France, in my opinion. In France, freedom of belief is protected while the state is required to remain neutral and to limit religious expression in many public institutions. Moreover, France restricts public displays of religious affiliation in various situations. Public school students cannot wear conspicuous religious symbols while public officials must maintain religious neutrality while on duty.
Here’s a table comparing the US, Russia, China, and Iran in this respect:
What are your criteria here? It is hard to judge these things from gross statistics.
France retains a significant Catholic cultural heritage despite the efforts of the Revolution. Though, the state does not recognize any religions and none of your tax dollars will be funnelled to them, and the existence of the odd cathedral should hopefully not cramp your style. Even in countries like Czechia, among the national holidays are ones like Christmas, though that could be historical baggage that has not been dealt with yet.
Really, though, would you rather be an atheist in France or Sweden, or an anything in China (though I suppose that, in some sense, atheism is a state religion in China)? As for the US, it might depend on where you live in terms of people getting asked about their religion or otherwise having to deal with religion at all; the picture is not as rosy as your table suggests.
I am not sure why Iran is on your list— it is officially an Islamic Republic right now.
Exactly. In the U.S., living in a liberal state (with consistent Democratic leadership), and in a particularly liberal/progressive city or town within that state (certain college towns, like Berkeley or Madison WI, would fit that bill) would probably be pretty comfortable for most atheists.
On the other hand, living in a small town or rural area in a deep Red state, especially in the old South, would be a lot less welcoming.
Brit atheist here; I have almost no contact with any kind of religion.
The two exceptions are: Jehovah’s witnesses came to my door once – I answered the door with shaving foam on my face, so that was a quick conversation.
And the various churches in our town centres – which is a positive because they are wonderful buildings.
Now, there are those for example advocating against abortion on religious grounds…I don’t see that as a negative against atheists though, I don’t want to suppress other views.
Australia seems to be pretty safe for Atheists, in the 2021 census 38.9% of the population identified as non-religious, it’s quite rare to hear anyone talking about religion in social situations, I can’t remember the last time anyone asked me about my beliefs, I’ve never heard of any overt discrimination against atheists here
I live in a small city in the deep south. I’m an atheist. I haven’t had any more or less issues than when I lived in NYC, Boston, or Atlanta. And, personally, I’d rather live next door to a quiet Christian than a noisy atheist.
What’s the best place to be for an atheist?
A foxhole. Nobody expects atheists in foxholes.
Speaking as an atheist, I’ve always regarded that as restrictively overboard and a small black mark against France. In that case I consider individual rights are being trampled in the name of state conformity. The state being neutral is a necessity, but the individual should be allowed to do as they please as long as it is not excessively disruptive. Something like wearing a cross or a hijab does not qualify as excessively disruptive IMHO.
The heading for Iran is also inaccurate or at least more complicated than that. While not even remotely a bastion of religious liberty, the Iranian constitution officially recognizes four religions. The Abrahamic faiths of Islam, Christianity and Judaism + the somewhat anciently cross-fertile Zoroastrianism, all of whom are granted assigned seats in the Iranian parliament. Non-Muslims are absolutely discriminated against in a variety of ways, especially if you are one of the non-accepted faiths like Baha’i who have been heavily persecuted. But actually being “expected” to be Muslim is usually not one of them (though the Baha’i, regarded as apostates by Khomeini, might well quibble with my pedantry).
It’s a hard question to answer because it’s just not a big deal at all in many places. Here in Scotland, over 50% of people selected ‘no religion’ on the last census. I have no idea if most of my workmates are religious at all- the only one it has actually come up with is from a Muslim country (he is not religious any more, his family are and don’t know).
I question the idea that a good place for atheists is one where religion is in some ways suppressed. I don’t care at all if someone is wearing a crucifix necklace, a headscarf or a turban, even if they are working in public office, so long as they’re carrying out their job properly and fairly. I’d rather religion doesn’t impede on my life, but I don’t need to trample other people’s rights either.
In France’s case, there are certainly some questions about how fairly the rules on religious symbols are applied; if a Catholic (or atheist) girl came to school wearing a bandana, that’s just fashion and fine, but if a Muslim girl comes to school with one she may be told to remove it as a religious symbol. I personally suspect such rules can actually make insular religious groups even more insular.
One thing I enjoy about Japan is that threatening a child with hell is legally recognized as a form of child abuse.
Abrahamic religions are horrific if you strip away the veneer. Eternal slavery to an inescapable deity capable of the most profound evil imaginable until people’s spirits break and they develop stockholm syndrome and fall in love with their abuser. How vile.
May I ask where that table came from, and how old it is?
I don’t disagree with you with regards to most Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam, but for what it’s worth, Judaism has no concept of an eternal hell.
Although it does have a bit of “kill everybody or make them into slaves because He said so” mentality, doesn’t it?
From personal experience, Europe in general is a pretty good place for atheists. The best country may well be the Vatican. I have been told nobody there believes what they preach.
As Hitchens points out, most people think of the Hebrew Testament as being more draconian than the New Testament, with all the ‘eye for an eye’ crap, and 613 commandments. But Chrisitanity really upped the ante, with the introduction of eternal punishment.
If you go around proselytizing against religion or objecting to religious displays, that’s probably true.
But it’s doubtful these days whether anyone otherwise cares about unbelievers’ beliefs.
I live outside a small town in a rural area in a red county in a deeply red state, and no one has ever asked me about my non-faith. We don’t even have Jehovah’s Witnesses (too much distance to cover going door to door for meager returns?).
I think that this may be a “your mileage may vary” situation.
We had another thread here recently, in which another Doper, who has lived in a couple of small towns in the Deep South, indicated that, yes, in fact, “what church do you go to?” was a very common part of introductory conversations they had with local residents. So, at a minimum, in some places, there is still apparently the baked-in assumption that everyone, even newcomers, are believers of some sort, and it’s a normal part of conversation and getting to know people.
It probably also depends on whether the atheist in question simply does not want to be questioned, or possibly discriminated against, because of their lack of faith, or whether simply living in a place where religion (in this case, primarily conservative Christianity) is so highly ingrained in the local culture that one cannot escape it during interactions with the locals is unpalatable to that atheist.
I live in Florida, a republican state, and in a red city.
Other than knowing that a handful of my co-workers are nominally Catholic, my lack of religious affiliation (I’m a Diest, not an atheist) has never come up. It’s certainly not an issue for me at the personal level. The people I know and interact with aren’t church goers.
I asked Copilot to compare religious freedom in the US, Russia, China, and Iran. It generated the table for one of the follow up questions. This is how I came up with the idea of this thread.
Not the moon, apparently.
As posted by Superdude in the Ominibus Religion thread: