Out of curiosity, how often do those members who are atheist or agnostic actually experience some body personally making an issue of your beliefs? I mean how often does some body try to convert you in an aggressive way?
Hoo boy. This is my favorite question when people ask me about my lack of faith.
I was already an atheist when I was sent to Catholic high school. The first year went by without much issue, but in my sophomore religion (i.e. Catholicism) class, the teacher didn't take kindly to me. She asked the class one day if there were any non-Catholics, and I, along with one of the school's few Jewish students, raised my hand. I got a funny look for that, and when I explained to the teacher that I just didn't believe in god, she told me without a trace of humor that that would make it very, very hard to pass
her class. I wasn't so surprised when I started getting D's and F's on most of my assignments. I left the school after that year.
My next school was a (ostensibly) secular private school in the area with a very good reputation. They offered philosophy classes, and I took them, not realizing that I would be the only atheist in the class. Fortunately, the teachers seemed fine with me, but the students were another matter. Often, arguments I made in class were met with a response telling me that I had no morality because I'm an atheist and that my opinion didn't matter for that reason. They make a good case, am I right?
The incidents since then haven't hurt as bad because they came from idiots on the street, knuckleheads with no sway over me or my life. However, these incidents do include physical attacks. On a trip about a year and a half ago, I stopped in at a little cowboy bar outside Colorado Springs. About halfway into beer number two, I notice some guy by the pool tables giving me an ugly look. Now, every time I tell this story, somebody insists that what happened was my fault because of
my tee-shirt, but I don't think that it's any more inflammatory than a "JESUS IS GOD" bumper sticker. Anyway, fast forward 45 minutes and another beer, and this same guy and his friend are following me out to the parking lot to have words. They shout curses at me and tell me that this is a godly country and (no joke) that people like me should go off to Europe where we belong. I reply that I've been to Europe and that they're not the ones that need saving. This did not have the calming effect you might expect, and the more hot-headed one took a couple lazy, drunken swings at me.
Atheists in America are the least trusted people of all. Hell, in polls, people have said they'd vote for Jew before they'd vote for an atheist, and who in history has been hated and persecuted more than they?
