: I found this while surfing the net in my free time. Its rather long. If you aren't inclined to read the entire thing, I recommend you at least scroll down and see if any of the bold face headings interest you.

: http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/atheism_growing_stronger.html

*** Hi H, I am a non-believer myself, in fact I have been working on a small funded project for almost a year now untitled "Experiances of Social pressure by non-believers in the Princeton/Bluefield area of Mercer County West Virginia." It seems there are many who would rather call me a satan worshipper among other things simply due to the fact that I will not submit to thier social pressure tactics, of course, if I was living a couple decades or a century ago, I would either have been forceably rehabilitated or the later killed. I am glad for any support I can find, I know of only one person in this area who is an outright Atheist, and he is very quiet about it. Needless to say I have lost many friends and feel cut off from the circles of friends I once enjoyed, and I also sense that many people I meet in my community are aware of my belief, even when I have never meet them before, and even if we do not have any communication, something in the way the look at me. Anyway, I am 33, married for 11 yrs and have two wonderful children, a girl 7 who is aware of my belief and also of how others percieve it, and she is basically the best support I have, and probably the best one could have! My son is 4 and not yet concerned with such things, and my wife does not like to talk about it. Anyway, the link is good, and true, the western world is transitioning, and the trend is strong in the U.S., even if most will not admit thier own beliefs for fear of the social reprecussions, which can be very costly and stressful. I have read many books on the subject, but one of my favorites is "Common Sense" Written by a 19th? century catholic priest as a last will and testament to his parissioners. It is a very basic and understandable text for disbelief for the common man, I even thought about purchasing a thousand copies and leaving them in places I travel where there happens also to be one of those Gideons Bibles as a favor to guests... The though gives me the giggles, and if I had the resourses I would do it. Could you imagine the response if we combined as a group to do such a passive non-violent and quiet effort as simply leaving a copy of such a book wherever we could without mentioning it, not passing them out or anything, just lay it down and leave it to chance. Anyway, I do not really look at names when on this forum, when I see something I have thoughts about, I just go at it, but I would like to know who is operating in basically the same frame of mind, and also to find some kind of support group, which I may begin myself if I find enough desire for it in this area after I complete the data collection phase of my project. Thanks for listening!

• Re: Yes, but we need to prepare! - Oh, the prepare part! - February 9, 1999 - 18:32 UTC
  • Response - H - February 9, 1999 - 19:00 UTC
    • Thanks - Phil.o.Sofir - February 9, 1999 - 19:09 UTC