Greetings from Finland

[FacE]

Hello!

I'm a young 18-yo finn and I've been atheist for some time now. I used to be a christian (lutheran to be precise, it is our main religion). It kinda fought against my scientific view of life and soon I realized God made no sense (not to mention the bible...). I got God delusion as a birthday present from my mum, haven't finished it yet but it has already cleared my mind on some things (unlike the bible that only made things more hazy). I've already promised to lend it to 3 friends of mine ('thou shall spread His word' or something )

I found this forum from Google when I was trying to find stuff related to atheism. I am very interested in atheists' situation in the USA, mostly because your culture is so different from mine. I think it's weird that in your country the church is separated from the state but still 95% or so are religious, whereas in Finland the church is integrated and the percentage is like 80% and rapidly decreasing. Especially the young are turning to atheism or agnostism. A good example of this was in our high school, we had a voting where students were asked if they wanted to remove the weekly religious "morning assembly" (well not really assembly because it is done via school radio system...), and only 53% wanted it to stay (only ~50% of our school voted tho).

So in a nutshell, I assume it is much easier to be an atheist here than in the USA and actually religious people seem to be embarrased about their beliefs! I'm sad that atheists are such a hated minority in the States and I wish you strength to withstand the irrationality of the fundies
I wish you somewhat understand what I'm trying to say, English isn't my mother tongue...

[rlrose328]

Welcome, FacE... glad to have you here.  I'm as interested in your situation there as you are about mine in the US.  It must be nice to be surrounded by a good number of people who think the way you do.  Here, out of the hundred people I know, only 4 of them are non-believers.  I know a few who are on the fence, but they lean toward religion and are unwilling to fall off on MY side.  LOL!

I understand exactly what you are saying... you have a good grasp of English.  :-)

[Amor Fati]

Hello and welcome to the forum.  You're probably correct regarding the difficulties athiests face in the US compared to Finnland.  Many states here still have laws on their books prohibiting atheists from holding government positions and serving on juries (though these laws aren't enforced formally).

[SteveS]

Hi FacE - welcome, and thanks for the intro!

[Whitney]

Welcome to the forum

[McQ]

Howdy and welcome.

And welcome to all the new members. I've been a tad busy and haven't been keeping up with things here too much. Glad to have all you fine folks here.

[ryanvc76]

Welcome - it's great to have you!

[MommaSquid]

Welcome to the forum, FacE.  I hope you enjoy your stay.