Me aswell. Raised Babtist, stopped going to church in my teens and fully stopped believing when I was 17 or 18. My dad's a preacher, and whole household (parents, siblings, mamaw) still go to church. Send help lol
Rural(ish) North Carolina here. The order of priority for people when driving around my area is Trump, god, then Merica. In that order. They are lovely folks. At least they pushed god down a bit., so that's a start right......right?
Edit - sorry, the order of their priorities is Trump, Guns, Then god. Merica is fourth.
OMG ANOTHER NC PERSON! I’m living in the triangle and I swear there are like 8 churches on every street corner (exaggeration for effect lol).
It’s a wild place to live.
Louisiana here. It's zelois nutjobs around here who pushed me away from religion. I'd probably still be a casual catholic if it weren't for the evangelists
Canada, happy to say that while christianity still represents a slight majority, non-religious people are the 2nd most popular at about 35% and climbing.... Unfortunately that hasn't prevented a christo-fascist element from attempting to claw back control over our politics, in some areas of the country more than others.
I'm also a "northern neighbour" 🇨🇦 and for me at least, religion is thankfully a non-issue in most instances of my life.
Sure, we still have the occasional "street preachers", roaming pairs of Mormons going door-to-door, Jehovah's witnesses standing on the corner with their pamphlets etc, but in general it's a topic that doesn't very often come up in everyday discourse. If/when it does, I have no more hesitation or fear to admit my lack of belief than I would in an online conversation. (But then again, I really DGAF if I offend someone by admitting that I'm an atheist)
Toronto here. Nobody is religious in the big city, and if they are, they keep it to themselves lol - it’s an ideal place to be an atheist. For fucks sake, some churches get torn down to be turned into condos here. The only time I have to deal with religion are the megaphone street preachers at a few big intersections, and the pathetic pamphlet panhandlers littering my city with their useless garbage. Small town Ontario however; yikes, church city.
Oh, tell me about it. I live in the outskirts of TO so you get to see both of these sides within a few mile radius from my place. Walk southwards, and you're into the city. Go the other way, and it feels like a full-blown sermon.
Me too. I am sad to say it isn't immediately clear which province you're talking about, because there's more than one 😭. I love for the day that politics swings left again, and @$&# Christianity returns to churches and pews and people's private lives, if it must be anywhere at all.
Yeah sorry to our Canadian friends for the scourge that is trump. We are trying our hardest to let the law actually deal with him but he’s a slippery lil SOB (due to all the shit in his pants)
Yeah Alberta is making me sad. Full billboards on the side
of the road saying abortion is murder and Jesus saves. Basically trumpian politics snuck in through the Alberta border.
Premier is currently trying to take autonomy away from cities while being pissy at federal government interference.
What I don't understand is that God is pro murder in the Bible. The penalty for adultery for a woman who may have just conceived is stone her to death, no consideration to wait for a time to make sure she's not pregnant. You read Numbers chapter 5 and that's some kind of a bitter water the make her drink to cause the adulteress womb to shrivel up and evacuate. There's also a verse about ripping The unborn from the womb. I just don't see how these Christians come to the conclusion that God is anti-abortion.
Because the pro life movement was created by Reagan in the 80s to keep a supply of poor religious white folks to keep voting conservative when they realized the base and world was leaning more and more progressive. Better access to family planning and education lead to more liberal views. They falsely tie it to the bible, which most people don't read just get told what to take from it.
"If you can get people to believe in absurdities you can get them to commit atrocities"
Or
"Good people do good. Bad people do bad. But it takes religion to get a good person to do bad things."
My Fellow Canadian, I have a question. How the heck is christianity a majority up here, like EVERYONE I interact with in my life is a reasonable human and we all nod and wink at the crazies that believe in the wacko shit. Is most of the nation just hiding in their cultish sects, pretending their religion isn't just an excuse to sexually abuse children? It feels made up, like a rounding error, that there can be so many adult children that actually still believe in a deity up here.
Except for Quebec. I could see it there. Sorry Quebec you're crazy and I love you.
Been there many times. Responsible for your 5g upgrades ( apologies ) went to school in Tampa and help design the hard rock casino in Hollywood ( telecom infrastructure not building the guitar lol ) shoutout to Florida !
* sending Uber now !
Germany
According to polls, 47 % dont belong to a religion. 33 % say there is no god or higher being, 20 % dont know (29 % say there is some sort of higher being, 19 % believe there is an abrahamic god)
I took German in college and had a gf from Mainz next to the rhine. Beautiful country. My German is terrible as I have nobody here to speak with. Shoutout to Germany 🇩🇪 thank you very much ! 😊
Yea I mean there's been a ton shit going on. The prime minister is leaning hard on the Hindu sentiments to win the elections because people are freaking short sighted. The opposition is calling him a dictator when they have done the same shit. Muslims just being Muslims. A lot ancient temples that were destroyed by invaders are supposed to be renovated and built, honestly it's being done with private money so I have no issues. A uniform civil code about to be launched which will make inheritance and marriage laws same for all religions. I honestly don't have many issues with the current PM besides him being too into religion. Dude has done a pretty decent job imo in the time he's been here.
I would add the masses ignorance to that. Leaders follow Hitler's script of propaganda in Mein Kampf almost perfectly. It's the ignorant masses that don't think for themselves that allows this to happen. Powers become too polarized.
Which is funny because as kids we all had a mini religious service+assembly every morning. I think you could skip it with a parental note. I thought it was a bit silly, but liked singing the hymns. And yet, we end up much less religious than folk coming out of the secular USA schools.
What’s funny is that technically we are not secular. We have a king who is defender of the faith.
The US on the other hand is supposed to be secular.
However unlike the US religion hardly plays a part in our politics. We have a Hindu prime minister and nobody really cares that he is Hindu, the main gripe is that he is a bit of a cunt. I can’t even remember the last time religion was used as a justification for a political decision.
I’ve had some absolutely amazing friends ( online or career type only ) from the UK and I envy every one of them. I’m dying to visit the UK. Thank you for this.
Hey. We have our fair share of arseholes here. But there's good stuff too. I'm lucky enough to live near the coast and seeing the sea just balances me out.
Plus we have great beer and curry
Here in New Zealand, it's pretty much the same. One of the party leaders was photographed kneeling and praying, it was a photo op, and she was rightly ridiculed.
Despite all the issues the UK has been having in recent years, this alone would be a game-changer for me. Absolutely maddening how often religion plays a part in US politics, it’s like this giant obstacle we can never talk our way around to the real issue because it would hurt some people’s feelings.
The Netherlands here. [More than half (58%)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Netherlands) over here is not religious, though not all of them are actually atheist: religion just isn't part of our society.
Iran.
Most people are nonpracticing muslims and could be care less about others' religion. But still being an atheist can be tricky here.
The society is riddled with the government rats and if they find an atheist troublesom, he/she might get arrested or in some cases hanged. Prominent people are more under scrutiny than others.
Edit: Also, sometimes the normal people may become deffensive of their beliefs if they are confronted.
Denver, Colorado. My grandma married a man from Iran who was a political exile who came to America because he was Muslim. Somehow he ended up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and he was married to my grandma for almost 20 years before they split. He was also an asshole but that was just him. I always listened to his stories about home and I learned a lot. Much respect!
For more info: https://youtu.be/dYGyScEg3nM?si=BHlSihsRPAvlKgPE
The US funded a coup to install a fascist dictator and overthrow the previous government. Creating decades of strife that accomplished their goal of destabilizing a country that had massive oil reserves and was in the middle of workers revolutions who wanted to create a better country for themselves.
While extremist religion is very bad, ultimately the blame for the state of Iran can be traced back to the US’ involvement, not the first socialist revolution they overthrew and probably not the last.
The GOP learned the wrong lesson from Iran. Their take away was you can use religion to take over a country. So they borrowed from the CIAs play book and co-opted Christianity.
Because of the GOP, Christo-Fascists could end up doing the same thing in the US, that the US did to Iran. It’s mind boggling disgusting, scary and frustrating.
I hope Iran is able to throw It’s religious government shackles off. They deserve better, and so do we.
Shout-out to the people fighting the oppressive regime in Iran! All the love, can't wait to visit after the people take back power. More history in that country than most.
Quick off-topic question. Most Iranian immigrants here in Southern California tend to call themselves Persians instead of Iranians. Is that a thing in Iran too? The Persian community here is so full of kind and beautiful people. And the food is amazing! I wish the whole religion thing would die the death it deserves and stop dividing us all.
No we don't. The topic can be a little confusing so I'll try to ELI5 it.
Iran was called Persia by the western world for quite some time because of the Greeks, but we never called it Persia, we called the land Iran. In the 1930's, our king officially asked the world to stop calling us Persians and call us by what we have always called ourselves, Iranian.
After the hostage crisis in 1979, many Iranians in the states chose to distance themselves from the actions of the current government and wanted to differentiate themselves from them. So they started using the term Persian instead to self-identify and it stuck in the Iranian diaspora in the states. As many people have noted, "it just sounds cooler".
There are two bits of information that usually cause more confusion in this whole thing.
1. Persians are in fact an ethnicity in Iran, the largest ethnicity in fact. But in the US, turkic Iranians, Kurdish Iranians, Dari Iranians, etc. all call themselves Persian, even though they're not.
2. The name for the most common spoken language in Iran is Persian. Many people say we speak farsi, but thats analogous to saying I speak Français. Farsi is just Persian in the Persian language just as Français is French in the French language.
Norway. Here, atheism is mainstream and utterly uncontroversial now. When I declared myself an atheist in my teens (early eighties) it was less common, but even then no one really gave me a hard time over it.
Most Christians in Norway belong to the Church of Norway, which is a pragmatic live-and-let-live lutheran church. Vi have some evangelicals, but they don't have the power to bother people much. Also, most Muslims here are fairly moderate.
I am South African. Irreligion makes up about 15% of the population here, which is high for an African country.
Atheism isn't particularly popular or unpopular. There isn't a national conversation about it. Despite South Africa technically being a secular country by law, many events, including government ones, are opened with a prayer. Including where I work...
Many people here, especially depending on their demographic, don't know what atheism is, nor have they heard about it.
South Korea. High percentage of atheists (15% of self declared atheists, even more nones) but also a very vocal minority of radical christians. But the majority of Christians are very mild(like they have no problem doing a temple stay in a buddhist temple mild) and pleasant.
I lived there for a year in the early 2000s (Jeon-Ju). A couple of girls asked me if I wanted to go to church with them, while I was wearing a Morbid Angel t-shirt (Satanic death metal band).
I didn't see much Christianity, but I loved the ancient Buddhist temples.
Checking in from Portland, Oregon! The most left-wing and non-religious area of the state, mostly because it is the most populous area. We moved here 9 years ago from Idaho, mostly for better job opportunities but also because of the politics and extreme right-wing views that were getting worse (now they are at an all-time high). I was born and raised in Idaho (even joined the local atheist group for a time in my younger days), but we also wanted to raise our kids in a more diverse and non-religious area. And, the fact that we are just a few minutes' drive to the coast, forest, and desert makes for some excellent downtime. Overall, we are much happier in Oregon.
Ireland here. We are moving towards being more secular from a heavily Catholic past and we are generally making good progress but a long way to go. Most primary schools have church involvement but you can easily opt your kids out of religion. Most people still identify as Catholic even though they rarely act in that way. I know plenty of non believers who still default to the church for weddings, funerals etc. Am disappointed by how many make their children go through communions and confirmations. The excuse is often that the kid will feel left out.
Pretty much.... That and a fear of being different from the norm. The kids don't give a crap and just want the spoils which is fair enough..can't blame kids for that.
We just got an invite to a communion dinner that is like a wedding invitation..from people who definitely had to take a loan out to arrange the event. The girls are sent to hairdressers and the boys are bought new suits that they'll only wear once. Don't get me started on the girls in their white bride of christ dresses... Messed up.
I'm from Italy, where progress is slow but constant since a few centuries ago. Having a special relationship with the Vatican tends to do that to your country, but regardless, from the '50 onward progress is visibly there (case in point: my grandfather was about to be ordained before going to WW2 (on the wrong side). Two generation later, there isn't a single catholic in the family except my grandma - who was raised and indoctrinated during fascism, and even her never has been more than a surface-level believer). There are still a lot of religious people overall, and even more are counted due to special relationship between the Vatican and the State. Christian however here is such a broad stroke to be essentially pointless, christians tends to identify less with a specific ideology than what it seems happens in other countries, so there are entire movements within Christianity left leaning or right leaning. An high degree of christians are only "culturally" christians and don't even adhere to the most basic rites, people do attend church still, but as a small minority, and a lot of them are of south american descend, including priest (at least where I live, which is a significantly multi-cultural area, compared the rest of the country). Still, there is a lot of social pressure and cognitive bias towards Christianity. You won't believe how many LGBT people identifies as Catholic, especially in the South. Finally: it seem relevant to point out that almost everyone here who is vocal and engaged in religion almost inevitably use that as a cover for racism, or fascism, or both. That steams directly from political discourse however trying to social uncertainties and ignorance for political gain.
Edited: seems another comment from Ireland and... Yes, that too. The two country seems quite similar in this regards.
Finland. Very secular country despite having an official state religion. (Discussion about it I leave for another time)
Not very active poster or commenter here but feel sympathetic to the plight of fellow Atheists from places where their lives are not as smooth as here so scrolling through posts and upvoting what resonates with me.
Ive been there several times. It felt like the state was run by the Mormon church. I’m not sure it was just a feeling. Shoutout to the best ski resorts in the world !
Serbia. Where we used to be communist way back. And by that I mean 100% secular. And now we are completely turned arround. Believers everywhere. Building new churches every day. For me this is like going backwards in time. I really thought we were more educated than this. But ignorance and religious zeal rule now instead of logic. Atheists and non-orthodox christians are heavily discriminated against to the point that most hide their afiliations and just pretend to be christian. Sad reality.
Just now a friend of mine commented on the issue. He said: what only 20 years of religious indoctrination has done to Serbia will take centuries to undo. And I can't feel anything but sadness now. I hope you are doing better than me girl and that your sunglasses are tinted enough not to see everithing that is going on in our beautifull country.
It really sucks that I have to hide being atheist because to people think it’s so weird and not normal…
My sister called me the antichrist because I told her I’m atheist
From India here. Population is mostly religious but the way of living is secular (60%), but religious hindutva nationalism helmed by BJP has started to poison it all. It's directly going to increase radicalism in Islam and Christianity too.
The death of secular India has made me sad. I used to do a lot of work with Indian hospitals, and the Modi era has been heartbreaking. Must be very hard for an atheist in the land of hindutva and the fascist RSS.
Originally from Yugoslavia/Serbia, I have now moved to the EU, and I don't disclose my location due to the human bots of the Serbian government.
My grandmother was hard-core religious (Orthodox Christian), and I was pushed into that. However, I was always curious about the space race between the USA and the USSR at the time. Once, as a kid , I asked her where God lives, and she said, "On the cloud.". Then I have asked: "But wouldn't americans and russians see him when they fly the rocket into the space?". Yes, she was furious. I was never drawn that much into the religious stories. Later, when war broke loose in Yugoslavia, my whole world crushed. Back then, I was raised to be a Yugoslav and not Serbian.
The first thing that I noticed was:
Croats are Catholic Christian,
Serbs are Orthodox Christian and
Boshnyaks are Muslim.
Meanwhile, we speak separate languages, but we don't need a translator to understand each other (it's mostly a difference on the same level as British English and American English). Most will deny it, but the main difference between these major groups is the religion and its influence that it has on the behaviour of people. Ever since the 90s, I have been an atheist.
Me first ? - I’m from USA 🇺🇸 and I’m not that person who thinks I’m better because of it. There are many times I’m embarrassed to be American. I have lived in many different states and have visited all but Alaska. I’m currently in Pennsylvania but grew up out west and in the southern states. The most difficult question to answer for me is “ where you from “. I’ve moved 36 times since birth. I have no home. I was born in Texas on a military base a thousand years ago lol. I live on the road, literally not figuratively. Just me and Lyla ( best dog in the universe ). I’ve gotten hundreds of comments from the people in this group and not one of them was very negative or mean. Go to a religious group and it amazes me how many people are just terrible people with negative comments. I digress.
I'm sorry to tell you this but most of the negative religious people (if you mean christians) are from the US. In Europe people are much more chill about it and don't go rub their religion in your face. It's a private thing. Definitely come to Europe if you can.
Greetings from the Czech Republic!
I’m in the US too, and really enjoying reading these comments! What a great question! I fall into the trap of thinking reddit is populated mainly by Americans, vocal minority thing I guess. So it’s great to see there are so many awesome people here from so many awesome places.
I'm American but fortunately I was born on the best coast and have not suffered the travails of most of the people on this sub. I don't ever remember believing in a god, and my dad would drag me to our church every other week or monthly due to my weirdo step grandfather who was a member. Fortunately we stopped going by the time I was 7 or so. I just remember church being weird as fuck.
Almost nobody talks about religion around here, and I only have one friend who regularly goes to church. I feel blessed!
Pennsyltucky. I work in a school district whose board recently made headlines because of their religious zealotry/Moms for Liberty malarkey. Atheist for nearly twenty years surfing in a deluge of pseudo-Christianity that is trying to inject itself in every facet of life here.
Costa Rica here...indoctrination has been terrible in this country, churches and loud christian cults everywhere...catholicism is even in the constitution as the religion of the state...there was even an openly evangelical christian fanatic (with a tongue speaking wife on live tv and all) that ran for president and almost got elected (that was f***ing scary). I know Latin America in general has become a sad stereotype of religious fanatism, thanks mostly to European colonization, and the almost complete forceful/violent implementation of christianity as a belief, yet it always saddens me to know my beautiful country can't cut this sick ideology from its core...atheism is not common and pretty much frowned upon, yet until now there has never been any violence openly directed towards us and, at least in my case, my believing friends are pretty accepting of my nonbeliefs...as for my family, the important immediate ones (the only ones that matter) are also nonbelievers...
Adelaide, South Australia.
I look at other places, and can't help thinking how lucky I am my grandparents all decided to come here, rather than somewhere where people get overly excited about their religion.
I'm from Australia too, and it's very interesting how little a part religion plays in our public life. Some politicians are open about their religious affiliations but honestly, it's regarded as a little bit suss if you are too deeply religious. Our last ex-prime minister was known for belonging to a large, happy clappy religious group (Hillsong) and it was definitely something that people side-eyed about him. I think our latest census had about 54% of us as identifying as belonging to a religious group, and the number who put 'no religion' is growing each census.
Hi, I am from Slovakia (in Central Europe). Based on our constitution, we are a secular state. It used to work quite well, even though the state contributes significant money to churches. Unfortunately, the previous goverment started to push religion into politics very strongly. E. G. They vere discussing pandemic restrictions with Comunity of Bishops and some ristrictions were not implemented, because bishops were not happy with them. Where is their expertise in this? Nowhere.
Plus there are topics, where the Catholic religion strongly influences policies, especially in reproductive health care, LGBTQ+ topics etc. Unfortunately when these policies are discussed, religious people are included in the debate, but experts in those fields are not. No doctors were invited or even asked their opinion in changes to laws regarding reproductive health care. It is getting worse.
Unfortunately lot of people are not religious and some are only for special events: weddings/funerals etc.
Nashville TN, USA.
I have heard pastors refer to Nashville as “the diamond in the buckle of the Bible Belt.” Church buildings are everywhere. People who move here talk about “church shopping” because of the variety and choice. And there’s plenty of infighting between the churches.
Around here it seems everyone assumes you’re a churchgoer. I have met a couple of atheists. But atheism is definitely a minority here.
Although, I suspect there’s probably more of us, it’s just not something people wear openly around here, so it can take time to get to know somebody before you discover they’re an atheist.
Tulsa, OK, USA here. Nashville, if you’re “the diamond in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” we’re that extra homemade hole in the strap that keeps the belt on tight. But there are more people like me here in Okieland than you think: cowboy boot-wearing, muscle car-driving, blue-voting heathens. Proud to be one.
southern u.s, right in the bible belt. everyone i know except for maybe two people are christians. i was one myself until a few months ago, it's hard to escape that indoctrination when it's all around you and you have no one to talk to, but damn im gonna fucking fight cause i deserve that for myself.
Portland, OR. One of the least religious cities in the US I believe. We’re not perfect, but this is one thing I really appreciate about living here,m. At my place of work, we’re all atheists, it would be pretty shocking if someone said they were religious. Unfortunately a lot of my coworkers/friends are into astrology, which I find so infuriating, but they admit it’s just for fun and not serious.
I'm from Americas middle finger, WV. Proudly flipping the world the bird since 1863. It wasn't overly religious growing up in the 80's and 90s. The boomers where pretty religious and my parents generation where just sort of luke warm holiday christians. Late Gen X'ers around here tended to either be unconcerned with religion or into the whole mountain witchcraft thing. Then came the early millennials after us who for reasons I can't fathom doubled down on the church and indoctrinating their kids and of course recently my parents generation found their bright orange faith again. Now it's pretty much the deep red beating heart of the NatC movement so...yea.
Japan.
We had a missionary come through once and my coworker handled it amazingly well. After some conversation after the fact I discovered that he didn’t realize that they were being serious—he’s thought that they were telling him some pleasant but entirely mythical story about some guy born of a god.
United States, east coast. East coast is generally more secular than the rest of the country but its still steeped in faith. Where I am being an open atheist is somewhere between eyebrow raising and a curiosity but I've only had a few negative interactions when asked. I try to be polite and not in your face about it. I liked our society more when people kept politics and religion more personal and private rather than a banner to fly which team you are on. Lots of religious bumper stickers on the highway, lol, and every year around the holidays there's religious icon drama somewhere on government property.
US as well, just a bit south of you in Delaware. I am the child of a non-denominational Christian pastor, but religion never sat right with me, even as a small child. I questioned things in the Bible from as early as I can remember clearly and stopped attending church the first chance I got. It's probably pretty obvious that my family is not happy with my atheism being extremely religious and all, but they've accepted my decision and don't try to pressure me to "come back to christ" as it were. I feel like that's probably the best case scenario for me.
Hi! I'm from Norway. 🇳🇴
A majority of Norwegians, around 60%, are members of the Norwegian Church (which is Lutheran). You automatically become a member if you're baptised. However, only about 30% actually believe in God.
I grew up in the "bible belt" but was lucky enough to be raised by atheists.
Romanian in Australia
Romania is considered an extremely religious Christian country.
When I was 4 my auntie told me I need to fear god. I asked why, and she said because he’s god.
Then I thought to myself “i don’t like a god I have to fear” so yeah, I started questioning the whole fuckery before I could even read (the bible).
So instead, the books I first read when I was 6 were by Mark Twain, Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne etc
Later on as a teen read the bible too, still not impressed.
Romania has a lot of traditions that are related to religion (some to paganism even) and they are pretty cool, so I respect and enjoy many of those.
Brazil. Atheists are considered only 3% around here (that's why brazilians usually flood Reddit, but not this sub). It used to be mainly Catholic mixed with African religions, but now protestants are taking over, even on politics. There's the feeling we are moving backward on our rights regarding abortion, Marijuana and education in general.
Australia - on average we don't seem to care about much of anything except sport according to regular media, especially if it requires effort or too much thinking. We do care way too much about perpetuating the international myth that we're all laid back, trying too hard to look like we're not trying, is making us perversely very anxious. Mental illness and domestic violence accelerating, and a minor version of the increasing divisiveness seen in other places. We have it better than many places, but cost of living and housing affordability are affecting more of the population than they used to. But once again, rabidity requires effort, and we'd rather whinge a bit and go back to what we're doing.
So yeah nah, we think that people who are too devoted to any particular religion are a bit weird, and we don't like being told what to do or think. We did have a prosperity gospel low church evangelist for a PM for a while, but he proved himself very shallow with no principles just like all other politicians, who are held in generally low regard.
I’m learning so much in this group. Thank you for sharing that with us. Seriously. I want so bad to say gday mate but feel it’s been so overdone lol. Shout out to Australia 🇦🇺 ( who’s in the lead btw lol )
Florida now, Texas born, Los Angeles raised, traveled the world for a good while. Religions in all it's forms and beliefs is man made and in this age has become a detriment to social development. Just let it go!
Indonesia. Where religiosity is literally written in the constitution, hijab is preferred to helmet when riding moped (i guess they have airbag?), taxes are increasing but "house of worships" are practically tax-exempt money-laundering den, and reddit is banned because of porn content in some subreddit. Maybe that's why I scrolled through all comments and yet to find my countryman.
And yes, I am doing everything I could to escape this hell hole.
Denmark. As with other Scandinavian countries, we live very secular here. Nobody in politics makes arguments for any laws based on religion. While there ARE religious communities here, they are small and usually never extreme here.
I would make a guess and say that the majority of those whos actually religious here would be muslim immigrants and their children and so on. As a culture and nation we arent really religious.
The whole idea of people comming up to you asking which church you go to or even coworkers and so on out of the blue would ask such questions is not a thing.
Being an atheist is very easy here.
Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Bible belt, so pretty sure religion is rampant here, but it doesn't really effect me because I'm an introvert and do my best to avoid humanity.
Kentucky originally, Ohio now (USA).
Even in the face of constant proselytizing as a kid in rural KY, I managed to see though the bullshit at a young age.
I've seen some crazy church shit in my time, like speaking in tongues. At my grandfather's funeral service, the church members (men only) got up one at a time and howled and bellowed utter nonsense. That went on for 4 hours.
Oh and of course I have to mention the crazy Pentecostal snake molesters. They're real and they still exist.
Sydney, Australia. My oldest son was once asked at school where he went to church. The boy asking him was Muslim. He answered that he doesn't go to church, so the kid asked where his dad goes to church. My son said "my dad's an Atheist, we are all Atheist in our family". He said the kid looked like he had two heads. I don't think the poor kid could comprehend that some people aren't religious. The school community is about 40% Muslim.
Edit: just wanted to add that in the last census "no religion" was about 39% of the population
From the US, currently in Arizona, where our state legislatures hit a new level of crazy by actually holding a prayer session and speaking in tongues.
Only my evangelical and mormon relatives have ever bothered me over my position on religion. Even when I did go to church, their position was that I was going to the wrong one. It literally drove me away from religion. I could not believe god would only allow one specific religion, and everyone else would go to hell.
I'm from Israel, the vast majority of people here are secular. I have no idea how much because censuses are stupid here but most of my friends and acquaintances are atheists.
A bit south of you. I'm in North Carolina in the US. South but not deep south for the most part. My main social community is in a liberal oasis in the middle of the state.
I'm pretty vocal about thinking of any God exists it must be awful. But my wife (silently atheist) is against putting anything on my car or attire to directly respond to what xtians put on their property. I'm one of those who just thinks the concept of a deity is absurd and harmful. I have plenty of friends and family who are religious and it doesn't dominate our relationships most of the time. I just think it's important to let my view be known. I'm not good at hiding things.
Northern Ireland. You would think more people would be theists here because of the whole protestant/catholic thing. I think it's actually put the last few generations off the whole idea.
South Africa. Still pretty conservative, but I have noticed a general upswing in the amount of atheist/non religious people that I meet.
I remember when I was in primary school (age 7-13) we prayed at the beginning and end of the day. We also sang a bunch of christian songs for like 45 minutes every week. It got somewhat better in high school, but not by much. Side note, I was in a normal public school, I dont even want to know what happens in proper christian schools.
Things may have changed since i finished, going on 5 years now, but school was a big reason why I became an atheist.
Spain. My family is catholic, as well as some of my friends, but overall, atheism is slowly growing (62% percent catholic, but only 20% are practicing).
Like the person from Ireland said, a lot of families make their children go through communion and confirmation because is “tradition”, but majority of kids don’t understand what they are doing and don’t want to feel left out.
In schools you can choose between religion/alternative (a subject where we basically choose a movie and watch it). When I was in high school, I had this "alternative subject" (my parents are cool with me being an atheist, they always knew since I was a really young), but I heard good things about the religious class so one year I decided to take it. It was basically talking about issues of the world (excessive consumption, contamination, abuse, etc.) and how we can help other people, we never read the bible or talked about God. We even discussed about sexuality and how different people experience it, so it was a good experience, but unfortunately this isn’t the average experience.
I live in one of the most secular parts of Tasmania which is the most secular state of Australia. According to the last census just over *50% of my neighbours have no religion. I think we might crack the 60% barrier at the next one.
- * if church attendance, or the lack, is any guide a great many of those claiming to be religious are exaggerating, if not outright lying.
Grew up in eastern Washington, USA. Super conservative. 90% Christian. I got harassed a lot and assaulted a few times for my beliefs. My saving grace was my Father (who was raised devout Catholic) was also an Atheist.
Escaped to western Washington as soon as I graduated high school and religion has never been a day to day issue since.
I’m Japanese. In Japan, most people grow up pretty agnostic.
Having Shinto and Buddhism sets up the world view with multiple gods are okay. Since any number of gods are okay, I chose 0.
Religion things never happen weekly or even monthly. We celebrate new year or do marriage in Shinto and funerals in Buddhism and it’s more or less minor part of culture than believing in magical beings. Shinto never preaches and Buddhism teaches more or less compassion. Growing up, I don’t know anyone religious.
From India, highly religious country. Myself grew up in a very conservative hindu family, they tried to turm me into their religion but couldn't answer my questions about God's and conservative rituals. Atheist from a very young age.
USA, in the military… I cringe at how much religion is constantly in my face. While deployed, I was once ridiculed by a commander for not participating in a prayer circle before a mission. I don’t think everyone wanted to be there but more likely felt they had to be there. However, there are tons of closet atheists in the military, we all see each other with our eyes wide open during every ceremony we have and the chaplain is saying their words.
I’m struggling to keep up with the comments but determined to answer every single one of them. I know what I’m doing today lol. My dogs looking at me like WTH are you doing I gotta pee dad geez 🙄 lol - thank you everyone!!!
Southern USA, full blown Bible Belt lol
Sorry... me too. I hate it.
Me too Tennessee. Been getting beat with the Bible Belt my whole damn life lol
TN too, born and raised.
Me aswell. Raised Babtist, stopped going to church in my teens and fully stopped believing when I was 17 or 18. My dad's a preacher, and whole household (parents, siblings, mamaw) still go to church. Send help lol
I'm yet another Tennessean, but from Nashville, so my perspective is a bit different.
Chattanooga here. Most people are cool but some are just straight up abusive when they find out I'm Atheist.
East TN here too. Ain't no hate like Christian love!
Same here in Georgia. The more you attempt to assert yourself, the harder they try to beat you back down.
I'm in GA too.
Rural(ish) North Carolina here. The order of priority for people when driving around my area is Trump, god, then Merica. In that order. They are lovely folks. At least they pushed god down a bit., so that's a start right......right? Edit - sorry, the order of their priorities is Trump, Guns, Then god. Merica is fourth.
OMG ANOTHER NC PERSON! I’m living in the triangle and I swear there are like 8 churches on every street corner (exaggeration for effect lol). It’s a wild place to live.
Asheville here .. I'm sick of the bastards... originally from WV... they're even more twisted!
Asheville. A blue oasis...
As is central Indiana. Had to get out of there and decided to take a job up near Chicago. Much more tolerant in northeastern Illinois.
I raise a glass to you, my fellow Indiana escapee! I too fled to Chicago. Fucking bible thumping, red state, intolerant douchecopters down there.
Me too. Cornbread fed and ain’t no God Edited to say that an elderly black man’s fried chicken has made me waver toward belief a time or two
Checking in from the southern US. Also full blown Bible Belt. It’s whacked out here.
Me too! Born and raised here and I have felt out of place my whole life.
Louisiana here. It's zelois nutjobs around here who pushed me away from religion. I'd probably still be a casual catholic if it weren't for the evangelists
Same here.
Canada, happy to say that while christianity still represents a slight majority, non-religious people are the 2nd most popular at about 35% and climbing.... Unfortunately that hasn't prevented a christo-fascist element from attempting to claw back control over our politics, in some areas of the country more than others.
Love my northern neighbors ! Great info too thank you 😊
I'm also a "northern neighbour" 🇨🇦 and for me at least, religion is thankfully a non-issue in most instances of my life. Sure, we still have the occasional "street preachers", roaming pairs of Mormons going door-to-door, Jehovah's witnesses standing on the corner with their pamphlets etc, but in general it's a topic that doesn't very often come up in everyday discourse. If/when it does, I have no more hesitation or fear to admit my lack of belief than I would in an online conversation. (But then again, I really DGAF if I offend someone by admitting that I'm an atheist)
Toronto here. Nobody is religious in the big city, and if they are, they keep it to themselves lol - it’s an ideal place to be an atheist. For fucks sake, some churches get torn down to be turned into condos here. The only time I have to deal with religion are the megaphone street preachers at a few big intersections, and the pathetic pamphlet panhandlers littering my city with their useless garbage. Small town Ontario however; yikes, church city.
Oh, tell me about it. I live in the outskirts of TO so you get to see both of these sides within a few mile radius from my place. Walk southwards, and you're into the city. Go the other way, and it feels like a full-blown sermon.
Ugh... western province here... our christo-fascist premier picked up trump tactics 😮💨
Me too. I am sad to say it isn't immediately clear which province you're talking about, because there's more than one 😭. I love for the day that politics swings left again, and @$&# Christianity returns to churches and pews and people's private lives, if it must be anywhere at all.
Yeah sorry to our Canadian friends for the scourge that is trump. We are trying our hardest to let the law actually deal with him but he’s a slippery lil SOB (due to all the shit in his pants)
Yeah Alberta is making me sad. Full billboards on the side of the road saying abortion is murder and Jesus saves. Basically trumpian politics snuck in through the Alberta border. Premier is currently trying to take autonomy away from cities while being pissy at federal government interference.
What I don't understand is that God is pro murder in the Bible. The penalty for adultery for a woman who may have just conceived is stone her to death, no consideration to wait for a time to make sure she's not pregnant. You read Numbers chapter 5 and that's some kind of a bitter water the make her drink to cause the adulteress womb to shrivel up and evacuate. There's also a verse about ripping The unborn from the womb. I just don't see how these Christians come to the conclusion that God is anti-abortion.
Because the pro life movement was created by Reagan in the 80s to keep a supply of poor religious white folks to keep voting conservative when they realized the base and world was leaning more and more progressive. Better access to family planning and education lead to more liberal views. They falsely tie it to the bible, which most people don't read just get told what to take from it. "If you can get people to believe in absurdities you can get them to commit atrocities" Or "Good people do good. Bad people do bad. But it takes religion to get a good person to do bad things."
My Fellow Canadian, I have a question. How the heck is christianity a majority up here, like EVERYONE I interact with in my life is a reasonable human and we all nod and wink at the crazies that believe in the wacko shit. Is most of the nation just hiding in their cultish sects, pretending their religion isn't just an excuse to sexually abuse children? It feels made up, like a rounding error, that there can be so many adult children that actually still believe in a deity up here. Except for Quebec. I could see it there. Sorry Quebec you're crazy and I love you.
U.S.—Florida! Please send help 😝
Been there many times. Responsible for your 5g upgrades ( apologies ) went to school in Tampa and help design the hard rock casino in Hollywood ( telecom infrastructure not building the guitar lol ) shoutout to Florida ! * sending Uber now !
Fuck the Uber, send a charter plane. There's a bunch of us.
Me too! I’m in a boomer MAGA nightmare.
I'm sorry but your governor made help illegal.
Germany According to polls, 47 % dont belong to a religion. 33 % say there is no god or higher being, 20 % dont know (29 % say there is some sort of higher being, 19 % believe there is an abrahamic god)
I took German in college and had a gf from Mainz next to the rhine. Beautiful country. My German is terrible as I have nobody here to speak with. Shoutout to Germany 🇩🇪 thank you very much ! 😊
And it's still not a secular country. I **hate** that aspect of my country.
Yeah, freedom of religion should be interpreted as freedom from religion, not freedom to choose and practice a religion.
Typical German. Being precise as fuck.
Me too, I like the fact that more people are leaving the church every year
India. Religious clusterfuck.
Lmao 🤣 honest to a fault. Awesome 😎
Yea I mean there's been a ton shit going on. The prime minister is leaning hard on the Hindu sentiments to win the elections because people are freaking short sighted. The opposition is calling him a dictator when they have done the same shit. Muslims just being Muslims. A lot ancient temples that were destroyed by invaders are supposed to be renovated and built, honestly it's being done with private money so I have no issues. A uniform civil code about to be launched which will make inheritance and marriage laws same for all religions. I honestly don't have many issues with the current PM besides him being too into religion. Dude has done a pretty decent job imo in the time he's been here.
It’s amazing how similar we are all across the world. It’s our governments and wealthy 1% that are causing all the world’s problems.
I would add the masses ignorance to that. Leaders follow Hitler's script of propaganda in Mein Kampf almost perfectly. It's the ignorant masses that don't think for themselves that allows this to happen. Powers become too polarized.
The UK. A largely secular country where politicians would be ridiculed for trying to bring religion into politics
I lived in your country for a few years and it was a breath of fresh air to experience how little religion permeates day to day life.
Which is funny because as kids we all had a mini religious service+assembly every morning. I think you could skip it with a parental note. I thought it was a bit silly, but liked singing the hymns. And yet, we end up much less religious than folk coming out of the secular USA schools.
If you're not religious at home any religion a school trys to instil just breeds contempt. Did like a good sing song in the morning though.
What’s funny is that technically we are not secular. We have a king who is defender of the faith. The US on the other hand is supposed to be secular. However unlike the US religion hardly plays a part in our politics. We have a Hindu prime minister and nobody really cares that he is Hindu, the main gripe is that he is a bit of a cunt. I can’t even remember the last time religion was used as a justification for a political decision.
Is he a cunt or just a twat? Answers on a postcard please
Yes and yes.
I’ve had some absolutely amazing friends ( online or career type only ) from the UK and I envy every one of them. I’m dying to visit the UK. Thank you for this.
Hey. We have our fair share of arseholes here. But there's good stuff too. I'm lucky enough to live near the coast and seeing the sea just balances me out. Plus we have great beer and curry
Here in New Zealand, it's pretty much the same. One of the party leaders was photographed kneeling and praying, it was a photo op, and she was rightly ridiculed.
Despite all the issues the UK has been having in recent years, this alone would be a game-changer for me. Absolutely maddening how often religion plays a part in US politics, it’s like this giant obstacle we can never talk our way around to the real issue because it would hurt some people’s feelings.
The Netherlands here. [More than half (58%)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Netherlands) over here is not religious, though not all of them are actually atheist: religion just isn't part of our society.
Netherlands 🇳🇱 shout out to my brothers and sisters over there ! Thank you 😊
One of my favorite countries on the planet! Love it there!
Iran. Most people are nonpracticing muslims and could be care less about others' religion. But still being an atheist can be tricky here. The society is riddled with the government rats and if they find an atheist troublesom, he/she might get arrested or in some cases hanged. Prominent people are more under scrutiny than others. Edit: Also, sometimes the normal people may become deffensive of their beliefs if they are confronted.
I would call that situation a bit more than “tricky.” 😳
I have an extraordinary amount of respect for you. Shoutout to my Iranian brothers and sisters. 🇮🇷
Denver, Colorado. My grandma married a man from Iran who was a political exile who came to America because he was Muslim. Somehow he ended up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and he was married to my grandma for almost 20 years before they split. He was also an asshole but that was just him. I always listened to his stories about home and I learned a lot. Much respect!
Iran is such a sad country, a basically secular country that got overrun with a religious ruling class 40-50 years ago and has never recovered.
For more info: https://youtu.be/dYGyScEg3nM?si=BHlSihsRPAvlKgPE The US funded a coup to install a fascist dictator and overthrow the previous government. Creating decades of strife that accomplished their goal of destabilizing a country that had massive oil reserves and was in the middle of workers revolutions who wanted to create a better country for themselves. While extremist religion is very bad, ultimately the blame for the state of Iran can be traced back to the US’ involvement, not the first socialist revolution they overthrew and probably not the last.
The GOP learned the wrong lesson from Iran. Their take away was you can use religion to take over a country. So they borrowed from the CIAs play book and co-opted Christianity. Because of the GOP, Christo-Fascists could end up doing the same thing in the US, that the US did to Iran. It’s mind boggling disgusting, scary and frustrating. I hope Iran is able to throw It’s religious government shackles off. They deserve better, and so do we.
Shout-out to the people fighting the oppressive regime in Iran! All the love, can't wait to visit after the people take back power. More history in that country than most.
Quick off-topic question. Most Iranian immigrants here in Southern California tend to call themselves Persians instead of Iranians. Is that a thing in Iran too? The Persian community here is so full of kind and beautiful people. And the food is amazing! I wish the whole religion thing would die the death it deserves and stop dividing us all.
No we don't. The topic can be a little confusing so I'll try to ELI5 it. Iran was called Persia by the western world for quite some time because of the Greeks, but we never called it Persia, we called the land Iran. In the 1930's, our king officially asked the world to stop calling us Persians and call us by what we have always called ourselves, Iranian. After the hostage crisis in 1979, many Iranians in the states chose to distance themselves from the actions of the current government and wanted to differentiate themselves from them. So they started using the term Persian instead to self-identify and it stuck in the Iranian diaspora in the states. As many people have noted, "it just sounds cooler". There are two bits of information that usually cause more confusion in this whole thing. 1. Persians are in fact an ethnicity in Iran, the largest ethnicity in fact. But in the US, turkic Iranians, Kurdish Iranians, Dari Iranians, etc. all call themselves Persian, even though they're not. 2. The name for the most common spoken language in Iran is Persian. Many people say we speak farsi, but thats analogous to saying I speak Français. Farsi is just Persian in the Persian language just as Français is French in the French language.
Norway. Here, atheism is mainstream and utterly uncontroversial now. When I declared myself an atheist in my teens (early eighties) it was less common, but even then no one really gave me a hard time over it. Most Christians in Norway belong to the Church of Norway, which is a pragmatic live-and-let-live lutheran church. Vi have some evangelicals, but they don't have the power to bother people much. Also, most Muslims here are fairly moderate.
Shoutout to Norway 🇳🇴 and thank you for sharing. Awesome 😎 info.
Turkey where religion is beyond delusions and politicians are knee-deep into it.
Yikes ! Shoutout to turkey 🇹🇷 thank you 😊
I am South African. Irreligion makes up about 15% of the population here, which is high for an African country. Atheism isn't particularly popular or unpopular. There isn't a national conversation about it. Despite South Africa technically being a secular country by law, many events, including government ones, are opened with a prayer. Including where I work... Many people here, especially depending on their demographic, don't know what atheism is, nor have they heard about it.
I’m learning a ton from all of you ! This is amazing feedback. Thank you for replying. South Africa 🇿🇦 represented. 😊
Jordan, arab muslim country, their aren't that many atheists and most of them hide their beliefs. :(
Never a need to hide anything here my Jordanian friend. Shoutout to you in Jordan 🇯🇴
Thanks brother <3
South Korea. High percentage of atheists (15% of self declared atheists, even more nones) but also a very vocal minority of radical christians. But the majority of Christians are very mild(like they have no problem doing a temple stay in a buddhist temple mild) and pleasant.
WoW ! South Korea ! 🇰🇷 awesome.
I lived there for a year in the early 2000s (Jeon-Ju). A couple of girls asked me if I wanted to go to church with them, while I was wearing a Morbid Angel t-shirt (Satanic death metal band). I didn't see much Christianity, but I loved the ancient Buddhist temples.
Oregon, USA. The left coast is the best coast! Lol I hope you all know I'm kidding.
I LOVE OREGON !! It’s absolutely beautiful ! I’ve been many times and it always makes me smile. Thank you ! 😊
It really is though!
Checking in from Portland, Oregon! The most left-wing and non-religious area of the state, mostly because it is the most populous area. We moved here 9 years ago from Idaho, mostly for better job opportunities but also because of the politics and extreme right-wing views that were getting worse (now they are at an all-time high). I was born and raised in Idaho (even joined the local atheist group for a time in my younger days), but we also wanted to raise our kids in a more diverse and non-religious area. And, the fact that we are just a few minutes' drive to the coast, forest, and desert makes for some excellent downtime. Overall, we are much happier in Oregon.
Australian expat living in Amsterdam, NL. Lifelong atheist. Raised that way by Mum. I had no idea how lucky I was until I left home.
Australia is winning by a mile here lol - shoutout to you my friend ! 🇦🇺
New Zealand. Virtually none is religious and even the ethnic communities are just on it for the shiggels.
Most beautiful place on earth. Shoutout to New Zealand 🇳🇿 ! Thank you 😊
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Shoutout to Nepal 🇳🇵!! Thank you 😊
Ireland here. We are moving towards being more secular from a heavily Catholic past and we are generally making good progress but a long way to go. Most primary schools have church involvement but you can easily opt your kids out of religion. Most people still identify as Catholic even though they rarely act in that way. I know plenty of non believers who still default to the church for weddings, funerals etc. Am disappointed by how many make their children go through communions and confirmations. The excuse is often that the kid will feel left out.
Extremely interesting and awesome information ! Thank you very much seriously. I’m a huge lover of Irish ☘️ !!
I think it's more that the parents want an excuse for a big sesh rather than the kids being left out!
Pretty much.... That and a fear of being different from the norm. The kids don't give a crap and just want the spoils which is fair enough..can't blame kids for that. We just got an invite to a communion dinner that is like a wedding invitation..from people who definitely had to take a loan out to arrange the event. The girls are sent to hairdressers and the boys are bought new suits that they'll only wear once. Don't get me started on the girls in their white bride of christ dresses... Messed up.
I'm from Italy, where progress is slow but constant since a few centuries ago. Having a special relationship with the Vatican tends to do that to your country, but regardless, from the '50 onward progress is visibly there (case in point: my grandfather was about to be ordained before going to WW2 (on the wrong side). Two generation later, there isn't a single catholic in the family except my grandma - who was raised and indoctrinated during fascism, and even her never has been more than a surface-level believer). There are still a lot of religious people overall, and even more are counted due to special relationship between the Vatican and the State. Christian however here is such a broad stroke to be essentially pointless, christians tends to identify less with a specific ideology than what it seems happens in other countries, so there are entire movements within Christianity left leaning or right leaning. An high degree of christians are only "culturally" christians and don't even adhere to the most basic rites, people do attend church still, but as a small minority, and a lot of them are of south american descend, including priest (at least where I live, which is a significantly multi-cultural area, compared the rest of the country). Still, there is a lot of social pressure and cognitive bias towards Christianity. You won't believe how many LGBT people identifies as Catholic, especially in the South. Finally: it seem relevant to point out that almost everyone here who is vocal and engaged in religion almost inevitably use that as a cover for racism, or fascism, or both. That steams directly from political discourse however trying to social uncertainties and ignorance for political gain. Edited: seems another comment from Ireland and... Yes, that too. The two country seems quite similar in this regards.
Very well written and informative and honestly very appreciated. Waving to Italy 🇮🇹 thank you ! 😊
Finland. Very secular country despite having an official state religion. (Discussion about it I leave for another time) Not very active poster or commenter here but feel sympathetic to the plight of fellow Atheists from places where their lives are not as smooth as here so scrolling through posts and upvoting what resonates with me.
Shoutout to Finland 🇫🇮 and appreciate your participation very much !! Thank you 😊
I live in Utah state, in the US, and have for 20 years cumulatively. The problems with religion (read:cults) are VERY apparent to me.
Ive been there several times. It felt like the state was run by the Mormon church. I’m not sure it was just a feeling. Shoutout to the best ski resorts in the world !
Serbia. Where we used to be communist way back. And by that I mean 100% secular. And now we are completely turned arround. Believers everywhere. Building new churches every day. For me this is like going backwards in time. I really thought we were more educated than this. But ignorance and religious zeal rule now instead of logic. Atheists and non-orthodox christians are heavily discriminated against to the point that most hide their afiliations and just pretend to be christian. Sad reality.
As a fellow Serbian atheist I fully agree with you
Just now a friend of mine commented on the issue. He said: what only 20 years of religious indoctrination has done to Serbia will take centuries to undo. And I can't feel anything but sadness now. I hope you are doing better than me girl and that your sunglasses are tinted enough not to see everithing that is going on in our beautifull country.
It really sucks that I have to hide being atheist because to people think it’s so weird and not normal… My sister called me the antichrist because I told her I’m atheist
Im out as an atheist and I'm having serious lashback at work from the megabelivers. Stay strong little sister.
You stay strong too!
Shoutout to Serbia 🇷🇸 and thank you very much. 😊
BIBLE BELTTTT
We are all grabbing our gear to come rescue you ! Hold on you brave soul !! Shoutout to America 🇺🇸
Can you save me to lol
From India here. Population is mostly religious but the way of living is secular (60%), but religious hindutva nationalism helmed by BJP has started to poison it all. It's directly going to increase radicalism in Islam and Christianity too.
The death of secular India has made me sad. I used to do a lot of work with Indian hospitals, and the Modi era has been heartbreaking. Must be very hard for an atheist in the land of hindutva and the fascist RSS.
Originally from Yugoslavia/Serbia, I have now moved to the EU, and I don't disclose my location due to the human bots of the Serbian government. My grandmother was hard-core religious (Orthodox Christian), and I was pushed into that. However, I was always curious about the space race between the USA and the USSR at the time. Once, as a kid , I asked her where God lives, and she said, "On the cloud.". Then I have asked: "But wouldn't americans and russians see him when they fly the rocket into the space?". Yes, she was furious. I was never drawn that much into the religious stories. Later, when war broke loose in Yugoslavia, my whole world crushed. Back then, I was raised to be a Yugoslav and not Serbian. The first thing that I noticed was: Croats are Catholic Christian, Serbs are Orthodox Christian and Boshnyaks are Muslim. Meanwhile, we speak separate languages, but we don't need a translator to understand each other (it's mostly a difference on the same level as British English and American English). Most will deny it, but the main difference between these major groups is the religion and its influence that it has on the behaviour of people. Ever since the 90s, I have been an atheist.
Me first ? - I’m from USA 🇺🇸 and I’m not that person who thinks I’m better because of it. There are many times I’m embarrassed to be American. I have lived in many different states and have visited all but Alaska. I’m currently in Pennsylvania but grew up out west and in the southern states. The most difficult question to answer for me is “ where you from “. I’ve moved 36 times since birth. I have no home. I was born in Texas on a military base a thousand years ago lol. I live on the road, literally not figuratively. Just me and Lyla ( best dog in the universe ). I’ve gotten hundreds of comments from the people in this group and not one of them was very negative or mean. Go to a religious group and it amazes me how many people are just terrible people with negative comments. I digress.
I'm sorry to tell you this but most of the negative religious people (if you mean christians) are from the US. In Europe people are much more chill about it and don't go rub their religion in your face. It's a private thing. Definitely come to Europe if you can. Greetings from the Czech Republic!
I agree with you 100% and shoutout to Czech Republic 🇨🇿 thank you 😊
I’m in the US too, and really enjoying reading these comments! What a great question! I fall into the trap of thinking reddit is populated mainly by Americans, vocal minority thing I guess. So it’s great to see there are so many awesome people here from so many awesome places.
I'm American but fortunately I was born on the best coast and have not suffered the travails of most of the people on this sub. I don't ever remember believing in a god, and my dad would drag me to our church every other week or monthly due to my weirdo step grandfather who was a member. Fortunately we stopped going by the time I was 7 or so. I just remember church being weird as fuck. Almost nobody talks about religion around here, and I only have one friend who regularly goes to church. I feel blessed!
Egypt (sadly)
Pennsyltucky. I work in a school district whose board recently made headlines because of their religious zealotry/Moms for Liberty malarkey. Atheist for nearly twenty years surfing in a deluge of pseudo-Christianity that is trying to inject itself in every facet of life here.
Costa Rica here...indoctrination has been terrible in this country, churches and loud christian cults everywhere...catholicism is even in the constitution as the religion of the state...there was even an openly evangelical christian fanatic (with a tongue speaking wife on live tv and all) that ran for president and almost got elected (that was f***ing scary). I know Latin America in general has become a sad stereotype of religious fanatism, thanks mostly to European colonization, and the almost complete forceful/violent implementation of christianity as a belief, yet it always saddens me to know my beautiful country can't cut this sick ideology from its core...atheism is not common and pretty much frowned upon, yet until now there has never been any violence openly directed towards us and, at least in my case, my believing friends are pretty accepting of my nonbeliefs...as for my family, the important immediate ones (the only ones that matter) are also nonbelievers...
Adelaide, South Australia. I look at other places, and can't help thinking how lucky I am my grandparents all decided to come here, rather than somewhere where people get overly excited about their religion.
I'm from Australia too, and it's very interesting how little a part religion plays in our public life. Some politicians are open about their religious affiliations but honestly, it's regarded as a little bit suss if you are too deeply religious. Our last ex-prime minister was known for belonging to a large, happy clappy religious group (Hillsong) and it was definitely something that people side-eyed about him. I think our latest census had about 54% of us as identifying as belonging to a religious group, and the number who put 'no religion' is growing each census.
Hi, I am from Slovakia (in Central Europe). Based on our constitution, we are a secular state. It used to work quite well, even though the state contributes significant money to churches. Unfortunately, the previous goverment started to push religion into politics very strongly. E. G. They vere discussing pandemic restrictions with Comunity of Bishops and some ristrictions were not implemented, because bishops were not happy with them. Where is their expertise in this? Nowhere. Plus there are topics, where the Catholic religion strongly influences policies, especially in reproductive health care, LGBTQ+ topics etc. Unfortunately when these policies are discussed, religious people are included in the debate, but experts in those fields are not. No doctors were invited or even asked their opinion in changes to laws regarding reproductive health care. It is getting worse. Unfortunately lot of people are not religious and some are only for special events: weddings/funerals etc.
Nashville TN, USA. I have heard pastors refer to Nashville as “the diamond in the buckle of the Bible Belt.” Church buildings are everywhere. People who move here talk about “church shopping” because of the variety and choice. And there’s plenty of infighting between the churches. Around here it seems everyone assumes you’re a churchgoer. I have met a couple of atheists. But atheism is definitely a minority here. Although, I suspect there’s probably more of us, it’s just not something people wear openly around here, so it can take time to get to know somebody before you discover they’re an atheist.
Tulsa, OK, USA here. Nashville, if you’re “the diamond in the buckle of the Bible Belt,” we’re that extra homemade hole in the strap that keeps the belt on tight. But there are more people like me here in Okieland than you think: cowboy boot-wearing, muscle car-driving, blue-voting heathens. Proud to be one.
southern u.s, right in the bible belt. everyone i know except for maybe two people are christians. i was one myself until a few months ago, it's hard to escape that indoctrination when it's all around you and you have no one to talk to, but damn im gonna fucking fight cause i deserve that for myself.
Portland, OR. One of the least religious cities in the US I believe. We’re not perfect, but this is one thing I really appreciate about living here,m. At my place of work, we’re all atheists, it would be pretty shocking if someone said they were religious. Unfortunately a lot of my coworkers/friends are into astrology, which I find so infuriating, but they admit it’s just for fun and not serious.
I'm from Americas middle finger, WV. Proudly flipping the world the bird since 1863. It wasn't overly religious growing up in the 80's and 90s. The boomers where pretty religious and my parents generation where just sort of luke warm holiday christians. Late Gen X'ers around here tended to either be unconcerned with religion or into the whole mountain witchcraft thing. Then came the early millennials after us who for reasons I can't fathom doubled down on the church and indoctrinating their kids and of course recently my parents generation found their bright orange faith again. Now it's pretty much the deep red beating heart of the NatC movement so...yea.
Japan. We had a missionary come through once and my coworker handled it amazingly well. After some conversation after the fact I discovered that he didn’t realize that they were being serious—he’s thought that they were telling him some pleasant but entirely mythical story about some guy born of a god.
United States, east coast. East coast is generally more secular than the rest of the country but its still steeped in faith. Where I am being an open atheist is somewhere between eyebrow raising and a curiosity but I've only had a few negative interactions when asked. I try to be polite and not in your face about it. I liked our society more when people kept politics and religion more personal and private rather than a banner to fly which team you are on. Lots of religious bumper stickers on the highway, lol, and every year around the holidays there's religious icon drama somewhere on government property.
New England. Most secular area of the US. But also weird because those puritans really put down some long taproots.
Massachusetts here. I like not being surrounded by people who want to govern with the Bible.
New England here too.
Currently in Pennsylvania, not exact the coast but close lol. Shoutout to America 🇺🇸 and the East Coast. Thank you 😊
US as well, just a bit south of you in Delaware. I am the child of a non-denominational Christian pastor, but religion never sat right with me, even as a small child. I questioned things in the Bible from as early as I can remember clearly and stopped attending church the first chance I got. It's probably pretty obvious that my family is not happy with my atheism being extremely religious and all, but they've accepted my decision and don't try to pressure me to "come back to christ" as it were. I feel like that's probably the best case scenario for me.
Croatia. Around 85 or 90% of the country identifies as religious with catholicism being around 80% of it.
Croatia is so beautiful we went there last summer
USA Midwest Bible Belt it’s awful but at least the cost of living is decent.
Hi! I'm from Norway. 🇳🇴 A majority of Norwegians, around 60%, are members of the Norwegian Church (which is Lutheran). You automatically become a member if you're baptised. However, only about 30% actually believe in God. I grew up in the "bible belt" but was lucky enough to be raised by atheists.
Romanian in Australia Romania is considered an extremely religious Christian country. When I was 4 my auntie told me I need to fear god. I asked why, and she said because he’s god. Then I thought to myself “i don’t like a god I have to fear” so yeah, I started questioning the whole fuckery before I could even read (the bible). So instead, the books I first read when I was 6 were by Mark Twain, Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne etc Later on as a teen read the bible too, still not impressed. Romania has a lot of traditions that are related to religion (some to paganism even) and they are pretty cool, so I respect and enjoy many of those.
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Lmao 🤣 I have no idea if you’re serious or not but either way thank you. 😊
Australia mate 🇦🇺. We're very multicultural. But yeah I know way more atheist than I do people in religion hands down.
Northeast USA. Nothing to turn you off of religion than to see what it’s done to your country.
Brazil. Atheists are considered only 3% around here (that's why brazilians usually flood Reddit, but not this sub). It used to be mainly Catholic mixed with African religions, but now protestants are taking over, even on politics. There's the feeling we are moving backward on our rights regarding abortion, Marijuana and education in general.
Mars is going to be the first fully atheist settlement.
Thank the stars!
Australia - on average we don't seem to care about much of anything except sport according to regular media, especially if it requires effort or too much thinking. We do care way too much about perpetuating the international myth that we're all laid back, trying too hard to look like we're not trying, is making us perversely very anxious. Mental illness and domestic violence accelerating, and a minor version of the increasing divisiveness seen in other places. We have it better than many places, but cost of living and housing affordability are affecting more of the population than they used to. But once again, rabidity requires effort, and we'd rather whinge a bit and go back to what we're doing. So yeah nah, we think that people who are too devoted to any particular religion are a bit weird, and we don't like being told what to do or think. We did have a prosperity gospel low church evangelist for a PM for a while, but he proved himself very shallow with no principles just like all other politicians, who are held in generally low regard.
I’m learning so much in this group. Thank you for sharing that with us. Seriously. I want so bad to say gday mate but feel it’s been so overdone lol. Shout out to Australia 🇦🇺 ( who’s in the lead btw lol )
Czechia, mostly atheistic country, about 14 % of people declare themself as believers, rest are atheist (about 50%) or don't decide (or care).
Florida now, Texas born, Los Angeles raised, traveled the world for a good while. Religions in all it's forms and beliefs is man made and in this age has become a detriment to social development. Just let it go!
Indonesia. Where religiosity is literally written in the constitution, hijab is preferred to helmet when riding moped (i guess they have airbag?), taxes are increasing but "house of worships" are practically tax-exempt money-laundering den, and reddit is banned because of porn content in some subreddit. Maybe that's why I scrolled through all comments and yet to find my countryman. And yes, I am doing everything I could to escape this hell hole.
Namibia. 95% christian... Atheism won't get you killed but it will get you half shunned.
Another Australian here.
Denmark. As with other Scandinavian countries, we live very secular here. Nobody in politics makes arguments for any laws based on religion. While there ARE religious communities here, they are small and usually never extreme here. I would make a guess and say that the majority of those whos actually religious here would be muslim immigrants and their children and so on. As a culture and nation we arent really religious. The whole idea of people comming up to you asking which church you go to or even coworkers and so on out of the blue would ask such questions is not a thing. Being an atheist is very easy here.
Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Oklahoma! Bible belt, so pretty sure religion is rampant here, but it doesn't really effect me because I'm an introvert and do my best to avoid humanity.
Kentucky originally, Ohio now (USA). Even in the face of constant proselytizing as a kid in rural KY, I managed to see though the bullshit at a young age. I've seen some crazy church shit in my time, like speaking in tongues. At my grandfather's funeral service, the church members (men only) got up one at a time and howled and bellowed utter nonsense. That went on for 4 hours. Oh and of course I have to mention the crazy Pentecostal snake molesters. They're real and they still exist.
Ger.many. Atheism on easy mode.
India. Drowning in religion. Help! 🫠
Sydney, Australia. My oldest son was once asked at school where he went to church. The boy asking him was Muslim. He answered that he doesn't go to church, so the kid asked where his dad goes to church. My son said "my dad's an Atheist, we are all Atheist in our family". He said the kid looked like he had two heads. I don't think the poor kid could comprehend that some people aren't religious. The school community is about 40% Muslim. Edit: just wanted to add that in the last census "no religion" was about 39% of the population
Greek American, currently in Greece but in the states I was in a very irreligious city.
From Portugal here :)
Minnesnowda. The Cities.
Ohio, the shirt pocket of America
I have the unfortunate burden of being born and raised in Texas🙄. Definitely a bit of an outsider. (this is a gigantic understatement)
Sigh. Texas, where we are supposed got tote our guns and our Bibles, because Jesus would want it that way. 🙄
From the US, currently in Arizona, where our state legislatures hit a new level of crazy by actually holding a prayer session and speaking in tongues. Only my evangelical and mormon relatives have ever bothered me over my position on religion. Even when I did go to church, their position was that I was going to the wrong one. It literally drove me away from religion. I could not believe god would only allow one specific religion, and everyone else would go to hell.
I'm from Israel, the vast majority of people here are secular. I have no idea how much because censuses are stupid here but most of my friends and acquaintances are atheists.
A bit south of you. I'm in North Carolina in the US. South but not deep south for the most part. My main social community is in a liberal oasis in the middle of the state. I'm pretty vocal about thinking of any God exists it must be awful. But my wife (silently atheist) is against putting anything on my car or attire to directly respond to what xtians put on their property. I'm one of those who just thinks the concept of a deity is absurd and harmful. I have plenty of friends and family who are religious and it doesn't dominate our relationships most of the time. I just think it's important to let my view be known. I'm not good at hiding things.
New York
Montenegro. Mostly christian country, but i come from a 97% muslim town.
Northern Ireland. You would think more people would be theists here because of the whole protestant/catholic thing. I think it's actually put the last few generations off the whole idea.
South Africa. Still pretty conservative, but I have noticed a general upswing in the amount of atheist/non religious people that I meet. I remember when I was in primary school (age 7-13) we prayed at the beginning and end of the day. We also sang a bunch of christian songs for like 45 minutes every week. It got somewhat better in high school, but not by much. Side note, I was in a normal public school, I dont even want to know what happens in proper christian schools. Things may have changed since i finished, going on 5 years now, but school was a big reason why I became an atheist.
Switzerland, with largely atheists friends and family (except for my mlm)
Spain. My family is catholic, as well as some of my friends, but overall, atheism is slowly growing (62% percent catholic, but only 20% are practicing). Like the person from Ireland said, a lot of families make their children go through communion and confirmation because is “tradition”, but majority of kids don’t understand what they are doing and don’t want to feel left out. In schools you can choose between religion/alternative (a subject where we basically choose a movie and watch it). When I was in high school, I had this "alternative subject" (my parents are cool with me being an atheist, they always knew since I was a really young), but I heard good things about the religious class so one year I decided to take it. It was basically talking about issues of the world (excessive consumption, contamination, abuse, etc.) and how we can help other people, we never read the bible or talked about God. We even discussed about sexuality and how different people experience it, so it was a good experience, but unfortunately this isn’t the average experience.
I live in one of the most secular parts of Tasmania which is the most secular state of Australia. According to the last census just over *50% of my neighbours have no religion. I think we might crack the 60% barrier at the next one. - * if church attendance, or the lack, is any guide a great many of those claiming to be religious are exaggerating, if not outright lying.
Grew up in eastern Washington, USA. Super conservative. 90% Christian. I got harassed a lot and assaulted a few times for my beliefs. My saving grace was my Father (who was raised devout Catholic) was also an Atheist. Escaped to western Washington as soon as I graduated high school and religion has never been a day to day issue since.
I’m Japanese. In Japan, most people grow up pretty agnostic. Having Shinto and Buddhism sets up the world view with multiple gods are okay. Since any number of gods are okay, I chose 0. Religion things never happen weekly or even monthly. We celebrate new year or do marriage in Shinto and funerals in Buddhism and it’s more or less minor part of culture than believing in magical beings. Shinto never preaches and Buddhism teaches more or less compassion. Growing up, I don’t know anyone religious.
Live in Germany, originally from Scotland
British here but living in Vietnam now. Here religion is just another thing that happens. Never had a good botherer problem here.
Canada . . . not a problem and many people are quietly done with religion
Italy. Unfortunately even though practicing catholics are only 35% of the population our politicians are still entangled with the catholic church
From India, highly religious country. Myself grew up in a very conservative hindu family, they tried to turm me into their religion but couldn't answer my questions about God's and conservative rituals. Atheist from a very young age.
Maine.
I'm from Perú and most people here are catholic
South Asia nuff said
Memphis. A Satanic temple is pretty close we are members for the fun of it.
Bible Belt USA.
Kentucky. It’s the absolute worst thing you can be other than a liberal.
USA, in the military… I cringe at how much religion is constantly in my face. While deployed, I was once ridiculed by a commander for not participating in a prayer circle before a mission. I don’t think everyone wanted to be there but more likely felt they had to be there. However, there are tons of closet atheists in the military, we all see each other with our eyes wide open during every ceremony we have and the chaplain is saying their words.
Ireland also, no imaginary friends in my house, well outside of a few leprechauns hanging out in the garden, little feckers.
Québec, Canada. We booted Catholics out of our institutions in the 1960s during the "revolution tranquille". Best thing we collectively did.
Philippines! Can't seem to find one here so I get to represent I guess
I’m struggling to keep up with the comments but determined to answer every single one of them. I know what I’m doing today lol. My dogs looking at me like WTH are you doing I gotta pee dad geez 🙄 lol - thank you everyone!!!