What is the status of atheism and religion at your school?
I no longer attend school (starting college soon!) but where I went, there was a Christian version of almost every club on campus. Even a Christian Athletes one! It's ridiculous. There were however a minority of atheists on campus who tended to hang out together, but we weren't outspoken or anything special unfortunately. We were just geeks. ;)
Permalink Reply by Jezzy on September 18, 2010 at 7:46pm
My college has a Gay-Straight Alliance, which I joined, but I haven't found anything secular or nontheist. :( And I haven't found any other atheists yet. I know there are jack-Mormons though, and it's a start I guess.
I knew an atheist that went to my school, but I'm not sure if he's still an atheist now. I hope so, but he hasn't been around for me to talk to, so I'm not completely sure.
I'm doing an independent study on evolution, so I'm sure that's bound to bring up religion soon enough, but so far nearly everyone I know disagrees with evolution. That means that there probably aren't any atheists in my class that I'm doing an independent study in. D: It's in a gifted class, so I expected at least one person to at least believe in evolution.
One time, in my English class, I was discussing my musical taste with two guys that I know. They aren't that smart, and they disagree with nearly everything I say, but hey - I was finished with all my work and had no access to a library to get a new book. So, I was telling them that I was interested in heavy metal music, and they were fans of the average hip-hop, rap, or country. One of the guys (the more talkative one) mentioned how metal music talked about the devil, but I decided not to say anything about it. Then, he mentioned it again, and I was pretty annoyed with him by them. So, I snapped: "I don't believe in the devil."
Oh, FSM, bless me. That did it. He (I'm going to call him Thomas now, because I'm annoyed with just saying 'he' and that's his name) was very shocked. "You don't believe in the devil?! So, you don't believe in God either, huh?"
I replied, "Nope."
Then he was even more shocked. He looked over at his friend, with the "How is that possible?" look, and then he looked back over at me. I was kind of freaking out, because that was the very first time that I'd admitted to being atheist in real life, other than with a close friend, but she didn't really act like I was an atheist anyways. Anyways, Thomas told me, "How do you not believe in God? I mean, God is real."
So, I was starting to get really excited. My first debate in real life? Somebody knew that I was an atheist. I just told them. What? How? I wasn't thinking fully, but I think I still did pretty good in the debate. "Give me proof that God exists. Proof."
He of course whipped out the straw-man argument. "How are we here? Huh? God made us, that's how we're here, there's no other way!"
"We got here through evolution. A giant invisible man in the sky didn't make us; I don't understand that theory at all." I wasn't remembering everything, but that is the stupidest point that a Christian can make in a debate, so I was annoyed too.
"God isn't an invisible man in the sky! And we didn't come from monkeys, that's stupid. If we did, then how come monkeys are still here?" -.- I was about to reply, then he cut me off - "And, and, and, the Big Bang! A big rock didn't collide with something and make the universe, that's stupid."
I don't remember exactly what I said, but it was probably one of the smartest things that I've ever said. XD It was something like this. "Evolution does not state that we come from monkeys. (insert longer explanation of the theory of evolution here) And also, I don't think a big rock collided with something and made the universe. I think that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard, and a scientist wouldn't come up with that theory unless they had proof. The real Big Bang theory is actually like this (yada yada yada; explanation of the Big Bang here)."
I actually didn't finish explaining the Big Bang when he replied, "Well, whatever. You're wrong, I know it. God is real, and none of that scientific stuff is true, I know it." ;)
Man, I feel like I'm ranting. Oh well, here's the last encounter with religion that I've had since I became an atheist (which was about three months ago...).
I was talking to two of my friends, and they're both one grade above mine, so we were on the bus. We usually talk every day. Tim is an extreme metal head, and he actually shows it. He has long, messy hair, and he wears band t-shirts every day, but he's actually a really cool guy. Brenden is more quiet, but he's mostly the same way. Tim was telling me about how he had painted his nails black and how they weren't coming off, so I asked him why he painted them. Tim replied that he went to church and had this rock program; I don't exactly remember what.
I was shocked. He joked about God and sending people to hell and 'Jebus' all the time. "You go to church?!"
Tim: "Yeah, I go to church. Did you think I was Satanic or something?"
Me: "No, no, no, definitely not-"
Tim: "Or did you think I was an atheist?" (He seemed a bit more shocked on that one, lol.)
Me: "Well, sort of. Just your choice of music and the way you act, kind of made me suspicious. I'm actually an atheist." *nervous laugh* (I'm afraid of not getting accepted for being an atheist, just like any normal person would be, because these two are close friends.)
Tim: "Oh, really? Cool, that's pretty awesome." He wasn't shocked or anything.
Brenden: "Are your parents really mad about it and want you to be religious?" He seemed a bit curious.
Me: "Not really, they don't care. They told me that I could be whatever religion I wanted. I haven't really told them yet, though."
Brenden: "Oh, nice." (My parents are very strict and protective, and he knows that. So, I was secretly cheering, because some people actually didn't care.)
So then Tim went on about this joke about atheist being used as an insult, and then we came up with a bunch of stupid insults like "noob-a-saurous", ect..
So, that's about all of my ridiculously long story.