In Britain there are loads of black atheists (thanks to EDUCATION), why is it such a problem in the USA? or isn't it? (I don't want to just go by some article that my friend linked to me)
There are few black atheists in the USA; which is part of the reason blacks suffer the maladies of over-religiousness: low scientific literacy; physical child discipline leading to aggressive adult behavior; and family breakdowns due to incompatible gender role expectations.
Most black Americans are really religious, so to go against this your family thinks your crazy. My family thinks something is wrong with me for not believing so i lie and say i do.
I'm a gay African American agnostic. What's funny is I'm 23 years of age; I've never smoked; never done drugs; am a virgin I've never drank; have always kept fit and am 5'9 140 and handsome; I just got my Associate's degree and am now working towards my Bachelors. Yet being gay and African American and non-Christian is represented as satanic things. Then why am I the most decent, upright person I know???
My immediate family was once mildly religious but now they really aren't. My brother is an atheist, my 3 uncles are all atheist and my mother is spiritual but not really religious. My grandparents grew up in a time where religion was more a part of every day life, but even they aren't extremely religious. We've never gone to church. I used to believe in God and Jesus by default (but never more than just a nightly-prayer-grace-before-meals kind of thing). As I took philosophy and psychology courses in college, I realized that religion is a load of crap. It was hard for me to give it up because it felt taboo at first to be speaking against God. But once I got over that, it was so liberating. My family never shoved any particular belief down our throats, so I was always encouraged to think for myself in this area.
I'm an atheist and proud of it. It has nothing to do with race whatsoever.
@ Johnny "Atheism has nothing to do with education, its all about faith." Atheism is undoubtedly more prevalent amongst the educated echelons of societies. So there is undeniably some link there. Though, i know what you're saying. But it just seems to work out that way
There are two reasons most Americans (including black Americans) are not willing to be Atheist. One, we are a people fixated on labels. Watch 10 mines of any of our media outlets and tell me I am wrong. Two, our country doesn't try to take an intellectual outlook on religion. Many of our citizens are fearful of questioning if there is a God. People here who do question often do so intuition ally rather than speaking of it to others. Religion is one of the subjects that is considered extremely inappropriate to speak of when not in church or with people you know well in our country. The problem for those who do attend churches is that if they do question the existence, they are in a bias place they'll try pushing them the other way.
The truth is most Americans take the ''leave it alone'' approach. The way how you see people on the Internet saying everything they want is never how it is in general society. At least on this issue that is. A lot of Americans are open minded to listen to what may be out there. They are too scared to accept the reality of science and humanism. They take for granted the basic human values their religion is supposed to be worshiping. They use their religion as a guilt trip when they get old because they fear they'll go to hell.
In regards to if black Americans are deeply religious, this depends on the region. I'd say this is largely true in the deep south (many parts of which is known as the ''black belt'') where whites are equally religious Baptists. Religion is much more deeply ingrained into mainstream southern culture. Most African-Americans in Northeastern, Midwestern and Western cities do trace roots to the south. They became less religious and more like the societies where they went later on.
Please do not confuse that with African-Americans liking to use the church as a means of community organization. Unfortunately, there is a lot of poverty, crime and social problems in major cities with large black populations. So the only place that seems they can acquire peace and hope for this are churches. This has it's pros and cons. It helps give people a collective goal. But at the same time it gives people an excuse to be reckless in the real world while they think they can be forgiven in church.
There is much more segregation in black Americans from white Americans. They generally are able to get along, work together, be friends and to a lesser degree family members. It is not like black Britons with white Britons. There is still an underlying vigor here which ironically black Americans tend to hold much thicker towards white Americans. I say it is ironic because generations ago whites were more guilty of that. Racism in the UK today is class related. Or sometimes religion if Muslim but class association often works with that.
what is it like being a black atheist? is it really compared to satanism?
