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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Yes, but you're assuming it[lask of religious belief]  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[b] I would never reply, "I'm an atheist" to that statement,[/b] 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 I don't feel like that makes it necessary for me to publicly wave the banner for vegetarians everywhere.[/quote]

Neither would I  and if you read carefully you'll see that I didn't suggest that at all.

However, some atheists might respond that way  - because they do think someone saying they went to church is a way, at least in part,  of saying they are religious -- this is not a big logical leap to make. And the atheist is so comfortable in their lack of belief to mention it in passing, just as they might say "Oh, I'm an opera lover" in response to someone mentioning that they had been to a rock concert over the week-end.  It wouldn't be considered as pushing opera or denigrating rock lovers.

We're definitely not there yet when it comes to religion - and some other sensitive topics -- but we're getting there, I hope.[/quote]

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