Fellow Atheists: Are you afraid to let anyone at work know that you don't believe in God?

Question

I sometimes am concerned that my lack of belief will be discovered by my bible thumping director and used against me. Being that we are in a non-protected class (only religious nutheads get discrimination protection) and would have no recourse, do you ever let it be known that you don't believe?

Answer 1

i worked at a 1st baptist church .. I ran the daycare for 2 1/2 years and just recently quit.

tho i dont disbelieve.. but dont believe.. i just couldnt' care less if some sort of god existed.

2 stories..just to humor you..

a few weeks ago I blew.. lol .. I was watching the Sunday school teacher .. teach my 3 year old class about Noahs arc using some toys. .. when they all went outside to play.. i just very kindly asked her what the bible said about carnivores.. or what the animals ate. She didn't understand me.. or where I was coming from which surprised me.. so I had to explain to her that many carnivores exist today. and we are omnivores.. and that had to come from somewhere. So i again kindly asked her what the bible said about that. Well.. she could never answer my question except she doesn't believe in evolution .. which is fine.. whatever..
and thats when I told her I wasn't a religious person .. and never will be.

she was like talking to a wall. I dont mean that as an insult to her or anyone else who is bible strict.. but.. they (people like her) need to put some effort into understanding basic science .. scientific evidence and theories if i'm to understand their bible.. We both dont have to agree with eachother.. but at least understand eachother .. so we dont seem like idiots


the following Sunday and another school teacher made me question her. She was teaching my class about the story of The Good Samaritan.. a bible story for kids. so story goes.. a man was fallen bare in the street.. some crooks stole his clothes and his food . Hours went by whe 2 men past him and wouldn't help.. but the 3rd man was kind and sheltered him and gave him food.. the good samaritan.

WHICH IS GREAT.. teach the kids the story.. tell them how kind it is to be good to one another.. BUT when she was telling the story.. she kept saying .. THE BIBLE SAYS .. you should help one another.. THE BIBLE says.. to be kind .. THE BIBLE says not to steal etc.. so i asked her if she always taught children that THE ONLY source that morals come from is the Bible ... she looked at my blankly .. and i again had to explain to her that morals and values dont just come from the bible... its our human nature. People with no religion certainly have morals just like anyone else .. or like many people in the world. Well.. she said "YES.. we teach them that morals ONLY come from the Bible". which another words.. is teaching children that any other person is Immoral.. or is a *bad person* if you dont believe what they believe. I didnt' argue with her.. i didn't disagree with her.. i just nodded my head.

anywho.. TO FINALLY ANSWER your question .. lol

For the last 6 months with them I fet comfortable with working there.. everyone assumed i was Christian and would always make comments towards me in which i would have to lie... such as.. What are you doing for easter.. ? in which i lied instead of saying.. I"m Not Doing A Damn THing lol... so after that last incident with the sunday school teacher.. I was later worried that a rumor would get to my manager that I was atheist or something.. which i'm not but whatever.. So I went to talk to her and casually brought up the topic . I wanted to admit where i stand ..not b/c I have problems with the church .. or anyone there.. but that I didn't feel myself around them unless they knew. I had already made up my mind.. that If she had a problems with what i believed.. or .. disbelieved.. then I WOULD GLADLY LEAVE.. but.. she didn't.. and neither does anyone else..

soo.. everyone now knows where I stand.. and they are not judgemental towards me.. nor do they try to convert me..
and now I have more of those types of conversations with a few of the Christians there who are more open minded.. and we respect eachother well ..

I never thought i would have a problem working. The job was recommended to me by a friend (non religious as well) b/c I was looking to make some extra $. and When I applied they did not ask my religion. For the 1st 2 years I was with the babies.. not the adults.. but that changed ..and I got switched to the older class where I got stuck watching them teach or brain wash lol the children. I decided to leave 6 months later.

Dont get me wrong.. tho our views were completely different.. they were wonderful people and still respeced me after I admited I wasn't one of them.. i just couldn't stand to sit there and listen any longer to their teachings. It would have not been good for me to be annoyed at work all day lol.


Soooo.... do you know where the other employees stand ? are they religious ?? If you're director keeps making religious comments towards you.. and it seems that he assumes you are chrisitan.. Then tell him..

IF That Is Really Eating You Up .. the fact that you gotta keep that a secret.. Then Tell Them. ..But Keep In Mind it May Cost you your job .. And if you are ok with that.. then tell him. If you dont want to loose what you have.. then dont .. keep your mouth shut... espeically if hes not directing it towards you.








good luck

Answer 2

Other than here at R&S I rarely even think about religion, but if I did it would be no bother at my office in Greenwich Village, for I founded the organization, which is international, and I am its producing artistic director. My atheism is known by everyone on the staff--one of whom is a devout Catholic and several are Jewish and another is Islamic--, and there is no reason to bring up religion among the families and children with whom we work. New York City is not Kansas.

Answer 3

I have a large "Goddess Bless America" bumpersticker on my bulletin board in my office. It's not the same, but I do try to let it be known that I am spiritual and not Christian or Jewish. Most people have some inkling that I'm a witch, although they don't really know what that means... but that's okay because I'm not fully clear on that myself!

I did have one bad experience where a guy asked me about doing spells for him, which I don't do for several reasons, primarily because people fail to understand that a spell is really just a prayer with more rules. First of all, do your own praying... I'm not the Virgin Mary. But secondly, even if I do cast a spell for you, it can't mess with anyone's free will, so really all it can be for is changing the person in a way that will help them attain what they want, and that's generally not what they want me to do. They want some big poof to make their worlds perfect and - big shocker - that's not how it works.

Anyway, I almost never do spell work because it is very tiring and it really has to be VERY important to me to do it, but this guy was asking me about it and he was being respectful and such, but someone else came in, asked what we were talking about, and he was really obnoxious about it, telling me I was crazy, and evil and so on. I said "Hey, I wasn't talking to you. You wanted to know, so I told you, but if you don't really want to learn about what I believe, then just bugger off." He was generally a really nice guy, too, so that creeped me out a bit. But that was the only problem I've had (besides a crazy guy who was convinced I was cursing hem... but I wasn't even a witch then).

I think we have an atheist or two here... I don't remember. Not a big deal to me.

Answer 4

Well, I am an agnostic, but I don't discuss my religious beliefs at work, because I know some of my co-workers would treat me like crap, but I don't worry about losing my job over it, because management is very reasonable, and the director of HR is a wonderful kind woman, and she and I get along great, so I can't imagine that anyone in management would allow me to be fired over that. But some of my co-workers are rather bitchy & catty and would allow something like that to be an excuse to be even more bitchy & more catty to me, and I really don't want to give them an excuse.

BTW, if you lose your job over your atheism, and you can prove that is the reason, you have legal grounds to sue your employers. The civil rights protection statues apply to atheist also.

Answer 5

It's generally good practice to not discuss politics or religion at work (or around your in-laws).

I make the occasional comment - though I'm not necessarily an atheist. I'm definitely not christian, or any other religion. I have found a few people at my job who I feel comfortable discussing that kind of thing with, but for the most part I leave it alone.

If you want to keep working at the job, and they aren't forcing you to pray or anything, then just smile, nod, and go back to work if anyone makes a comment regarding their imaginary friend in the sky.

Answer 6

The boss is a Buddhist if anything, my "supervisor" may be Russian Orthodox if anything, there are two or three Roman Catholics, two Hindus, one non-practising Muslim who however will not touch pork and someone who may actually be Shinto or maybe Buddhist. The rest of us are various brands of Protestant including probably Dutch Reformed, probably Presbyterian, possibly Lutheran and Anglican. The question of religion is not mentioned. I wonder why?

I'd say the only religious person is one of the Hindus.

Answer 7

I don't tell anyone offline. The religious people I know tend to remind me over and over how much they expect me to be religious in order to be good, so I worry about what would happen if I ever came out of the closet as an atheist.

Answer 8

Luckily for me, I work at the National Science Foundation and am surrounded by scientists and other learned people -- the kind who don't generally get bamboozled by religious nonsense....

Outside of work ,or when dealing with the non-scientists here, I tend to adopt David Hyde Pierce's philosophy regarding his homosexuality: "My life's an open book, but I'm not going to read it to you."

Answer 9

I try not to talk about it, but if someone starts spouting religious crap, while assuming everyone agrees with them, I respond.
I never mention it unless someone else brings it up because I don't see it as a topic for work. But I will defend my right to not be preached to when it becomes an issue.

Answer 10

Everyone where I work knows that I'm an atheist and very few are bothered by that fact. They are more concerned if I've got the ability to do my job well and not get anyone killed (yeah I have one of those types of jobs).