What kind of problems are there between Non-Believers and Believers in the U.S.A. nowadays?

Question

I don't live in the USA. The religious situation in my secular country in Western Europe is quite different from yours.

I would like to understand what are the problems between Non-Believers and Believers in the USA nowadays.

Thanks a lot for your answers :-)
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Answer 1

Of course the largest problems atheists and seculars face is when believers (esp. Christians) try to pass their religious laws over us.

-outlawing abortion
-teaching creationism
-not permitting gays to get married (or even have civil unions)
-trying to put all of their religious documents in our government buildings
-organized prayer in public schools

-they also start wars based on religion (Bush said that God told him to invade Iraq).


If it was not for these things, believers would probably be left alone.

Answer 2

A significant minority of the believers want to legislate based on their beliefs.

The non-believers and a separate minority of the non-believers want to stop the first group from turning the country into a theocracy.

The majority of the believers are in the middle. Generally left alone they would let the theocrats have their way. However, when the anti-theocratic (pro-democratic) group point out the huge flaws and problems with the theocrats' arguments they support the democratic group.

The problem is that they constantly need reminding and education of why theocracy is a bad idea.

Answer 3

The problems are a lot less serious than the media would have you believe. Some Christians, not all, object to anyone saying anything they do not agree with. Some non-believers are the same way. But by far the majority of both are fairly tolerant. I get annoyed when someone implies I'm less American because I'm a non-believer, but it doesn't occupy a lot of my attention. And I don't think a lot of Christians sit around gnashing their teeth because kids can't say the Lord's Prayer in school. We'll both continue to fight to keep things in balance and preserve the freedoms we are supposed to have here.

Answer 4

Honestly its quite annoying. Most of the arguments between the people are about trivial things with little or no real meaning to the world at large, i.e. gay marriage. The big one that so many people have attached themselves to in both corners (believers vs. non-believers that is) is abortion. The religious people think it is murder and the secular people think it should be allowed. Personally, I think its my business what is done with my body and it shouldn't matter a lick to anyone else. That is of course unless I'm hurting others by hurting myself, and I don't mean emotionally. Now I obviously could never have an abortion being that I am a man, but I think the only time I need to worry whether someone is getting an abortion or not is when it is my girlfriend or wife or significant other.
Outside of those two issues, the rest of it is based on a ridiculous notion that evangelical Christians have of the whole country NEEDING to be like them. and that just ain't the picture I want to paint and its not the way I want to live to my life. That is the beautiful thing about living in a pluralistic society. Many different ideas and notions coming from all sides and unfortunately, the people we have discerning those concerns and putting laws into place don't give much a damn about either side.

Its interestin to note that most of the people who answered this question like to blame religious people for the problems in this country. While I do not like religious people telling me what to do, I certainly do not like to hear it from non-religious folk either. The non-believers if you will have just as thick a skull as the religious and they too want to tell everyone how to live their lives be it by not eating meat or saturated fats, or not smoking cigarettes, the list goes on and on and both sides are equally to blame for it because its all about one-upsmanship in this country. Which is to say that if one group passes a ridiculous law, the other side will try to pass a more ridiculous law just to say "ha, look what I did"! Its quite annoying and quite ridiculous for the majority of us in the center who just want to live our lives and not be interfered with by either side of the political spectrum.

Answer 5

It is just the religious extremists that are hard-hearted, the far right, so to speak that are unaccepting and critical of non-believers and moderate religious believers.

Abortion, gay rights are big issues among the hard far right.
This line of thinking interfers with the election process as these people vote for moral issues in choosing their leaders.
They seem to forget about the others economic, and worldly issues or put them at the bottom, as they may be better off financially than others are.
Some think that these are really issues of privacy and do not belong in the political arena.

Answer 6

The biggest problem is the political agenda of the far right form of Christianity. They pretty much want to put there stamp of religion on whatever they can get their hands on.

Our current administration (Bush admin) has instituted many faith based federal programs, things like sex ed for our children, under federal guide lines they are abstinence only, and don't effectively teach anything about birth control or STD prevention. So for schools to get federal funding they must follow these archaic guide lines.

Answer 7

I envy you.

Here in the US of A, the Xians will pass thinly veiled religious/morals laws disguised as secular legislation. A secular group will mention that said law violates the constitutional separation of church & state. Then a religious leader will annouce that his/her religious beliefs are being oppressed by the secular group.

Repeat (ad nauseum).

Answer 8

The "believers" insist that everything run their way while "non-believers" work to maintain equality and freedom. Then the "believers" call that persecution.

We end up having to fight about Christmas trees and learning about cultures in school. It's silliness.

We end up going around in circles, especially since more stupid people seem to be elected to important offices in government.

Answer 9

Axel, it seems to me that the biggest problem between the two groups is that one group feels it has the moral right to determine how both groups should conduct themselves.

Answer 10

Believers have thick skulls. Non-believers have a hard time getting through it.