A question to Atheists who have "come out" to their families

[Fountain79]

have you found it to be a difficult task? Were you met with condescension and scorn? Wondering if it is just me.

[Archae]

1. Yup, to all three.

Took a while, but they've accepted it.

They still try to "save" me, but not as much as they used to.

[LostInAnomie]

2. I never felt the need to "come out".

[Lars39]

3. I'm still being shunned.

Seriously. Husband and I are barely included in his family functions now. They only call husband's cell phone, never the house phone. I am a heathen who has led their son astray. They don't trust me around younger family members, like I'm going to convert 'em or something. :eyes:
Actually the peace that has descended on me from not having to deal with them all the time has been quite lovely. :)

[Zomby Woof]

4. My parents are atheists

So I am lucky in that regard. My sister and I were raised to chart our own path - for which I came to consider myself an atheist by age 13, and my sister is a Christian.

[RebelOne]

5. Every time I say to my sister that I am an atheist,

she says, "No, you're not." She's in denial.

[Schema Thing]

15. you should reply: sure I am, and you are too....

... I simply believe in one less god than you.

[TZ]

6. My dad and uncle are atheists.

My mom is kinda secular with weird religious beliefs (close to UU I think). So no, actually its the other way around..My dad is likely to make anyone in the family with religion uncomfortable

[Symarip]

7. My mom is pretty open minded though she's a believer

I think she views religion as a personal endeavor. So no, when I told my mom I think Jesus is Santa Claus for adults I don't think she was too terribly bothered.

[mainegreen]

8. We're all athiests. In law family is too.

Not a drop of religion among us.

My church was museums.

[vi5]

9. I'm 39 and it was a slow process...

Even as a kid I questioned everything, particularly as it related to religion. My parents are devout catholics and I was raised as such. And while they would occassionally get annoyed when I was gratuitously questioning and went out of my way as an annoying teenager to be as questioning and blasphemous as possible, they always kind of rolled with it. But at a certain point it just became obvious and unspoken that I was an atheist. I did continue going to church until my mid twenties because between them paying for college and living with them as an unemployed college grad in the early 90's it was a show of respect for them as parents.

So there was never any formal announcement or coming out or anything. They just know, it's a fact and they don't bother me over it, except as it relates to me not taking my kids to church or giving them any religion or spirituality (although I have no problem with my parents taking them to church on occassion or teaching my kids about what it is that they believe).

[Orrex]

10. I first mentioned it to my mother over 20 years ago, when I was 16 or 17

She said "no, you're not." And she said the same thing again about three years ago. So I guess that would qualify as condescension!


To this day she simply refuses to believe it. She's positively scandalized that we haven't had our two sons baptized, even though she's lived a life that could hardly be called a model of Catholic piety.


At the risk of seeming brusque, it's entirely possible that members of your family will never accept your lack of belief.

[Neoma]

11. Heck no, my mom encouraged it.

[NJmaverick]

12. My family is almost all atheists, I haven't come out to them about

my Deist beliefs

[Schema Thing]

13. my family started shunning me simply for deciding I don't believe

that a handful of cloistered old men in Brooklyn NY are God's mouthpiece on earth. And I'm talking formalized shunning here.



So at this point, I'll probably never get the opportunity to let them know that I no longer just believe that God doesn't favor Jehovah's Witnesses exclusively, I no longer believe in god's existence.

[Rob H.]

14. My parents are fine with it

They never took me or my brother to church when we were kids because they wanted us to make up our own minds about religion. If we'd ever expressed an interest in going to church they would've taken us, but we spent too much time reading and drawing and painting and building model kits for the thought to ever cross our minds.

I haven't told some of my relatives, though. I have one aunt on my mom's side of the family who's a religious conservative and an uncle on my dad's who's a young-Earth creationist. I don't think I'll be telling either of them anytime soon.

[montanto]

16. My family and my wife's have the non-beliver gene.

[Strong Atheist]

17. DON'T EVER DO THIS AT WORK UNDER ANY

CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:scared: :scared: :scared: