The South, particularly suburban and small-town areas, have long been wrought with malicious stereotypes of intolerance toward the non-religious. We've all heard these stereotypes, but we've also all heard about the famed Southern hospitality and kindness.
As someone who's never been to the South, I'm wondering what the truth is. Southern B8ers, what have you guys experienced? What's the general religious attitude there, and how do people react to those who are open about their lack of faith?
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You're more likely to run across religious folk in smaller towns / more rural areas, but here in Huntsville, AL (about 200,000 pop.) it's not much different from the north (I would assume, anyway). You could go up to the average person, tell them you don't believe in god, and the majority wouldn't care either way.
I will say, though, that a lot of the uber-religious people I do know are also some of the biggest hypocrites I know. I'm not saying everyone is like that (not the majority, at least), but it's more common that I'd like to admit. Is that also common where you're from?
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Not from the South (though I did live there for a bit when I was really young), but I think with many conservatives and people in rural areas, the trend is to be negative toward large groups of people but to be warm and friendly toward individuals, even if they belong to those bad groups.
From my experiences, it is a mixed bag. I grew up in Columbia, SC with a highly religious mom and a southern baptist preacher uncle. I've never been religious myself and I've never had anybody harp on me for it. From what I've seen/heard, nobody really cares if you are atheist, but you can catch major s*** for practicing other religions. I've had plenty of arguments with friends and family over terrible things they've said about other religions.
But I don't see it as a hallmark of the South. More of a universal human characteristic.
From: red sox 777 | #004 Not from the South (though I did live there for a bit when I was really young), but I think with many conservatives and people in rural areas, the trend is to be negative toward large groups of people but to be warm and friendly toward individuals, even if they belong to those bad groups.
This is exactly how it is. They hate the IDEA of certain things and groups in general, but one-on-one, Southern hospitality for all.
I live and go to school in the Dallas suburbs and the religious nutcase types are not common at all. Now, if you go out of the suburbs a few miles, they get more common, but the stereotype still doesn't hold very strongly in my experience
most people are willing to be courteous to you regardless of your religious affiliation, but privately a great deal of people in the south hold negative opinions of atheists and members of other religions. my own family includes people that privately say really awful things about atheists, muslims, gays, blacks, mexicans, you name it. but they are really polite to other people in person.
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In my area, most religious nuts would be very courteous but also very interested in converting you to Christianity, though they would be motivated by goodwill.
In my experience, when someone else mentions that I'm an atheist (because I only will if directly asked), it's about evenly split between people who will openly try to start **** and people who just don't care.