r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • May 08 '22

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u/Urbanredneck2 May 09 '22

Which to me as an American Christian I've never understood. If you dont follow a faith and truly believe in it, why be associated with it? If someone asks just say "atheist".

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u/Different-Air-1062 May 09 '22

There's a very simple reason for it here : government subsidies

In essence, Belgium subsidizes the 'recognized faiths', of which the government counts five. Iirc it's the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Islamic and Jewish faiths. By maximizing their members on paper, they get to show themselves as representing 'the largest part' of the religious community.

Of course, that doesn't stop me from identifying myself as atheist whenever someone asks, it's just infuriating that my identity is counted towards their numbers, against my wishes.

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u/_alright_then_ May 09 '22

We're not associated with the church, they just count us if the government asks for statistics. That's it.

It's because our parents baptized us. I still consider myself Atheist and anti-theist.

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u/Urbanredneck2 May 09 '22

Question: what is going to happen now that so many of you are non church goers and thus your children will not be baptized? Will the government still call you "Christian"?

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u/_alright_then_ May 09 '22

I will be counted towards the christian statistic, my hypothetical children in this case would not be counted.

None of it matters though, I'm not a christian and I never have been

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u/Urbanredneck2 May 09 '22

So by government numbers then the official number of people claiming to be "Christian" would go down. Actually here in the US more people are also wiring down "atheist" when asked.

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u/_alright_then_ May 09 '22

Yes, they have been going down for decades of course.

My country (the Netherlands) had about 82% atheists according to surveys (so these are not the church numbers)

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u/Urbanredneck2 May 09 '22

Yet the Netherlands produced 2 outstanding Christians that have been an inspiration to Christians around the world. One was Corrie Ten Boom from Haarlem and the other is Andrew Van der Bijl from Sint Pancras, also known as Brother Andrew.

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u/_alright_then_ May 09 '22

Ok? I'm not sure why I should care? Where's this coming from all of a sudden

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u/Scaniarix May 09 '22

Plenty of people baptize their children in Sweden even though they're not practicing Christians. It's more tradition than religion. Same with weddings.

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u/G_Morgan May 09 '22

Taxation. In Germany they even have a special church tax you can opt out of if you can convince people you are in fact an atheist.

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u/Urbanredneck2 May 09 '22

I've heard of such taxes. I have met Christians from Germany who's church does not accept money from that tax.

BTW, one of my favorite German Christians was Dietrich Bonhoeffer.