The experience of being an atheist / agnostic in the UK seems to be different to that in the US. Any thoughts?
I live in the US in the Bible Belt. It's not as bad as it may seem, but I really don't talk about it unless asked. Also, I'm not anti religion and I have a few good friends that are Christian, we just don't talk about it, respect each others' personal views.
From what I’ve heard, rebelling against ‘the church of England’ is both understood and respected. They’ve a ‘healthy disrespect’ for religion.
In the US, where religions compete with each other, it appears ‘followers’ earn some kind of ‘additional respect’ for belonging to one, and there’s less respect or tolerance for anyone not affiliated. It’s like, if you’ve not chose one of the many US flavors, it can’t be because there’s something wrong with them all - so there must be something wrong with you…
I like the phrase "healthy disrespect"
Ah, “the informal name for the Church of Scotland” … figured it couldn’t be James Tiberius ..he’s not yet born
I’ve recent college graduate daughter’s - constantly considering relocating outside the US … though it’s nowhere as easy as that was in my day. With some ‘Duncan’ blood from their mother’s side ...perhaps Scotland might work
A general observation, based on very few data points, is that the churchgoing community in the UK has been diminishing over the last 20 years or so and there is a corresponding drop in the number of young people that follow the faith of their parents. In the US, my limited experience is that religious beliefs have not declined anywhere near to the same degree.
one person is in UK and the other in US perhaps?
In what way? Can you give an example?
As per an earlier comment, it seems to be rather easy to be an atheist /agnostic here in the UK. Which seems odd, when we have an established church, compared to the US principle of separation of church and state...