I don’t know which I would rather believe about my fellow Americans – that 80%+ of us are routinely lying about our beliefs or lack of them, or that 80%+ of us are delusional.
Come to think of it, I guess I would vote for “lying”, but I actually believe it’s “delusional.”
I’m pretty good at steering conversation away from religion but I got trapped once by someone who knew me pretty well otherwise (which is how she trapped me). I straight owned it: “Nope, not churchy–I just can’t believe.” She told me I was a better person than a lot of practicing christians she knew, and mused that perhaps I believed in my heart if not my mind. I’m still trying to spit that hook–I can deny with all the reason I want to now, but until I think I need to start acting differently how can I argue that one?
Best response I got was “But then who is protecting you from Satan?!”
Upon informing her that I didn’t believe in Satan either I got a big “oh, suuuuure.”
I thought it interesting that she could accept me not believing in God but not believing in Satan was just ridiculous.
It rarely pops up in conversation. One exception that I particularly enjoyed was when a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses came to my door. One asked what religion I was, I replied “I’m apathetic”. She frowned and said “I don’t think I know that one!”
I’ve never been asked directly about my religious beliefs, nor would I be so presumptuous as to inquire about others’. I can make an educated guess about some folk depending upon their clothing and attire (for example, orthodox Jewish and Muslim people) but when it comes to your average Christian, I wouldn’t have a bloody clue.
In Australia, your religion (or lack thereof) is your own business. Who you barrack for in the footy (Aussie Rules and Rugby) are far more important measures of your character. 
Maybe he meant that Jesus had it easy compared to atheists, because atheists get persecuted more harshly.
I can’t help but be curious about how/when/why people are being asked about their beliefs. Oh, I’ve had the occasional door-knocker, or street corner pamphlet-passer, but I don’t count those. People that I actually work with, or relatives? It was never a question that was asked. Perhaps my tribe is just not that confrontational?
Anywho, when my mother passed away, we had a meeting with the pastor at her Protestant church. She wasn’t a regular church goer but was a member, and the pastor was brand new, so he didn’t know her personally. But we needed someone to conduct the services, blah-de-blah. The family amused ourselves by introducing ourselves - Jew, Lesbian-Wiccan, Muslim, Eastern Orthodox, and non-believer (Me - I did not use my patented, “Thank God I’m an Atheist!”) All in all, he was a good guy about it all (I guess because no one was a {{shudder}} Catholic!).
It pissed me off when my boss’s boss and I were alone in a room getting ready for an event, and my boss’s boss asked me what religion I was. She asked if I was Catholic or Protestant, and I said “no,” so she then asked me if I was atheist. Really, with all due respect, I don’t think it’s any of your business.
Oh, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is pretty cool. 
The only time this came up was when some JWs came to the door and I said this was a devout atheist household. They ran.
Living in Alabama there are two questions generally asked when you meet new people:
If you answer “nowhere” or “I’m not really religious” to question number 2, then you may get something along the lines of “Well you are a Christian, aren’t you?”.
Around here it’s pretty common to get a, “Have a blessed day,” from a cashier. It makes my eye twitch.
Adding to my to-do list:
[ol]
[li]Don’t move to Alabama.[/li][/ol]
Thanks!
I have gotten the “Do you believe the universe came out of nothing?!” response, from my devoutly Methodist uncle, but the most interesting reaction came from a co-worker, who approached me to ask - very politely - if she could ask me a personal question about my religion, and when I assented, asked if it was true I was an atheist, as she had heard? I said yes, of course, and she asked me if the prophet of her church (?) could prove to me that the Scriptures were true, would I believe in God? She belongs to - from what I can tell - an odd splinter denomination of the Adventists. Sabbath on Saturday, no celebration of Christmas but do celebrate what sound like repurposed Jewish holidays.
Not wanting to invite a visit from a evangelizer, I said no, but explained some of the arguments against theism that swayed me, and pointed out to her that unless she read Classical Hebrew and koine Greek, she hadn’t ever read the Bible, as opposed to a translation. I have - parts of it, anyway - and can testify to the incompleteness of the text (at least in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles).
I will add that neither she nor my direct supervisor, who belongs to the same church and knows about my unbelief, have ever given me any grief about it.
So does that make Collingwood fans the equivalent of Satanists?
Weirdly, it’s pretty much the same here in holy Catholic Ireland, at least among my generation. I’ve never been asked about my religious beliefs (except once or twice by Mormons who came to the door), and I don’t consider them to be anyone’s business (which is what I politely told the Mormons, who politely went away). I sometimes discuss that stuff with close friends, but not with anyone else.
Our daughters aren’t baptised, and the best reaction to this has been from my mother-in-law, who desperately wants us to get them baptised because until we do ‘they’re not real people!!’ We’re not sure what she means by that - if she thinks they’re not spiritually full human beings, or if she thinks they’re not full citizens of the state or something. I’m dying to know, but she said it to my husband, not to me, so I can’t really ask.
Speak for yourself.
As for reactions, whenever I pass the group of lunatic street preachers in this city I love to yell something. A few days ago I yelled “God is imaginary!” As I descended a nearby escalator, some young guy, maybe a teen boy, who had been in the vicinity yelled down at me, saying “God is imaginary? How was [sic] you created?” Before I descended out of audible distance, I asked “Is that English? I don’t understand.”
I told the elderly woman who sometimes stands outside of Planned Parenthood hassling people that god doesn’t exist. She got a bit flustered, I recall.
But the best reaction to declaring my atheism? “Good,” she (a fellow grad student and ex-Hindu, I think) purred, as we got to know one another in the biblical sense*.
*Had sex. Some people don’t know that expression.
“I sprang fully formed from the void.”
I usually don’t run into this very often. Once in a while I get someone who will assume I’m some sort of christian and ask, expecting their version of the “correct” answer. When I say atheist I get a confused look and sometimes a debate ensues but I try to end it as quickly as possible. I murder them where they stand. Just kidding…my response depends on which part of my character they attack. 
I also find it funny that spellcheck underlines the word christian if I don’t capitalize it.
I recently told my favorite childhood cousin. We had spent on formative years together and we’re as close as two people could be without being lovers. When she found out I was agnostic, she stopped talking to me, removed me from her Facebook page, and forbid her daughter from contacting me. I knew she was big on Christ, but didn’t realize she would do that.
Here is a statement said by a coworker about another coworker:
“I have heard her make remarks that leave me to believe that she is either an agnostic or an atheist. I realize that is her business, but I think that may be why she has a coldness and seems uncaring”
What the…?
I have been told that because I’m an atheist, I don’t know how to love. :rolleyes: