It can be a pain in the ass to find friends who are atheist (or even agnostic or liberal) in some areas but I recently discovered a great way to meet like minded people. Online dating sites! The one I use is OKCupid but I'd bet others are similar and might produce similar results.
I was already using OKC to look for casual female playmates or possibly a women to date but a lot of men contacted me anyway. Once I mentioned I wasn't interested they were cool with it but I ended up chatting with a number of men. While Michigan is a blue state, I'm in one of the big red blotches inside it. The whole area is Calvinist and CRC with about a dozen Christian "colleges" inside the city limits. People in my area are dying for friendly, open-minded contact. I've met some awesome people to hang out with through OKC.
The profiles on dating sites usually show a person's religious affiliation and often the profile questions can give you a ball-park idea of the person's personality. A lot of them are free and most of them have the "looking for friends" option.
Uhh.... I don't think I could get away with registering on a dating website....
"Casual female playmates", eh? Kylysaa, you sly dog, you.
good question! I wish I knew the answer. Most all of my friends are religious some of them to an extreme as much as I enjoy spending time with them, it would be nice to have some atheist friends. Conversations that don't lead to me being told I need to accept Jesus Christ into my life.
It seems that college campuses have a higher number of atheists. I'm in the middle of taking a semester off college but it seems like the younger generation is certainly helping atheists gain numbers. I have found many students my age that share my beliefs and that's one of the reasons I cannot wait to get back. It certainly help hanging out in local college science libraries!!!
----> http://www.meetup.com (http://www.meetup.com) not a dating site (does have many singles groups though), free
It sounds like a good idea. My wife may have a problem with it, but it can't hurt to ask. Can it?
Quote from: "DennisK"It sounds like a good idea. My wife may have a problem with it, but it can't hurt to ask. Can it?
I agree, sounds great in theory...of course I'm in about the same boat as you. Being in a committed relationship AND on a dating website? Oh boy, oh boy...me smells trouble...
Quote from: "DennisK"It sounds like a good idea. My wife may have a problem with it, but it can't hurt to ask. Can it?
I'd make sure to tell her that she will be given the username and password for the dating site account you create. That may reassure her that you are not using it for actual dating purposes. If she is a freethinker too put both of your pictures on there and make it a shared account. (of course that might attract swingers)
I've had one atheist friend in my life, and he was a flaming philologist.
ahh... that could last a lifetime.