I'm new to this group. I'm livin in the midwest, Kansas. Kansas is not a friendly place for anyone who is not a christian or catholic. Since I think religon is ridiculous. I'm pretty much in the closet here. I don't know one person that isn't religous. Linda in the bible belt

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I should do this, I'm just not brave enough. I don't like confrontation. It was horrible just defending Obama to all these women. They don't play fair. None of them have a scientific bone in their body. All they do is go on emotion. Some seem pretty level headed, but not when it comes to their GOD. They would probably yell at me forever and shame me then beat me up and then throw me out, I mean really throw me out physically. Very scary stuff. I think I would rather be in a car wreck.
First of all thanks you for the advice and encouragemnt. I really appreciate it. I really hate politics. Even though I voted for obama and listened to his books on CD. I still don't listen to him when he's on TV. I like science a lot and listen to several podcasts everyday. I don't have a lot of education. I didn't do well in school and I hated it. I think I have learning problems, I had a very had time learning how to read and spelling is such a chore. I loved math and science, but when I started asking questions to teachers in school as to why math formulas worked. I was told to shut up and just memorize it. Well this did not go over well with me. I have always been very rebellious and decided not to do anything eles in school. And I didn't. I didn't read books or do assignments. I was socially passed. I left high school and hardly knew anything. Most of what I know is self tought. I turned 56 the other day and I still am educating myself. I listen to a lot of book on CD. If I read I need book that aren't to hard. Any suggestions? Linda
Thanks so much for your support. I do listen to Pat Condell. He is so funny and boy does he say what he thinks. I even bought a T-shirt of his. The one that says what he thinks of the god of the old testement. Its just wonderful. I haven't worn it yet.
It's a very winding belt, I live in South Carolina, but I'm in Columbia, a city with colleges and a university, so I was able to find a lot of sympathetic people by starting an atheist meetup (Godless Columbia), attending the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and getting in touch with the nearest Pastafarians. Of course the process of just realizing these were options took years.

Just as an aside, being an atheist or humanist who is also politically conservative may be a rare combination, but the terms are not exclusive. Diversity of thought is healthy and I've often thought the UU's might do more good if they didn't have such a knack for making people with viewpoints that don't align comfortably to the left of center feel unwelcome. Don't we want a variety of people supporting humanism?
Hello Linda, welcome aboard! I'm also new to Atheist Nexus. I recently moved from CA to Tulsa, OK and boy oh boy do I relate with what your experiencing. We (my self and family) initially stayed with relatives upon arrival here. They live in the country south of Tulsa. Mounds was the closest town. Talk about culture shock! Religion is everything here. Everything. Being a nonbeliever is social death around this place. The city is better but certainly not secular like LA or San Bernardino. We found refuge in our local Humanist and Atheist Meet-ups. Also, through these groups we found other like minded people and social activities. Do you have any groups in your area? Check meetup.com and find out. Best wishes and let us know what you find. You need friends, Linda. Go find them!
I want to give you my sincere condolences. I am from N. Central KS but have been gone since 1970, Burr Oak. I live in Colorado Springs where Focus and literally 50 or 100 religious organizations have come to live with me. I have a close friend in Topeka, who has worked in the legislature. Need I say more. He thinks Brownback is likely to be your next governor. And I didn't think it could get any worse.
My sister lives in Oberlin and, at least, thinks religion is pretty stupid but she just keeps her mouth shut.
I put up a lecture video on my FaceBook page about Evolution v. Creationism and Intelligent design. Immediately, one of my old H.S. classmates went after me. I finally commented to her that "I liked her better when she was not self righteous" and that I thought "proselytizing was unbecoming". She said "sorry",which surprised me.
In other words, I feel your pain.
I am 62 and would love to go back home and spout some of my beliefs. I suspect there would be a homicide, mine. Ha.
Are you familiar with the T M (Transcendental Meditation) group near Smith Center and Lebanon, KS?
If you are interested, here is one article: http://www.hdnews.net/Story/TM112807
I haven't heard about them lately. It is near the center of the contiguous 48 states and they wanted to pray for peace. I have always feared for their safety. The local preachers were pretty upset. Shock, Shock.
Sorry to be so long winded and you don't even know me.
Good luck. There must be a way to break out a bit, at least. Keep working on it.
Know that you have a supporter here in CO. By the way, you do not need to apologize for your level of schooling. You are obviously very intelligent. Use that, not a fear of what someone might think of you. This comes from someone who knows all about thinking he was not worthy. You are worthy. To Hell with them. Oh, that's right, there isn't one.
Peter C
Hi Linda,

If you don't feel safe coming out then you shouldn't feel bad about. You have to do what is best for you. More of us are coming out all the time. Hopefully, someday none will have feel the need to be in the closet.

As for books, there's lots of great stuff out there. Audio-books is a good way to go. I constantly have one going for my work commute. There are also a variety of resources to tap into to finding good materials at different reading levels. I'm a former teacher and currently a librarian. If there are particular topics you want drop me a note and I'll see if I can come up with something. You can also check out sites like Librarything. I taught at high school level and for adult education. Everyone I met through adult ed. were very dedicated and if you're state has a decent adult ed program you might want to hit them up too.

Welcome to A/N

WOW thanks lots of good sugestions. I will have to check out our library. I do have something going in my car all the time, audio books that is. I go back and forth between fiction and science. I love science, but some subjects are a little hard to understand. I would really love to understand some of Ensteins stuff. I have not had much luck there. I guess I need a really "dumbed down" version. Linda
I wouldn't say "dumbed down." A different reading level or format probably. Not sure about Einstein but I can look into it. I just finished a graphic novel by Jay Hosler. His Clan Apis is excellent. It's basically a novelization of how a honey bee colony functions and branches out to create new colonies. It was really interesting and somewhat humorous. I didn't necessarily have an interest in bees but the aspect of socialized behavior can be more complicated. It worked for me being told like a story and the graphic component helped. I lean towards audio-visual when trying to learn something new or that I find complicated. Somewhere out there there may be something similar on Einstein. Hosler actually has one on Darwin, Sandwalk Adventures. I highly recommend it if you've any interest in Darwinian theory. I let you know if I come across anything good on Einstein.

When I worked at a bookstore for extra money a few years ago there was a whole category of "Windows for Dummies", "Digital Photography for Dummies", etc etc, maybe we should support the publication of "Atheism for Dummies"...ha ha. It's so TECHNICAL. ( Maybe it's even currently available...not sure!)

Seriously, humanism and secularism are discovered throughout the Enlightenment period and as part of American history so a good starting point is learning more about the origins of the "movement". I highly recommend Carl Sagan's book "The Demon Haunted World". His writing is so accessible to the average person...at least that's what I find. Also Susan Jacoby's book "Freethinkers: The History of American Secularism". I think her historical approach is fantastic and thought-provoking.
I don't speak of my non-belief to anyone that i work with, my husband and i are alittle straind because of my breaking with the groups here. so I'm basically in the closest here. I order books from Amazon and read alot to educate myself on different issues and ideas, evulation books are good, I read two on a DNA study that national geographic put out, I'm in the middle of Good Without God by G. Esptien, and have bought the book Doubt a history. But the best part lately, I've heard of a local group and has a weekly meeting that I will try on Tueday, it's in a college town that is close, so I hope that I will be comfortable there and my husband is ok with it,( he has a small busines in that town, and he think it would reflect badly on him). I hope he can see the positive humanist side, I hope I can SHOW it to him.. Enough on me--don't bite your tongue off while they are all praying for this or that ,, and all those "mircules".
You're not alone. It''s a difficult path sometimes. Similarly to you, my parents don't know how secular I truly am. I'm an atheist, not an agnostic. I am completely religiously unaffiliated. They probably just think I'm not attending church services but remain spiritual. But I'm not spiritual at all. And I'm 47 years old. I don't feel the need to voice my heresy on a daily basis to anybody in particular...but it's nice to have a site like this one. Don't you agree?


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