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Coming out of the closet

Started by spinsheet, March 26, 2010, 03:57:32 AM

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spinsheet

I was raised Catholic (12 years of Catholic school). I have what I would call a Christian mother and a father that is neither here nor there. I am divorced and my ex (who is spiritual but not religious) decided to let our girls decide for themselves what to believe. I made it clear to them at an early age that i was an atheist but tried my best not to influence their belief. That being said, my 14 year old is a hard-core atheist and my 8 year old feels that everyone in the world should be best friends, all is great, and the world is beautiful (I have no idea if she even has religious beliefs).

I have decided that I am so tired of atheists getting such a bad rap. Until now I have not really gone public with the fact that I am an atheist but I am at the point where I really can hide it any more. I am so tired of quotes like this:

QuoteThe atheist, recognizing no law of his own being other than survival, finds himself a constant slave of the moment. He walks down a slippery slope into further bondage and self-defacement, finally to become a number, imprisoned by the self gratifying desires of his fellowman.
I simply cannot hide what I am. My problem is that my family is all Christian, some much more so that others. How have you all handled this? Not sure what I am asking. Just waiting for the bomb to drop...

Thanks for letting me spout a bit.

elliebean

Hi Spinsheet!  

Quote from: "spinsheet"I simply cannot hide what I am. My problem is that my family is all Christian, some much more so that others. How have you all handled this? Not sure what I am asking. Just waiting for the bomb to drop...

I don't hide what I am; I just don't talk about it unless asked. My family knows better than to ask me anything because I'm too honest. :yay:

But what I really come here for is the possibility of discourse with people who are capable of stringing together more than ten sentences without muddying the conversation with an injection of superstitious nonsense. That helps keep me from becoming too grumpy.


Welcome to the forum. I hope you stick around and enjoy it here.  :)
[size=150]â€"Ellie [/size]
You can’t lie to yourself. If you do you’ve only fooled a deluded person and where’s the victory in that?â€"Ricky Gervais

dogsmycopilot

Quote from: "spinsheet"I simply cannot hide what I am. My problem is that my family is all Christian, some much more so that others. How have you all handled this?
Hi and welcome.
Well, in answer to your question it has been hard. I have lost jobs, loved ones, friends over the years, but as you say you can't hide who you are. I just live my life and occasionally I get the chance to tell someone I am atheist. Such as when I donate to the Toys for Tots they say something like "bless you" I let them know I'm atheist. I try to act in public in a way that shines a good light on my tribe (so to speak) but that's all you can do. Just like gays and blacks and the handicapped people are going to form opinions about us that are not fair nor correct. Yet, if you stop and think about it why do you care what someone says anyway if they can't be bothered to know the real you? That's the real hard part if you ask me. The atheist is forced to face the fact that all those relationships we cultivated for so long are shams- well some of them anyway- those people don't care as much about us as we did/do about them. That hurts no matter what religion is involved. However, once you start being honest you will eventually develop new relationships with like minded people. The friends I have met since I became atheist are some of the most genuine sweet people I have ever met. None of them live close to me, but each one of them at various points has shown me they care more for me than the old "friends" I used to be so upset about loosing. You can't pick your family, but you can construct a new support system from people who will love you for who you really are.

mama_ape

It might make me a chicken shit but there are members of my family I will probably never tell that I'm an athiest.  My grandparents for sure, I know that it's playing into the whole thing but they are so religious it would completely freak them out.  Seriously they'd pray for me, they'd tell everyone at their church to pray for me, they'd probably call the local church where I live to have people stop by. It would seriously make them unhappy and there would be nothing they could do to change what I believe and there would be nothing I could do to make them happy so I've figured that it's pretty pointless to tell them.  
I had a friend cry once when I told her and she said "I just want you to be in heaven with me."  I was so shocked at her reaction I didn't really have time to laugh.  This chick is my closest friend, my drinking buddy, she's been there through my good times and my bad. So even though she knew who I was inside and out and she had never worried about the safety of my soul before that one thing was enough to put me on Satan's list.
I've had other's want to ask me a million questions, that's a hard one for me too because I don't want to do the Jesus thing and force my thoughts and beliefs on anyone.  It's sometimes a fine line between stating how you feel and trying to convert someone, because they ask me how I feel - then some of them think they get to tell me how they feel....except I didn't ask.  

Use your best judgement in who you decide to tell, I really do not regret or even feel compelled to tell my grandparent, let them die happy ya know.  I also do not regret who I have told.
So you can give your heart to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the Corps! Do you ladies understand?