# Would this make you feel safer (one for atheists especially)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966 "2012-06-12T22:36:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/61 "2012-06-22T01:46:51Z")
Hmm…interesting question. Funny part is I have found myself late at night, arriving by bus into an unfamiliar city, I didn’t speak the language, had to find a place to stay. It was an empty field where we were dropped. Now if a group of men came toward us, and we’d been told they’d just come from a prayer meeting, I think I would feel more secure. Then again, I was in Indonesia, so most certainly that prayer meeting would have been Islamic. It doesn’t change anything for me. You? ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/62 "2012-06-22T01:47:38Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And if I were to tell you that every person who told me they were gay were also bullies and had beaten me up, would I be justified in announcing to the world that I was scared of gay people? The likelihood of your example having occurred is from zero to –10. Not so Lynn’s description of being beaten up by Christians. I’d bet my last dollar on it being true. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/63 "2012-06-22T04:42:33Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And if I were to tell you that every person who told me they were gay were also bullies and had beaten me up, would I be justified in announcing to the world that I was scared of gay people? Being gay does not have a built in motivation for aggression, or a history of creating aggression. Religion does. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2012, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/64 "2012-06-22T10:08:23Z")
Atheist, and I would feel safer, mainly for the reasons given above - knowledge helps lessen the fear of the unknown. Any group would make me feel better as long as it wasn’t a hate organisation against straight, white, pudgy non-threatening guys. A sports event might make me wary, but only if they expect me to know who won and they’d been getting rascally drunk for the previous two hours. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/65 "2012-08-20T23:48:28Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > It would make me feel considerably less safe. I’ve known a lot of fervent believers (all Christian, by the way) who were quite violent, yet who were confident that the Lord loved them and would forgive them. > > The people who proclaim that theirs is a religion of peace always seem to be the ones who use violent means to convert others. > > I’d sooner be with the FBI space aliens. What Lynn said. I’m agnostic, btw. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/66 "2012-08-20T23:54:08Z")
I’m gay. Knowing that someone is religious does nothing at all to make me think they are less likely to want (or try) to harm me. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2012, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966/67 "2012-08-21T01:23:40Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > My life experience has been approximately the opposite of this. Perhaps because I am a big enough fella that I don’t usually feel threatened by the presence of one person (and because I haven’t encountered any real violent nutjobs, so far). Agreed, the two times in my life I’ve been attacked was both a group of young men, actually the second time was more of a riot with people dousing cars in gasoline etc. I’ve been cursed at and invited to come down an alley and fight a group of around five drunk guys too, I declined their offer. You bet your ass I always keep on eye on groups of teens/twentysomething men, easily the most dangerous demographic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-this-make-you-feel-safer-one-for-atheists-especially/624966.md?page=3)