An Atheist’s Vacation

As an atheist activist and blogger, I spend a lot of time thinking about religion, talking to the religious, and intercepting religious evangelists so others don’t have to be bothered. When it comes time to go on vacation, I decided to go to a place where I don’t have to do any of those things – Vermont.

I didn’t remember it at the time, but Vermont is the least religious state in the country with a third of the state claiming “no religion.” Only 24% of the state claim to attend church regularly and 23% consider themselves, “very religious” – the lowest in the nation.

The state is also really liberal in an independent sort of way.

Marriage equality – check

Medical marijuana – check

Medically assisted suicide – check

Call for a Constitutional Convention to get money out of politics – check

Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory – check

Ethnic diversity – not so much — Vermont is one of the whitest states in the nation and that is definitely a problem.

Aside from the diversity issue, Vermont is a paradise for atheists and liberals. It got me thinking about what it would be like if liberal atheists actually fully controlled a state or a town. Vermont is the closest we have, but this type of thing has of course been tried before and Christians came in en masse to ruin it, but times are different now and atheists are now much more organized. Would an atheist state be a place you would want to live in?

Yes, I know there is this rift within the atheism community right now and people on one side might not want to live in a town or state with people on the other side, but I have to think that at the end of the day we are all pretty much on the same side. If you had to pick a next door neighbor, would you rather have an atheist blogger you disagree with on some minor point of political correctness or the fundamentalist Christian who believes that you deserve to be tortured for all eternity, and that homosexuality, masturbation, and sexual arousal outside of marriage are sins?

I guess I am curious to know whether atheists should move en masse to a state like Vermont and seek to make it our state. Should we create an atheist homeland?

One final point of observation from my trip: We drove passed a Planned Parenthood and the two escorts outside were sitting there bored to tears because there were no fundamentalist Christian protesters harassing anyone. How awesome is that?

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