I Am An Atheist

Yes, unfortunately a lot of discrimination is thrown towards atheists, but being fired for being an atheist is ridiculous. What happened?

I was falsely accused of attacking, criticizing, and questioning religious beliefs because I simply asked if I could wear my atheist pendant. It's a pendant with the atheist symbol on it. Everyone else was wearing crosses and other religious symbols. The only reason I asked is because atheists are actually the most hated minority in the US and are just as distrusted as rapists. I also asked as to avoid offending anyone because atheism in this country is so synonymous with evil and negativity even though it's neither, and I was hoping that they'd be more understanding about it as I just wanted either a Yes or No. I also falsely accused of constantly bringing up the subject of religion and atheism when I was actually pulled into several meetings about the entire incident when I just wanted everyone to shut the fuck up about it and move on because it wasn't that big of a deal. Afterwards, my managers falsely accused me of saying to a customer that I hate Jesus and then fired me, and I swear I just wanted to beat the HR manager into a coma. If I don't believe in Jesus, why the hell would I ever say that I hate him and/or feel hatred for him? That's like if I said that I hated Santa Claus. Everyone else would point out that he isn't real. To make matters worse, the store I was fired from got me banned from the mall for a year because they accused me of loitering by their employee entrance when their entrance is right next to the customer entrance that lead into the mall, not the store, which I always walked through after I was fired.

I keep on trying to explain what happened to others, and no one ever believes me, and that's why I'm very afraid to state what happened because I'm just going to face more disproval and discrimination. That's literally how badly disadvantaged atheists are and how privileged religious people, and especially Christians are. They think atheism means that you hate god or is an opposite belief to religion when it's the lack of belief in a deity.

From what I can tell, you being fired was completely wrong. And a show of huge intolerance and ignorance. A lot of people wrongly assume so much about atheism, or they just refuse to see what they don't want to see. That is such an injustice to you and your rights!

Well, the ACLU still hasn't contacted me, so I guess I can try the EEOC then.

It doesn't matter what your religious/non-religious proclivities are, being fired for religious reasons is illegal in most cases. It may not be to your advantage, but you could bring this matter to court most likely. The situation as you described it smacks of blatant discrimination.