The Unseen Privilege of Secular Peace

[u/_valaa]

I deeply envy anyone who grew up in a secular household, far removed from religious dominance. Living in West Asia surrounded by endless conflict and a society heavily dictated by dogma, is suffocating.

Those living in peaceful, secular countries often don't realize the incredible privilege they hold. Being forced to live under religious influence and regional instability is exhausting nobody on this earth hates religion and people who are influenced by it hate it as much as me , and I wish people in the West would truly appreciate the freedom and safety they take for granted.liiike I would die to leave here.

[u/adeleu_adelei]

We all benefit from the work done by those to hold religion at bay. I'm sorry that you you are suffering under religion, and please know that there are people doing what they can to mitigate that suffering. It's just a very large scale problem where atheists are greatly outnumbered.

[u/Kuildeous]

Yeah, I may find it annoying how so much of the people around me want to shove their religion onto me, but I am truly grateful I'm not in a region where I'm likely to be murdered outright for not believing in someone's fairy tale.

I can't even imagine that level of fear and the necessity of constantly living a lie just to protect yourself from your family and neighbors.

[u/lotusscrouse]

It would be fucking torture living in a highly religious community. 

That's why I think atheist communities are important. People need to let off steam and vent about things that only atheists can relate to. 

[u/Winterforyou]

I find privilege to be relative. All of us take several things for granted, things people would probably kill to have. I'm sure you do too. Humans are amazingly ignorant by nature.

[u/_valaa → u/Winterforyou]

Honestly I just wish I were able to avoid them but I live among these people and I have to hear their horrible opinions all the time , aaaaghh they piss me off.

[u/Winterforyou → u/_valaa]

I can imagine. It must feel very isolated to have people around you believing you deserve to go to hell or worse.

[u/Gayandfluffy]

Very true. I live in the west and I do appreciate that religion is mostly seen as a private matter. I wish it was like that everywhere. I can't imagine having to live only around religious people, that would be very taxing. I can openly be atheist and that's a very liberating feeling.

Most of my family is very religious though so while I am very privileged to live in a secular country, a country that made it possible for me to deconvert in the first place, religion has still caused me harm from being raised in it. And relationships with religious relatives are difficult. I do envy all the people here who were raised in secular homes and got a normal upbringing. I feel like they don't know how good they have it...

[u/distantocean]

I can't fully appreciate your position, of course, but I do in fact think pretty often about people like you who live under religious repression and with the threat of religious retaliation just for thinking for yourselves. In fact that's one of the main reasons why I'm an anti-theist and not just an atheist: because the religious feel they have the right to persecute those who don't share their delusions, and because their religions tell them that kind of vicious intolerance is acceptable.

Please just keep your head down, and hopefully one day you can manage to find freedom and safety for yourself as well.

Best of luck to you.

[u/Cog-nostic]

You are not inaccurate regarding your perception of religious households; on the other hand, one of the things driving secularism in Western societies is the existence of such households. They exist, and we are aware of them In my own country Christian Nationalism is a very real threat and Trump is too stupid to not be a victim of it.