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Here is an interesting question (probably asked by an American person) and a few Brits responded. The first response pretty much sums it up for me as to why Brits rarely engage in theism vs atheism discussions.

It would be interesting to know what other nations' attitudes towards theism/atheism are like, e.g., Canada, Australia, European countries, Asian countries, etc., etc.


Q: Are British people in general comfortable with atheism and atheists, or is it a dirty word and atheists can face social stigma?

A: Although we speak a similar language to our American cousins, our cultures are so very very different and sometimes it must be very hard to comprehend just how different they are.

  1. In England our social lives do not revolve around the church or our religions.

  2. People in the UK tend not to evangelize, it's socially unacceptable to force your religious beliefs on others and will make you very unpopular.

  3. It is not acceptable to discuss religious beliefs in the work place.

  4. You may never know if your friends, neighbours or even family believe in God at all let alone attend a church. It is a private matter.

  5. You will very rarely see public figures pray or make any references to their faith.

  6. We do not allow prayers to any gods before public meetings or gatherings or in the work place.

  7. Religious discrimination is against the law, that means that even in our local Catholic school (which my strongly atheist son attends) they have a multi faith room where Muslims (or any faiths) can go to pray privately. It also means that you can not openly push any faith agenda in public places, you can't discriminate against someone purely on the basis of their faith or lack of faith.

  8. People do not make judgement on a persons worth based on their religions, we base it more on actions.

  9. We tend to sleep in on Sundays and use it as a family day.

  10. There is no ‘Sunday rush hour‘ or any obvious change in traffic around religious services, not enough people attend church to make a difference.

  11. People very rarely just offer thoughts and prayers in times of crisis, it's seen as a waste of time and an empty gesture. It is more common for people to offer practical assistance.

  12. No one in the UK has ever said ‘I will pray for you‘ to me. I was shocked by how many people said it to me in the USA.

  13. I have never seen anyone pray over a meal in public or in private, ever… until I went to America.

  14. We do not have mega churches, TV evangelist type things, people don't donate money to random preachers.

  15. We don't have the levels of church attendance in the UK that the USA does for any of the multiple religions. For example in our whole neighbourhood I know of only one family who regularly attend church and I only found out by accident because I happened to be out walking my dog when they were leaving for church and I overheard the mother saying ‘hurry up we are going to be late AGAIN!’ One of my close friends I know is Muslim only because when she comes for dinner we avoid pork etc. She makes no big deal out of it and offers to bring her own food when she comes over!

  16. We really don't have to mention being atheist because it really never comes up. There is no shame because it's a non issue.


A: Nobody in the UK uses the word atheist or atheism, because nobody discusses religion. We live in a true secular country where religion is a personal thing.

There are people who I have known for twenty to thirty years and I couldn’t tell you what, if anything, they believe in. This is how a modern, tolerate, civilised society lives.


Read on if you are interested: [divineatheist.quora.com]

Ryo1 8 Aug 11
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2

Religiosity in America, the same as racism, has been promoted for political and economic purposes, as it keeps the lower classes divided and thus protects the rich from revolution, or even any radical pushback against the class warfare that has been going on forever on the part of the rich against everyone else.

2

America should take a lesson here, but our problem is that we have politicized religious belief and want to make it a big deal. A former boss of mine told me once that the religious problem in the UK as America was forming was that you had to be a member of the Church of England. I find it strange that he and many others assume America was made up of only people from England. False and not true. To even assume it was true you would have to imagine people going around and knocking on doors asking what church you went to. LOL This happens in America.

3

Much the same in Spain. No big deal unless you're a jihadist.

In the UK, regardless of what religion, political belief, etc., extreme ideology is suppressed by law. I assume it's the same in Spain.

@Ryo1 Yep. In fact most of Europe.

3

Atheism/theism is almost as much of non-subject in Australia as it is in UK, and for much the same reasons. (Just in case you are wondering, I have lived and worked in both countries.)

On a side note, there is now a fierce streak of anti-Catholicism emerging in Australia as a result of the emergence in recent dedaces of Catholic atrocities over the last more than 100 years.

3

I wish the US was much more like the UK in these ways. It sounds so much more sensible and civilized.

There is a theory that many baby boomers in the UK detached themselves from religious beliefs that were typically being transmitted within families, and as a result, they raised their children in an agnostic manner. This social phenomenon could happen in America in the near future.

@Ryo1 Well, we can always hope, but I won't count on it.

We are not quite up to the standard of a lot of the scandi countries yet, but we are getting there.

4

Yup…that about sums it up. I have to add though that I live in Northern Ireland and it’s an outlier when it comes to what is normal in the U.K…we do have one mega church in Belfast …where they bus people in from all over the Province…it’s called the Metropolitan Tabernacle..but the rest of us make jokes about it and think they’re all nutters. Here people are more likely to belong to a denomination or church than on the mainland, but only geriatrics attend Catholic Mass on Sundays and only the evangelical Protestants will be cheeky enough to say they’ll pray for you. To that I usually respond with …”whatever turns you on is fine with me!”.

Yeah, I tend to say 'May YOUR god bless you.' 😛

2

30 years ago we did not have any of this either.......

Hi there. Well, that's interesting. So, what's changed?

@Ryo1 well before then, about 50 years ago, Senator Barry Goldwater warned against Evangelicals...."they cannot be reasoned with" was one comment, but nobody paid attention.
Public Schools taught about how important separation of church & state was. Preachers confined themselves to encouraging good attitudes/ethics & talked about precepts.
But...Senator Goldwater was correct!

@TheMiddleWay
I agree ... 30 years ago, religious resentment against agnostics/atheists was very negative and deliberately unfair. They assumed if you weren't religious, you had no morals, and outwardly practiced unfairness to the non-religious. I experienced that. England's live & let live approach seems excellent to me.

3

That's about it.

Hi there. I particularly agree with No. 15. It's just like that in my neighbourhoood. I only know one family that goes to Church every Sunday. Apart from that, I haven't got a clue who is a believer and who is a non-believer, and everybody is happy leaving it that way. Religious or not, I can get on with my neighbours fine, but when I say so, I sometimes get labeled as an 'apologist' by some (Americans) on here. Very peculiar.

5

It is hard for many of us Americans to understand the evangelical attitude. I easily see why other countries are perplexed.

Back when I was exploring various denominations, even when attending evangelical churches, I did not evangelize. It seems totally foreign to me.

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