I’d love to be able to leave the states… but moving states is more realistic (although also not an all of the sudden kinda decision either). I’m just curious what parts of the world are welcoming for people that don’t care to hear about religion… I’m stuck in Texas so I’m very out of place.
I’m down here with you! I’m the one wearing a cap with an A on it. “They” think it’s for Alabama or Atlanta but you and I know better.
I've got the same hat!
It's not a red Make America Go Athiest cap is it? lol
Oh this is 🥇!
I honestly never thought about using that against them.
Make America Go Atheist! 🤣
25 more friends, you'll qualify for charter school status down there :)
I think we’re in the same state buddy! Big Bertha country 😬
If I could, I would send you plane tickets to Finland.
Would be fun to take some random American atheists to a 212 F sauna and discuss about life and free healthcare. 😄
I volunteer as tribute!
That sounds so fun
Take me, take me!!
Everything I see and hear about Finland makes it seem like the best place ever.
Take us! Take us! Save us!
Rub it in. 😆😆
That’s what happens in the sauna….
I was in Tampere in January. Salt your damned sidewalks. :)
Kidding. I know it's better for the environment.
Also, my hotel room played some kickass Finnish folk music.
Saaaame! My atheism made my MS smalltown Facebook page at one point. Fuck I'm glad to be out of that po dunk shit hole.
Eek. 'How to weaponize cultural shame 101'
Being an atheist in MS didn’t make the paper, but it did get me fired
Youch. Sorry, friend.
There are better places. I grew up in SW Virginia, lived just north of Atlanta for a couple years, and then spent ~5 years in WV before I got out. So far New England has been amazing.
I’m here with y’all!
Dear GOD.
I'm sorry, in this case it was appropriate.
Same…
Howdy from DFW
Albany NY USA. One of the most Atheist cities in the USA!
We laugh at the church billboards.
I'm from Albany as well. I definitely see a lot more vocal religious people, but it's still a non issue.
It's comedy. I recently belted out "my parents had sex in 1979 and 9 months later I appeared. Your caveman fairytale wasn't involved" in a Dr waiting room after hearing "god was with me".
I'm done being "polite" about Adult Santa Claus
Fuck
Within one minute of posting I received a message from crisis hotline.
WOW! Some people... I've had that happen as well, but I didn't think to connect it to any comments I made here. Now you have me wondering.
Commented on this, and two minutes later got a 'Help' message from Reddit and I can't find my original comment! - WTF??
Lots of us got spammed with that crap the exact same way today, so don't feel left out, lol.
Lol, thx
Oh cool lol I wondered why in the world I received that random message today
Had that happen once when I said Romans had the right idea about Christians and lions.
Please report them.
I tried, and Reddit wanted the link to the comment that generated the self-care message. I have no idea what comment caused it, and (on the Reddit phone app, at least) I don't know how to find the "link" to a specific comment.
Those religious fanatics gotta have someone to harass at all times to distract from the terror of people having different beliefs. It’s hilarious
That means you’re winning
I moved from Saratoga springs back down to SC… what a fucking culture shock even though I’m from there originally. The Bible Belt is a frustrating place.
I just got diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer and already, if I had a dollar for every prayer list people put me on and being told I’m being prayed for (nursing staff included)* I would probably be able to not work for a whole month.
*they’ve all been VERY helpful and supportive but that stuff just irks me.
Austria, central europe. Even the religious ppl here are godless heathens by american standards.
Hahaha, very nice!!!
which isnt saying we dont have problems, there are still some very backward catholics and a rising number of islamic hardliners/extremists.
Yay for the EU. It’s usually easy to be an atheist here minus the pop up Christian. That’s scary.
north pole, alaska. it's very religious here but there isn't much reason for people to even know I'm an atheist and those that do (even my friends that are religious) don't care much. I did have one funny thing happen when I was doing portrait photography. A family hired me to shoot them and while shooting they invited me to join their church and I told them I wasn't a christian. They never contacted me again and never got their pics. They had paid in full so oh well. That's my only encounter with that kind of nonsense in 50 years.
Washington State. We are one of the least religious states. Christians and atheists tend to keep their beliefs private and the only ones who don't are the JW's.
Mormons keep their beliefs quiet? They have lawsuits going in 3 states over their temples.
I don't really consider Mormons as Christian. They are in a league of their own when it comes to weirdness. Joseph Smith was just an earlier version of L. Ron Hubbard.
Joseph Smith helped me realize that a prophet is just a good liar, or they are deluded and everyone believes them.
Edit: old Ronnie boy too
Best state for Atheists, I've only lived in a few states, traveled through many, and a dozen countries(only a handful for more than a few days) but Washington has been the place I've felt most at home being an Atheist
Remember, being an atheist isn't a belief. We just don't believe in any of it.
Which part of WA? I grew up in Skagit County, in an extremely evangelical Christian home to a well-known family in our sect, and my dad and grandpas were all pastors. Oh, and I was home-schooled. That shit sucked 🤣
Woohoo! Grew up there. Atheist until HS. We moved from Seattle to Vancouver, Washington. I got bored & became a Christian. I’m back and catching up to what I missed.
South africa... Where God is responsible for everything good that happens and his employee satan for all the bad. Satan is responsible for more and more everyday😂
The mental gymnastics is Olympic level over here.
Thank you!! SA has always been WAAAY too overly religious and superstitious for too long. It's so tough finding fellow atheists here.
Yep, but the unicorn are out there 😂
We sure are. I feel our numbers are grossly underestimated due to the stigma surrounding non-belief in our country.
From Uganda... Same problem here. Religion growing in Africa at almost the same pace as the population growth is the most disturbing thing
I lived in Bloemfontein from 21 to 24 years old (I am 61 now) and one of the most baffling things (apart from apartheid) was the enormous amount of churches and their different takes on what was to me the same religion. Us being non-believers wasn't really understandable to them, lol
One of the others was them asking me if I wasn't "broeis" (in heat) as I didn't have kids yet...
Beautiful country, many beautiful people.... but so much strife, willful misunderstanding and too much religion!
Currently living in Patagonia, Argentina.
Wow!!! How do you like living there? Is there anything about living there you could share with us? I just love learning about other countries and what it's like to live there
Same… I like hearing what other nations are like!
Regarding religion, I would say that most people here are "passive, non-practicing Catholics." It's like, those who are religious don't usually go to church and they hardly ever speak about religion outside church.
Even when Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are present here, I haven't seen them knock on my door not even once. I'm not saying there is no religious presence around, but you certainly don't feel it.
And then you have a very, very large secular population. I would even argue that those who were raised Catholic but don't practice are religious just by inertia. Most people here have much more pressing problems to worry about than wondering whether God exists or not. It's not something that's going to change their lives.
Oh, and don't go claiming creationism is real or anything of the sort in public, because you would be ridiculed into oblivion. As I said, many people are secular, and most religious folks are Catholic. Everyone is taught evolution both in public and private schools, even religious ones.
U.S. here. My gf is half Argentinian, and we'd like to visit. If you don't mind me asking- What are some can't miss things there??
West Virginia..its such a shithole
I’ll see your West Virginia shithole and raise Oklahoma shithole.
How bad is it out there?
It’s fuckin Howdy Arabia out here. The only upside is that I’m allowed to be armed to the teeth for when they inevitably try and throw me and all the other undesirables in death camps.
Let's face it, USA is mostly a big shithole. Some shitholes are more shitholy than other shitholes. But then again, there are a lot of shitholes globally.
All countries suck in some way. The trick is to find a country that sucks in ways that don't inconvenience you that much.
I needed this comment
UK and most of the European countries, in the UK there is a golden rule especially when down the pub, you never mention religion or politics.
Basically religion is a personal thing, the majority of our population only comes into contact with a church/ religion is at Christenings, Weddings and Funerals.
Happy to add that any person looking for local or national government office who is openly, demonstratively religious is seen as 'odd' - not someone to be admired.
See former Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron.
He's odd (and quite funny) anyway, but he got dragged over the coals during an election on his views of gay sex because of his religion and his inability to come up with a straight answer about it for days.
in the UK there is a golden rule especially when down the pub, you never mention religion or politics.
I find it's more a case of don't attack someone else's religion, and if you bring up your own religion be prepared to have it critiqued and laughed at
Denmark. Very secular country. And happens to be one of the most happy ones too.
Hmm, I wonder if there’s a connection …
Us in the Nordic countries keep competing for the top 10 on virtually every of the good index of things.
Life is good here. Nobody cares what religion you have. Sure JW stand around with their flyers and they can come knocking or calling very rarely. But you can always tell them to remove you from their list and they will.
No religion is used to pass laws here. That would be absurd. I've never heard any politician try to argue with an appeal to a scripture to pass a law.
No religion is used to pass laws here. That would be absurd. I've never heard any politician try to argue with an appeal to a scripture to pass a law.
You have no idea how badly I wish that was the norm.
Sounds wonderful
I only have a good impression of the Nordic countries. I live in the US, but have been working for Swedish company for 15 years.
Feel sorry for you all in America. Your county comes across as batshit crazy.
Thank you. It is. We are not doing very well 🥺
I can't speak for a whole nation but all you sane Americans are welcome over here in the UK
Cool, thanks!! I have always wanted to visit the UK. I love British TV shows/comedy!
Seconded!
it comes across that way to a lot of Americans, as well. Probably something like 65% of Americans. It's a vocal minority that fucks things up for everyone else.
Turkey!
I might be one of the unlucky one, I witnessed how Islam destroyed our secular country, and now I am witnessing how islam is taking over the west, and you guys so oblivious to the imminent disaster. I feel like an oracle foreseeing the Night Walkers invasion, and yet you guys are calling us “crazy” for foretelling this.
anyway, any single lady to save me from this hell?
I always wondered how'd I feel if I lived in an Islamic country. It must be really freaking tough for atheist there. Greeting from Serbia.
Yeh Erdogan did you guys real bad
Australia.
Australia and Sri Lanka
Northern California. I ain't ever leaving.
Yep. Us, too. Our house is paid for and it’s the last one we’ll own.
Currently in Hong Kong. We don't give a fuck.
Beautiful! Wish all places were like that lol
Pacific Northwest, south of Seattle. We have our problems, but religion isn’t very high on the list.
Sweden. It's lovely.
Norway. Nobody's bombarded with religion here.
I'm in NZ
Me too. Politicians here tend to keep quiet about their religion here. If it gets mentioned a lot of people take the piss.
As they should.
Florida. Send help.
My condolences :( The more up North you go, the more Southern it becomes
If you want to move overseas then Australia could just be the place for you. We are desperate for teachers and medical staff. Religion does not get any air space in Australia, we're very secular.
Forreal?! I teach and would LOVE to go!
Your spiders are off putting.
Huntsmen are basically big jumping spiders. I'd think having one as a pet would be like having a forever toy puppy.
I’ve always wondered if I could be a nurse there lol. I’m from the US
California is beautiful. Come.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-aK6JnyFmk
Would in a heartbeat! I was born in SF and just want a place of my own like I have here… even jf it wasn’t a big city, I’d be happy to live in a state not trying to turn back progress
I left Dallas for CA in 1983 and never looked back.
Tokyo - no one bothers me about religion, (except for the occasional Mormon dudes). And it consistently seems like most of the foreigners I meet are also agnostic or atheist. Always jarring when I go back to the US and people bring up some weird shit about Jesus, etc.
Vietnam which is part of SE Asia. I see a lot of NY Yankees logos but folks here have NO idea what it signifies. They think it is a brand.
Aussie here, nobody cares if you're atheist or not.
Spain, even religious people might seem like atheists to an American depending on the region.
India!
Colorado. 22 miles from Aspen. Black bears, mountain lions, elk, moose, coyotes and lots of apatheists. I’m very comfortable here.
Sweden 🇸🇪. I can guarante you no one will look down on you for being atheist here.
Finland. I'm 41 and have the kind of blue collar job where I see alot of new people. At work I've heard god mentioned only from two different persons, and the other one was American christian who moved here. I think every nordic country is like this, plus Estonia. Not sure about other european countries.
One more here in Finland! One of the best places to be atheist.
Finland here too.
Japan. In itself a very secular country (by law) where a lot of people profess to be non-religious.
At the same time, many people are superstitious and put a lot of emphasis on age old traditions. I've met countless people that believe in some version of Japanese supremacy, and that combined with a belief in Japan's origin story involving supernatural deities make me think that while not "religious" in the strict sense of the word, Japanese society does have a lot of oppressive characteristics in common with more religous societies.
And I'm not even referring to the many scandals involving new local and import religious organizations' involvement in Japanese politics. That's a separate, but equally concerning, story.
Denmark, pretty nice, rarely have to talk with proper relegious people
The surface
Surface dweller eh? Brag more ya don't ya. 😉
/s
Collage station Texas atheist here 😵💫🥲
Oregon. A fine place for atheists.
Nice!!!
France.
You are welcome here.
UK. Fortunately 99.9% don’t give a shit about religion.
South Korea. Most are non-believers or casual believers, with some exceptions...
Australia-land of (mostly) don’t care. There are people who believe in god/s but most of them keep it to themselves. Our last prime minister was a christian, of quite a batshit variety. But most of us are atheist/agnostic.
I look at what your religious nutcases are doing to your health care and hope that the used to stutter, and is old man, not the orange sundowning puppet, is elected in November.
Sweden. We don’t like it when people aren’t keeping religion to themselves
Austin,TX. Home of the Atheist Experience and Matt Dillahunty and crew.
I love most of the old regular host at The Atheist Experience. Watching them tear religious arguments apart when I was a teenager on Austin Public Access channel definitely helped form my world view.
New Hampshire! Moved here from Georgia, and it's a different world. Religion is not baked in to the culture, and people don't really talk about it.
My body lives in Alaska. My heart lives in Wisconsin. And my mind lives in a tropical area.
Czech Republic. Atheists by default. You probably won't ever hear about religion in normal day to day life.
The first time I heard anyone mention god after 5 years of moving here was from my boyriend from a different country .
Czech Republic is damn cool and absolutely beautiful. Greetings from Serbia!
Southern Maine. Most of the people around me are religious, but they leave me alone about it.
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle...it's not like religion is absent, but it's easy to ignore.
Vermont is very non religious.
Southern Arizona. More hot, than it is religious.
I live in China. It's got problems there are definitely down sides. But to answer your question, the perks are: if you are an American with a bachelor's and no criminal record you get a cushy job making plenty of money. With my qualifications I put about 3k USD into savings each month, after I complete my online degree it will go upto around 4k. And I work like 26-35hrs a week for 9 months a year.
Most people here are atheists and no body cares about religion or politics or ideology. In fact I'm pretty sure it's illegal to proselytize.
Just past Betelgeuse and hang a left.
I love the comments in this thread. You are all so funny.
You're funny too 👍😄
San Diego, California. I feel too lucky to live here
Poland, I live in the most religious region of my country☹
Israel
Ontario Canada. I have noticed cringy billboards in the rural areas but even there I have never had someone ask me about my church or any of the other annoying things that get spoken about here. In cities it's just not a thing.
Come on up you will be welcome here. Just don't move to Alberta it's Canada's Texas and Florida all in one place. :-)
Calgary Canada.
The land of fascism *cough* I mean freedom.
US, Southern California. I'm in good company here despite having about five churches and one religious school within one square mile of my home.
Queensland Australia, religion is not very important here
Netherlands
Our state religion is protestantism, but over 50% of people are atheist
Northern Ireland, originally. A deeply evangelical protestant area full of incest, bigotry and violence. So kind of like some parts of the US, I guess.
After moving around Ireland and the UK for a number of years, I'm now settled in Singapore.
In Québec, secularism is actually one of the pillars of our society. That doesn't mean everyone is an atheist of course, but the expectation is that people leave their religion at home, so you shouldn't be bothered.
US, South Carolina. You can probably imagine what it was like when the pandemic hit and everyone was hopping on Facebook to spew their nonsense. I want to leave already
Finland. Majority of christians here are very chill and religion isn't an usual conversation topic. Ofc there are exceptions but there's far less "zealot" christians than in for example the US
West Virginia, I don't mind. In south California I'd be like a 4 or a 5. But here I'm like a 8 or a 9.
I live in Washington state. When I lived in Colorado, I learned a good way to deflect was to say clearly; I don't need the threat of hell to be good.
Poland. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, the most rapidly secularizing country of over a hundred countries measured, which is nice. It's just so fun to watch Catholic Church shoot itself in the foot on a daily basis.
Philippines, I'm not vocal about it and just register Protestant on documents whenever I register but I do get silenced whenever I talk about my unbelief in spirits and deities.
This is my favorite question of them all ! I live, everywhere. Seriously. All I do is travel with my dog. I’ve been to every state in America and every major city in those states. I’ve traveled over ten years now and just started a job allowing me to work remotely. I lived “ on the roads of America “ and no I’m not that person in an RV making TikTok videos. I drive a Jeep grand Cherokee and stay in hotels. The traveling has changed everything about me. I see so many different cultures in America it seems more like fifty countries rather than fifty “United” states.
England.
British society is one of the most secularised in the world and in many surveys determining religious beliefs of the population agnosticism, nontheism, atheism, secular humanism, and non-affiliation are views shared by a majority of Britons.
Brit living in Finland.
Estonia. Religion is definitely not a big deal here.
To me it's not about moving to avoid what you don't like, so many Americans come onto subs saying they want to leave America because of xyz.
To me that's a cop out, change only happens from within. Let's be real every other country has had religion dominate at one time or another, the reason they don't now is because people stayed and made changes happen.
My country was perceived as a catholic country for centuries, but I'd say it's secular now. And that's because the people changed the system. Change doesn't happen overnight it takes time, we managed to get contraception introduced in the 1970's, divorce legalised in the 1990's, overturned the abortion ban in the 2010's and also legalised same sex marriage at that time too. We now have multi denominational schools, non religious baby naming ceremonies and marriages, there is no baptism barrier stopping non baptised kids going to school all of this was about slowly chipping away.
So instead of running away, find like-minded people in your area and change the system.
Southern U.K.
Very, very secular. Religion tends to be a private thing over here. Very little evangelising / proselytising (I think we sent them all to you!).
However, I do love exploring our old churches (and Iron Age hill forts, and castles, etc). Got a 12th Century one just up the road.
I’m in Flori-duh
Don’t move to Louisiana. It really sucks here.
I live in a small town in the state of Illinois in the USA.
Let me guess, one school for K-12 surrounded by 26 churches of different denominations.
Only elementary school here. Kids go to a neighboring town 15 miles away for high school. Three churches, one bar, a Caseys and a Dollar General.
There's a Walmart in a bigger town 10 miles away.
I deeply sympathize. I was condemned to a small Illinois town of about 3500. Had 3 schools, elementary, jr. high, and high, two bars, a Casey's (lol), Wal-Mart was 16 miles away, and 20 fucking churches. 20, for 3500 people.
U.S, PNW. Send help to the deep south and Midwest please!🤣
Yes!!!
San Jose California!
I lived in West Texas for a few years. I’d take that over my home, and current state of Utah. We have a theocracy here. The prophet of the this giant corporation, I mean church, stands behind the Governor when he makes a speech? proving that he’s basically a puppet for whatever the Mormons want him to say or do. To make it worse, I live and teach in a rural town where drinking coffee is considered a sin. I drink enough for ALL the teachers at my school, because they can’t unless they want to go to outer darkness.
Rant over.
I grew up in Germany, and I am living in South Korea now. I think both countries are quite good but obviously not perfect.
Canada.
Eastern Europe. Not many religious freaks in my country. Most of the believers just believe there's some sort of supernatural force above us and many only wear crosses and similar jewelry for the aesthetics. You can see jehovah's witnesses standing randomly on the streets with their signs and books and sometimes they ring on doorbells, but they are usually being avoided by everyone like they don't even exist.
New Hampshire. We're always battling my home state for least religious which I consider healthy competition.
Wales U.K., religion is all but dead here thankfully
Savoy, France. We got lakes, mountains, sometimes snow. A bit too many tourists and a few religious people i guess
Belgium 🇧🇪 i love it here
In the south of the Netherlands, in Maastricht. It used to be a very catholic area but 1 church after the other is closing down and sold (to became a gym or a bookstore or a community center) because nobody shows up anymore.
Brazil
Sweden. It's quite nice here, churches are being decommissioned, workers have rights, about 4% goes to church outside funerals/weddings, and I promised myself not to mention health care costs so I won't.
I will, though, mention that according to my personal observations the most common question from Americans on Swedish web forums have shifted during the last 15 years, from "Can you help me find out more about my Swedish ancestors?" to "How do I go about moving to Sweden?"
India(sadly)
Maryland. Baltimore. It is about as non-religious as one can get around here. I grew up in Maryland and while I did attend religious school and became bar mitzvah it is also true that pretty much 100% of my friends are atheist, and always have been, and that I rarely encounter real religious people in a negative context.
For example: In 53 years of life, I can only remember one time that mormon or other religious acolytes knocked on my door to bring me the good news. It was a couple of middle-aged JWs.
And it is actually pretty rare for religion to come up in conversations "in the wild". At most, I get told "have a blessed day" by like, a grocery checkout person, and that only happens like, a couple times a year.
C'mon down, you'll be quite welcome here
US Midwest babble belt.
California , BUT a country western and corn pone section of CA so you can’t throw a rock here without hitting a church.
Oregon. Plenty of religion, plenty of atheists. It's chill in this regard in my experience.
Gulf coast of Alabama. I'm fucking surrounded down here, like Custer at Little Big Horn.
Roseville, California
It is becoming more and more purple, but we still have one too many MAGA mega churches that preach politics from the pulpit, but I’m still in progressive Cali.
U.S. deep south. Send help.