The A words-- Atheist, Agnostic, A-hole. Okay, just kidding. Only the first two... has being non-religious ever "stained your reputation?" Or, otherwise ruined how people view you?
Many people assume I’m christian and become startled when I tell them otherwise. Saying, “ but you’re so nice,” or “how can you be so happy?”
Like my being an athiest makes me a depressed grouch by default.
Wow! Imagine that... a nice Atheist! Who would have thunk it??
It just breaks some peoples reality. @SKDeitch
I go through similar experiences....but for my last name (is extremely religious); people can't understand that a person whose last name starts with "saint" is an Atheist. Everybody in my family have had the same experience.
It sounds similar to a white person being surprised by a very articulate black person.
Most of the people who really care about me don't mind that I'm an atheist. Once when dining out with a couple of family members, I remarked that I am not a Christian. They fell silent for a moment, but the conversation quickly resumed and didn't criticize or try to change me. On a number of occasions, I've encountered disapproval here and there, but it hasn't caused any serious harm in my life.
@Jello_vero Yes, it is. And perhaps I'm taking their apparent lack of disapproval a bit too much at face value. I guess it's a situation where we get along by just seldom bringing the subject up.
No, I'm in New York. Not a problem here, thank god!
Nor here on the other side of the country.
Well, I'm not sure my reputation has been ruined so much as carefully cultivated in a negative direction. I don't mind the connotation and perceived association so much, because it kind of fits with my general misanthropy. Where I live, despite being a rural community, there doesn't seem to be a lot of backlash for being nonreligious — until we get to personal relationships, like relatives, who are convinced I'm the most extreme godless liberal they've ever encountered.
My family turned their backs on me.
Everyone knows I do not care about their religion, so they usually do not care about the lack of mine
I know the feeling.
I learned a long time ago that it's a waste of time and energy to worry about what others think of me. I am reasonably comfortable with who I am and if others wish to judge me negatively without getting to know me I cannot change that. If people view me negatively because of who I am, then that's on their sorry judgemental asses. Those who know and accept me are the ones that matter. Everybody else can go to hell.
In other words, I'm pretty sure that there are people who think poorly of me because I am atheist. I can also be an a-hole sometimes (it's a skill that took me quite some time to learn!! lol) Do I care what those people think? No, not particularly.
Not the first two but definitely the last one especially when I start talking about immigration and the problems with misguided charity programs. Luckily, I have developed a tough hide.
Yeah a little. People look at me like I’m lost or something or act like I can’t be that good of a person. Oh well. Shame they’re afraid to make a good friend. ¯_(?)_/¯
Yup, without a doubt. I could give miles of examples, but none of them matter to me or the people I associate with.
My disbelief I do not share with others here. Nor do people seem to care what I believe. My actions, I trust, are enough.
I gonna have to call a "lifeline" on this one.
My old Xtian friends I left, think I've lost my mind.
You probably all live in the US where there are genuinely religious people but over in the UK where basically no one admits to being religious we are subject to a far worse tyranny where instead of worshiping a god they worship the state. I wish I was kidding but they hail the health service as some kind of giver of all and they foolishly relish the idea that they are saving people with it when really its corrupt to the point that whistleblowers have been fired and made homeless to silence them.