there's a simple expression for pretty much all of what you just wrote: "recovering Catholic." There are lots of you. Some become Protestants or Unitarians after being atheist for a while; others remain agnostic forever.
I don't say this to deride the true believers of Catholicism, or of atheism or agnosticism (which might be said to include Universalist Unitarianism--UUs often joke that their creed is "There is at most one God"). But Catholicism in particular has an awful lot of followers in name only. (In the Northern Midwest, I'd guess Lutheranism does, too.)
And, Matt, I think you underestimate the number of atheists in America. In the rural town of 10,000 where we lived until last year, only about 2,000 are members of any religious organization. Not all the unchurched are necessarily atheist, of course, but plenty of them are apathetic and plenty more are nonpracticing and nonbelieving Catholics who may as well be called atheist.
OK, but what about the Bible Belt? My experience in the large Texas cities, at least, was much like here, that probably half the people I met (outside my church) were unchurched and most of those were atheist or apathetic. The difference isn't so much how many people strong the church is, but how evangelical the prevalent churches are and how public their members are about their faith.
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syntheid
Not to trivialize, but
Date: 2005-10-20 12:48 pm (UTC)I don't say this to deride the true believers of Catholicism, or of atheism or agnosticism (which might be said to include Universalist Unitarianism--UUs often joke that their creed is "There is at most one God"). But Catholicism in particular has an awful lot of followers in name only. (In the Northern Midwest, I'd guess Lutheranism does, too.)
And, Matt, I think you underestimate the number of atheists in America. In the rural town of 10,000 where we lived until last year, only about 2,000 are members of any religious organization. Not all the unchurched are necessarily atheist, of course, but plenty of them are apathetic and plenty more are nonpracticing and nonbelieving Catholics who may as well be called atheist.
OK, but what about the Bible Belt? My experience in the large Texas cities, at least, was much like here, that probably half the people I met (outside my church) were unchurched and most of those were atheist or apathetic. The difference isn't so much how many people strong the church is, but how evangelical the prevalent churches are and how public their members are about their faith.