Being an atheist in a strong community like you describe just sucked for me. I would prefer to pick my community rather than have it forced upon me by geography

Being an atheist in a strong community like you describe just sucked for me. I would prefer to pick my community rather than have it forced upon me by geography. For instance when I entered college I joined an engineering fraternity which was filled with plenty of people as bizarre as me. I think most people would rather pick their communities than have it selected by default hence the fences popped up once it became feasible to do without your physical neighbors.