Originally posted by Starlight
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Pretty sure that was what I wrote in the first post in this thread. But glad to see someone saying the same thing 63 pages later, and amused to see people are still posting in this thread.
That's a cultural thing, and is heavily affected by the proportion of atheists in your country. In my country almost 50% of the people on the census say they have no religion, and a large proportion of those who do happen to report a religion on the census don't actually actively practice it. So if someone asks your religion (not that they commonly do) and you say "atheist" they would just shrug and move on because chances are about half their friends are atheists, and they're perfectly aware atheists aren't going to ridicule them for any faith they do or don't have themselves. The current and previous two elected leaders in my country happened to be atheists and approximately no one cares. Whereas in the US, it seems to be considered political suicide at the federal level to admit to being an atheist.
That's a cultural thing, and is heavily affected by the proportion of atheists in your country. In my country almost 50% of the people on the census say they have no religion, and a large proportion of those who do happen to report a religion on the census don't actually actively practice it. So if someone asks your religion (not that they commonly do) and you say "atheist" they would just shrug and move on because chances are about half their friends are atheists, and they're perfectly aware atheists aren't going to ridicule them for any faith they do or don't have themselves. The current and previous two elected leaders in my country happened to be atheists and approximately no one cares. Whereas in the US, it seems to be considered political suicide at the federal level to admit to being an atheist.
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