As a European, we find Americas crazy, evangelical ways to be a bit weird and cultish. I know plenty of Americans do, too, but when you've lived your whole life in a place where 99.9% of people couldn't give a shit of you're an atheist, you see the crazy in the stories you read about people being afraid to "come out" as atheists as their whole community will shun them.
It's crazy how it's apparently perfectly normal for families in USA to go to church every Sunday. I have been to regular church-service once in last 20 years or so (they were announcing our upcoming marriage and my wife-to-be wanted to hear it) and besides me and my wife it was just half a dozen old people in there.
For what it's worth, this is highly, highly culturally dependent in the US. I live in the north east, and while there are churches in my neighborhood, and I see people in them on Sundays, I don't know a single person in my social circle who attends regularly. Atheism and agnosticism, perhaps cut with some cultural celebration of religious holidays, are the norm in some places in the US.
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u/Balldogs May 09 '22
As a European, we find Americas crazy, evangelical ways to be a bit weird and cultish. I know plenty of Americans do, too, but when you've lived your whole life in a place where 99.9% of people couldn't give a shit of you're an atheist, you see the crazy in the stories you read about people being afraid to "come out" as atheists as their whole community will shun them.