Reply to How old were you when you safely came out of the closet as an atheist?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "How old were you when you safely came out of the closet as an atheist?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Yes, but you're assuming it comes up in conversation. And IME, it just doesn't. I don't consider someone saying, " I went to church on Sunday," an opening to talk about my views on god. I consider it an opportunity to talk about what we did over the weekend. So I would never reply, "I'm an atheist" to that statement, any more than I would say, "I don't like sushi." One has nothing to do with the other. Instead I would say, "I went running" or "I ran errands" or "we visited MIL."

On a very rare occasion, someone might ask if I go to church. Then I answer "no." I might expand, "we used to belong to a UU church, but I just found it such a hassle getting there. I prefer to read the paper on Sunday morning." But the question isn't about my belief in god, it's about my belonging to a religious community. If I belonged to some humanist group (which is actually what I perceive the UUs to be) or one of the secular groups mentioned above, I'd say that. I don't believe I've ever been asked by anyone if I go to church in a way that I found probing or judgmental or litmus test-like.

I'd say no more than once or twice in my adult life has anyone outside of my spouse or children talked to me about the existence of god. And then I say, "I don't believe."

It's true this is an issue that comes up more frequently for people living in religious communities or in the south. But I live in neither of those circumstances. It's also true that there are vegetarians living in meat eating places and looked down upon, but[b] I don't feel like that makes it necessary for me to publicly wave the banner for vegetarians everywhere[/b].[/quote]

Correct -- but neither should a vegetarian (in my opinion) feel obliged to eat the meat served,  or to put it on their plate and subtly avoid it or say they are just not hungry. In fact vegetarianism is a good example, because  a few years ago, it was considered strange or rude  to be a vegetarian, and a big problem for people  hosting a meal.  That has changed dramatically, with people  now often asking if guests have specific food preferences and people who don't/can't eat certain foods taking care of their needs - and restaurants accommodating a variety of diets.  People are not expected to quietly conform to a societal expectation and the expectation has changed.

The presence of vegetarians used to make some people very uncomfortable (I know, I am vegetarian) and they made all sorts of assumptions - like a vegetarian really hated their cooking or loved animals or had a strange medical condition or radical political views.   That's all changed, but it wouldn't have if vegetarians had not identified themselves and people both meat-eating and vegetarian, had not talked about it openly.  This is far from "waving a banner."

And there are more vegetarians now - it's not considered weird anymore. In fact it's considered to be a healthy option.  People talk about trying vegetarianism, or being mainly vegetarian (except for turkey on Thanksgiving) or being a pecto-tarian (will eat fish, but not other meat).  It may not be the most fascinating conversational material, but it's no longer socially unacceptable to talk about publicly.  I'd like to see lack of religion go in the same direction.  I see it happening and think it would happen faster if people who were already non-religious didn't perceive mentioning their views in context as  waving a flag or advertising.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics