Atheism in the US. How is it viewed? (believe, born, baptize)
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First, my apologies in advance for my bad English, I'm French :-).
My non-husband and I are considering moving in the US “one day” so I’m quite interested in the American culture.
One of my main concerns is the weight of the religion in the US society. As you probably guessed already, I’m a complete atheist. My2 kids are not baptized, I’ve been living “in sin” with my partner for 15 years and we are both completely out of any religious community.
That doesn’t mean we are un-respectful towards believers, we have several friends with true faith for different gods (Muslims, Christians, Buddhist), we just don’t care at all.
How is it to be an Atheist in the US? Is it something really not ordinary oris it becoming more normal these days?
Thanks for your thought J
I don't know any atheists is real life. Only minor problems with rude comments in the past but none recently.
I imagine stay away from the "Bible Belt" which is located in the southeast portion and you will be fine, in most other places. Assuming this may be an issue you may want to stay away from heavy Republican districts because that usually means more religious people live there. By that I mean people who go to church and wear their religion on their sleeve.
Chances are no one is going to run you out of the neighborhood but I can't speak for the areas I just mentioned.
Very much depends on where you live. Also depends on your tolerance for people who are friendly enough as long as the topic of religion does not come up. If you are a big city person, almost anywhere would be OK, even in the south. If you are a small city/town or a rural person, the best places would be the west coast or the northeast.
Once you have some candidates, you can get a very good idea by looking at the voting history of that particular state's legislative districts. The Republican party in the US is pretty much in thrall to the religious right.
Keep in mind that an unchurched individual can still be very religious, but as a gauge of a particular area, the number of churches will tell you how strong community support is for organized religion.
It is slowly improving here in the U.S. Years ago, many people may have felt uncomfortable or even afraid of "outing" yourself as an atheist. It also depends on regional culture, as the above posts indicated. The "bible-belt" regions are generally more intolerant of atheists. I think there are still a large population of secularists who aren't ready to admit they are an atheist, so they either avoid the religious topic altogether, or step their toe into the water and say they are "agnostic" (I myself went through a few years as an agnostic to lessen the blow to my family, my [now ex-] husband, and his extremely religious family). Now I fully embrace my atheism and if asked, will tell them. I still will get the stigma from certain people (especially in the area I live in), that perhaps I have no morals, "just want to sin", or that I "hate God".
I look forward to our culture here in the U.S. to be more accepting of the secular community. We still have a ways to go, but I do see it improving.
Most people won't care at all if you are married to your partner. It isn't unusual. Like others have said, stay away from small conservative towns and you will be fine.
Since you presumably have a lot of choice in where you decide to live, you should encounter no real issues with either atheism or "living in sin" (both of which I do).
Even in relatively conservative areas, you can find pockets where more liberal people live. Examples would be Asheville, North Carolina (very "hip", eclectic, egalitarian community due to the large arts community and its status as a tourist / getaway destination -- located squarely in the "Bible Belt"), Madison Wisconsin (fairly conservative area but the University of Wisconsin has a liberalizing influence; they even made atheism specifically a "protected class" recently so it's explicitly illegal to discriminate against atheists). Actually most any community where one or more universities are a dominant part of the local economy will tend to be very friendly to free thought.
It is not unusual in the liberal college town we live in for people to introduce their unmarried partners with some variation of "we're together". My wife and I introduce each other as husband and wife and have wedding rings, as it requires less explaining and we regard each other as such anyway. We are officially unmarried mainly because we both lost our previous spouses through death and if we are still single when we turn 60 in a couple of years we are eligible for Social Security Survivor's Benefits which is like getting Social Security benefits about 5 years early.
I'd say there's still a slight social stigma to living together without being officially married, IF you still have minor children. If you have no children or if your children are adults, then it doesn't really come up. The reason children are a factor is that they can sometimes be made fun of at school and it's seen as imposing unnecessary social stigma on your children and probably also, arguably, not providing a level of commitment to marriage that provides children with perceived security. However, even this problem seems to be fading. If my partner and I were planning a family together or just raising each other's kids together it'd give me a little more pause, but without that factor in play it doesn't even really occur to us.
So in summary: choose a fairly liberal area to move to and you will have no worries in ordinary real life. Online, in places like this, people will sometimes be very aggressive about what they see as "incorrect" belief, but that's a special case that doesn't translate to everyday life.
First, my apologies in advance for my bad English, I'm French :-).
My non-husband and I are considering moving in the US “one day” so I’m quite interested in the American culture.
One of my main concerns is the weight of the religion in the US society. As you probably guessed already, I’m a complete atheist. My2 kids are not baptized, I’ve been living “in sin” with my partner for 15 years and we are both completely out of any religious community.
That doesn’t mean we are un-respectful towards believers, we have several friends with true faith for different gods (Muslims, Christians, Buddhist), we just don’t care at all.
How is it to be an Atheist in the US? Is it something really not ordinary oris it becoming more normal these days?
Thanks for your thought J
I Am not from the bible belt so liberalism is far more dangerous to children and young girls than any religion in my area.
"respectful" is a personality trait. So people are people in the usa. Many good people and many not so much. I would worry more about being french. Many people see the french as a snooty bunch. Toss in any extra counter culture stuff and it mite be a nightmare for yaz.
Like others say, pick a location that reflects you basic beliefs and you will be just fine.
What area of the US are you considering moving to? The Pacific Northwest is the least religious part of the US, and atheists are well-accepted in the urban areas such as Seattle and Portland. The US Northeast isn't bad either, especially in the big cities. Just don't move to a smaller town or city in the South. My best childhood friend whose family moved from Oregon were ostracized by their neighbors due to their lack of religious belief - he wasn't allowed to play with the neighbor kids.
If you don't mind, what interests you in the US? If I lived in Norway, I'd never move in a million years - that's one country I wish I was born in instead of here...lol.
Up here in the Northeast. Nobody cares. I'm am atheist and many of my friends are too. We don't walk around talking about it but for the most part religion is not a part of our lives and it's never been an issue really.
If we move to US, it would most probably be Houston since we both work in Oil&Gas. So when I read "avoid South", I'm a little bit scarred!
Why the US? Because it's a developped English speaking country where we could easily find jobs through our current companies (if oil price goes up again). We also suspect that there is much more to discover in US culture than what is shown on TV, not mentioning the great nature all around the country. I guess it would be a good experience for the kids as well. Life is a bit too easy in a way in Norway, they need to be prepared for the "real world" :-).
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My best childhood friend whose family moved from Oregon were ostracized by their neighbors due to their lack of religious belief - he wasn't allowed to play with the neighbor kids. 
