Inspire by this thread.
As far as major political policies and general attitudes on health, education, employment, legal issues, etc. are concerned?
Well, I can’t grocery shop on Sunday morning if we’re out of wine. Booze isn’t sold till the afternoon.
Around these parts, you’re assumed Christian by default, so people will send you email glurge and ask you about your church activities and whatnot. You see a lot of Jesus fish on cars. I keep my atheist mouth shut unless asked directly.
I’m pro-choice, pro-same sex-marriage, and against creationism being taught in schools, so I get mighty pissed off at people sometimes, but at this point in my life I admit those issues aren’t affecting me directly. Anyway, I do think the tide’s slowly flowing my way on that stuff.
Pretty much what Dung said. Since I reject religion and the supernatural, I strongly resent the impact they have on public policy. The anti-science bias including but not limited to limits on stem-cell research is one area Dung omitted. But on a day-to-day basis, really next to none.
And as Dung says, if you only look at creationism decisions as an example, it seems as tho the pendulum is swinging in the correct direction.
No more than a fly effects a picnic. It’s annoying and you occaisonally have to swat at it to keep it off the potato salad, but in the great scheme of things it’s really no more than a minor annoyance.
Well I don’t really know how it is in other parts of the world, but Dung really nailed it for me as well. It also depends on where you live in the US. I know that in California you can get whatever kind of liquor you want at the grocery store. In Washington State you can get < 20% alcohol at the grocery store, for anything stronger you have to go to a state-run liquor store. In Colorado & Utah, you can only get 3.2 beer in grocery stores and go to a liquor store for anything else. I’m in Texas for a couple months right now, in a dry city. No booze of any kind anywhere except restaurants. The rest of the county only sells beer & wine. I don’t know where I’d have to go if I wanted rum (why is there aways no rum?)
As a rule Christianity get more into your personal business legally the farther south you go. An interesting fact actually, considering those regions are also largely Republican and supposedly endorse LESS legislative influence over private life. Florida is, of course, the exception, but it’s really just a Union annex anyway. We traded Alaska for it.
I live in one of the most liberal and weird places in California and I know far more people that believe in new age woo than god. Theists have no impact at all on my daily life at all but their impact on public policy scares the hell out of me too.
It probably depends a lot on geography. In most of California I think it would not be common for people to assume Christianity. Nor does anyone seem bothered about the whole creationism in schools thing, or prayer in schools. (You might get a few people complaining about how “they’ve” taken prayer out of the schools, but I think it would be uncommon for anyone to make a public fuss about it.) When I was in high school, a local pastor would be invited to open a graduation with a prayer, but I don’t think that happens any more very much (someone in Fresno will now contradict me).
But I’m not involved directly in the public schools, so my knowledge about that is sort of second-hand.
And you can buy alcohol at any time. But I make no guarantees about other cultural elements.
We have blue laws here which sometimes affect me, but not very often. This area is a mishmash of religions, pretty much all of which are represented. It would be foolish in this area to assume that anyone is anything. I don’t know, but my guess is that Catholics, Jews, and atheists dominate.
Other than the fact that a good number of my friends are nominally Christian, it’s pretty irrelevant to my daily life.
Ok, the one thing that I’ve thought of that’s more that a very minor annoyance is that there’s a Megachurch down the road from me and their traffic issues on Sundays can cause serious delays in my making it to the interstate, making me later than I want to be for Bears games. Silly church folk, don’t you know Sunday is for football? 
It affects my life in that there is constant bombardment of Christian messages, often in a bigoted way toward other religions or lack thereof, Christianity is assumed to be the default, hypocrisy is rampant (church attendance is used as a substitute for, hey, actually following the supposed principles of the religion), and separation of church and state is viewed as an evil rather than a good. There are also things like churches sponsoring public-school basketball tournaments, which seems to be a violation of separation of church and state to me.
You can buy liquor on Sunday and at the grocery store here, though.
Most states won’t allow me to enter into a legally-recognized marriage/civil union with my partner, because my partner happens to be the same sex as I. Even if we marry/civil unionize in a state that allows and recognizes it, the federal government will not recognize our marriage/civil union at all.
Opposition to same-sex marriage/civil unions in this country is generally justified by appeals to “morality” (generally Christianity-based), and efforts to prohibit same-sex marriage/civil unions are organized and funded primarily by nominally Christian organizations and individuals.
Well, I’m not LGBT, I don’t have kids in school, and my workplace tries **very **hard to remain secular. So almost not at all.
My brother is diabetic, though, and stem-cell research could possibly help him. My LGBT friends are affected, obviously. And I can’t buy beer on Sunday before noon (booooo!)
I was on the bus one day when a bunch of very loud Christians started discussing their favourite Bible verses, and their latest ‘raptures.’ I didn’t like it at all, and plugged my headphones in right quick. Such a thing would be much less likely in Australia (where I’m from originally).
Not very major, but it disturbed me.
In addition to varying by region, the impact of religion on daily life varies with urbanization. Rural or otherwise sparsely populated areas tend to have a much more vocal and intrusive evangelical Protest bias.
Here in Oklahoma City (1.5 million people, but very religious) this manifests in a few ways:
Direct effects:
No alcohol sales on Sundays, no wine, liquor or regular beer except at liquor stores. No one under 21 in ‘service areas’ at bars and restaurants.
Lots of unusual restrictions on abortion. By law, no abortions at state-run hospitals (including universities), for any reason, even though the state is not paying for the procedure. As an extra-legal effect of the moral environment, no abortions are performed in any hospital (clinics only) and there are no providers past 12 weeks in the state.
Periodic attempts by school boards to give equal time to intelligent design.
‘Trash talk’ about non-protestant religions, “liberals”, and sexual orientation is common in the workplace and rarely incurs penalties.
Movie theaters won’t admit people under 18 to R rated movies. The national standard is 17 years. No law involved, just policy .
A huge amount of public demonstrations of Christianity. Religion is routinely invoked in politics, business, school, billboards, 100’ tall roadside crosses, and in normal conversation. A certain amount of low-key religion based social shunning.
Indirect effects:
Good grocery stores will not move into the state, due to the alcohol laws.
A general atmosphere of anti-intellectualism and fear of anything different.
High rates of domestic violence. IMHO resulting from people marrying in haste (in order to gain socially acceptable access to sex), and then being unwilling to divorce for religious reasons.
High rates of unintended pregnancy, possibly due to ignorance resulting from social pressure to not talk about sex.
A two-industry economy- military bases and the oilfield. Nobody would start a software, art-related, or biotech company here, there is nothing attactive about the state for the educated people you would need to employ. In many ways, the culture denigrates them and drives them away.
Now that I’m in California the only way it effects me is having to vote on various religiously motivated propositions that come up. (e.g., the recent Prop. 8, wrangles about religious monuments on public lands, etc.)
I also feel called upon to hide the fact that I’m an atheist, both to my family and friends. I could be militant about it but it would just cause a lot of nonsensical friction and angst that I don’t feel like dealing with. It’s not like I would be proving anything or changing anyone’s mind.
Direct, day-to-day, personal impact? Virtually nil.
However as noted this is strongly influenced by geography and personal circumstance. I am straight, live in just about the most secular and liberal part of the country and have very few overtly religious relatives ( I can only think of one actually and I haven’t seen her in decades ). I have a few religious friends/co-workers, but none are to degree where it has a significant influence on our interactions.
Indirect impacts are of course much harder to quantify. For example Prop 8 doesn’t affect me, but it does affect people I know. But while I wouldn’t want to denigrate anyone’s more serious difficulties, for me Cluricaun’s fly at a picnic probably sums it up best.
I’m annoyed by it constantly.
I live in Northern California (where the girls are warmer) so I’m not so much in the minority as an atheist liberal hippie weirdo. Religion and superstition doesn’t really affect me personally in a direct way very much.
I sometimes allow stuff like Prop 8 and some publicly sanctioned religious crapola to piss me off, but other than that, it’s the fly/picnic deal.
Other than not being able to buy wine before noon on Sunday, not much. My sister is very Christian, but I’ve told her, firmly and politely, not to forward me her AFA glurge.
Liquor blue laws here in Indiana, as well. No alcohol sales at all in stores on Sunday and public holidays, liquor must be sold with food in restaurants on Sunday, and shortened bar/tavern hours.
Retail shopping and consumerism in general is more difficult. On Sundays, most stores don’t open until noon, and then close at 5 pm. Most repair shops, car dealers, and service industries are completely closed, despite a lack of retail blue laws enforcing this.
My day-to-day experiences at school, depending on the subject I’m taking, are affected. Philosophy, religion, natural sciences, sociology, and psychology classes all seem to get bogged down in “but that’s not what the BIBLE says!” debates. It sucks to be in a class with a lot of material with a tight schedule with fellow students whose personal beliefs preclude objective thinking about the very subject they’ve decided to take. (It even affects math classes, when a textbook or teacher shows an application for some concept that happens to involve timelines that exceed 6000 years.)