Are atheists welcome in Texas (Houston, Dallas: apartment, college, suburbs)

[Wahine]

Originally Posted by catman

Wahine: Pagans aren't atheists. They are polytheists. That being said, some members of every group are unpleasant people. I have no problem with any of the groups as long as they don't condemn me for not agreeing with them! Live and let live.

Yes, I know what a pagan is - and not all of them would describe themselves as polytheists. One of my pagan friends would describe herself as an animist.

My point was, on the other hand, that I've met people who self-identify as pagans, complain about Christians being bigoted against them, while proceeding to make bigoted remarks about Christians. Have I met atheists who share this same flaw (or people of other faiths)? Yep. Just not so far while living in Texas.

By bigoted remarks, I don't mean disagreeing with someone's political or spiritual view of the world. I mean describing people as if they are subhuman. I was at a party last year, several of the guests were acknowledged pagans, and someone made a bombastic remark about how intellectually inferior Christian people were, and I was surprised to see some supposedly "enlightened" people agree with the statement. The conversation kept degrading from there about how stupid, bigoted, etc., Christians were, and they're oh so judgmental of people like us. Talk about hypocrisy. I have a friend in a more conservative part of the state who is a Christian, not bigoted, and not stupid. She's also married to an atheist. If they don't have a problem being married to each other, raising their children together...?

It has nothing to do with a specific faith, it's just a human failing. I once knew some people involved in a small Asatru group, and was appalled to hear them bash pagans. I'm a UU, and you can bet my spiritual path gets bashed or questioned by others - ie Garrison Keillor's comment about Unitarians being too busy cutting parts out of their Bibles, or the joke about the Unitarian moving to an unfriendly neighborhood, to find a burning question mark erected on his front lawn. I agree with your later comment that if you're threatened and insecure, that's when you push for everyone to share your worldview, whatever it is.

SouthDallas40, eHarmony's owner has ties to Focus on the Family and James Dobson.

Believe it or not, eHarmony has been accused of not only not letting gays and atheists sign up, but also discriminating against legally separated people (lawsuit pending), short men, and "cougars" (women who like to date younger men). Someone posted a diary at the liberal blog DailyKos.com talking about their experiences: Daily Kos: eHarmony and Focus on the Family

Here's a group of short-statured people, noting that they had tested eHarmony with several profiles, and found that identical profiles were denied, based on height alone: NOSSA, National Organization of Short Statured Adults

[USA_Mom]

My husband is an atheist and we had no problems in Texas. Now in Columbus, Georgia it's been nothing but INCLUDING with the public school system showing "pity" for my daughter when they did an in class vote on what church we go to (I'm agnostic). But we are not in your face with our beliefs and so I think that's why in the states we have lived in EXCEPT FOR GEORGIA we have not had a problem.

[rjmoreland]

A lot of Texans are religious, but as long as you don't advertise that you are an athiest, I don't think that you will have a problem. If you do advertise, I don't think that anyone will ostracize you or get aggressive, they will just try to convert you to their religion or convince you that there is a God. I've lived in Texas my whole life and I don't go to church. I'm not an atheist, but sometimes I do have my doubts. No one has ever asked me where I go to church or what I believe.

[houstoner]

It depends on where in Texas you live. For example, I would avoid a small town in the Bible Belt. Obviously you will encounter provincial attitudes in smaller towns, but with a little research you should probably be able to find even some smaller towns where religion is not that big of a deal. I'm an atheist-leaning agnostic (who is mostly just apathetic) and I haven't had a problem. There are freethinker, humanist, agnostic/atheist groups and Unitarian churches in the larger cities if you'd like to find likeminded folks. Lots of non-Christian religious groups, too.

Major Texas cities in order from most religious to least religious, from Sperling's Best Places.

San Antonio 65.14%
El Paso 63.43%
Dallas 55.11%
Ft. Worth 52.45%
Houston 50.38%
Austin 46.17%

To compare, the U.S. average is 50.03%.

[CandyApple]

How about these towns:

Denison, Portland, Port Lavaca, and Fredericksburg.

Would an atheist do well there?

[catman]

Wahine: I would submit that an animist is a polytheist of sorts, but it doesn't really matter.

I wouldn't say that Christians are less intelligent than atheists...that's a silly overgeneralization, and bigoted. There are both stupid and intelligent Christians, but there are also both stupid and intelligent atheists. It makes no sense at all to make all-inclusive comments about an entire group. Your Christian friend who is married to an atheist illustrates that we can all get along. Most of us, anyway.

I went to a UU church and was very favorably impressed. Nice people. I must say that I think the Keillor joke is hilarious! People in this country need to be able to laugh at themselves.

southdallas40: Thanks for the warning concerning eHarmony.com. That is quite discordant and intolerant of them.

[songinthewind7]

Originally Posted by CandyApple

How about these towns:

Denison, Portland, Port Lavaca, and Fredericksburg.

Would an atheist do well there?

In Fredericksburg, if one is anything but Christian, as long as you keep it to yourself mostly, you will be okay. People are constantly asking me what church I go to and it gets annoying. I tell them I have not found a church and hopefully I can leave it at that. I've had a couple of folks become obnoxious when I tell them I don't attend church or when I tell them that nature is my church. The Pagans and Atheists in town that I talk to try to keep the peace as much as possible. I do get sarcastic at times but to me, that's a way of life.

[CandyApple]

Hmm... I'm trying to figure out what "level" of annoying you mean.

Here in Anchorage, I have few Christian friends, and I think they talked about it once or twice. Then there was one person who had a kid we met, inviting us to church. Occasional religion stuff, some slight discomfort at not knowing how to respond. Nothing bad, though. I would rate it as "not an issue".

Then there's my mom. One time I tried to cut in line in T-ball (I was a kid), and her and another lady decided to "exorcise the demons out of me"- there was a lot of praying and carrying on. I didn't want to wait my turn, and was being rude about it, so suddenly I'm possessed?

Ok, she's not like that all the time. Heck, I think that was the only time she went nuts like that. But when I think "overboard I can't live with this nonsense", that's kinda what I imagine. Or what I've read in the Utah forum regarding how non-Mormons are treated.

So, where does Fredericksburg fall in the spectrum? The few people who were obnoxious, would you say that they show the character of the town, or would you say it just shows those people's characters?

Since it's in a similar vein, let's add:
Would folks who aren't married but have kids do well in Denison, Portland, Port Lavaca, and Fredericksburg? I have a two-year-old.

[songinthewind7]

Originally Posted by CandyApple

Hmm... I'm trying to figure out what "level" of annoying you mean.

Here in Anchorage, I have few Christian friends, and I think they talked about it once or twice. Then there was one person who had a kid we met, inviting us to church. Occasional religion stuff, some slight discomfort at not knowing how to respond. Nothing bad, though. I would rate it as "not an issue".

Then there's my mom. One time I tried to cut in line in T-ball (I was a kid), and her and another lady decided to "exorcise the demons out of me"- there was a lot of praying and carrying on. I didn't want to wait my turn, and was being rude about it, so suddenly I'm possessed?

Ok, she's not like that all the time. Heck, I think that was the only time she went nuts like that. But when I think "overboard I can't live with this nonsense", that's kinda what I imagine. Or what I've read in the Utah forum regarding how non-Mormons are treated.

So, where does Fredericksburg fall in the spectrum? The few people who were obnoxious, would you say that they show the character of the town, or would you say it just shows those people's characters?

Since it's in a similar vein, let's add:
Would folks who aren't married but have kids do well in Denison, Portland, Port Lavaca, and Fredericksburg? I have a two-year-old.

I say annoying because I am around people a lot and that seems to be one of the top things that come out of there mouths and it gets old after awhile but the majority of people here accept the answer you give them and invite you to church.
That I can deal with;the part I will not deal with are the ones that go overboard but there have only been 3 of them and I no longer have to see them. Other than that, Fbg. is a nice little tourist town and a nice place to live. I don't have kids but I have heard that the school system is good here. I have met a lot of good people here and I will miss them when I move to NM.

[DFWMike]

I think the point about Fredericksburg is that you can find people who are agnostic/atheists, thats not something that is common in small town Texas as a rule. But several small central Texas towns have this in common.