Something that I Need to get off my chest.
Offline Hello everyone,
First of all you need to pardon my English, I moved to the US not long ago an my English still
not as good as it should be (but I'm working on it), here is my story.
I was born an raised in Madrid, Spain. from a catholic family... although I was baptized and went
to church every Sunday as a kid, when I got into my teens I began to question the idea of
a god and soon after became an atheist, my parents were ok with it and all of my friends and
family too (expect my grandparents). As I grow up it was never even a relevant thing The fact
of it I was or not a religious person, I know that in my country atheist are a much bigger
percentage than in the US (about 20%) and in my professional field (Astrophysics) this percentage
is close to a hundred, but my point is that I never felt that it was of any relevance on any
of the aspect of my life, I could have friends that were religious and they knew it and that will be
of no relevance to our friendship.
But since I moved to the states I noticed that religion, has a much larger roll, it is something
that I have to be aware when I try to get in relationships with other people and it has cause
me to be very private about telling people about me not believing in god, something of which
I would never be afraid of telling people in my country of origin. but here I'm sort of living
"in the the closet" not of sexuality but religious one.
I moved to the states about 9 months ago now and I could not be happier I had the opportunity to
develop professionally in ways that I could never do in Spain. This is without a doubt a place where
hard work is recognized and rewarded, the mentality and vision of many things here is way ahead of
that of my place of origin... yet in the particular issue of religion I find it shockingly retrograde
and sometime plain irrational.
Please do understand that I do not mean to be insult in any way the place that has giving me so much
more that I could ever expect. but I had to share this with other people.
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You aren't saying anything surprising. The US is a bit crazy and irrational when it comes to religion. I live in a southern state and they can be even more rabid about religion.
Welcome to the forum.
Hope you tell us more about your experiences. Are you finding issues at your work in the US?
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
Yeah - there are plenty of religious whackos in the world. Don't feel alone. I think in Australia 25 per cent are atheist. Same in the UK. In the US it's about 15 per cent, I think. And there's a stigma attached to atheism in the US. A bigotry. It's not at bad where I am in Oz. Here, we have an atheist prime minister who is not married but truth is, her atheism was a point of criticism during the election. As if atheists are by definition immoral.
We should not be surprised, however, given monotheism has been openly demonizing unbelievers since the invention of the written word. Personally, I'm not quiet about my unbelief. I'm an increasingly hostile atheist and there's no chance I would not challenge believers over their assertions every day. If I lived in the US, I'd be fucking apoplectic. If I lived in the middle east I'd be dead.
Congrats on your unbelief and welcome to the site. You'll always find plenty of like minds around here.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
........to the forums. I am in Canada, near Toronto where it is NO problem being atheist; at least for me. Canadians are genaraly easy going or maybe it is because I'm large and overbaring theists just shy away from me when I declare I'm atheist. Visit Canada some time in the near future, you'll notice the difference.
"Very funny Scotty; now beam down our clothes."
VEGETARIAN: Ancient Hindu word for "lousy hunter"
If man was formed from dirt, why is there still dirt?
What part of the country are you living in ?
I live in the south eastern area of the country and I can tell you that the churches and ignorant religion has a stranglehold in most of the communities.
I am an open Atheist, but I live in a larger city. While Atheists are pretty much hated here (especially if your a Yankee Atheist) it is not as bad as it is in the smaller towns.
However, I have to ride by church billboards every morning, promising me eternal damnation if I do not "open my heart to jesus" and one of the main highways here has a miniature Statue of Liberty, holding a cross, with a giant engraving that says : AMERICA TURN TO BACK TO CHRIST !
The letters to the editor in my local newspaper were filled with irrational responses over the Sandy Hook shooting, that blamed everything from gay marriage, secular society and lack of prayer in the schools.
Mathew Alper points out that the U.S. is a bit of an anomaly, in his book, The God Part of The Brain. The stats here are higher than in Europe and much of Western civilization.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
According to The British Social attitudes report (http://www.natcen.ac.uk/study/british-social-attitudes-26th-report/our-findings) The UK is 51% non-religious, with 43% Christian. Yay us!
Welcome to the boards Imaa - always good to have an astrophysicist around the place to talk space-time and destroy the Kalaam occasionally - hope you stick around.
i live in a southern state as well Tennessee and part of my inlaws family is from south carolina... its crazy how radical christians can be... there are the live and let live xstians around here but good luck finding one... we have ETSU campus where i live so alot of culteral diversity comes through the area. but damn some of the things ive heard such as "they took god out of schools and thats when the education system went to hell" or "its the countrys tolerance of queers thats causing all the problems" your going to hear all sorts of irrational and downright crazy ideas.. my advice is to do what i do and just sit back and watch the entertainment but be wary lol
Chris
Facts are facts. America is crazy when it comes to religion. Criticize away. No one gives a damn.
Part and parcel with the reward for good work is NO GRATITUDE expected. If you are earning your pay that is all anyone cares about and that is between you and the guy who signs your paycheck. No one else. No one gave you anything. Getting hired over here was a rational transaction not doing you a favor. LOSE that attitude. You will sooner or later and the sooner the better.
Yes there are some people who are just plain rude and make and issue of ingratitude. They are just looking for attention. In the real world the issue will never come up.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml
Welcome!
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.