I also live in the UK and there isn't much in the way of pressure, but I have had a couple of people come to my door to try and get me to come to a prayer group or similar. I tell them I'm not religious and they usually go away then, if they try to find out why I'm not religious or start proselytising I tell them they have as much chance of converting me as I have in turning them into atheists. They usually give up at that point. If they don't I make it clear I'm not going further with the discussion and walk away.

So many UK people! I'm jealous. I'm stuck here in Oklahoma...

I invite them into my house or chat with them. I ask them questions. I generally treat them with little respect. They do not automatically qualify for respect because they are Christian or Muslim or whatever. These people scare children. They are dangerous. I don't give hem an inch. But hey that's just me lol


Rab

I don't. I used to get into arguments with people and get my blood up.

The role religion plays in a society is insidious, but it's never an individual issue, so arguing with individuals about their beliefs is pointless.

Now that doesn't mean that individuals don't have their reasons for being religious, but those aren't why there's religion in society. Quite the contrary, those come after the fact. When life is so miserable that a focus on an afterlife becomes attractive, when a society is so unjust that "divine" retribution, heaven or hell, or seems like the only alternative, when people are kept thoroughly ignorant of their own history, then we get pervasive tenacious mythologies. They don't come from anywhere else.

As soon as I say something like this though, many people--especially the most sanctimonious, self-satisfied, liberal atheists-- start to back off very slowly. They know I'm about to attack the whole system of class oppression, and the tools that are used to enforce it, like religion.

Some of them want to argue the rationality of their religion (because I usually start off my rejection by letting them know I am a scientist and that I depend on reason). They try to tell me that I am atheist because I just don't know enough about my religion. That's when I pull out my Vatican Approved Catechetical Diploma that I got through three years of study through the Catholic Distance University in Alexandria, VA. I was raised Catholic but really never believed. A few years ago, during a difficult time in my life, I thought I would give it another go. After a few weeks going to Mass, etc. I decided to try to approach the faith through study. The more I studied, the more rediculous it seemed. Finally I recognised the effects of "cognitive dissonance". That's when I saw the light and left the church in my dust.

I just say, "No thank you".

Pretty much this. Or I'll say, "No, thank you, I'm agnostic. Please don't come here again..." and then shut the door.