How is atheism viewed in the U.S?

38 comments

1. Depends where you are and how old you are. Young people in a city? Atheism is much more common. Old people in a rural community? Probably not going to be as common.

2. Bias against atheists is the last acceptable prejudice in the US. That can range from being treated with indifference in places like NYC and San Francisco to outright hostility in the Bible Belt, Texas in particular.

3. > In recent years, the Swedish religious landscape has become increasingly diverse, with Christians comprising in 2020 some 61.3% (of which 55.2% belonging to the Church of Sweden) of the total population and rising numbers of people of other religions and people who do not belong to any church (34.8%).

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Sweden

   I’d say the US is similar to Sweden.

4. I know people who would never vote for one or marry one, but it’s not the taboo it once was. I went to a Christian school in the south K-12 and the atheist students there weren’t treated any differently, they just got funny looks from time to time. I’d say it’s accepted as long as you don’t make it your entire personality, which is similar for other religions.

5. In urban areas, generally fine. In rural areas, you’re likely to be quietly judged. In the South, you will face open derision.

   Nobody’s generally going to know unless you advertise it though.

6. I’m in the midwest. In two adjoining towns with a combined population of 9000 people there are at least 13 separate churches. In the next town west of 4500 people there are 12 churches. For the most part people don’t bother those who don’t attend church nor do they proselytize. Lowes and Kroger are certainly much quieter on Sunday mornings

7. Younger generations are pretty pretty open open and accepting about it. It’s a lot harder to find people over 40 who openly consider themselves atheist. My parents never took me to church and religion wasn’t apart of my upbringing but both of my parents are keenly aware that the word “atheist” has a lot of negative connotation for some people so they always avoided associating themselves with it. My parents will always claim they aren’t religious or don’t follow organized religion but will rarely if ever admit to not believing at all especially to people outside the family.

   I distinctly remember the mothers side of the family (great aunts and great uncles) telling me at 4-5 years old at a family reunion that I was going to burn in hell because I was never baptized. My family really stopped talking about their religious beliefs after that encounter.

8. [Religion in the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States)

   About 12% of Americans report to be agnostic/atheist, another 12% “nothing in particular”.

   This is a non-issue for most people. Religion is generally considered a taboo subject among strangers. Someone might ask “What church do you go to?”, but these instances are rare. I lived in the Bible Belt for 13 years and was asked about church or whatever only one time that I can remember, and it was by someone I was good friends with who was being curious and was inviting me to join them at church, there wasn’t any judgment or harm to the relationship.

   In my experience, what you do or don’t believe has almost zero impact in your interactions with others over a lifetime. It’s really really easy to just be you.

9. I live in the least religious part of the country, so no one would care unless you were the obnoxious kind who tries to debate everyone.

10. The rural areas tend to be more religious than urban areas. And red state cities tend to be more religious than blue state cities.

    If you’re an atheist in a city, you’d mostly be seen as a another person with one of the many religious views humans have and mostly left alone, unless you work or socialize with someone who’s super religious and knows you’re an atheist. If you’re an atheist in a rural area, people would mostly view you as a soul to save and invite you to church a lot and often mention that they’re praying for you. It’s possible a small minority may think you’re a secret Satanist and avoid you.

11. > until I was a teen and learned differently from an American atheist YouTuber

    Immediate red flag.

    > So, how common is it to be an atheist in the US?

    Pretty common, in many parts of the country it’s the norm, in others it’s fairly rare. Like most things it varies by demographic.

    > How is atheism and atheists viewed overall?

    Most people don’t care at all.

12. At 38 years old and having lived all over the country, inquiring about each other’s religious beliefs – just hasn’t been a thing for me. Not like trying to *avoid* the topic necessarily, but it’s more of… why would someone else’s spiritual belief’s be my concern?

    I can think of *one* instance where someone was like, “Really, you don’t believe in God at all?” … “Nah not really.” … “Oh, well, to each their own I guess.”

13. Organized religion has long been a community staple, not exactly something exclusive to the US.

    With our immigrant background, it was often organized religion that stepped in to help out immigrants in the face of cultural and governmental systems that might look down upon, if not be actively hostile to, fresh-off-the-boat arrivals.

    A lot of people in this thread are mentioning an urban/rural divide and I don’t know, maybe that applies more out west. But there’s plenty of people of faith in the Midwest even in urban areas. Just look at all the white Democratic politicians that hit up the black churches in town every election season.

    Anyway, I feel its hard to discuss what atheism is like in the US without addressing faith. Faith is pretty widespread here. This doesn’t mean weekly church attendance numbers. Like most of the western, developed world, they’re declining though they do tend to spike with special events like 9/11. What faith means to people is deeply personal and can vary, even within the same broader faith or within a specific sect.

    Just like faith, lack-of-it can greatly vary. Some atheists just don’t pay their lack-of-faith much heed. Some delve into the spiritual stuff in a more eastern faith mindset. You can find atheist and agnostic support groups in your local area almost as an attempt to kind of mimic the community benefits of organized religion.

14. I am in Bible Belt and have yet to find anyone who makes a big deal of not having religion in years. More people are turning to atheists nowadays

15. I’m an atheist. It mostly doesn’t come up.

16. I rarely meet religious folks where I live, and when I do, religion is a very personal thing for them that they don’t talk about in public so you’d never know.

17. It’s viewed with less hostility than it used to be, but it’s still not as common here as in Europe. That doesn’t mean everyone’s Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. More people will just say they’re “spiritual but not religious” than “atheist”. Straight up believing there is no god is not as common as simply not giving a rat or having some kind of new age-y belief about God.

18. It’s pretty common among people I know. I was a college student when Dawkins, Hitchens, and those figures were publishing popular books and a lot of my friends were influenced by them. I’m not an atheist myself though.

19. Well, they are not punished to death like in some countries, you could say we are okay with it.

20. A majority of people in America are not atheist. A majority of those people are pretty quiet about their religion.

21. People generally don’t talk about religion in specific ways. I have no idea what my coworker’s religious beliefs are. I know what some of my friends believe.

22. Though it doesn’t appeal or make sense to me personally if someone told me they were I wouldn’t be amazed or view them much differently. They are the same as pagans to me, essentially.

23. NYC: faith is not discussed. Nobody cares.

24. I think a nuanced distinguishing characteristic about religion in America is people are happy to associate with a religion culturally, but they do not necessarily practice.

    I feel compelled to respond that I’m Methodist, since I’m associated with and grew up the grandson of a Methodist minister. But in practice I don’t go to church, nor do I genuinely believe in the actual religion.

    It’s deeply rooted in culture and tradition here. It isn’t a good indicator of religiosity at all when you look at self-responded demographic polling.

25. Atheist in Austin here. I’m shocked by the sheer number of people who still stigmatize it. Not just here, but in the majority of the south and southwest, IME. It’s not nearly as bad once you get north of DC or west of Phoenix

26. I grew up in the north. In my experience I haven’t met many atheists. People are more likely to be agnostic. Even if they think they’re an atheist at first, when you get down to it they’re typically actually agnostic.

27. How would anyone even know? At least where I’ve lived this doesn’t even come up in normal conversation. Although I did work with someone who was a pastor. But all of the conversations I heard them talking about religion was with another person who was religious. They basically talked to each other about it.

    I have personally never been asked about being religious or not by a random person. Although in some parts of the country I understand it’s more common.

28. Most people in the US don’t know what an atheist is. They have a connotation of being militant anti-religion. You’ll hear “I’m not atheist, I’m agnostic” a lot. Dude, those are two different concepts

29. Outside of the internet and TV/movies, most Americans have very little interest in someone else’s religion. Same goes for atheism.

    Oh, you’re atheist? That’s nice. No, I don’t want to hear about it.

30. It’s best not to advertise one’s atheism in the US as it can lead to problems.

31. The fundamentalists think that atheists worship Satan. The moderately religious are usually lumping atheists with agnostics. It seems that NOT believing in something is……….unbelievable!!

    I have often enjoyed the Surprise Reveal. In no way am I above average, but I do try to be a decent person. I contribute to charity, do volunteer work, help the neighbors, shit, I even return my grocery cart to the corral. No drugs, no gambling, no family drama, no marriage troubles, drink rarely and lightly, overall, I am as boring as possible.

    And the sheer AMAZEMENT if someone is blathering about god or church and they ask me directly. Oh my word, the ASTONISHMENT when I say I’m not a believer. The big huge eyes! Not really sure what people expect? but routinely, they have been pole-axed to discover I do not believe in any gods. Flapper-jawed.

    People think you cannot BE a halfway decent person living a quiet, content life without GAWD guiding your every action/thought.

32. Depends where you live. In a city? You’re fine. In a small town in the South? People would be horrified.

33. The general attitude in America is that a person’s religion is their own affair, but most Americans also understand that a person’s religion is one of the most important things about them. Atheists deny the validity of everyone else’s religion, and I have known some of them to do it in a way that gets everyone’s back up. For this reason, they are probably trusted less than any other religion, and yes, atheism is a religion. A religion is anything you believe without evidence.

    A Catholic friend of mine once put it this way. “The Jews believe that God made a covenant with Abraham. The Christians believe that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. The Muslims believe that there is no God but God, and Mohammed is the prophet of God. The Atheists believe you’re stupid foe believing in God and they’re smarter than you are.”

34. So, something that I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread yet is that there is a very big difference in acceptance of *being* an atheist vs *identifying* as an “atheist” in the US, at least in religious areas. If you just say you don’t go to church/don’t do religion/etc, you’ll mostly be fine. It’s wayyyy more common than actually going to church. The worst you’ll get is a few concerned comments/church invitations from people that legitimately care about you and want to help you via a community/philosophy that has helped them/makes them feel at home. Maybe a judgy comment from a weirdo every now and then, but it’s not common in adulthood.

    But the a-word itself does tend to be judged much more harshly, as it is heavily associated with Reddit neckbeard types that are outright anti-religion, want to get rid of churches, are always arguing with religious people to proselytize for atheism, use cringey belittling phrases like “sky daddy” to make fun of religious people, and generally blame religion for all problems in society. Which you can understand why religious people might not be big fans of.

    So typically the average atheist in the US, including myself, just identifies as “none” or “no religion” because we don’t want to be associated with the negative connotations of the word “atheist.”

    tl;dr atheism is common and normalized, but the word “atheist” is often used as a synonym for “anti-theist” which, understandably, is not received as well

35. Religion is a real personal thing in the US, so it’s a “you do you, bro” thing, but the word atheism tends to bring to mind a distinct whiff of smug Reddit neckbeard to those who hear it, so most atheists just identify as no religion when pressed. God forbid you end up around hardcore evangelical types when you say that, they’ll never leave you be if they hear it

36. I’m from the south and I didn’t know it was okay to be atheist until I went to college and met people who were atheist. Now I’m aggressively atheist. It depends on where you are, but in the south and midwest especially religion is really prominent.

37. Overall, negatively. America as a whole is very influenced morally and ethically by folks in rural areas (unfortunately).

    In most cities, people won’t care if you are religious or not but in rural America it’s the most important thing in their communities. So atheism, or belonging to a non-Christian religion will sometimes mean people view you as immoral.

    America is still deep in it’s fundamentalist Christian roots and that’s why the political landscape is the shitshow it often is.

38. I’m older. I prefer not to have a clue what anyone’s religion is. The less you talk about religion, the better. Same would probably go for lack of religion. I don’t need to know about it .