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Why is it that most people here are from the US? Do most agnostic and atheistic people live in the States?

Noyi 6 Sep 15
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33 comments

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17

@Darius explains it well. In the US, being religious and attending church is the norm and atheists can feel very marginalised - or even, as quite a few people here on this site have found, experience real prejudice if they choose to "come out" as atheists. Hence, they're more likely to seek out a safe space with like-minded people such as this.

In more liberal countries such as Canada and much of Europe, this is far less likely. In Britain, for example, only about 6% of people attend church (some other religious groups may attend services at their place of worship more often; however, these groups make up only a tiny fraction of the population - Muslims about 4.24% of the UK population, Hindus 1.27%, Sikhs 0.64%, Jews around 0.4% - and as such don't really have an effect on "how religious Britain is" ). Thus, you're more likely to be considered unusual or even a bit strange if you do go to church and express religious belief here, and were someone to publicly announce their atheism, as some Americans do, the vast majority of people would wonder why they even felt the need to do so when it's become the norm.

To sum up, many of us Europeans don't really need this site; we're just here for the cake.

Jnei Level 8 Sep 15, 2018

🙂

great response

@UrsiMajor agreed

There's cake??

@Secretguy There was. It didn't last long.

@minhmeister Not seen so many of those around!

@Charity There's been a few meatheads... fortunately, they don't tend to stay for long 🙂

Agree!

@Secretguy The cake is a lie.

9

Because only people from the USA would buy into this ridiculous point structure.

🙂

Good one... Point taken.

How is it ridiculous? Oh, the point thing? Yeah... The site's not perfect, but if you dislike it so much, why didn't you deactivate or something? No shade, just genuinely asking.

@imahermit cool your heels Henry, and study sentence syntax. I only referenced the point system.

8

I don't think so. Americans are among highly-religious people in the world, which "might" account for the high number of people from the US on this website who are here to seek community and escape from isolation. See, I lived one year in Finland, where religion is virtually non-existent. Non-belief is so normal in some European countries that most people are not even aware of their atheism, that's just how they are raised. Personally, I hope to see more active participation by people across the world.

Thank you for sharing an interesting piece of information

7

Yeah, like others have intimated, I think we are just the largest population of atheists that can still count as being spread out, isolated, repressed Etc. Most of Europe is too thoroughly non-believing to need an online community, and most countries as full of believers as we are aren't at liberty to admit being atheist. so middle easterners are here in very small, brave numbers, as I believe many of them still face the death penalty. America just has that unique combination of a huge population of atheists that doesn't feel like we're huge and needs to reach out and talk to each other somehow.

6

No, a majority of agnostics and atheists do not live in the US. There are countless such people globally. It has to do with the demographics, connectivity, this site is using English, etc.

4

The Beatles are the reason for this site existing and a thousand other influences on how Americans act now. Until they came along we did what our parents told us to do. How to dress, cut our hair and act. They sent us a message that its ok to revolt and buck the system. Right after I saw their long hair I grew mine out from the standard buzz cut. When we saw all the girls going nuts for them we started bands by the thousands just so we could get laid. The drugs for fun and entertainment became mainstream. The flower power generation came tight from their influence. Along with Bob Dylan telling us the politicians are lying to you. When John sang, ?Imagine there's no heaven it's easy if you try,? a lot of us did. We started asking uncomfortable unanswerable questions. We threw off our old traditions in a million different ways because of them and I for one am grateful for it.
They taught us to question our surroundings and things haven't been the same way since.
Imho

Actually there were a lot of atheists before the Beatles. Look up Robert G Ingersoll for example.

@Eazyduzzit
I don't dispute that at all but my point was the personal liberties we took since those rapscallions came along.

Not sure about atheism but certainly a large contributor to the fall of the Berlin wall.

@273kelvin
Yes, that too.

4

I think it's a number of reasons. It's an American site to start with but I think there is more pressure in America re religion and so the push against it is perhaps more visible. But as a percentage of the population I think you'll find more Agnostics and Atheists per head in the UK and around Europe than in the States. I'm sure there are stats available on the belief/non-belief demographics

Europe in which was also considered the west many moons ago always took a more lax attitude to religion than the east. Especially when it came to Christianity. Many people in the US don't even know their own religion or its history. In this sense it's not suprising that those raised or taught religion looks and says, "this is BS" you can't make sense of something if those who teach it don't understand themselves. BTW, I don't know what I'm talking about I'm just shooting from the hip. Lol

@MrChange You and me both lol

3

There are many reasons:
1 - It’s a US based site;
2 - It uses English as its lingua franca as a result of 1;
3 - most of its members are from English speaking countries as a result of 1 and 2;
4 - Most of its members are American because -
The USA is the only English speaking country where
religion still plays a major part in the people’s public
And private lives -

  The USA is the English speaking country with the 
   highest percentage of regular church attenders at
   something over 50% of the population. Of the 
   remaining 50%, the overwhelming majority still
   profess a belief in a god or gods, and/or worship
   Privately.  Other English speaking nations have a  
   much lower  percentage of regular attenders and 
   believers, and their numbers are dropping regularly
   and dramatically. In the USA, new churches open
   regularly. In the other Anglo countries, they are 
   closing regularly - 

    In the USA, as opposed to the other Anglo nations,
    announcing oneself as a non-believer is often a short    
   cut to social, public, and even familial ostracism. And 
    even, I have been told, loss of employment. This 
    would never happen in the other nations, or would
    be an astonishing thing to happen, and would be 
   thought to be ‘a very weird thing indeed’, and quite
    wrong. 

   Unsurprisingly then, non-believers, like all oppressed
   minorities since before there was hair, have learned
   to cling to each other and gather together for support
   in the USA. Hence this site. I do not know of another
   such social media forum in any other English
   speaking country. 

That’s my take on it, anyway.
PS: My formatting got fucked up when I pressed submit. Sorry.

3

Because your all stuck in the bible-belt and have bugger anybody else to talk to

3

I don't have the answer for this site specifically, but I am aware that in England from people that I asked about differences in the U.K.; most people in the U.K. do not find atheists as threatening as Christians do in the U.S.A. In short, being secular is not such a big deal and not a good reason to dislike someone.

They would probably consider someone preaching at an agnostic or atheist and treating them as inferior people as backwards behavior. The majority of people in the USA consider region as more important compared to other English speaking places like Canada and the U.K.

[news.gallup.com]

3

I've seen a few on here from the UK and Canada. The few from south/central america are typically US ex-pats. I would guess the reason is that it is primarily an English speaking site. Someone else commented on the fact that as a dating site, it's pretty shallow on dating pool, and another replied the site isn't that old, which could be another factor.

3

I think this is because people in the USA are free to speak of their atheist views without fear of punishment. If the current American regime is allowed to continue that situation could change.

You are absolutely right

@motrubl4u If that happens and Pence takes over the New Apostolic Reformation will be at the forefront of making America a "Christian Nation." We will become like ISIS or the Taliban but just have a different religion. There is already a Museum of the Bible in DC and Hobby Lobby and others think that's about as great as the Ark in Kentucky. America is becoming insane!

@Tibert I have made some of the same travels but was never looking for atheists or even asking about them. I also loathe Fox News.

Here in Europe bein atheist is like having a different favourite pizza, not a big deal, you don't need special freedom for this. Actually no one cares about your religion.

3
3

As with any English-language based website, the majority of followers/members will be from the USA followed by Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. I believe the Facebook advertisements were also skewed heavily toward the States.

3

i would doubt it. Its probably because whilst not facing death(usually) for being agnostic etc there is still real chance of negative/discriminatory behaviour fror many people in usa the churches have real power there ,over here in scotland they are having to continually shut places of worship as the numbers are so low personally i don't know 1 person that attends church or acknowledges a religion

2

I can only answer for myself and I live in the US. I've tried othr websites for dating and have found totally ignorant religious people. I'm here for the community of atheists because I'm atheist and generally find them more intellectual. More stimulating conversations.

2

Other countries either punish athiests or the country has so many athiests a site like this is not necessary

2

U.S. is more populous? Idk

2

i think americans tend to have more regular, uncensored internet access, plus we're a pretty big country so there will be more of us pretty much anywhere (unless a site is conducted mostly in chinese).

g

1

The site is probably more publicized in the U.S.. as for your general question:
[en.wikipedia.org]
but I see someone already quoted the wikipedia stats.

lerlo Level 8 Sep 21, 2018
1

there are alot in Europe especially th Norwegien countries

1

It an interesting question. Here is what Wikipedia has on the subject:

Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary across different cultures and languages from being an active concept to being unimportant or not developed.[1][2] In global studies, the number of people without a religion is usually higher than the number of people without a belief in a deity[3][4] and the number of people who agree with statements on lacking a belief in a deity is usually higher than the number of people who self-identify as "atheists".[3][1] According to sociologist Phil Zuckerman, broad estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a deity range from 500 to 750 million people worldwide.[1] Other estimates state that there are 200 million to 240 million self-identified atheists worldwide, with China and Russia being major contributors to those figures.[3] According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's review of numerous global studies on atheism, there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world's population), with China having the most atheists in the world (200 million convinced atheists).[5]

Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% reside in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%).[6] The prevalence of atheism in Africa and South America typically falls below 10%.[7] According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population is not affiliated with a religion, while 84% are affiliated.[8] Furthermore, the global study noted that many of the unaffiliated, which include atheists and agnostics, still have various religious beliefs and practices.[6]

Historical records of atheist philosophy span several millennia. Atheistic schools are found in early Indian thought and have existed from the times of the historical Vedic religion.[9] Western atheism has its roots in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, but did not emerge as a distinct world-view until the late Enlightenment.[10]

1

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that their is a glut of religious organizations and advertisement of the same there. Whereas in other countries where there are such organizations they tend to exist in the background of general affairs.

In any country where there are tax exemptions religious organizations tend to flourish.

1

Percentage wise no, but it’s a big country so I could see that being reflected in the demographic. I have no actual data🙂

1

Other countries don't need such outlets ... they are atheistic ... you wouldn't expect a Chinese ethnic association in China ... hey ... I have to check how many Chinese have made it to Liechtenstein ...

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