I don’t have a problem with most theists. I was asked if I’d feel more or less safe or no change. And I’d feel less safe. Most theists seem to respect my atheism. But the ones who don’t can get pretty aggressive about it…and in my experience, the most violent people tend to be theists. Of course, this is wildly skewed by the fact that most people that I encounter are theists, or claim to be. Around these parts, if you are an “out” atheist, you WILL be snubbed by some theists.
When my daughter was in (public) middle and high school, most school programs had a heavily religious slant, and if I made a complaint, I was told that I could skip the programs, because most people enjoyed this. And most people would prefer to have the Ten Commandments on display in (public) schools, and think that anyone who objects to this is immoral.
There’s a reason why I don’t go to Mensa meetings in this town…every meeting seems to have a religious/inspirational speaker. The weekly gatherings are held in a coffee shop that’s aggressively Christian. I’m not particularly interested in being preached at, so I don’t attend the meetings. Yeah, I know, I should start up my own meetings and see if I can get others interested in nonreligious/inspirational meetings.
The assumption is that everyone who lives here is either Catholic or evangelical Christian. Oh, there’s some Jews and Muslims, but many people look askance at them, especially the Muslims.
Having said all that, I’d probably be wary of ANY group of people late at night. It doesn’t stop my nightly wanderings (I used to live in Las Vegas, and wandered around until the sun came up), but I am aware of my surroundings. In LV, people were much less aggressive about their religions, and didn’t insist that I actually DID believe in God, but I was just mad at him.
It’s sort of like not liking football and country music around here. It’s just assumed that everyone who lives here LOVES football and country music.
I doubt that I’d feel any less safe if I knew that the group was a bunch of country music lovers, but those football fans can get violent, too. Especially if you dis their team.