10 Scariest States to Be An Atheist

[Ian David]

10 Scariest States to Be An Atheist

If you're finishing your degree in secular studies and are trying to decide where in the country you want to plant your godless stakes, here are some places to avoid.

Let’s be clear. It’s not like it’s easy to be an atheist anywhere in the U.S. Atheists are the most distrusted and disliked of all minority groups — more than blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, immigrants, and gays and lesbians — and polls show that Americans are less likely to vote for an atheist than they are for a person in any other minority or marginalized category. And this hostility can have serious consequences, in the form of harassment, bullying, ostracism, vandalism, alienation from family, loss of jobs, and more.

But to be honest, there are parts of the country where being an atheist really isn’t all that awful. Heck, I live in one of them. There’s some bigotry, some discrimination, a fair amount of misunderstanding and even hostility… but all things considered, it’s pretty okay. And then, there are some parts of the country where being an atheist sucks.

Let’s talk about a few of those, shall we?

Now, to a great extent, how badly it sucks to be an atheist may not depend on the state you live in. It’s sort of like the red-state/blue-state myth: cultural differences in the United States break down more along urban/rural lines than they do along state lines. Is it easier to be an atheist in New York than in Texas? Maybe… but it may also be easier if you’re in Austin, Texas than if you’re in rural upstate New York.

Many atheist and secularist leaders I spoke to stressed this point. According to Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason (the organization responsible for many of the atheist billboard campaigns), “As for the worst states to be an atheist, it doesn’t generally work that way. It depends on what part of a state you are in.”

More:
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2011/06/10-scariest-states-to-be-an-atheist/

[trotsky]

1. This should be posted in the Religion group.

The specific examples given will surprise some, and might... MIGHT... open a few eyes.

[darkstar3]

3. Damn right.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Of course my state would be listed,

even if it is not in the south. Pennsylvania (at least W PA) is pretty damned religious. I can't even stomach going to Democrat party functions because of all the revival-type praying.

I think everyone should read the end of this article:

My point is not that anti-atheist bigotry is as bad as other forms of bigotry. It exists. It is real. It happens all over the country. And it has real-world consequences.

So if you’re ever tempted to ask why atheists are so angry, or why they have to kick up such a fuss all the time, or why they want to organize and form groups based on what they don’t believe in… remember that.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. Depressingly, my state made the list

Not a bit surprised, though.

[JNelson6563]

5. Sickening.

I don't know about any of you but I am getting really tired of the apologists around here.

Julie

[Starboard Tack]

6. As an atheist I honestly can't say it's made me feel scared, anywhere.

Uncomfortable, for sure. Yet having lived in a dozen countries and half a dozen states and traveled extensively throughout the lower 49, I have never experienced any ostracism from friends and family, nor from acquaintances garnered on my travels. Obviously, I'm only talking about those with whom there have been discussions concerning personal religious/spiritual/philosophical beliefs and ideas, and the relationship of those ideas and beliefs to contemporary politics and culture. I've always found these discussions rewarding, hopefully to both parties. I have yet to encounter any kind of judgment based on my lack of belief. If they want to pray for my soul and my enlightenment, why should I complain. It makes them feel better and it's no skin off my nose and in the final analysis, it's a way of covering all bets, all the way to infinity.99999r
All the examples listed for these top 10 states are horrendous. People the world over are brainwashed and whoever controls the media controls the people and their beliefs. Problem is, trying to sell non-belief. Not very tasty, no instant gratification happening. Wanna sell "godlessness", you'd better be offering a better deal and that's not going to happen on a bus ad. My cynical side thinks that most humans are happy to be sheep, spiritually/philosophically/politically, and are happy to be led by whomever they decide to follow. The rest, are the ones they follow.

[laconicsax]

7. The examples given aren't the exception--they're the rule. n/t

[Starboard Tack]

8. Not in my experience.

I know many have experienced ugliness and ostracism, especially in the Bible Belt and I've seen some myself. However, I find most believers are decent human beings and nobody has ever tried to convert me. That includes a born again mother-in-law and most of her family. I never challenged their faith and they never challenged my lack of it. All out of mutual respect.

[eqfan592]

9. Good for you. Glad your experience has been so much more possitive than many other atheists.

But the fact that you use that positive experience in an attempt to downplay the negative experience of so many others just underscores how completely and unequivocally off-base and out-of-touch you really are.

[Starboard Tack]

10. Then please help me

Point out anything along those lines here at DU. Otherwise, why aren't we getting on with the business at hand, which is re-electing Obama, winning back the House and increasing our majority in the Senate.
We could help by reaching out more to liberal theists, instead of confronting them or challenging their beliefs, unless those beliefs affect policy. We all need to work together. Time for a little reconciliation, at least here on DU.

[provis99]

11. I'm not surprised Mississippi was #2.

I remember Oxford used to tolerate gays and lesbians more than they did atheists.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. I live in "rural upstate NY" and I've rarely encountered a problem

We do have a few "born agains" , but I just avoid them. My friend who lives further downstate runs into them much more regularly, since she lives near some of their enclaves. But I totally agree about NC, at least the part I'm familiar with. My grandmother retired there, so most of her friends that I knew were transplants. But when it came to natives I met, many tended to carry bibles and they had to be "the right kind."

Good article! Bookmarking.

[BiggJawn]

13. We have our share of loonies in Indiana.

I don't hide that I consider the whole matter of religion to be slightly less believable than Santa Claus, yet I don't get any trouble.

Oh, I've gotten replies on the local paper comment board from "mezzanine Xians", you know, the ones who gloat about how you're gonna burn in hell, and they're gonna be up in heaven, on the mezzanine watching you burn and laughing their ass off, but it's just hot air. Never felt threatened at my job, and my landlord? As long as I get the rent in on time and never have the cops called to my place they could give a rat's ass what I don't believe.

Of course, I don't make it a secret that I'm licensed to carry a handgun, either...

[daaron]

15. Oh gawd. Does that make you feel tuff to pack heat?

Or safe, all wrapped up in the warm blanket of your firearm? Do you really fear Christians so much to need to arm yourself? Are you so physically weak or emotionally cowardly that you can't deal with potentially violent confrontations without resorting to the twitchy trigger finger?

The 2nd Amendment is the least of our Constitutional Rights. Bragging about your guns makes one look like a douche-bro.

[BiggJawn]

16. As a matter of fact...

Yes, I do feel safer.

"Do you really fear Christians so much to need to arm yourself?"
What makes Xians any different than other people? They commit just as much violence as non-believers, especially when their precious faerie tale is threatened.

"Are you so physically weak or emotionally cowardly that you can't deal with potentially violent confrontations without resorting to the twitchy trigger finger? "
Thank you for the long-distance psych eval. You can go into a "potentially violent confrontation" empty-handed if you want, that's YOUR choice. THIS is MY choice.

As Humans we have a natural right to defend ourselves. The 2nd Amendment only re-affirms that right. I would argue that the 21st amendment is the "least" of our constitutional rights. But hey, if you think your right to fuck yourself up on a beer bong is more important than your right to defend yourself, go for it, dude!

Sorry I don't pass your litmus test as what a "Real Lliberal" should be, Douche-BRO.

[OriginalGeek]

17. Dude, personal attacks are never cool

There are a lot of us liberals who support the 2nd amendment. You should probably hang out and get to know someone before laying into them for supporting legal, responsible gun ownership.

You have the right to not carry a gun.
You even have the right to feel like other people shouldn't carry gun.
Hell, you even have the right to criticize someone for carrying a gun - this is an opinion board and you get to express your opinions here - but you did it in a pretty dick-hole kind of way.

Please save your righteous indignation for people who are trying to erode people's rights - not people who support them.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

14. We have neighbors with big crosses in their front yards, proclaiming their faith.

Their faith in a symbolically cannibalistic death cult whose symbol is an ancient Roman torture device.
we live in a crappy little town because I inherited the family home from my mother. The price was right.



They always ask us where we go to church and we say we are Unitarians. They don't know what that is, so they glaze over. Hubby and I met at a large urban Unitarian Universalist church.

I was raised presbyterian and graduated from an excellent presbyterian university. When my grandmother and my parents, who were lifelong Presbyterians, got old and near death, they were atheists. They believed that they would not exist after they die. And they were down with it.

I am a secular humanist UU who studies Buddhism.

[Kolesar]

18. "They don't know what that is, so they glaze over." LOL

DU is a great means to learn about the culture of our country.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. they should change the name of this place

From Shitholia to Copropolis (same thing in Latin).

[Kolesar]

20. The "Copropolis " of my life is the office

My coworkers are pissy white professional men. A few talk religion, and a lot talk abortion and what they perceive as economic policy.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

22. I'm in East Texas and grew up in Houston. Talk about major culture shock.

I'm 80 miles from the nearest Target store!! I'm 150 miles from a Costco!! AGGGH!!

I hate wallyworld, and I have to drive 20 miles to get to THAT hellhole.

I tend to my plants to not go nuts. And we have a tai chi class at the local senior citizens' center (I call it the Wrinkle Ranch)

There's a woman in tai chi class who wants me to get on the board of the place, after I told her my father, a retired lawyer, started it as a non-profit back in 1992 or so. She said it doesn't require work, it just requires making decisions. That I can handle.

[Johnny Rico]

21. Here in Colorado, I've had virtually no negative experiences.

I've been open about being an atheist on the rare occasions it's come up at work, and no one's said anything negative. Granted, some seem to have an "Um...ok..." attitude, but heck, I feel that way about Biblical literalists, so fair's fair. I'm on extended leave from work as I'm having my kidney cancer treated, and when I visited work a bunch of my co-workers said that they were praying for my recovery; one even said, "I know you're not into that, so I hope it's ok".

How could I be offended by someone wishing me well?

It also doesn't come up much at all in my social interactions, but that's probably because I don't have many social interactions. But that's another story.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

23. when people say they will pray for me I thank them.

They are trying to do something to help, and I won't get on their case.
Christopher Hitchens didn't tell people not to pray for him when he had cancer. He was polite.

[Ian David]

24. I respond with, "And I'll think of you when I masturbate." n/t

[Manifestor_of_Light]

25. That is too tacky for me to say.

I went to hubby's ex-wife's funeral near Tulsa a couple weeks ago.
The immediate family (hubby, sons and their wives, and one daughter-in-law's mother is Buddhist) is either agnostic or atheist. Hubby ran off screaming from her some years ago, because of the right wing xtians who can't tolerate any other belief system. We met at a large urban Unitarian church.

The woman got a Christian funeral b/c she wanted one, but many of us were totally turned off by it b/c it meant nothing to us.

So I collected some Buddhist sayings and essays, and Kahlil Gibran's ON DEATH, and read those at the graveside.

A grand total of ONE person came up to me and thanked me. I told him I thought we heathens deserved equal time. All the xtians ignored me but that was OK. I was told there were quite a few wrinkled brows.

However, had I not read that stuff, there would have been nothing to comfort the immediate family.

[Shagman]

26. South Carolina didn't make the list??

We had a Wiccan--not an atheist, just a non-Christian--in a small town. They tried to run her out of town. Then there are the local government meetings that start with prayers, and if you try to object, you're ejected.

Atheism isn't just a public matter. You reach a point in a relationship where you feel the other person should know about your particularly rational view of the universe. That's usually when the relationship ends. After a while I learned not to do that. In the South, if you're not a Christian, you're not accepted by anyone but your own kind. If you can't find your own kind, you're very much alone.