Hey,
I’m curious to know what role religion plays in your day to day live as I am myself from the east of Germany which was called by the guardian the most godless place on earth a few years back and I only know very few religious people personally. My few run ins with religous folks have all been rather nice so far. Of course there’s still influences of religion in Germany as a whole but not really in my day to day live and the whole topic of religion always leaves me kind of baffled when I try to understand it, especially since there are some weird concepts that I just don’t understand logically but it seems to be rather important to a lot of people. On the flip side it seems that it’s rather important to you to proclaim that you’re non religious. Why’s that?
I also live in Germany. In personal interactions religion is usually not present. I’m always surprised to learn that somebody is religious. Since I’m not religious myself, I tend to forget that other people might be. I guess for most people it’s something more personal. Even the occasional Jehova’s Witness asks before they start pushing their God onto you. At the same time there is still Religion class (as in Christian) at school. You don’t have to go, but it’s the default and in most elementary schools there is no alternative as it is in secondary school. And the kids are taken to Christian services to celebrate the start of the school year and such. I don’t mind too much, I guess it’s an educational experience, but I’d still like my secular state to handle religion in a different way in it’s schools.
At the same time there is still Religion class (as in Christian) at school.
Oh yeah right that one exists in some states! In my home state we don’t have that or at least it’s not mandatory. We have Leben, Ethik, Religion (Life, Ethics, Religion) instead as a mandatory class. There we talked about a whole bunch of stuff and looking back it was surprisingly progressiv. For instance we talked about Transgender and Intersexual issues in the early 2000s. We also talked about female genital mutilation. Furthermore we talked about general ethics and got an overview of the world religions like Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism.
I’m in one of the most secular countries in the world so it’s really not common over here.
Sure, there are churches sprinkled around but actual religion is extremely rare to encounter. We still celebrate the same old religious holidays but they’ve basically lost basically all religious connections.
Overall I’d say I’d be surprised if anything to encounter someone who’s actually religious.