Question:
My coworkers talk about religion constantly and it bugs me.
Answer:
Relationships at work are not and cannot be completely impersonal. Humans are social animals and it should be expected that they will want to develop social relationships alongside their professional relationships where they are employed. This is generally a good thing because it is easier to work with people with whom you have some social connection.
Social relationships, naturally enough, require talking about things other than work - personal matters like families, hobbies, sports, politics, and even religion. Unfortunately, any of those topics can make a person feel uncomfortable for various reasons. Religion and politics in particular are well known for causing division and strife among people who probably should have avoided such discussions.
That is the key: knowing when to avoid discussing issues which may cause others to feel uncomfortable or which may cause hard feelings for whatever reason. Those who are constantly talking about religion and are thus bothering you either don't realize that they are making you feel uncomfortable, or they simply don't care â€" how you proceed will depend upon which seems more likely.
If the people don't know that you are an atheist, then it seems likely that they also don't know that they are making you feel uncomfortable. If you don't want to reveal your atheism, then perhaps you should start dropping hints about your feelings. Perhaps if you regularly walk away or try to change the subject when ever religion comes up, it will begin to dawn on others that you don't want to talk about religion. If you are willing to reveal your atheism, saying something about it combined with such hints has a good chance of communicating your message.
Aside from the possibility of people simply missing your message, one problem with hints is that they can be readily misunderstood. If you want to avoid misunderstandings and want your position to be perfectly clear, you will probably have to say something to someone directly. You don't necessarily need to reveal your atheism, but you could say something along the lines of "I'm not a religious person, I disagree with a lot that occurs with organized religion, and I'd really not be faced with religious and theological discussions all of the time. They make me uncomfortable and I'd rather the topics be moved to something a bit less controversial."
You need to be firm, but polite â€" remember, for many people religion constitutes a very important part of who they are. You may disagree with it and you may even find it ridiculous, but it isn't something you can ask them to instantly "turn off" in your presence. If you can get them to be a bit more considerate of your feelings when you are around, then that will be an important accomplishment.
Now, if the religious discussions continue without interruption even after you express your feelings and/or people are already aware that you are an atheist, then we probably aren't looking at a simple matter of people acting out of ignorance. If they are aware that their actions are unwelcome and make you feel uncomfortable, but they continue anyway, then they are not only being deliberately rude, but their behavior may be entering the realm of harassment.
Yes, it is true that they are free to discuss whatever they wish amongst themselves, but to discuss things which they know make you feel uncomfortable changes the social dynamics of things. For example, what sort of people would discuss how wonderful their children are doing in the presence of someone whose child was kidnapped or murdered and whom they know feels uncomfortable in the presence of such discussions? It's morally wrong to do that deliberately to a person.
It's even worse, however, if they keep trying to talk directly to you about topics that they know you would rather avoid. You'll have to make your feelings known a couple of times just to make sure that people get the message that you'd rather they change the subject; if that doesn't cause any changes, however, you'll have to seriously consider discussions with supervisors and managers about the matter. It would be wise to try and keep a record of what is said and when because this will provide some basic evidence of just how extensive the problem really is.
Management needs to work with everyone to strike some sort of balance between your need to have a comfortable work environment with others' need to be able to discuss matters important and relevant to them. It would be better if you could have reached a compromise with your coworkers yourself, but if they refuse to take your feelings into consideration, you'll simply have to go over their heads.
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