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Old 04-18-2014, 11:25 AM
 
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I've been wondering why are there more atheist or agnostic men than women. I come from an Hispanic family and I'm practically the only female atheist. There are a couple atheists in the family but they're males.

I've noticed that when it comes to praying, religion and those believing in waiting till marriage are more likely to be women than men. Hence why I can imagine it would be harder for a Christian, virgin woman finding her male counterpart than a virgin, religious man. Similarly, an atheist man looking specifically for an atheist woman can be also a challenge. Does anyone knows why the female gender is more into faith (off course there are exceptions...me) and helding into something while some men aren't too much into it.

Is anyone has an answer to this or theories, you can apply them. I've been wanting to know the why to this lately.
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Old 04-18-2014, 12:56 PM
 
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Can I be totally honest, without you guys lighting me up? I see atheism as being slightly rebellious by nature. I don't mean that its claims are correct or incorrect; I mean that it's a minority position - a controversial minority position at that - so adopting it is fairly counter-culture. And though I'm just shooting from the hip here, casual observation makes me think that counter-culture movements are usually spearheaded by males. Maybe it has something to do with testosterone or something.

$.02
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Old 04-18-2014, 01:13 PM
 
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I'm not doing it for rebellion.

Religion just doesn't make sense to me. I can't get behind something that I feel was done more as a means to control a population, vs actual truth in itself.

For the most part I don't know any other atheists. I might know non-practicing persons, but none have actively claimed to not beleive.
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Old 04-18-2014, 01:25 PM
 
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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I think it comes down to the fact that many females are drawn to churches by the social side of religion. They need to have a "place that they feel comfortable in ". They need the feeling of being a part of some thing. Church meets that need for many.

Men have other things that they think are more important to them. I fall into that group. Neither of my parents went to church as adults, as a result of their being forced to do it by their parents. I was given free rein to make my own decisions, as a teen ager. I didn't need the guilt, so I made a conscious effort to stay out of it.

Never have regretted that decision.

Jim B

Toronto.
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Old 04-18-2014, 02:05 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rpc1 View Post
Can I be totally honest, without you guys lighting me up?
You're welcome to voice your view.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rpc1 View Post
I see atheism as being slightly rebellious by nature. I don't mean that its claims are correct or incorrect; I mean that it's a minority position - a controversial minority position at that - so adopting it is fairly counter-culture. And though I'm just shooting from the hip here, casual observation makes me think that counter-culture movements are usually spearheaded by males. Maybe it has something to do with testosterone or something.
Yes, I do agree we only make up a minority in total and even lesser in our gender. Though I had once encountered a former female co-coworker that suddenly brought religion into the topic (literally out of nowhere) and lectured about how it's important to believe in god as he's your salvation and how atheists were anarchists (her own word) trying to bring disorder and I found that as just rebellious too. Yet I was the one not attacking her beliefs and just changed the topic.

Then for some reason my ex bf kept stating that most atheists are negative and how I'm the only one that's not an extremist trying to trash believers. Interesting how some believers have a negative opinion about us.

I would never go to the extreme of making an atheist marching movement but neither would I want to encounter religious movements nor getting lectured (as my ex bf once tried to and it was annoying) on how important is to believe in god and the salvation talks.
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Old 04-18-2014, 08:38 PM
 
Location: Baltimore, MD
11,343 posts, read 9,241,586 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rpc1 View Post
Can I be totally honest, without you guys lighting me up? I see atheism as being slightly rebellious by nature. I don't mean that its claims are correct or incorrect; I mean that it's a minority position - a controversial minority position at that - so adopting it is fairly counter-culture. And though I'm just shooting from the hip here, casual observation makes me think that counter-culture movements are usually spearheaded by males. Maybe it has something to do with testosterone or something.

$.02
There is no controversy in my eyes.

There is no god. End of story.
This is due to a lack of evidence.

Can agree on the last part of that sentence. However, it shouldn't be that way.

As far as the topic question - I don't think this is true. There aren't many male atheists either. I do not know one IRL (friends, associates. etc).
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Old 04-19-2014, 12:56 AM
 
Location: OKC
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There is a social consequence to admitting one is an atheist, but the consequence may be greater for a female. The pressure to conform may also be greater for females, as RCP1 sort of alluded to.

In some eyes, "submission" is considered feminine, and atheism is seen as a coldly calculated world that challenges the majority view so it isn't necessarily viewed as feminine.
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Old 04-19-2014, 07:15 AM
 
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I started a similar thread a few weeks ago - I'll post the link at the end of this message.

I also think it's interesting, and probably related, that there are still few women in natural sciences. Most scientists are secular, presumably because there no reasons to believe in 'god' based an everything we understand about the natural world.

For whatever reason women tend to be more 'intuitive' rather than rational - it's much easier to believe in god coming from a purely intuitive rather than rationality.

Hears the link:

//www.city-data.com/forum/relig...omen-more.html
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Old 04-21-2014, 08:51 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Apathizer View Post
Thank you for the link. From what I get it's mainly about feeling secured and holding on to god as your protector and church is where they go to find security.

I was baptized as a baby due to family pressure but even as a 9-11 year-old child, I already started questioning the existence of god and in my mind I was like ''Is he even real or is it just something created, why can't anyone see him if he exist, when was he born, how can you give birth and be a virgin still, etc.''. I wasn't like any child that easily can be told to believe into something because that's how things are, that just accepts it and never questions. I guess I was a different child for a girl, the one that like thinking and analyzing things. Then as a teen, I was already an atheist but only revealed this to my mother during either my junior or senior year of HS (I couldn't keep up the pretending anymore). Till this day, most of the family members aren't aware of this and it won't be taken too lightly by many. It sucks that most would find us weird because the world is still mainly made up of believers.
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Old 04-21-2014, 06:08 PM
 
Location: Space Coast
1,988 posts, read 5,375,125 times
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This is a very interesting discussion. I've honestly never noticed that there are more atheist males than females. Maybe it's because most of my atheist friends are part of a mom's group I belong to. But that's just my own anecdotal experience.
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