On Thursday, January 24, 2013 10:20:25 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: > > On 1/24/2013 6:28 PM, Craig Weinberg wrote: > > > > On Thursday, January 24, 2013 9:05:31 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: >> >> On 1/24/2013 5:14 PM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: >> > On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 4:55 AM, meekerdb<meek...@verizon.net> wrote: >> > >> >> It's probably a lot simpler than that. In the U.S. if you're an >> atheist it >> >> may be hard to find a sympathetic ear. Depending a lot on where you >> live, >> >> you may be isolated and reviled. >> > Is that really true? I was in the US recently for the first time, >> > Scottsdale Arizona and NYC, and other than Christmas decorations I >> > can't recall seeing much evidence of religion at all. This is perhaps >> > a superficial impression but I was a bit surprised nevertheless. >> > >> > >> >> Scottsdale is pretty cosmopolitan - it's where airline pilots go to >> retire. NYC of course >> is as secular, diverse, and worldly as any place in the world. Try >> visiting small towns >> in Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi, Oklahoma,... It's not called >> "the bible belt" >> for nothing. >> > > It would be more tedious than genuinely threatening to be an atheist adult > in redneck America - unless you insist upon being as vocal as the Fundies. > Yes, there's a lot of churches, and people will ask you what church you go > to, but they will also ask you what sports team you support and think you > are just as threatening if you are unaffiliated that way. > > > I'd didn't say they'd be threatening. But if you were an atheist looking > for a friendly ear the only ones you'd find would probably want to convert > you. >
I don't know that not being able to talk to others about your (non) religious beliefs would be cause for suicide though. Especially now that there's the internet... I can't remember the last time I had a conversation with someone about religion IRL. If it was that important to find a friendly ear in multiple neighbors and co-workers specifically to listen to you talk about being an atheist, then that makes me think about questioning the claim that atheism isn't like a religion. Craig > Brent > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
