WA guy here!

[daddyferrari]

Hey all.  Nice to meet you.  Ok, so here's my story.
I was born and rasied Catholic, probably the most traumatizing time of my life!  I sat there in mass thinking to myself, why the F is the guy up there saying these things?  Why are we here for over 2 hours?  Why are we standing, sitting, kneeling, repeat 100x??  Why is my step mother such a B!?! (Different story) 
So after years of having this stuff rammed down my gullet and feeling guilty and ashamed simply because I'm alive, I pulled away from religion.  As I grew older and watched the nonsense spewing out of the mouths of the catholic church and the horrible counts of child abuse, money theft, etc. I decided that religion was not the way for me. 
Now, I've never officially come out...  Only to my immediate family, that's about it.  Honestly, I have a huge fear of admitting that I am Atheist to anyone in public, simply because I don't want to get into it with the masses of religious zombies.  I figure I don't need to start something with someone who will not accept my views, as I accept theirs.  I dont give a sh.t if you believe in aliens as our gods (still think you're nutz!), but dont be so close minded to not even accept that other people have different views.  The worst are the people that try and push their god on you!  I hate that! 
Atheists are the biggest minority in America and it kills me!  There are more Scientologists than Atheists!!  WTF?!?  It just shows how people are so desperate to believe in something more than the physical world around them. 
I'm hoping to meet some like minded folks that wont judge me for my beliefs and would love to be able to talk freely about Atheism.

[Tank]

Hi daddyferrari

You are welcome, in fact it's encouraged, to chat about your atheism here. That's one of the things this place is for. The majority of ex-theists here are ex-Catholics so you are in a sympathetic and knowledgeable group who understand from personal experience what you are going through. This is a worldwide forum with members outside the US so WA won't mean anything to quite a few people. Where are you?

Thanks for making the effort to sign up and join in.

Welcome to HAF.

Regards
Chris

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Some threads you might find interesting.
Where did you get your username from?
10 Things About Yourself
Tell us A Bit About Where You're From
Photography
Non-religious pet peeves
Pets...what do you have?
Favorite Song, with video
How to tell your family you are an atheist.*
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[xSilverPhinx]

Welcome!

[OldGit]

Greetings, daddyferrari.  Hooray, another one has escaped!  You'll be able to talk all you want here; we're on your side.

Have fun, too - it's good for you.

[Firebird]

Welcome! I think you'll fit right in here.

[Recusant]

Hello and welcome to HAF, daddyferrari. I don't think you should worry about telling people (general public) that you're atheist. It's really none of their business, anyway.

I hope that you enjoy your time reading and posting here.

[Amicale]

Welcome, daddyferrari!

You're among friends here, I'm looking forward to chatting with you. I'm also a former Catholic (one of the many here Tank mentioned), and it's great to have a place as awesome as this online to chat about beliefs and nonbeliefs, but this place is equally great because of the community here. Silliness and fun abound. 

On the offchance that WA means Washington state, I've heard that as states go, WA has one of the higher percentages of non-religious folks. I'm not sure if that's true, but I do know that WA is home to several freethought organizations. Askanatheist.tv is a call-in radio show and podcast based out of the Seattle/Tacoma area, and they're always talking about Washington groups, meetups, get-togethers and resources for skeptics in that state. Might be worth a listen.

Anyhow, welcome, again!

[Anti-antidisestablishmentarianism]

Welcome! Yes we are a minority.  We are just about the least trusted people in the world.  We are, however, probably growing faster than at any time in history.  The need for a false deity has seemed to lessen with our advanced knowledge in science.  Funny comment about you step mom though.  My actual mom is known to have been one of the most horrible pshycholigically abusive people ever to live, so don't think you are alone! In my opinion you should probably come out of the atheist closet to more than just immediate family.  There are enough Christian missionaries out there.  I think we could use a bit more of an even playing field.

[markmcdaniel]

Welcome. I understand where you are coming from. It took me years before I was even willing able to consider that I was an atheist much less admit that I was one.

[daddyferrari]

Thanks everyone!  It's nice to feel like there is a safe place to talk about this stuff.  I can only imagine what would happen if I updated my facebook profile with "Atheist" as my religion... shit would get deep, quick!  I am the coach of my 8 year olds baseball team and the majority of the parents are god fearing, religious nut jobs and I would probably lose half of my team, almost immediately.  Plus, I'm sure my kids would be shunned by those ignorant parents, as well.
It's just safer, for now, to be in the closet about it.  I can share with my immediate friends and family, but it's just not looked upon as "normal" or "right", in todays society... IMO... I dunno, I just dont want any negative effects to be brought down upon my children because of my beliefs.  I can wait til they are older.
Speaking of which, how are you guys educating your children?  I try to be open with them and explain that some people believe this, some people believe that and that everyone has the right to choose how they feel, etc, etc... Any good advice out there?

[Stevil]

Any good advice out there?

Never mind the good advice?

Have you heard the Good News?
There's probably no god, which would explain a lot.

Whenever I hear these Introduction stories I feel very sorry for some Americans, such an intolerant bunch. There are many places outside America where Atheists are free to roam, without a care in the world, flaunting their lack of god belief, and just going about their lives doing what Atheists do naturally in the wild like God intended

[Amicale]

Speaking of which, how are you guys educating your children?  I try to be open with them and explain that some people believe this, some people believe that and that everyone has the right to choose how they feel, etc, etc... Any good advice out there?

My kiddo's four. At her age (or any age, really) I don't want to shove my ideas down her throat and tell her she has to think the way I do. Like you, I just try to be open, at an age-appropriate level. At her age (just turned 4, too) that consists of having her meet other children from all sorts of types of families and backgrounds. She knows children with straight as well as gay parents, and kids who live in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and non-religious households. At her age, I mainly want to express that our differences are interesting and fun to talk about, but as humans, we all have lots in common. As she gets older, hopefully having this exposure at a younger age will set her up well for dealing with different ideas and diversity in general.

Aside from the human relationships she has with other kids/adults, she loves books about nature. Animals, planets, weather, you name it. She also likes to help me do 'experiments', ie, harmless ones like dropping mentos candy into pop to see the explosion.    She's naturally curious, she asks a ton of questions. If she does ever adopt a religion during her life, I think she'll at least think critically about it and ask good questions.

Aside from that... eh, she's 4, that's about all the teaching I do about skepticism, at least at the moment.

[ibm]

Any good advice out there?

Never mind the good advice?

Have you heard the Good News?
There's probably no god, which would explain a lot.

Whenever I hear these Introduction stories I feel very sorry for some Americans, such an intolerant bunch. There are many places outside America where Atheists are free to roam, without a care in the world, flaunting their lack of god belief, and just going about their lives doing what Atheists do naturally in the wild like God intended

Only in Canada you say! Pity!

Indeed my wife and I roamed in an "almost" religious free environment and were able to raise a family of our own (we have three grown children). There were some difficult moments I must admit but overall, it wasn't too bad.

Except for a few die-hard xtrians here and there (there's one just across the street) who keep pushing the envelope, religion (or lack of religion) is not a subject that comes about in cross-fence chats or coffee shops gossips.

Maybe it was this "free roaming" attitude that my wife and I had all thru these years that permitted us to politely brush away questionings on the subject matter.

Today my kids are adults, religion (or lack of it) is not a topic that comes around the kitchen table often. There are more important subjects to talk about i.e. woman's rights, charter of rights, separation of church and state (or the maintaining of), chocolate, wine, cheese, and South Park.

And that's good enough for me.

[Ali]

Hi and welcome!

My feeling on raising non-religious kids is to just answer his questions as honestly as I can, but make it clear that he is allowed to believe whatever makes sense to him.  It never comes up at home, but I think that some of the kids at his daycare talk about god sometimes.  Sometimes he comes home saying "God is in your heart, that's why you can't see him!" and sometimes he comes home saying "I don't believe in god."  He's only 4, so he definitely doesn't need to make up his mind yet.  LOL 

[daddyferrari]

Hi and welcome!

My feeling on raising non-religious kids is to just answer his questions as honestly as I can, but make it clear that he is allowed to believe whatever makes sense to him.  It never comes up at home, but I think that some of the kids at his daycare talk about god sometimes.  Sometimes he comes home saying "God is in your heart, that's why you can't see him!" and sometimes he comes home saying "I don't believe in god."  He's only 4, so he definitely doesn't need to make up his mind yet.  LOL 

Thanks!  Yeah, my kids are 7 & 8 and it changes everyday!  I tell them exactly what you said, "It's your choice to make, some believe, some dont"  in time they can make up their own minds, I just dont want kids or parents pushing what they believe... I hate that!