I read a poll today that said atheists numbered 26% in Israel. Russia and Europe were about the same percentage, too. The United States had the fewest at only 1% who identified as atheists. Do you think this is accurate or were maybe another 25% in the USA just scared to tell the truth about being an atheist? If you are an atheist, do you admit it or keep quiet about it?
Why are there so few atheists in the USA?
by moshe 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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XU
Can anyone else read this? Well, I don't really declare myself an atheist, because I don't really see how what I believe really matters in the big scheme of things, which runs quite contrary to the belief that Christians have, so maybe I am one. But anyhoo, I have been studying US history this quarter and guess who never thought history was relevant? me in my dub dream. So, now I actually pay attention. I think we are a product of our conditioning and we were founded by native killing manifest destiny fulfilling god loving puritans. Also, look at the president of the US. Many Christians have felt more confident to let their beliefs hang out because it is popular and cool right now. This country has felt it was better than communism because "In Go(l)d We Trust". One nation under god. These things were added to our national identity because the founding fathers didn't really want all that religion trouble in the government. Please poly-sci fanatics, don't blast my amateur blog, I am just starting to think about this stuff. So, when life is uncertain, in times of war, economic depression, media frenzies, people like to think someone is looking out for them. If we realize it's all up to us, we get a little freaked out. Some of us realize the exciting potential, most of us are like,"Oh hell no." So, maybe we are just not ready to make that evolutionary leap into the potential we really possess. And atheists aren't going to run around with God is Dead t-shirts because anyone can be a terrorist these days, what with no more habeus corpus.
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jgnat
Compare this:
http://atheistempire.com/reference/stats/index.html
You could be right. The athiest site suggests there's a stigma to the term in the US.
Here's the Canadian perspective.
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Little Drummer Boy
I know that where I work and go to college (same place), declaring that I'm not Christian but an atheist (or budhist, or fill in the blank, whatever) would accomplish two things immediately:
1) My boss (head of the department and rabid evangelical Christian) would immediately see me as less desirable as an employee. Would I get fired? Probably not, but it would hurt my employment opportunities and future reccomendations from her. Is that legal? Hell no! But that wouldn't matter because I couldn't prove anything.
2) My instructors (many of which are vocal about their Christian beliefs) would immediatly see me in a lesser light and that would affect my grades on work that is graded on a subjective nature. Is that fair? Legal? Again, hell no, but I wouldn't be able to prove it. I have one instructor who I have had for several different classes. He starts out every first day of a new semester with a HUGE Power Point presentation about himself. It is mostly about his Christianity. He has gone so far as to hand out invitations to bible studies at his home. We don't dare complain because class size is limited to a maximum of 16 people. Gee, wouldn't be too hard to figure out who squeeled.
So, I try to keep my mouth shut about my beliefs (at least offline - here, that's different).
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moshe
The US has laws against religious descrimination, but I guess descriminating against atheists is OK. I found out that saying "I don't believe that Jesus is Lord" was not OK around the Christian majority, but later when I converted to Judaism If I said " I'm Jewish", then that was OK. In reality I still said the same thing about Jesus.
Many Jews in Israel are atheists. Probably living through the Holocaust and seeing 6 million of your people killed might have something to do with it. A lot of Russian Jews are atheists, too.
I guess in the USA it's just not kosher to say you are an atheist.
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LittleToe
I'd like to know if there's the same stigma over taking the title "agnostic" in the USA?
The Jewish angle is interesting. Along with the Zionist tendancies of many Christian groups, the perceived common bond through Palestine and at least some of the Bible, tends to keep the bigotry at bay. There's almost a palpable awe and mystique around the subject, like Jews are somehow the Christian's misguided older brother, who deserves respect regardless of his errancy.
I find the whole thing fascinating.
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dedpoet
I think a lot of people don't volunteer their feelings about religion in general or god in particular. For me, it depends on the situation. If I'm on here, I will readily admit to my atheistic feelings, but at work, in the pub etc, I don't volunteer such information unless asked directly.
I would think there is no shortage of atheists in the USA, just more of them choose to keep their views to themselves.
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nicolaou
This thread provides a barn door of a target for anyone who wants to indulge in a little anti-Americanism. I'm going to resist that as I've found that most Americans on this board are generous, kind and lovely people - and they are the only Americans I know.
All I'd say is that America (as I see it via BBC News 24 and Radio 4) does seem particularly blinkered when it comes to faith and atheism. America may well elect a woman or a black man to the office of President soon but along with it's homophobia comes it's intolerance of atheism.
I will never in my lifetime see an openly gay or atheist President of the United States of America.
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Balsam
Frankly when I was feeling very atheistic I would never had admitted it to anyone other than my immediate family. But some events in my life have moved me from Atheist to Deist. This country (USA) is so deeply religious and mostly Christian that admitting to being an atheist is certain to bring hateful comments, so I avoided doing that.
Balsam
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DanTheMan
Many of the European whites who came to America were the JW's of their day - paranoid, puritannical, drama-queen religionists - and we're their descendants.