Do some people NEED faith?

Great Debates
121

The best advice I could give another atheist, if you ever come to Texas, is to smile a lot and keep your mouth shut when talking about religious matters unless you want to get strung up. :wink:

Actually, it’s not so bad provided you’re not so vocal about it and find yourself in the media. I’m not embarrassed by my atheism, but at the same time, that term still has such a strong negative connotation to it thanks to many pulpiteers in America that blame atheism for the world ills on such a daily basis, that most religious conversations are not going to go well if they discover you are an atheist. Polls have shown that atheists in America are the least trusted group.

In public, if religion does come up, at least where I’m at, I still prefer to say things along the lines, of “I’m not sure about that, I kind of doubt that story, I find it hard to believe in the supernatural,” or “I just don’t know” when in fact, I feel like I do know. It was actually only not too long ago, that I was confronted at a Subway sandwich outlet, waiting for it to open when these three guys came up to me with their bibles, and with one asking the questions, and he didn’t particularly like the answers I was giving, so finally got a bit more in my face and asked me point blank: “Do you believe in God or don’t ya?” I didn’t answer directly again, but just told them I only came here to eat, wasn’t looking for a sermon and walked off. I posted that story somewhere on SD of the details.

I do think the younger generation of today are more positive about atheism than ever before, and don’t know if there is a correlation or not with younger people being exposed to the internet, youtube, cell phones, that type of medium on a regular basis; but I think this may have helped give the biggest rise to non-religious people world-wide during the last few decades. Religion has always been able to get their message out through radio, tv, church, newspaper and lots of books, and rarely was it ever challenged. The internet has leveled the playing field. It has become an outlet for atheists to express their honest opinion, remain anonymous if they want to, and not worry about any repercussions such as being a social outcast, or having religious folk not patronizing your business any more.

122

It is hugely different. My daughter lives in Germany now, and both her former English and current German boyfriend are atheists. Her current boyfriend’s mother was very concerned that we, being from the US, had to be Bible thumpers, and was very relieved that we were as atheist as she is.

IANAL, but I suspect it is technically illegal to fire someone just for being an atheist, but our at-will employment laws mean that it would be very hard to prove it unless there is a lot of documentation. It also depends on where you are. I work in Silicon Valley, and I can’t imagine anyone being fired for being an atheist in a tech company. Texas on the other hand …

123

Texas is a big place; 26 million and counting. There are certainly small towns where being Catholic might get you looked at funny, and there are huge metropolises like Dallas and Houston where being an atheist isn’t a big deal.

I’d say that there’s a perception problem as well; there does definitely seem to be an outspoken Baptist/Evangelical population in North Texas and elsewhere, but they don’t represent the vast majority of Texans. We have a huge number of nominally Catholic Hispanic people, and a lot of other non-crazy groups like Methodists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, not to mention the Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Hindus that we have by the thousands.

Problem is, none of them make noise and get up in your shit like the crazy ones do, so everyone who’s not particularly religious assumes that because there are one or two Evangelical nuts at work who pester people and wear their religions on their sleeves, that everyone in the state is like that.

I grew up in Houston, and people just weren’t into that nosy, in-your-face religion for the most part. Some Baptists were, but a lot (most?) people weren’t Baptist, so they were just kind of kooky. I was astounded when I went to college and ran across people who literally thumped their bibles while discussing things.

124

The conservative view is predominately the majority view by far where I’m at. I remember the last presidential election, Obama signs were almost non-existent. Of the hundreds I recall, I only remember seeing less than a handful that were brave enough to even display them on their lawns, but I’m sure there were more. The local news reported some Obama signs that were knocked down, or disappeared entirely IIRC.

We currently have this trial going on in my county. This happened about 30 miles from me. Prosecutor refuses to label it as a hate crime. One such place that talks about it is here.

I don’t know much about Houston, only been there a few times, but I’m sure the bigger cities are more tolerant. I hear great things about the Austin area. I visit the D/FW area regularly. At least a certain part of Dallas lost a lot of my respect when they took our number one bigot that had headed the largest fundamentalist church in our city, when some dumb ass church there liked his weasel ass so much that they decided to take him to run their 11,000 member mega-church, and he’s now on in over 1,200 tv and radio stations. I only hope the liberal churches can drown out this weasel, but doubt they can match the mega-church attendances of evangelicals and conservatives even in this large of a metropolis.

125

I’ve been to Austin many times, so I know they are a bit reasonable there. But you guys elected Cruz, so I’m not buying any claims that most Texans are rational.

126

Blame Canada some, he was born there, but even they don’t want him back, so I guess we’re stuck with him. How TX has elected Perry as its longest running governor also gives you some idea of what is going on here. He’s actually stepping down as governor and hasn’t ruled out another presidential run, which is hard to believe considering there are three…well, you know the rest of the story.

127

IMHO, Perception is a wish fulfilled, believing is seeing, the body is IN the mind.

I am an atheist in the sense that I have no use for theology/religion. I find belief in an All In All of which I am a part to be indispensable.

Aloha

128

Yes, and I am with you.

129

IMO, if that is true it’s because atheism has been conflated with anti-Godism in the public mind (including not a few self-professed atheists). It is perfectly possible (perhaps necessary) to reject religion/theology and still believe in God or whatever you happen to call It.

Aloha

130

If you reject religion then you reject God, and gods in general because that’s all gods are; a religious idea. Gods are a religious belief.

And no, belief in God isn’t “necessary”; it’s destructive, a sickness.

131

Then you are not an atheist in any sense of the word.

132

Have it your way. :wink:

133

It’s not my way-it’s reality. Look up the word in the dictionary.

134

Thanks for your opinions. I happen to disagree and have explained previously on this thread why I do. I can say no more.

Aloha

135

Where would we be without the experts? You don’t find reality in a dictionary, you find metaphor. The map is not the territory nor does it prove that the territory exists.

Aloha

136

If you’re going to make up your own definitions for words, why should anyone bother to converse with you?

137

They don’t understand.

138

No-your problem is that we do understand all too well how woo works.

139

“WOO”
Seek someone’s favor
court
romance
solicit

140

I do apologize for using a definition that, though you have personally been given many times over the years, is not yet in the dictionary you referenced. For “woo”, please substitute “pseudoscientific bullshit”.