Elizabeth Bevilacqua ([info]princessleia2) wrote,
@ 2006-12-03 15:56:00
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[Reflections] - Atheist in America

Originally published at shaman.princessleia.com.

When I came to the conclusion a few years ago that I was an atheist I had very little exposure to the Atheist literature out there. An interview by David Silverman with with Douglas Adams about Atheism instantly made Adams a hero of mine, but I didn’t seek out other Atheists and Atheist literature until last year when I went to a panel that included NoGodBlog.com’s David Silverman at Philcon (he was at Philcon this year too, I should stop being so shy and say “Hi” sometime).

In this past year I’ve become much more acquainted with the personalities, arguments, literature/documentaries, blogs and organizations. It certainly has been helpful, and it’s always nice to have company.

Which brings me to the point of this post: What is it like to be an Atheist in America?

I can only speak as an Atheist living in the Northeast portion of this country, I really don’t know what it’s like in the “Bible Belt” but I do know that speeches by Richard Dawkins routinely sell out to his supporters down there.

If you believe much of the press (and I certainly did!) Atheists are not popular in this country. For the first year or so I was an Atheist I mostly kept it quiet in mixed company, I certainly didn’t breathe a word of it at work, even when asked directly about religion I was evasive.

This changed when we started planning our wedding last November. People are always interested in talking about weddings, and it was getting increasingly difficult to be evasive when I was talking about it. Slowly I started telling people about the shamanism stuff, meditiation, drum making, meaning behind parts of the ceremony and finally the fact that I was an atheist.

I was shocked by the response.

Almost all of them were fascinated and wanted to know more! I encountered none of the bigotry that is so feared by so many atheists (or that I encounter online since posting my essay on atheism).

I’ve had some very interesting conversations with people I work with since then. I don’t work with a lot of brilliant people, it’s just a normal paper-shuffling office in America. These people are very average Americans. Soon I found myself being invited out to lunch with these people I only knew in passing, and having them “come out” to me about their agnosticism or atheism, and asking very interesting questions.

Which brought me around to something I’m horribly guilty of, believing that the strong correlation between higher education and being an atheist means that people believe in God because they’re stupid and/or ignorant. A Wired.com article by Gary Wolf (long article, but totally worth it) brings this up, and compares the condescending attitude of many atheists to the much more welcoming message put forth by most Christian churches. In short:

“We’re lagging among the lower 95 percent,” says Adams. (a vocal atheist discussing the education levels of atheists vs deist)

“You are kings anointed by God,” says [Christian] Pastor Matt.

This difference leaves a sour taste in my mouth, especially when I realize I’ve said the same thing. It’s even more amusing because as far as traditional standards go I’m part of that “lower 95 percent” (I may be smart, but I never went to college).

Besides, you get much further with people by being understanding. Every time a Christian emails me about my Atheist essay, even mean or preachy emails, I make my response polite and restrained. In the less severe cases I’ve even been able to establish a dialog with these people that was mutually beneficial. I learned that there is more to the God thing than just a logic argument, they learned that there are nice atheists and we both come out more enlightened.

So, is it hard being an Atheist in America? Not after I got over the elitist thing and started being honest, understanding, open and just plain nice.


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[info]kattphud
2006-12-05 06:51 am UTC (link)
I really don’t know what it’s like in the “Bible Belt”

I think I may be able to throw a couple cents in as an agnostic living in the Bible Belt. (As a side note, I would like to point out the geographical overlap of the Bible Belt and Tornado Alley, and that most of the rest of the Bible Belt is Hurricane Country. You'd think that all those people who believe that natural disasters are the will of God would get the hint.)

I rarely encounter bigotry or unpleasantness; what I run into most often is pity. Most of the churchgoers I encounter seem to feel like I'm a lost sheep who has strayed from the flock. Even worse, if they find out I married a Pagan, they try to convince me that I'm mindlessly following a (or The) wolf to certain doom. I rarely get credit for having made careful deliberation and coming to a conclusion. (I'll state here that it was a conclusion, not a decision. I didn't decide anything. That would be presumptuous at least. I came to a conclusion based on what I know and what I've experienced, and it would literally take a miracle to convince me otherwise...and I don't mean a Mary-shaped burn on your grilled cheese sandwich.)

On the rare occasion that they concede that I do indeed have a brain, they usually try to play logic games with me, often citing classic examples of things that "prove" Creationism (eyes, bombardier beetles, carbon dating a freshly dead housefly as being 10,000 years old, etc.). I have to explain that my conclusion isn't based on scientific evidence; I can't defend that anyway because I'm simply not learned enough. I'll always run into a better-educated creationist who will bludgeon me into the ground intellectually. Besides, I've experienced way too many things that cannot be properly explained by science.

A few years ago I had an experience with some evangelical Baptists who had gotten into the habit of ringing my doorbell at 0800 sharp every Saturday morning to attempt to proselytize me and Cathy. They sent different people on each sortie, each of whom tried a different tactic: A pair of teenage girls blathered mindlessly about how wonderful Jesus is. A young couple attempted to guide this "lost sheep" to their church which was next door to the apartment complex I lived in at the time. A man about my age engaged me in one of the aforementioned logic games (at this point I wasn't wise enough to avoid this tactic). Finally there was a mildly irate middle-aged mother who tried to guilt-trip me about not raising my newborn daughter in a "proper" Christian household and how I would be condemning her to an empty life and an eternity in Hell (this was one of the rare unpleasant encounters). That last encounter frightened and angered us enough to make a vague threat of "legal action" against that church if they continued to "harass" us. They never "brightened" our doorstep again. I regret that I had to resort to such a blunt tactic, but I realized that once they ramped up to sending someone who was so aggressive, things would probably get worse, and I had a family to take care of.

My office is about a 50/50 split of church-goers and atheists/agnostics, and the line seems to be drawn right down the aisle in terms of politics. Discussions take place periodically, but they're usually intelligent and always peaceful. The only time I know of when things got nasty is when our Friendly Neighborhood Iconoclast started in on a senior civilian. Fortunately, the leadership defused the situation by dragging the guy off and "briefing" him on all the awful things MEO (Military Equal Opportunity) could do to him. Religious discussions are now quite rare, mostly because of the advent of World of Warcrack, which has completely redrawn the line. Yes, WoW is the new religion in my office, and yes, I'm still agnostic.

*takes a breath*

Does this give you an idea of what it's like to be an atheist or agnostic (the Holy Rollers generally don't draw a distinction) in the Bible Belt?

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[info]princessleia2
2006-12-05 10:11 am UTC (link)
Thank you very much for this!

Lately the media has really been pushing the existence of this Huge Divide in our country and gone blabbering all about Red and Blue states. Of course the truth is there are people of all sorts in all states, it only takes 51% to make a majority. So I knew there had to be plenty of atheists and agnostics down there, I just had no clue how tough it was for you. Sounds like it's really not so bad! You're not ostracized from the community or anything ;)

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[info]kattphud
2006-12-06 02:13 am UTC (link)
Oklahoma is indeed a "red" state (though it seems that every few elections the media switches the colors), but only because the Electoral College and decades of careful Gerrymandering has disenfranchised "dissenting" voters (Democrats, third-party members, and independents) in this state. It's been this way for so long that many of those voters feel their votes don't count, so they don't even bother. This results in a disproportionately low turnout of non-Republican votes in the popular vote, which is just the way the Republicans like it. When it comes down to it, every Democrat or "other" who doesn't show up might as well vote Republican. (I didn't come to this realization until well after I cast my "none of the above" vote in the form of a blank ballot a few weeks ago.)

This thought process is of course propagated by the news media. The Republican propaganda engine very carefully paints themselves as God-fearing church men and the Democrats as home-wrecking, baby-killing, spend-thrift infidels...and the news media eats it up. It doesn't help that this being the Bible Belt, many mainstream Christians vote Republican simply because it doesn't occur to many of them that a Democrat could also be a "proper" Christian.

When I hear people explain why they voted one way or another, the most frequent answer I hear from those who voted Democrat is: "He/she supports programs and policies that help me and my loved ones."
The most common answer I hear from those who voted Republican is: "He/she believes in the same Christian values that I do." (Can you say "baaaaa"?)

I'm going to hop off the soap box now, else I'll be ranting until 0100 again.

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