The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
Atheists: Come out, come out, wherever you are
Ellemeno:
Have you all seen Julia Sweeney performing her one-woman play, "Letting Go of God: My Beautiful Loss of Faith Story?" I was lucky to see her do it last year. It's an amazing saga of her path from blindly-following lifelong Catholic to dawning awareness that there were a lot of things she felt uncomfortable with about her religion, then her quest through other religions, growing realization that all religions really bugged her, to fearful agnostic to now proud and lovely atheist. It's really something. Beautifully, cleverly written. Here's her website url
http://juliasweeney.com/welcome.asp
On the bottom left is a reference to a CD of Letting Go of God coming out soon and a link to reviews of the play, and on the right is mention that she will be speaking at an International atheist Conference in Iceland in June.
I cringe to tell you where you probably would remember her from - She played androgynous Pat on SNL in the early 90s. She is way more beautiful (inside and out) and intelligent than that would indicate.
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: Ellemeno on May 31, 2006, 03:11:41 am ---Barb, I haven't been asked that since I left the South. It sure was one of the first three questions people used to ask there.
--- End quote ---
Yep. Doesn't take long for many here in Florida, either. Generally the ones who ask are from the South. And there seem to be more of them coming down here every day. That may seem odd to you folks around the world, but though Florida contains the southernmost point of the United States - in Key West - it's not considered "the South." People here, especially in South Florida, are from all over. And even the natives are a more eclectic bunch than that. You get up to north-central Florida - what we call "the I-4 corridor," you do get up into some real Deliverance-type locales. :shudder:
But yes, I get asked that question down here much more often than I got asked it in New York or even Ohio, that's for sure. I shoulda known I was in trouble when it was the first thing one of my new neighbors in the neighborhood we moved to two years ago asked me, and when someone who just moved in a few houses down a little while ago asked me in our first conversation. Oh, and Big Surprise - they have a "Bush/Cheney 2004" bumper sticker, a fish emblem AND a "Choose Life" license plate on *both* their cars - the Trinity.
:o
(They must all be pointing at my house and saying, "There goes the neighborhood." Hehehehehehe...)
delalluvia:
--- Quote ---When churchies ask me where I go to church now
--- End quote ---
I live in Texas and the very very very few times I've been asked this is when I'm around rural or country people. I've never been asked this question by anyone who was urban.
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: delalluvia on May 31, 2006, 08:47:51 am ---I live in Texas and the very very very few times I've been asked this is when I'm around rural or country people. I've never been asked this question by anyone who was urban.
--- End quote ---
That's a good point. Not only are the people who've asked me from one of the Carolinas or Mississippi or Texas originally - they're from particularly rural areas in those states. Well, save for one, who's from the LA area originally but who lived in North Carolina for many years. He's just a freak. ;) There have been six who've asked me since I've lived down here, come to think of it. Which ain't all that many until you consider that's six more than ever asked me anywhere else.
nakymaton:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on May 31, 2006, 08:21:20 am ---Yep. Doesn't take long for many here in Florida, either. Generally the ones who ask are from the South. And there seem to be more of them coming down here every day.
--- End quote ---
This is only tangentially related to atheism, I think, but it seems as though that sort of demographic shift is really important for US politics, if it's real.
My perception of religion in the US is twisted because, although I've lived in small towns all around the US (except for one 4-year stint in suburbia, which I loathed), I've lived mostly in college towns. Small, but not typical of small towns in the US. So up until a year or so ago, one of my neighbors had a sign beside the road that quoted a couple Bible verses that, put together, seemed to say "you're going straight to Hell if you don't believe what I believe." And there are lots and lots and lots of fish on the backs of cars. But, on the other hand, nobody has ever asked me where I go to church. (But I've heard rumors that the high school biology teacher doesn't teach evolution because it's controversial. ::) My high school teacher did the same thing... well, no. My high school biology teach didn't teach evolution because he was a young-earth creationist. Still makes me mad.)
But anyway, demographic shifts. In the Rockies (even outside college towns), I've noticed a lot of houses sprouting up in places that used to be open space. And I'm talking even in places like the road west of Pinedale, Wyoming, maybe two hours from Jackson and further from the nearest interstate. If there are views and open space, there are people who have dreamed about living somewhere near the mountains, who did their time in a city or suburb and made some money, and who want to live their dream now. Some of them are 2nd home buyers, but at least in my local area, most of them are moving here because they want to.
I don't know their religion or politics. Some of them, at least, seem to be more liberal than one would expect in a traditional ranching/mining/oil & gas community. But the trappings of traditional rural culture -- the religion, and also things like country music -- seem to be more and more a part of suburbia, too. (Though I haven't lived in suburbia in 13 years, so I could be wrong, but the mega-churches couldn't be based in small towns... there just aren't enough people to fill them.)
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