Hi, Cassi!

 

Please come to the chatroom some time. We'd love to have your input. The chatroom is most active during the evening hours.

Greetings, Cassi! I notice you haven't been active at Atheist Nexus since Jan 24th. <sigh> Sometimes it can seem a bit fragmented, with different groups for every interest. Please consider a group for socializing, where we talk about whatever's on our minds, Hang With Friends. :D You might feel more at home.

Ahh, yeah, the teenage rebellion thing.  I don't think most theistic parents realize that even if it was rebellion, if the teenagers get involved with reading and learning from atheist materials, like Dawkins, Hitchens, The Atheist Experience, and others, they'll acquire the skeptical tools that will turn them into real atheists and keep them from 'coming back to the fold'.  That would be cool if your first thought on the subject is correct, and he's okay with it.

 

We borrow a lot of terminology from the gay rights movement, yeah.  Same thing, being in the closet or out of the closet, coming out to people, etc.

 

Yeah, I've got some family members with whom it would be a major issue, I imagine.  My father's side was very Catholic.  One of my aunts is even a Catholic nun.  I wonder if all of them still are.  It's hard to tell, with Catholics.  They're the biggest bunch of backsliders.

 

I've just developed a slightly more punchy attitude towards the whole religion thing.  They're the ones with the silly mythology.  Also, with my standup comedy material, I won't be able to hide it for long, if I can get touring and perhaps even get a Comedy Central special or something, at some point.  Most of my extended family is in Chicago, so I haven't specifically come out to any of them, but there will be no hiding it when I reconnect with them, when I'm able to do a bit more traveling around the country.  You'll probably gain a bit more confidence on the subject, too, once you have a bit more contact with other atheists and gain a bit more of a normalized view of the subject.

 

Hmm, so you're just coming out about it, but how long would you consider yourself to have been an atheist?  I don't think I ever really was Catholic.  I have vague memories of when I was 5 or 6 years old, thinking that all of the stories were silly and made no more sense than the ones in the fairy tale books I read stories from.

Ohhhhhhh, so you're actually able to be out around him?  Nice.  That's got to ease a lot of the pressure that might make you want to run like hell as soon as you finish high school.

 

I had the advantage of my father being really non-religious, so when I was tactless enough to come out to my parents at the age of 14, there were zero repercussions.  I suspect he may have been a closet atheist, since he dropped out of the Catholic seminary, a while before he met my mother.  That's usually an indicator of a major loss of faith.  Plus, I can't think of a single time he ever talked to me about religion.  The religious stuff always came from my mother.  I just wish I could talk to my father about it, now that I'm getting more serious about it.

 

My atheism bugs the hell out of my mother, but I never get any grief from her about it.  She's dependent upon me for a lot of things, so she never really starts any conflict, unless she wants me to come over to her house and do things for her, when I really don't feel like it ... which is pretty much always.

Yeah, kind of tough getting a broader view, until you can get off to college, huh?  Have to get out from under your parents' thumbs, before you can be yourself.  I suppose they're Mormons?

• I was so happy when I found this site. I seriously wanted to cry. I don't really know any other Atheists.

Wow, yeah, I can imagine.  Any atheists have got to be really freaking far in the closet, in Utah.

 

Welcome.  Look around a bit and get settled in.  There are a lot of interesting groups around and about.

Hi Cassi, and welcome to the wonderful world of Internet atheism----free of belief in superstitions and the fictional gods of the masses.

We invite you to make good friends by joining the busy group "ORIGINS: Universe, Astronomy, Life, Earth, Humans, Religion, Evolution, Darwin..." with its 400 discussion topics and 2300 members.
http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/originsuniverselifehumankindanddarwin

Terry Meaden

Welcome to the Nexus ( :

Hi, Cassi.

 

Welcome to Atheist Nexus and thanks for joining Lord of the Rings Atheists. Middle Earth forever!