Now that might be interesting. What do you expect and why?
Here in Oz we have ‘The Atheist Foundation Of Australia’ I think they still have forum. They once sold T shirts with a nice logo. They also had conventions Canberra (I never went)
I’m very wary of the term ‘atheist’ being used by a group, and loathe the terms ‘New Atheism’ and ‘Atheist spokesperson’
Pretty damn bad 
. In my working class/blue collar circles I can think of only a few agnostics and one admitted atheist. Within just a short walk of me there are at least 6 churches. Religious symbolism is everywhere, from jewelry to tattoos. Religion plays a huge part in elections. Very few politicians are openly atheist and the chance of a atheist being elected president is zero.
Admitting you’re an atheist can draw gasps from people. It’s pervasive.
It was scheduled at a restaurant on Facebook. They met every 3rd Wednesday every month. I think I was searching for Atheist events in my area & came upon it. From what I understood it was a small group of 10-15 people.
I just expected to converse with other Atheists, possibly form relationships with people who could discuss topics without religion being involved.
I’m in a very religious area, (unfortunately I became disabled at 30, or I’d have moved) so to make some Atheist friends would be nice.
I was at a birthday party a couple of years ago & it came up & was asked if I’m an Atheist & when I said yes, literal gasps. It was like I had just admitted to murdering someone.
Hee, hee. Yeah, I’ve also gotten flat out disbelief. I guess because I’m a nice person, and Christians don’t think atheist can be nice people 
.
Really. Pickle me grandmother, that’s really fucked up. Fucking gall.
Probably wouldn’t happen in Oz. Here it’s considered rude to ask people about their religious beliefs, unless you are very close friends. Relatives would be aware and not embarrass you or themselves by raising the subject.
Aussies really don’t like talking about death or other deep subjects. Sports and politics excepted.
Not to mention it is a protected attribute in workplace legislation. Meaning that if any harassment, bullying or disadvantage is perceived or evidenced (the perceived part is important) due to religious belief then the aggrieved party can take the company and individuals responsible to an investigation, mitigation or to the Fair Work Commissioners.
This has done more to prevent the egregious manifestations of faith based discrimination and proselytizing in the workplace, that, and societal disapproval for such obvious discriminatory behaviour.
Socially we have just followed suit.
Religious groups have campaigned relentlessly against the legislation and have won, by lobbying and donation blackmail, concessions from the latest generation of happy clappers in power, viz you can, if a religious school insist that the teachers follow a code of conduct reflecting the religious beliefs of the sponsors.
Some concessions have been challenged and squashed in the courts (yay for our legal minds) and overall we are a happy increasingly secular nation where beliefs are held to be nobodies business but your own and preaching is frowned on in the public arena.
Long may it live and prosper!
I have never been in that situation, and pondered going full radical fundamentalist, spouting how everyone is a sinner and deserves to go to hell, we are born with sin, I would unload all the crap fundamentalist shit that would make the idiots from Westboro Baptist Church proud.
The people at work would not have known the difference.
I was raised in a very secular household by a Jewish father and a Presbyterian mother. Culturally, I tend to identify as Jewish . . . but I was also raised to believe that organized religion is a big business, and my father made the point that it would be a lot more honest if religion could be traded on the stock exchange . . . so that you could have shares of Islam, Roman Catholic, and Judaism in your portfolio along with IBM and Amazon.
I believe it to be true & then they would have to pay taxes(although Amazon paid $0 in taxes last year)
I find it repugnant that churches, especially mega churches, are used as tax shelters without any accountability. If we could get them structured & listed on the stock market as big businesses, it would go a long way to shining light on their true agenda.
Yeah, it’s something I’ve never had to face either.
This sounds so bizarre to me, compared to where I live in the UK.
My only visit to the US was through work. A colleague and I were in a pub (bar) and some guy struck up a conversation, then almost immediately started to talk conspiratorial about there being atheists everywhere in the US.
When we left I instantly told my colleague I hadn’t wanted to tell him, but I’m an atheist, my colleague said “me too”. We’d never discussed it before.
that isn’t true
what is true is that I (and most working professionals) pay about 20x the tax rate that Amazon pays.
You’re right, I was thinking about 2017 & 2018. My mistake.
It’s so odd when you get stuck in a conversation that goes down that road. With complete strangers you never know what their reaction is going to be & the possibility of violence is always front & center.
Just the other day, I saw an old family friend who went on about how, “his grace” saved her & that she prays for me.
I called her a survivor & what great doctors she had & said I think about her, too, but had I come right out & said, “oh I’m an Atheist,” well everyone knows what comes after that.
I meant socially. I never knew nor cared about the religious beliefs or sexual preferences of most people with whom I worked.
I was harassed, twice, in 1966. It was a supervisor each time. The first was an obnoxious lay preacher. He had a go at me because I wore a ‘YCW’ (Young Christian Workers) badge, he took a swipe at the organisation and the Catholic church generally, I was 18, he was in his 30’s.
The other was another ,not even my supervisor who ordered me to get a hair cut. (He was an officer in the CMF, with George Cross) I told him to go fuck himself. He complained to the departmental manager, who called me into his office. Conversation went a bit like this;
He ;" I understand you used an expletive to MR X. That’s not like you, what happened?"
Me: “He **ordered ** me to get a haircut.”
He " Did he indeed . Ask him to come in would you"
I hovered a bit, and heard “Mr X, this not the army. Staff are not your soldiers You may not order them about anything not work connected”
Ah, memories.
The way I see the problem is that Evangelical American Christianity has, somehow, been pushing the idea (although I am not making blanket statements about any particular religion . . . every religion has its idiots and its saints) that America should become a religious theocracy. I am only speaking of a specific religious and political agenda that has been publically announced, and I’m not pushing bigotry.
Church membership has been steadily declining nationwide across the board, as more and more people become more and more educated and/or sophisticated . . . as the Internet has turned large portions of the Earth into what is, essentially, a global village.
Do you think it will be as easy for any church to preach homophobia, Islamaphobia, male supremacy, and so forth? Children are naturally curious (and often quite creative and ingenious when it comes to circumventing parental controls), so these children will be communicating with tons of other kids on different continents. They will be intensely skeptical of religious leaders whom preach that other people are to be feared or pitied simply because they are different.
So, I see us moving in the right direction (although not fast enough), and the issues of religion and employment may soon become moot.
One can only hope.
Not if the Pakistanis have anything to do with it. Mr Khan their prime mister is pushing to make “blasphemy against Mohammed” a world crime…Pakistan PM calls for West to criminalise blasphemy against Islam | Imran Khan News | Al Jazeera
They’re taken about as seriously on the political world scene as… lol 
Unfortunately they do have influence in their area.