I used to with with a girl that was the daughter of a pastor..... we knew each other for several years before I told her I was an atheist. She was shocked, I asked her why, she said "because you are such a nice person!" Lol

People who are irrational (or rationalise) instead of thinking rationally hate to have there ideas scrutinised. Rational people don't mind having their ideas scrutinised as those opinions will either stand up to scrutiny, in which case the rational person is right, or the ideas won't stand up to scrutiny, in which case the rational person changes their mind and is happy to have learned something

Yes, some of the people I associate with know it have no problem with it. I don't shove my thoughts on them, they don't pray for me. Others, they totally disassociate themselves with me. Which is fin.

Not longtime friends.

I get derision from both sides. I usually don't talk about it.

Mixed bag. The majority of people treat me the same. Some avoid me. Some seem to be over accommodating-ly nice. But I keep it a secret for the most part, out of fear.

So i am going to share my part of the story, I was at the event organised by god worshiping group ( donot really wanna mention the name of the religion they were from) . So I was talking to this girl about stuff and the question came across me that what religion am I from. I told her that i am an atheist and the lady disappeared. Saw her in event the other day but she didnot bother to respond to my simple hello . Usually it doesnot happen but it happened with me!

Most new people do.

Some start trying to"save" me lol. Some make disclaimers like " I know you don't believe in this but....". Most people talk as if nothing happened, some do shut me out, which is perfectly fine with me

Sometimes mostly though I just get mild comments like "i feel like things would get better for you if you prayed" or "god loves you anyway" those kind of things I appreciate as them feeling the way they believe they should and they don't mean anything by it but anybody who aims to condescend I politely tell to fuck off.

Yes, it seems people around me usually become condescending or try to get deep into conversation. Although a lot of people really don't care so much.