Why don't most Atheists come out into the public ? is it that hard?

Question

I mean sure there are objections and people will try to convert you and sometimes hurt you. But If an 18 year old like me can publicly say it out loud (in the real world) why don't aged people who stand on their own legs come out??

Silent Atheists, Why don't you show yourselves? Everything in this world you see today had people who worked for it! Why live the life of a coward??

Believers, I know you will say something bad and try to hurt me, please don't. I'm a person too. Just have a normal question-answering than making this a fight. We don't start fights when you say god exists. Only foolish atheist do that.

This question is for Atheist/Agnostic, tell me, tell the world.

IT WASNT EASY FOR ME EITHER! I'll GET THERE! http://stumblespot.blogspot.com/2006/11/atheist-arguments.html

LOOK AT THE RATINGS OF THIS QUESTION, WHAT DO YOU SEE?

The ratio of atheist who understood the question is far less than that of believers. so I got more thumb downs.

Its 1:4 now. 4 believers were scared that their children would come out and "disgrace" their name. 1 person made the right choice, or planned to make it. - thankyou.

Answer 1

There isn't many community meeting places/gatherings distinctively for people without religious affiliation. I personally don't like the term "atheist" but am firmly a person of no religious affiliation whatsoever. I don't subscribe to any system of beliefs and don't particularly like being grouped into any category at all, other than "person". I don't care what other peoples' affiliations are and I don't care what they believe. I find it very irritating when people tell me that I will spend an eternity in flames for not recognizing the grand authority of some entity or another, but I am as intimidated by this rhetoric as I am of threats upon my life posed by goblins or the boogie man. I think it's sad that my son in kindergarten gets rocks thrown at him at school after declining Bible session invitations from Christian children who tell him that "god and Jesus will come and put him on fire forever" when all he said to them was "we don't believe that". Whatever
I teach my children to do the right thing...
to have a good work ethic
to pay taxes
to obey society's laws
in general -to take care of their responsibilities
to be "good" as defined by the results and outcomes of their actions.
I have ZERO motivation for conversion under the pretence that any sort of omnipotent entity in whom I hold no belief would like to love and judge me and then reward or punish me based upon my performance and actions. I don't really understand what other peoples' motivation for this is either, but once again...whatever.
I would just like to have a community place to go where people could hang up all their religions, and theories, and speculations of the unknown at the front door and be with, and enjoy each other, without Jesus, without Muhammad, without Jehovah, without categorizations, without I'm smarter than you, or I hold more favor in the eyes of some god thing...just as people. Why is that so hard to understand? And why is it me who needs converting? I think I'll repost this as a question.

Answer 2

In America, there is still religious discrimination, even though it's technically illegal.

Unless your boss says, "I'm not promoting any damn atheists," you cannot really prove religious discrimination when you are overlooked for a promotion. Some companies have a rating system that is fairly objective. In those cases, the atheist (or just any non-Christian) has a means to go back and say, "According to these numbers, I was the better choice over Bible Bob over there." But without objective rating, it's your word versus your boss that he picked someone else because of religious belief instead of merit.

So, some atheists keep things even by not revealing his "heathen" nature to his boss.

It's easy to stand up for your beliefs when you're 18 and have a whole world of jobs ahead of you. It's different when you're 60 and have a limited field ahead of you.

And despite the idea that Christians are supposed to be peaceful, this is not true for all of them. The more rural areas tend to be more vocal about their hatred of non-Christians. Some non-Christians don't want to be vandalized or assaulted by Christians (it's a sad day when I would have to type out that oxymoron).

I'll tell people I'm an atheist if I'm asked by someone I feel is not psychotic. If I get the impression that the person is just looking for an excuse to go ballistic, then I find another topic.

Edit: Apologies for assuming it was easy for you. I took a different approach at reading your question, and I made some assumptions I shouldn't have. I suppose it's not easy for anyone, especially in America. You do have a slight advantage at being young, since you are more likely to bounce back if you do suffer some reprecussions (unless they're physical reprecussions, but those are thankfully rare). So, take advantage of that youth.

Answer 3

Some atheists have a lot to lose. They can't tell family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers because they may face discrimination. In some places, people don't care and atheists can be open about themselves. In other places, being open can come with a lot of problems. People get shunned by family. People lose customers or are even refused service in some businesses. There is lots of evidence of atheists being discriminated against in child custody cases.

People are more willing to vote for a woman, a homosexual, a Muslim, or a black person for president than an atheist. People might vote for a black Muslim transsexual lesbian over an atheist. Note: I wouldn't mind voting for such a person if I agreed with them, but if such a person experiences less prejudice than an atheist, that says something about how despised atheists are.

You may have it easy, and if so that's great. You shouldn't assume, though, that everyone else has it as easy as you.

Answer 4

It's difficult though. Religion is a touchy subject and especially in this country, where the VAST majority of people are theists, being an atheist or skeptic isn't always taken very well. I live in an extremely religious town, and if I made it known that I'm not a churchgoer or even worse, not a Christian, I would generate way more controversy than I need. It's not that I'm embarrassed or afraid, though; in fact I'm very proud of my spirituality. It's just that I like to keep my beliefs private. I find that that works best.

Answer 5

I have begun to. I deconverted from Christianity.

So far, "coming out" has not been a pleasant experience. Some people have accepted it, and some people have looked at me like I just went green in the face, followed by feeling "sorry" for me and showering me with tracts and anti evolution literature. *sigh*

And my family? My father would have understood and would have let me be. I tried to tell one of my brothers, and he kinda got whiny about it - and that was just when I was briefly calling myself deist. Another of my brothers is a very devout Christian and I think he'd kinda flip out.

But I'll get there. One step at a time. One thing I will not do is lie. If the conversation turns to the question of my religion or what have you, I will answer honestly.

Answer 6

Doing that would be pointless and just a little bit ridiculous. I mean should we all proudly proclaim all our disbelief's to the world to demonstrate our courage in the face of adversity? Maybe we should all get on a soapbox and stand on street corners shouting at passers by like some of the Witnesses for Christ do? Attention world, everybody listen up, take note, I don't believe in voodoo, tree spirits, fairy tales, garden gnomes, eating raw dead fish or... blah blah blah, so there! Besides, what if there was a group from the garden gnome convention eating lunch at a Japanese restaurant across the street from my soapbox corner and decided to take issue with me about my Sushi/Statuary blasphemy! Would all that trouble over something I don't believe in be worth it?

Answer 7

To have a voice in the society we need regrouping .Regrouping mean leader. maybe that why I'm atheist, because i dont need a leader in my life.

Atheist is an absence of faith not a presence of an 'unfaith'. therefor there nothing to discuss about .

Agnosticism on the other side is not exactly the same as agnostic can still have the question of the existence of god in mind , can debate about it.

I still believe in something. human create god to explain the unexplainable.

Answer 8

My father was an agnostic, but he never stoped my mother from raising us catholic. And, yes, I am a Catholic not a Christian. My dad was never ashemed to say he was agnostic, we had some very interesting discussions about religion in my house. He simply did not believe in religion or the "hoopla" surrounding it. Maybe, Atheists are afraid to come out because of the ill feelings against them. Maybe they are afraid of being attacked. By the way, I would never have tried to hurt you. Your belief is as important to you as mine is to me.

Answer 9

I tell anyone who wants to know that I'm an atheist. My family knows, my friends know, sheesh, even my coworkers know.

Yes... it is that hard. Many times, people will look at you in a whole new, and very negative, light. You could be shunned by friends and family if you refuse to "stop denying" their faith and deity. You could be fired or refused work based on non-belief. You could be refused the right to testify in open court. You could be blocked or barred from running for public office.

Answer 10

Its not an issue in England. People just get on with their everyday lives,and even if you told people you were atheist they wouldn't bother because most are themselves anyway. I don't know anybody religious. I think most are pensioners who are here.