I outed myself... on Facebook

[Aengelh]

I grew up in an uber christian family and I am the only atheist I know of in my family. It was a slow process to losing faith. I told a co worker that I don't believe anymore and he was in the same boat as me. He grew up with Christianity pretty similar to mine and he is also in the closet. Last Fall he introduced me to The Thinking Atheist podcast. I was hooked, still hooked. I had been turned on to many Youtube vlogs and I write a lot of comments which I think some are public, Bionic Dance is one of my faves. I slowly started liking pages on Facebook like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and of Course the Thinking Atheist. So I made a comment the yesterday on the TAA page.

It was the question "Someone, outside of your presence or knowledge, tells your children that they must accept Jesus, or they'll burn in Hell.
What's your response?" and I commented... " I don't have kids but I do recall a time when my sister and I tried to persuade our neighbor that she must except Jesus. She was not biting so my sister asked, "do you want to go to heaven or hell?" She said, "hell." It completely ended the conversation. It must have been nice to grow up with out dogma."
My mom comment about an hour ago... "sad."
Then I commented back.. "Oh, hi mom!"

Holy shit balls! I'm a little freaked out, a little relieved! Is it too early to drink? It's almost noon? lol!

Anyone else going through this? I'm from a HUGE family, dad was a minister.

[Aengelh]

And I realize I have this in the wrong thread category. I tried changing it but not allowed. Shit.

[kim]

Don't worry, we'll get it changed.

And don't fret too much about being out... sooner or later things will smooth out.

[Aengelh]

(28-04-2015 01:39 PM)kim Wrote:  Don't worry, we'll get it changed.

And don't fret too much about being out... sooner or later things will smooth out.

Thank you!

[Kaepora Gaebora]

If I may ask, are you a dependant? That is, you are young enough to live with and are cared for by your family?

And yeah, don't worry. Things tend to smooth out. On the plus side you get a lot of people you get to respond to with debunking their silly arguments.

[Momsurroundedbyboys]

Thread moved to Personal Issues and Support

Side note: wishing the OP the best.

[WeAreTheCosmos]

Just don't get too smart... Or TTA will be your only refuge from the deluge of ignorance in the general populace.

[The Organic Chemist]

Stock up on asprin for the flood of apologetics coming your way. Wishing the best.

[evenheathen]

(28-04-2015 12:52 PM)Aengelh Wrote:  I grew up in an uber christian family and I am the only atheist I know of in my family. It was a slow process to losing faith. I told a co worker that I don't believe anymore and he was in the same boat as me. He grew up with Christianity pretty similar to mine and he is also in the closet. Last Fall he introduced me to The Thinking Atheist podcast. I was hooked, still hooked. I had been turned on to many Youtube vlogs and I write a lot of comments which I think some are public, Bionic Dance is one of my faves. I slowly started liking pages on Facebook like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and of Course the Thinking Atheist. So I made a comment the yesterday on the TAA page.

It was the question "Someone, outside of your presence or knowledge, tells your children that they must accept Jesus, or they'll burn in Hell.
What's your response?" and I commented... " I don't have kids but I do recall a time when my sister and I tried to persuade our neighbor that she must except Jesus. She was not biting so my sister asked, "do you want to go to heaven or hell?" She said, "hell." It completely ended the conversation. It must have been nice to grow up with out dogma."
My mom comment about an hour ago... "sad."
Then I commented back.. "Oh, hi mom!"

Holy shit balls! I'm a little freaked out, a little relieved! Is it too early to drink? It's almost noon? lol!

Anyone else going through this? I'm from a HUGE family, dad was a minister.

My dad is a preacher too. I've been living religion free for about two years now.....I keep waiting for that accidental "outing" to happen, but I won't touch facebook with a ten foot pole and just avoiding any direct conversation about religion with family has seemed to have kept it secret so far. Although the fact that my parents tend to avoid religious conversation with me as much as I do with them has me wondering how much they wonder about it.

I suppose only time will tell. Growing up, I was never one to back down from voicing my opinion on any subject to my parents, but of course I never disagreed about religion when I was young. Now that I'm older and independent and our paths cross much less frequently (ironically during religious holidays for the most part), rocking the boat so hard with them just isn't something that I'm all that anxious to do. Religion is all they've ever done, my apostasy would be the ultimate rebelling in their eyes, not just from god but from them.

I'm ready for it to happen, and I know that it will one of these days, but I'm not going to push the issue.

I hope the best for you Aengelh, let us know how things go.

And welcome to TTA!!

[Hafnof]

Do you think she caught on that you are an atheist though... or could she have convinced herself of something different? I would say just lay low for a while and let things come out gradually.