Your Atheist Experience in School

[curiosityandthecat]

What was it like? Did you get bullied or shunned because of your status as a non-believer? How old were you when you "came out" and did it affect your school career? As an atheist, were you part of the "cool kids" or the "others"? Most importantly, in what ways did being a non-believer or freethinker affect your self-esteem or confidence? Please also note where abouts you went to school, as responses from those in highly religious areas will be necessarily different from those in more secular regions.

I'm doing graduate work on these things, so if you'd like to be a part of some of my work, you can email me (straightNOSPAM@NOSPAMohio.edu ...remove the NOSPAM, obviously) with an extended version of your answers (honestly, you could write pages and pages if you're anything like me, hah) I'd love to quote you (by name or anonymously, if you like).

Dig into your memories, dust off those skeletons and let's see 'em!  

[afreethinker30]

Central Indiana ...My friends where pretty cool about it.I didn't come out as atheist until I was older because I just assumed that alot more people saw and thought about things the way that I did.For me it was like how can you not see it!It wasn't to bad because alot of kids in the school could care less about religion.Even in highschool one of the girls I met (Pentecostal) didn't agree with anything she had been taught.Infact the girl was a little tramp because of it.Everyone is school was so worried about who's parents had more money,how popular they were and drugs and sex that they didn't care much about that stuff.My close friends were a pretty wide mix pentecostal, catholic, protestant, buddhist, jewish, atheist and freethinkers.

[Whitney]

I was still a Christian in K-12.  I can imagine that it wouldn't have been a very friendly environment considering that many people had a hard time accepting that I through it was inappropriate to pray before a game.  I sat out of prayer time when I played volleyball and had to explain my position before anyone quit thinking I was messed up in some way.  I don't even remember anyone being openly atheist at my school....even the token goth kid (we only had one) was a cross wearing christian.

[MariaEvri]

well I didnt ahve any atheist experience, since I kept my opinions to my self. I just pretened during morning prayer cause I would get in trouble. But yeah nothing interesting from me.

[Chimera]

I was a Christian when I was in school. I'll be starting college this fall, which will be my first experience in an educational setting as an atheist, but I expect it to be more open there.

[mspeight]

In school i have been constantly bombarded for my atheism, and on Facebook i always get videos about religion sent to me it gets really annoying
 

[karadan]

I was banned from divinity by the reverend for being disruptive... I was never really sure why he thought that....
Maybe it was because i'd challenged his beliefs by suggesting that jesus must have been black or at least had an Arab complexion, certainly not caucasian. Maybe it was because i'd challenged the 'irrefutible proof' of the Turin shroud because of the black jesus thing (why didn't the image have a flat nose and full lips?). Maybe it was because i questioned his belief by saying that women or gay people have just as much right being in the clergy (he showed his obvious discriminations by trying to get out of that one, something he was never able to save face from again - and he knew it). Maybe it was because i'd told him, to his face, in front of the class how worthless i though his, and all other religions are...

Maybe it was because i stopped turning up because it was a complete waste of my time. I studied my sciences with the time it freed up instead.

In hindsight, it was probably because i asked him how it felt to have wasted his entire life (the guy was in his sixties) on something which does not exist. At which point, I was shocked at how red in the face it was possible for a human to become.


The moral being, don't insult my intelligence and i won't antagonise you.

(oops, forgot to say, i went to a boarding school in Suffolk, UK) We had mass every morning and 2 hours of church every Sunday.

[Asmodean]

Our public school has no religious undertones. In fact, we had only one class concerning religion - Christianity, Religion and Life Philosophy - which was meant to be informative, not preaching. Still, as most religions were in one or another way viewed through the prism of Christian nonsense, I never liked it.

I suppose I was far more anti-religious then than I am now, but I felt that my questions were answered and my opinion taken to consideration.

IOW, my atheist experience at school was no different than my atheist experience while ordering pizza.

 

[curiosityandthecat]

If not personal experience, what do you think would've happened, had you "come out" to your peers, and possibly even your teachers?

[Mister Joy]

Primary school: general bemusement. I didn't know what an 'atheist' was then, or anything about Jesus etc. I just knew that, for some reason, every morning we'd have to put our hands together and talk to ourselves for a bit. I just saw it as an odd little ritual that was about tradition more than anything else.

American elementary school: first time I realised that there really were people who took this stuff seriously. Very seriously. Going to America  was a bit of a wake-up call, really. I was never targeted for being a non-believer, however. At least, not at school, though friends of my mother would sometimes accost me when she wasn't looking. The thing I was usually singled out for was my Britishness because a) it was more obvious and b) simple things please simple minds. I mostly got away with that, though, because I was also big. They were only ever comfortable making fun of my accent &/or lack of beliefs when they were standing at least a couple of hundred feet away from me.

High school + GCSE years: spent a lot of time arguing with Christians IRL. Started learning more about what Christianity was all about (only had the vaguest idea before) and became increasingly flabbergasted by the whole thing.

College (16-18, not the same concept as an American 'college'): A lot more chilled out about the whole thing. By this point, I'd learnt how to discuss religion with the religious without making them storm out of the room or break down in tears. Before hand I reacted much more strongly to anything illogical, ungrounded or generally dumb that they had to say. Then I learned that most of them weren't really bigoted idiots, they were just unfortunate and delusional, so I started treating their insane arguments and justifications with a bit more delecacy.

I'm enrolling at university this weekend. I'm moving into a house in Northampton with three art students, who's religious sentiments are still an enigma to me (I've yet to meet two of them) so I'll have to wait and see what lies in store.  I'm not expecting anything too shocking, though.

[Kevin]

I'm still in school, so I still have more of a chance to do this.

Not many people know about my beliefs. One of my friends who is an Atheist knows, but he doesn't know fully... He just knows me and him kind of share the same beliefs. One of my other friends in that same class knows that I dislike religions.
Then this other girl knows, but she won't tell. Then just like 1 more person, she knows kind of, I haven't gone in full depth.. Especially since I'm trying to spit game to her

But nothing so far has happened with me. I am kind of afraid to, since I saw this video that was on the news, but now YouTube, about this girl who was just EXTREMELY mistreated at school after she came out.
But I have thought about making a club at our school, FAAS (Fellowship of Agnostic and Atheist Students), but if they deny it, I am trying to think of how to counter-argue it for discrimination against religion, but whether Atheism is a real religion or not, I am not sure. But I have considered it for my Senior year of High School... It'd be fun.

I am wanting to come out to more people, though. One, I hate hiding it, I love talking about it. Also, I love to argue about it, especially since most theists my age don't know what they are talking about when faced with a logical question about it.

[Jolly Sapper]

Don't argue it from the perspective of "religion", argue it from the perspective of "belief."  There's nothing against atheists having beliefs.

[Moosader]

I was homeschooled growing up (in a secular family), so I would go to homeschooler groups and some "enrichment" programs to teach us stuff our moms might not be able to (music, science, etc), and some girlscout groups and whatnot.
In both areas, everyone was extremely conservative.

I never really hid what I believed, but I didn't really say anything unless asked.  I would never bow my head in prayer or fully say the pledge of allegiance, and kids would ask me, "Well if you don't believe in god, what do you think happens when you die?".  Kids would tell me I'm wrong, but not really have any logical argument to back it.
I never really felt all that harassed about it, just completely out of place.

Heck even in college, the engineers and physicists debate each other about whether the bible is 100% true or not, it's kind of weird.  I've been "tricked" into hanging out with some and ending up in a "Campus Crusade for Christ" meeting.  I kind of resent there always being so many Christian-themed clubs and the couple colleges I've been to, but not any secular or atheist or debate groups.
Of course, I'm right at the state line between Kansas and Missouri... woot.

[Kyuuketsuki]

I wasn't really an atheist as such in school though I started to disbelieve about the age of 13 so, er, technically I suppose I was.

Anyway, based on shaky recall, I was 13 when I first discussed what I was having issues with with  a young Catholic priest who, to be fair to him, wasn't too bad, saying we all have doubts and such and not really trying to push me anywhere. At the age of 14 I declared (in RE) that I didn't believe any more, was asked what I did believe and didn't really know (something about an asteroid but no real idea) and was summoned to the Headmaster's office who told me I was too young to make up my mind about such things (that being the essence of Catholic brainwashing). At 15/16 (again in an RE lesson) I once again stood up (this time to the deputy head) and told him I believed that aliens had visited the Earth in the past and we were somehow created or seeded from them ... he got extremely annoyed but could do nothing when several of my classmates stood up and told him I had the right to believe whatever I wished. Of course I ditched all that alien nonsense before I was 18 and became agnostic (aka atheist).

Kyu