What Are Your Challenges In Being An Atheist?

Great Debates
1

I find that in daily life, there are a lot of ways in which being an atheist is not easy. My biggest pain in the ass is at work. I work with a lot of religious people, including a disproportionate number of Jehova’s Witnesses. People have been known to leave printouts of religious glurge emails in the break room, and I’ve been advised more than once on the importance of getting right with God by a couple of coworkers. There are a couple of coworkers that like to debate me over faith or evolution- I don’t seek out these debates but I don’t shrink from them, either. I just try to be gentle with them and remember that they’ve been brainwashed. This especially seems to hold true for the JW’s. Although, I do get along with most of them and those seem to be good examples of living their beliefs.

A couple of weeks ago I went to a work-related dinner and seminar. The speaker was a very cool lady, a patient advocate and motivational speaker. I really, really liked her presentation. Except. Her beliefs in God were a big part of her presentation, and that irked me. If it was a seminar that I had found and registered for on my own, and not related to work, I’d just take it in stride- that’s her schtick and that’s what I signed up for. But it being offered by my work makes it different for me. She should know that a good percentage of people are increasingly non-Christian, and work is not related to religion, therefore she should exclude those parts of her presentation when it’s a corporate event. I advised her of that in her assessment, and I hope she wasn’t offended by it.

Another thing that doesn’t go well with atheism seems to be dating. I’ve only been dating for a few years, but I’ve learned to mention it right up front, right along with my vitals. And I make sure right away to talk about it and let the guy know exactly where I stand. I don’t know if anyone’s ever not gone on a first date with me because of it, it’s never been mentioned as a dealbreaker, and I’ve never had anyone dump me because of it, but I have been asked to pretend in front of their families that I’m a Christian. I found that offensive and refused.

And, of course, there’s always the fact that a significant faction of America doesn’t consider atheists to be patriots or real citizens. That irritates.

What are things that make being an atheist hard for you at times?

2

The constant visitations by the old gods of my ancestors can be fairly challenging.

3

We’ve got it pretty easy here in Canada. Religious beliefs/persuasions don’t really even enter into political debates - the way it should be, of course.

Religion doesn’t get discussed at work either. I mean the person across from you could be Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Atheist, whatever… Why ask? And more importantly, why care?

I think the U.S. is almost as fundamentally fucked as most of the Muslim world. But that’s a topic for another thread.

4

I imagine the knowledge that you’re going to be burning in a lake of everlasting fire would be a bit dfistracting every now and then.

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(I kid, I kid…)

5

Sometimes it’s all you can do.

6

I have no challenges at all. Despite having lived for nearly ten years in a place that has a church seemingly every thousand feet, I have yet to encounter anyone who mentioned their religion. My wife isn’t so lucky; her workplace has quite a few of them. For me, it’s been OK. I never discuss it with anyone anyway, because mainly, what I believe or don’t isn’t any of their business.

7

None, really.

I live in the SF Bay Area, land of the pinko atheists, so I don’t really stand out culturally.

My parents and siblings are atheists. The extended family ( aunts, uncles, cousins - out of state and rarely seen these days ) are either atheist or more usually just irreligious. I have one aunt who’s an Eastern Orthodox nun, but she likes me anyway :).

My co-workers are either irreligious, atheist or pretty tolerant. The co-worker I work closest with is a Calvinist-leaning pious evangelical, but of a slightly atypical politically and socially moderate, former atheist, ‘Old Earth evolution’ type. He’s actually a personal friend outside of work - we get along just fine and in fact talk religion from time to time.

Similarly with the rest of my friends ( obviously ) - not an issue.

Can’t say it has impacted me in…hmmmm, a long time and rarely at that. The last time I think it was an issue is when I was younger and more militant and got in an argument with a vaguely New Agey spiritual type which ended up with her in tears and me feeling like shit. That was probably at least 15 years ago, maybe almost 20.

8

I’m agnostic, not an atheist. However, one reason my boyfriend is reluctant to get married and does not want to have kids with me is our fundamental religious disagreement.

9

Thor almighty, where do I begin?

Well for one, since I have no morals, I’m constantly fighting the urge to molest children and steal from good, everyday, god-fearing Americans. In addition to my lack of morals, I feel an overwhelming urge to emulate Stalin and Hitler.

I love children. There’s nothing I love more than teaching children to disrespect their religious parents. But, well, when I’m not busy with that, I’m supporting forced abortion and the suppression of free speech.

…

Why yes, I have been accused of all these things. Why do you ask?

10

I live in the Bible Belt but I really can’t recall any specific challenges my atheism has caused me. Sometimes I do however get the feeling that some friends and acquaintances do think of me as being less moral than they are which pisses me off.

11

It really doesn’t come up in my daily life, so I dont’ face any real challanges, I suppose.

However, sometimes, it can be very frustrating…mostly because, knowing that there’s probably no Hell, means a lot of people get to escape eons of inhuman and unimaginable torture by passing into oblivion when they die.

Heck, personally, if I had to choose between oblivion for everyone, or oblivion for the good but Hell for the bad, I’d pick the latter setup. Maybe I’m just a bitter, vindictive person.

12

But you couldn’t resist inserting it into this one, could you? Ooh, you’re a cool Canadian, and we’re all knuckle-dragging Americans.

I live and work in the United States and religion never gets discussed at my place of work either. I have no idea about the religious beliefs of any of my colleagues, except for one guy who’s a Hasidic Jew which makes it kind of obvious.

The only challenges I’ve had in being an atheist have been with my mother, who barely understands what the word means and would like it better if I pretended to be Catholic, even though she criticizes the Church more often and more vehemently than I ever do.

13

Has anyone else found Easter to be particularly frustrating? It seems everybody celebrates Easter- even most atheists I know (admittedly few) do some kind of egg/candy/fake grass thing. I don’t, and a lot of people think that’s weird. I don’t acknowledge it it any way. My poor kids, missing out on all that candy.

I do celebrate Christmas. Does that make me a hypocrite? I’m really celebrating the winter solstice, not the birth of Jesus.

14

Recently, I’ve been accused of being less moral. Problem is, I AM less moral now than I was 4 months ago when I was Christian. That’s one of my favorite parts of being an atheist. Example: I can say I’m a Christian and not feel bad about lying.

My girlfriend hates it. She’s not nearly cynical enough about the world. About once a week, we get into the argument where I say that everything anyone does is geared toward sex. She says that’s stupid and we’re either taught to act the way we do or God has made us ‘this way’. I’m like “No, if the trait makes you have better babies, it sticks.” And we go round and round. Very frustrating.

Oh yeah, and there’s that whole “What do I tell my parents at Christmas now?” Fearing that one.

15

Naw, Easter isn’t a problem. The next day we get chocolate chickens, half off.

16

No challenges, really, in spite of the fact that I live in Texas, where supposedly all atheists are ritually slaughtered. Although the press would have you believe that religious whack jobs want to harass unbelievers at every turn, the fact seems to be that most people have manners. At my work place, most people have the common sense not to bring the subject of religion up. The few that do don’t go in for proselytizing.

In my personal life, it’s never been an issue.

17

Hey, where in the Bible does it say to put lights on a tree so an elf come on his flying deer and leave me toys? :smiley:

18

None really. It was a bit more irritating when I lived in a heavily Christian (Catholic and COGOP with some JW thrown in) suburb. Witnesses would come knocking on my door in the morning and I’d have to pretend not to understand Spanish. Thankfully, none of them tried English, so I didn’t have to play myself off as Portuguese. If they knew Portuguese too I would’ve been fucked, since I don’t have any swords.

It was also a little irritating to see the wacko churches’ literature in big piles at the laundromat. And since I go to school in a heavily Protestant (read: Jesus freaks with guitars who feel really bad about smoking so much weed, which cognitive dissonance just makes them angrier and louder), I see weirdo pamphlets on campus from time to time. I rather enjoyed “Will God Hate You if You Wear Makeup?”, complete with Biblical citations and, oddly, rather noncommittal. But overall, it’s no big deal.

BTW, Alice The Goon, Tucson is the place where I became the pinko Commie nutjob I am today. It was only by coincidence that I wasn’t present at the Great Bloodless Rubber-Bullet Massacre of 2004. In fact, IME Tucson is one of the easiest places outside of CA to be a pinko, as long as you’re involved with the U of A and/or its students in some way. But then, I mostly hung out on campus or on Fourth Ave, so I’m sure it’s a different story in South Tucson and probably in the Foothills too.

Actually, that’s a bit of a problem at my school too. I don’t get asked about evolution, but people try to debate with me quite a bit, or pick my brain on the Old Testament since I’m slightly more knowledgeable about it than the average atheist or Christian. I don’t seek those discussions out either, but it seems like the more I politely oblige, the more of those discussions I get sucked into. It got to a point where I had a Bio lab teacher tweak my grades downward because he thought I was witnessing in class, while I was in fact one of the most militant atheists in the lab period.

That’s not what he said. What he said was that American politics is unduly influenced by hardcore Christians–so-called “values voters”–and in the world of adult debate, we don’t put words in each others’ mouths.

IME, people who claim to be “more moral” than other people usually mean “more bigoted” and/or “less tolerant”, especially of the exercise of the rights to free speech and free association (which are OK as long as they don’t further the Pinko Commie Gay Agenda). And IMO, if you’re more tolerant than you were four months ago, you’re also more moral. Of course, I don’t know your specific situation, so I can’t speak to that.

19

Yeah, Tucson definitely has it’s pockets of progressive, forward-thinking people. I hang out with some of those people, so I don’t have to deal too much with atheism and friendships. But at work I’m the only atheist that I know of- the doctors I work for haven’t made their beliefs known, so they could be. In my family I’m the only atheist, which causes not a bit of awkwardness, because we’re all of us weird in some way or another and if we started throwing each other out over differences, there’d be nobody left. I do agree that it’s much easier being an atheist here in Tucson than in many other places- I’ve lived in the South, mind you.

20

Do you work at the University medical center, by any chance? If so, you may know two doctors who have rented from my dad! (I won’t mind if you decide to respond by PM.)

ETA: Texas is the worst place I’ve ever been in to be an atheist. Granted, I was in boot camp, but the people who gave me the worst shit and spread the image of me as a devil-worshippin’ evil wizard were mostly Texans.