To the atheists

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How do you deal with the constant pressure from the media and people in general for you to believe in the fairy tale called god?

I don’t see how the media would pressure anyone to believe in God. I guess as far as people in general it might just depend on where you live.

The media isn't knocking on my door, nor are people harassing me in the street. It's not like I'm advertising my lack of belief in an all powerful deity. I'm just fine.

No media pressure in your country on religion? I envy you. Here in Brazil the main television network belongs to an extremely powerful evangelical church, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. It is common to broadcast soap operas with religious themes such as the life of Moses in noble time. In public transportation it is also very common (at least here in Rio De Janeiro) for candy sellers to sell their products using God as motivation. Being an atheist here is so unusual that many people don't even know what atheism means.

How sad for you ... being forced to do nothing but watch TV all of the time. Here in the U.S., we even get to turn the TV off!

There isn't really much religion in the media here. My family is religious, but they avoid religious topics when I'm around and I do the same since I've noticed it just makes things a lot easier.

Well, I'm Canadian, but I don't really watch TV. But, MY GUESS, is I don't have to worry about it.

I usually keep my atheism to myself. I live in a very conservative area and God comes up in random conversations with people all the time. I mostly just smile and nod my head although I do feel a little uncomfortable sometimes and don’t know how to respond, especially if someone is giving me unhelpful spiritual advice to deal with a practical, real-world problem.

I told an acquaintance of mine once that I was an atheist, and seeing her gut reaction was far from pleasant. A lot of people think that you need religion to be a moral person. This person certainly felt that way based upon our ensuing conversation.

I question whether a person is actually good if he or she needs religion to be decent. That’s straying very far from the point, though.

I don’t feel pressure as far as the media goes because I don’t follow any outlet that closely, but I do feel a lot of pressure among family, acquaintances, and my local community which is very religious. I counteract that by engaging in secular pursuits when I’m alone and talking to the few people I know who have a similar, heathen outlook.

Things are fairly secular in Canada. If a person isn't religious, that's their business. I don't live in The US, especially in the Bible Belt, so most of the time I don't have to worry about things like a Karen mother demanding I say grace before eating a meal I bought at the food court because I'm behaving "like a barbarian" in front of her kids for not doing so, and then stealing my food from me when I refuse.

A Karen from Myanmar?

Interesting that even though your country (Brazil) is predominantly Roman Catholic, that the media, you're saying, is dominated by American style Protestant Evangelicals. (How anyone would use "god" to motivate you to put holes in your teeth with candy I cant imagine. Lol!) And you're saying that these Evangelicals dominate television fare.

Yeah- the media here in the US is very religion-neutral. Politicians are expected to be pious though. An atheist might feel beleaguered in some parts of the country, but

U Tube is full of both religious fundies AND of atheists. So you can get your fill of either, or of both, opposite povs. So try U Tube.