Hi all.
I’m glad to have discovered this forum via fellow skeptic ‘Du Preez’. Thanks Du Preez!
I’m a 34yr-old married woman. Mother of two kids. My husband, myself and our children are all atheist but sadly, our extended family are all fundamentalist christian. It’s a tough, lonely road but well worth it.
My husband and I co-own a retail business in a small, aggressively religious town in the Garden Route. We’ve been here for the past 10 years -we’re originally from Pretoria. We feel very isolated but have survived by being pretty anti-social, which is a crying shame actually.
I’m really glad to have joined this forum and will encourage my husband to do so too.
Also hoping to get advice on starting a group down here on SA’s very own Bible Belt.
hi and welcome.
feel free to comment at will, and start threads too.
we mostly complain about the woo, but sometimes science crawls into debate as well.
Seriously - who wants to go out and “be sociable”…? If I lived in a place as beautiful as the Garden Route, I would not complain about not being able to keep company with the woo. In fact, welcome, but tell me you are sitting somewhere where your computer screen is not your only view?
Seriously seriously, though - welcome, I trust you will find this forum as insightful, educational and entertaining as I do.
We're pretty anti-social for the same reasons as well, and its at times frustrating (especially for the kids)
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I know what you mean. I've been tempted to attend church just for the free socializing... then I remind myself that I don't have much to say to churchy people!
Welcome to the forum, I'm always pleased to see the ladies join
YES!
Hello Newbie, I think we’re all in the bible belt, or is there less of it in the city? I only ever seem to meet churchgoers or fairy fanciers and I can’t bear either lot! I guess having (radical) views does tend to make one anti-social.
x
I sometimes refer to living in SA as being behind the Zion Curtain. Thankfully there are more and more skeptics ‘coming out of the closet’ and speaking out for logic and reason. Tolerance of a rational worldview is increasing - thankfully - and people are now becoming aware that us atheists still believe in love, kindness, morality, honesty, truth, beauty, integrity, knowledge, and all things ‘bright and beautiful’ (it is only God we don’t believe in). But - it is a slow process. Welcome to the forum and I hope your stay here is fruitful and lets you feel less isolated.
Welcome, I envy where you live, in spite of the woo problem.
I've been tempted to attend church just for the free socializing... then I remind myself that I don't have much to say to churchy people!
I’ve thought that too. Especially when I found out about unified unitarianism (or universalism or whatever). Can’t say I’ve been interested enough to go yet.
I think the entire country is a “bible belt”, but one becomes more aware of it in smaller towns where people attend church more and can’t disappear in the crowd. Welcome to the forum, EM34, we look forward to your posts.
atheists still believe in love, kindness, morality, honesty, truth, beauty, integrity, knowledge, and all things 'bright and beautiful' (it is only God we don't believe in)
Really?? What about wee free men, parallel universes, crystal healing and Stephen Hawkings coming out of black holes/ In wheel chairs? Do we believe in them too? Well, three out of four, anyway… :
The specific town that we live in certainly stands out for being over-the-top christian. The people are so full of it.
We have a business here and we’ve always got to watch what we say because 99.9% of our clientele are extreme in their beliefs. There are so many churches - probably one on ever corner. And crosses: wooden ones, steel ones and several large crosses which are lit up at night. It is really nauseating.
So with that said, yes sure SA as a whole is probably a more religious country than a lot of others but our town definitely wins the title of most loonies in one area, percentage wise, hands down.
