt, especially children of the corn Ohio, I have to avoid admitting it. If someone asks I get philosophical and digress into what is good and evil argument and my Protestant upbringing helps by permitting me to reference a lot of passages to match the context. Otherwise, people have threatened to kill me for being atheist. Because to them, “atheist” means “satanist”. If you aren’t with their god you’re with the devil. There’s no in between.
AchDuLieber
Look them straight in the eye and say "Religion is a cancer, and we all know what we do with cancer?".
brianingram
Suffering religious trauma? https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/ Need a secular therapist? https://www.seculartherapy.org/ Are you in the clergy and are tired of faking it b/c you have doubts or no longer believe? Need another career path? https://clergyproject.org/
SanshinDojo
D1rtyh4rry666
It’s not that we don’t know others are out there…it’s that we are the ones that “have to respect others beliefs…and be quiet”…while religious folks get to “respect our beliefs” by institutionalizing and subsidizing their own and being incredible loud about it.
charliethewizard
Also, tax those fuckers.
TeelMoobeel
YES. They're extremely profitable institutions that enshrine generational wealth.
fartharder
Doesn't help when you have deranged people shouting how this is a christian nation, nearly every federal holiday is a christian holiday, and there are more churches than starbucks.
SometimesOthertimesAnytime
I live in the South, in the Bible belt, and I know a few atheists that hide it because they don't want to deal with the b.s.
januarylover
It was such a culture shock going from NZ to the States for this reason. SO much emphasis is put on whether you're Christian, which church you go to etc etc.
Promethianfire
Kia'ora! I hope that the US has been more good to you than bad.
januarylover
There's a lot about your country I miss - some of the food (your loaded dogs are amazing), the live music, and the wonderful friends I made who I still keep in touch with. But as a gay Maori man I'm happy to be back home in NZ, and I worry about my friends dealing with the rise of Christofascism in the US. I worry about the anti-LGBT+ legislation and sentiment. I don't know if I'll ever return to the US as it is at the moment, but there were some great things about it too.
Promethianfire
I'm sorry that we're not as good at keeping assholes out of government as NZ. As for myself, I spent 2 weeks in NZ about 20 years ago, and the experience made me a better person.
januarylover
We get plenty of assholes in NZ too, just like everywhere. We're just lucky they can't quite get enough power to completely ruin things - I'm thankful for our MMP political system. I'm glad you had a good experience here. Come back any time
jrabbitmusic
we grow bigger everyday… hence the GOP death-rattle we’re all currently witnessing
mikeatike
Considering how many kids get disowned by their religious parents, no fucking kidding. This has been thr case for basically every.
Promethianfire
My mom's Baptist family disowned her for marrying a Presbyterian.
Sauroctonus
IT'S THE SAME RELIGION
Promethianfire
Haha, try telling them that.
OnlyPositiveFavourites
Here in my little corner of Aus I know more athiests than theists. And only a tiny handfull of religious-enough to attend their temple/church/mosque/synagogue
taez555
If I want to stay employed and/or maintain a comfortable work environment , you better believe I hide the fact I'm an ashiest.
ChiLLeCheeze
Your ashy skin has given you away. Take this Soilist worshiper away!
taez555
TheJudgeHasItBackwards
As an Atheist, how would one even go about being "out". Do I need to come out as not believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and Leprechauns while I'm at it, or just Jesus?
Mithi
"Are you religious?" "Of course not!" works quite well for me, but hen again I'm in Germany.
swedeonamoose
Big yikes, here its more people being religious that arent too outspoken about it, mainly cuz its seen is a personal and private matter.
chewybrian
"Here" is not the U.S., then/
Leetri
Sweden, judging by their username. Here in Sweden, religion is seen as such a private matter that there's no official statistics of how many believe in what religion. Many people are members of the Swedish church for traditional or cultural reasons despite not believing in God, so that's not an accurate statistic either.
swedeonamoose
Being a member is basically a card for being able to marry in a church or be burried in a church graveyard if you want that.
Flamingnub
Must be nice.
Boksha
You get used to it. I wouldn't want it any other way though.
Shaodyn
It's almost like having something you don't believe in constantly shoved down your throat at every opportunity is bad for your mental health! Imagine that!
boxak
Intolerance, hate and death threats. That’s the ideal Christian response?
Ih8thisSoMuch
I don't advertise my sanity (in this one area where I seem to possess it) but I am too old and tired to pretend that religion isn't just really weird. Nevermind the non-stop awfulness the big ones get up to, the whole enterprise is just so patently bizarre. I'm done pretending the onus is on me to explain why I only believe what can be proved. So now when someone brings up God to me I just pretend I've never heard of it. "You're telling me you think there's an invisible magic man up there?"
johnny2hats
I don't believe in Santa, Buddha, unicorns, and lots of other things. Am I required to make a list of dumb shit I don't believe in?
graehall
Yeah no shit the death cult religions exist by punishing & excluding others who don't join them. They've got WAY too much power & influence
BLKLTRS
I guess when you don't make it your whole identity it's considered hiding.
SecondWind90
tips fedora
Tyggna
Guess I spend too much time online. Feels like religious people are quiet or rare here.
DeveloperExtraordinaire
The worst part about signing up to be a CubScout leader was checking the box that said I believe in God...
PenguinPete
Just imagine a society where *not* believing in invisible beings makes you vulnerable to "isolation and poor mental health."
IndianaJawns
The hate, intolerance, and constant proselytizing of evangelical Christians has completely turned me off from believing in a so-called “higher power”.
geekstudios
When atheists more closely align with Jesus’ teachings by just being humanists than Christians, at what point does the word “Christian” become meaningless?
jt42
You are saying your beliefs are emotional.
LadyOfTheRedMoon
Guilt by association, take politicians for example. Say, at surface level your candidate sounds good, even has a few good policies but has the support of the kkk, neo-nazis, proud boys, etc and does not try to refute or reject it strongly. There's CLEARLY something wrong, a REASON they flock to him and to acknowledge it is not emotional, it is logical. Also the very idea of a belief implies emotion, if it was based on evidence if would require no belief.
darthOnion
True. In my experience though, evangelicals don’t use the term “higher power” (like in AA) as that leaves it open to interpretation. They preach there is only one power - “God”, “Jesus”, “Lord”, etc.
Kingstonboy
There sure are a lot of people that speak for God.
HairyChairstepper
Furthermore, if they could prove the Christian god exists, I wouldn't worship it anyway. It's a really shit god.
FunWithUsernames
This kind of inverse reaction is one of the worst aspects to Christianity, the polarization into hardcore materialism. It's this complete pendulum swing past the "spiritual; not religious" part of the belief spectrum. Maintaining an openess to the hyper-creative, eternally-valid inner reality of ourselves that supercedes the material, divorced from ALL religious frameworks of belief... would bring us closer to actual ideals of love and respect for all.
EvoNovus01
No no, there is a higher power. It's called the Sun.
Shaodyn
There is no hate quite like Christian "love".
OmnipotentBeing
Yes, many of us have read about what the religious used to do to us non believers.
suiseiseki
I went to Catholic school as a kid and we were repeatedly taught, unironically, that being burned at the stake was actually super humane because you'd pass out from smoke inhalation before the flames hurt you. Yeah even as a kid I didn't buy that shit.
OmnipotentBeing
Super humane, as opposed to letting you just live your life? Yes, former Catholic, now confirmed atheist here. I can relate.
Strategicgnomer
Higher power? Like, power lines? Power... In the skies!
TaliaDuci
Me too. Its mentioned ALL the damn time in AA and I find it SO frustrating
Animorphs
I became an atheist at the same time when I realized that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny aren’t real. Wasn’t that much of a leap of logic to realize the rest wasn’t either.
jt42
"First Cause" and the argument from design don't lead to support for Santa Claus or Easter Bunny so I find this line of reasoning a non-sequitur.
Animorphs
My parents told me about a magical powerful being that would do good things for me so long as I too was good - if I wasn’t this magical being wouldn’t! When I was told that they weren’t true, I realized that it made sense. Magic wasn’t real. There was no proof for it. …it wasn’t exactly hard to follow along that path to see God is the same thing.
ameranthe
As an athiest woman, the most frustrating part about it is the expectation that everyone conforms to christian beliefs about sex, reproduction, basic human rights, and on and on. Fuck you, no. I don't care about laws written by nomadic tribes in the Levant over two thousand years ago.
KidAmnesia
Is religion based mental health actually effective? Imho this just exposes a complete lack of mental health services available to rural communities.
LadyOfTheRedMoon
It gets worse, a huge amount of churches won't even recommend mental health treatment, even christian ones, because it's REALLY demons or "satanic oppression" So instead they push them to the "deliverance ministries" run by zealots there to tell you to stop taking your antipsychotics because it's not schizophrenia it's demons and they will get rid of them....
hellothisispeggy
I found it really disturbing to discover that Alcoholics Anonymous is faith based.
Promethianfire
It guess it is if you're the same religion as the practitioner.
AutismVaccine
Thought it said athletes. Was confused why it mattered in the athletics field.
Mithi
Atheist's Foot ... nasty ailment
Ghlargh
They probably don't want their genitals examined (/s)
chewybrian
The mental health aspect is a big one. For example, safe space options for the homeless might only be religious options.
FallingStar7669
Ditto other charity or aid organizations, like Alcoholics Anonymous or Salvation Army.
Degbis
AA is completely non religious though.
Nephto
Lol
Rebar77
Get them while they're vulnerable so they can indoctrinate more followers.
Boksha
Oldest trick in the book. And if people aren't already vulnerable, do your best to make them so. "There's no atheists in foxholes, so let's start a war and get digging". It's not just religion either; it's basically the entire conservative agenda. Make things worse and promise improvement in exchange for autonomy.
SeeMyVests
Same for grief counseling, in my experience. Went looking for someone to talk to and could only find “they’re in a better place” and “its gods plan” groups. No thank you.
PrincessWendyB
This is a MAJOR flaw with all so called "charitable organizations" because eventually, only the members of the faith get consistent, reliable support!
flamingflamingo
I’m in the Navy, and part of the mental health management system is the chaplains on board. When you go to medical for anxiety or depression it’s, “Did you talk to the chaplain? They don’t always talk about religious stuff.” No, you assholes, I don’t TRUST anybody who puts their faith in an imaginary sky man.
AceOfShovels
My immediate thought reading that heading was of religious nuts latching onto the concept of "atheism is bad for mental health" and while I get and agree with the actual point here, that made me annoyed with how it was introduced.
warriorofdiscord
Because more often, people of faith are more concerned with helping those in need. An interesting correlation! Be the change you want to see, start your own non-religious charity focused on helping the homeless.
robingal1
There are several. My favorite is Modest Needs. Their website is... not ascetic. But if you read the purpose statement, it stops poverty BEFORE poverty.
warriorofdiscord
I don't doubt some exist. But more certainly could too.
NunyaBNess1
https://ideas.time.com/2013/11/26/religious-people-are-more-charitable/
warriorofdiscord
Being close with a community of people who share your beliefs is one of the notable benefits of joining a church congregation. Doesn't surprise me additional positives come out from that.
Emjayen
I hope you're not trying to invoke that laughable myth that "religious people give more to charity"
warriorofdiscord
Does believing in a God make you more likely to be charitable? No. Do people regularly attending their church's service give more, on average? Yes. If you attention is with the point I made about religion, and not "start one yourself," you are the reason why they don't exist.
Emjayen
Nope -- that myth is a blatant misrepresentation of the data, which is inclusive of people *giving to their own religious organizations*. Then again, looking at your comment history: reality doesn't seem to be strong point:
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
In my part of Germany it's the theists who often are slightly embarrassed to admit to their beliefs.
ourari
In the Netherlands >58% of those above 15 years of age don't identify with any religion at all. Those who do tend to be part of the oldest generations.
DoctorSniffles
Good. Those beliefs are embarrassing....
prfesser
Where, please? This small-town-in-Kentucky resident now wishes to live there.
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Listen, we took in a million Syrians, a million Ukrainians, Afghani, Africans and whatnot. We can't take in a hundred million Americans!
CannotBeBanned
Complete opposite in Bavaria.
Mithi
#cough# German's Texas
NotTheDevilYouKnow
Do you need a house husband
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Do I need to marry a male house for that or
justatinyduck
Ja ich meine… wer geht zudem rum und sagt: hey ich bin ein Atheist… eigentlich ist es eher normal davon auszugehen dass jeder einer ist. Oder zumindest Agnostiker. Der spinnen die Amis.
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
TokTokTok
chromed
True in very liberal parts of the US as well, but that's why they selected rural participants and women, who already face discrimination.
saganworshipper
The North?
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Yup
kingkongkeom
But religion overall is not really a topic in everyday life in Germany in my opinion. Noone cares if you believe or not.
MithridateEupator
They did care a bit too much at one point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War
Imtoooldforthisstuff
And still there are people argueing about crosses in schools and one of the main political parties calls themself a chritian Party. But all in all i agree that Religion is not a big topic in germany, I just wish it still would be even less a topic.
GuerrillaschaukelnInDerTodeszone
Parents and/or grandparents often still care, so people claim they are believers, visit church on high holidays to make family happy.
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Probably different in small Bavarian villages tho
kingkongkeom
Fair.
FiftyShadesOfMascarpone
Bavaria is a different country. A "free state" with large wooden crucifixes on every other roadside & house front. Their public school regulations demanded a crucifix in every classroom until a federal court put an end to this, and ever since then the CSU (Bavaria's unique, more extreme version of the religious-right CDU) has exploited this as a campaign tool. Their current big kahuna Söder (CSU ofc, no other party stands a chance in Germany's Texas) put crucifixes in every state govt. building
Shoutrr
don't you have a tax that is specifically given to the church and you have to prove your non believing status to avoid paying it ?
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Yes to the tax, no to "prove". It's ridiculous that we have this tax! Embarrassing, really.
Shoutrr
https://allaboutberlin.com/glossary/Kirchensteuer you indeed have to actively specify you're not a believer anymore by filling a form to stop paying the tax.
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
That's true, but I wouldn't call it proving my disbelief. Also, what the other person said. I was never baptized thus I never paid that tax and never had to opt out.
kingkongkeom
Well it depends. Only if your parents baptised you without your consent as a child, as that puts you in the church register (or whatever it is called). I wasn't baptised, so I never had to deal with any of this.
NoGunsNoCats
I heard there's a tax in Germany that goes to the church?
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
If you opt in and join a church, or if your parents did the usual childhood indoctrination. But even then you can just leave and not pay that tax anymore. But still an embarrassing thing to have as a Western country!
NoGunsNoCats
Are you automatically opted in, say if your parents were in?
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
I think when you're entered into official church documents, but I'm not sure. I never was in a church, nor my parents. But the important thing is that most don't get a say in joining as they're infants.
GuerrillaschaukelnInDerTodeszone
Since tax is deducted from your paycheck every employer at every new job is bound to ask you if you're part of a church. That's the opt-in.
ElroydIsGone
Yep, around 2% of your income, and like regular income tax it is automatically deducted from your salary by your employer. Hence, most "atheists" in Germany aren't big time ideological or what, just like "Yeah, when I got my first paycheck, the church wanted its part and I was like nah and quit from the church, and that's it..."
NoGunsNoCats
Thanks for sharing.
blockberd
As long as you are a member of a church. If you sign out, you dont pay that anymore. However, you also lose the "benefits" of being a member of the church.
NoGunsNoCats
Thanks for sharing.
TheMuellmann
Remind me real quick: What are the benefits? Honest question, I'm German but was never part of any church.
GuerrillaschaukelnInDerTodeszone
Let's see: eurachist/communion, wedding in church, unction when you're deadly sick, requiem by a priest at your funeral. So many rituals...
TheMuellmann
Having been brought up without those specific rituals, they mean nothing to me, so not a great loss. Actually, after being guest at a few church weddings, I'm rather glad we didn't have to include this in our own wedding.
NoGunsNoCats
And I find it totally nuts that one of the political parties is called the Christian Democrat Party (something like that) and they were/are in power recently?! This blows mind.
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Yeah, we even have two bigger Christian parties that work together. They're not that Christian tho.
NoGunsNoCats
Sheeshe!
ztygs
We have a party like that in Denmark. Kristendemokraterne. Literally "Christian Democrats."
NoGunsNoCats
Wow!
GuerrillaschaukelnInDerTodeszone
Literally every country in Europe has at least one of those. It's what fascists are referring to when they maunder about "Occident culture".
Thanatos28
Which part is that? In mine we just dont care at all as far as I noticed.
chromed
Might be the same part and you just don't have as much social anxiety.
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
The north. I agree, btw. Generally people don't care, but if someone is a believer and that happens to come up, I rarely see them full of confidence about that.
DdCno1
North East or North West?
DarthVaderDidNothingWrong
Hamburg
desl14
Moin, ich würd mal davon ausgehen, dass die einfach daran liegt, dass Religion oft sehr stark mit "altertümlicher Denkweise" verknüpft wird. Das gilt insbesondere je progressiver eine Region ist und auch je größer eine Stadt ist. Ähnlich werden stark dialekt Sprechende Leute ja teilw. als "Bauerntölpel" o.Ä. angesehen. Da überrascht es dann weniger, dass man gerade in einer Stadt wie Hamburg (deren Bevölkerung gerne jung und modern wirken will) eine Religiösität eher verbirgt.