Atheism and being Armenian

[Mos]

Re: Atheism and being Armenian

Well for Armenians it's different. Almost all Armenians identify themselves with the Armenian Apostolic Church - however not everyone is really religious (especially armenians of armenia because of Soviet Union). We respect the church, its traditions, attend during important holidays, but that doesn't necessarily make us very religious, it's just a very important and essential part of armenian identity. If you look at statistics of Armenia when asked religious questions, you will see Armenia is not a very religious country, though when it comes identification with faith, over 98% identify themselves as Armenian Christian. It is different in the West, because in West if you identify yourself with a church and attend service once and a while, you are automatically deemed religious.

[robertik1]

Re: Atheism and being Armenian

Im an atheist too. I still go to church with my family for major events like easter. Its hard to be an atheist in America, much less in an Armenian setting, but I just go through the motions in church.

[Jinx]

I suddenly had the urge to come back after a long, long, LONG time. I hope this will be interesting.

I recently gave a presentation on 'Faith and Reason' at a philosophy conference, and afterward I was asked by someone if it is particularly hard for me to be an atheist as an Armenian. It wasn't a question I had thought about much before, as I tend to consider culture and religion two separate categories (though there absolutely can be overlap between the two). Certainly someone can be an Armenian who is also an atheist, such as myself, but my question to you all is if you believe religiosity is something necessary (or at least extremely important) to the Armenian experience? Why or why not?