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When you're the only atheist at work

How do you handle being the only atheist at your job?
There were times I wanted to say something at one job but I knew I would've been discriminated. I remember one guy saying, "atheists are bad people, one tried to talk to my daughter, saying atheist are always trying to force upon their beliefs", etc...

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JurassicT4 6 Oct 22
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51 comments (26 - 50)

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2

I'd keep it to myself. I don't tend to discuss much stuff that is work unrelated anyway. Work and personal life are best kept separately.

ABack Level 6 Oct 22, 2018

If only many more can follow that example.

2

Keep it to yourself like I always did .You are only asking for trouble if you are in an environment of believers.Talking about your non belief is just as annoying as religious people trying to spread their religious beliefs.Both are a bore.

That is generally the best solution. I do have a couple of atheist friends I can let off steam about religous stupidity though.

2

Jobs are places where you do your job. Nothing about religion or atheists should be discussed either way.

Yeah I wish it was like that, but you know how people can be.

1

In a country like India, where I come from, being atheist is frowned upon on as if it's a crime or as if there is something fundamentally wrong with one. But, I believe that the fear or the stupidity of the masses shouldn't be the one that shapes our lives, future and progress. Religion is like cigarette, very had leave but once you leave your lungs (brain in this case) slowly cleans up !

1

I don't go around advertising, but the people I work with closely know... But I'm not going to hide it

1

It's unprofessional to discuss religion at work so I try to avoid it, but to me "Keep it to yourself " implies something else.

Carin Level 8 Oct 23, 2018
1

It's work. Beliefs are personal. I think keeping your professional and personal lives separate is very important.

Besides, God does nothing to help me or anyone perform better at work

1

I only say something if it becomes relevant, like someone inviting me to their church, an explanation why I'm not joining in a group prayer, etc. Also pretty much how I deal with politics as well. I've extended this limited information dissemination to my family as well.

1

I made the mistake once of thinking it was ok to openly discuss religion at work. It is not a mistake I will make again.

Why, what happened?

@JurassicT4 A brain rotted religious coworker took offense

@DoctoralZombie To bad but that is a common problem among the religous nuts.

Not so much at work but I brought it up during my first visit to a Survivors of Suicide meeting. Didn't go over well tbere either.

@ronnie40356 That is beyond fucked up. I am not sure I would have had to strength to keep from reminding them that their all loving god would have sent them to hell had they been successful in their suicides, because god is a dick, and the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. People can be incredibly cruel, and that should not have happened to you.

1

No one needs to know....there is no harm in don't ask don't tell

1

sometimes being an atheist is an issue, sometimes it's not.
So - judgment call depending on situation.
You don't have this as a choice, so I left it alone.

Note that generally I am not a "proselytizing" type atheist, so I'm ok not sharing personal beliefs at work. Also, background is Jewish heritage, so in most cases people tend simply to leave that alone, gets me a semi-pass in some ways (though in at least one case it was an issue). Also in this aspect, if I tell people I'm an atheist Jew, they may have an issue with that, but they sometimes tend to hear the "Jew" part more than the atheist part, and so still kind of leave the whole thing alone.

I guess I started off saying it's been case-by-case depending on the workplace, and as I look back, I guess that's been true.

kmaz Level 7 Oct 22, 2018
1

There's 5-6 athiests where I work. We recognize each other but we don't congregate. And we do assert ourselves but the sheep are so very clueless that it goes right over their heads.

1

Being discriminated against sucks. I came out to my ex in-laws. Now they profoundly dislike me, for many reasons, but the fact I’m an atheist is a big one. We are the new gays. As anyone leading the way to new ideas or attacking established values, a price has to be paid. It’s an unfortunate fact.

I am not a hypocrite, so if I’m asked, I can’t lie about it. I don’t go look for trouble at work though. I’m not secretive either. I say something like “I was raised Catholic, but now I’m not so sure what to believe”. Often that’s enough. If they insist, with tact I’ll use short sentences and stop to give the other person a choice whether to keep carrying the conversation or stop. If they get angry or have strange reaction, i’ll just drop the conversation. If they seem genuinely curious I may keep talking. There’s no point in arguing with coworkers. I don’t like to waste my time with close minded people.

0

Do your job and go home. Unless someone's being an asshole there's no reason to bring it up unless you're actually friends with those people

0

Atheist / agnostic or special people like us who use their brains, are easy to spot. So you as atheist you can easily spot if there's special people like you and you can speak to them about it.
Otherwise forget about it, just like the wizards and muggles in Harry Potter, people shouldn't know about us.

0

I don't hide it if it comes up but I don't advertise either. My standard response is "but I'm not religious". It's work and I don't want to jeopardize anything but I would feel like a liar if I hid it. And I live in the Bible belt so I am usually the only one that I know of

0

I live in an at-will state and they can fire me for being atheist.

0

It's not possible that none is an atheist around you. If you let yourself know other atheist will know and come around you. They probably fear exposing themselves.

0

I can openly be atheist and bi in the Air Force, thankfully. They can complain personaly, but if they do anything to discriminate me I can visit Equal Opportunity.

0

I keep my mouth shut. I’m there to work not chit chat about religion or politics.

0

I don't want to be accused of "proselytizing" when one's beliefs aren't necessary to do the work at hand. About the only time it has come up was at a team building exercise, it was suggested that we all "pray" for guidance to make the right decisions. I simply stated, I prefer to make evidence based decisions using the information at hand.

So, there is no need for me to scream "atheist" at the top of my lungs, but I can share my philosophies and thoughts with others while having a natural discussion.

Lol, they didn't question your comment?

@JurassicT4 They were a bit flummoxed and tried to soften it to "meditate". But I just smiled and said, no, that doesn't work for me either.

@RPardoe "meditate" lol

0

Being self-employed now, I do not have this problem. I work in the music industry in California, so even when I worked for someone else, very few people seemed to be bothered by me being an atheist.

0

He who owes nothing fears nothing.

0

I have no idea if I was ever the only atheist at organizations where I worked. I don't ever remember talking about religion (or the absence of it) at work. We knew that a few people were religious true believers, but we all tended to avoid them when we could.

0

I only mention it if someone asks. I used to have debates with my highly Christian work neighbor. One person heard of a good dead I did and said you must be a speechless. I just said nope. She was speechless. Just like I don't want someone spewing their beliefs on me, I won't do it back. But I will have a healthy conversation.

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