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Author Topic:   How do you share new disbelief with friends and family?
Coragyps
Member (Idle past 765 days)
Posts: 5553
From: Snyder, Texas, USA
Joined: 11-12-2002


Message 3 of 29 (629555)
08-18-2011 2:24 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Jazzns
08-18-2011 1:02 PM


I'm a preacher's kid - missionary's kid, in fact - and have known for sure that I'm an atheist for about twenty years. I'm neither secretive nor outspoken about my lack of belief, with the exception of my mother. She's 85, never goes to church any more, but seems to still be devoutly theist. I won't tell her that I don't share her beliefs, not so much because she will worry about my "immortal soul," but more because she would feel that I'm rejecting my father's beliefs and, by extension, rejecting my father. That would beat her up pretty badly. She doesn't need the pain.
My 30-year-old son went through a deeply fundamentalist brainwashing about ten years ago, and is still close to being a YEC. We had a conversation a couple of years ago where I explicitly said that I had no belief in gods, and he acted quite surprised. I think he assumed that EVERYBODY is a believer, and just never paid attention during the few conversations about religion we had before.
My other three (grown) kids are atheist or agnostic. All four went to Sunday School and church through most of their childhood, and it didn't hurt them much. I can't see it helped them Be Better People in the least bit, either. (It was Episcopal, so anything they did get exposed too wasn't very full of brimstone.)
I still don't have any advice for you, Jazzns....

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Jazzns, posted 08-18-2011 1:02 PM Jazzns has not replied

  
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