Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Living in a religious home.

Im an atheist living in a religious home. It is a struggle. Here is my situation: My mother, who believes in a literal interpretation of the bible, is a member of The Church of Christ in the town where I live. She and my brother go every Sunday. Then there is my Step-Dad. He is vehemently opposed to organized religion, and see's all religious people as filthy hypocrites. Yet, strangely enough, he reacted most negatively to me not believing in god. He got mad, and called me a hypocrite, for reasons I still do not understand. My mothers reaction was 'Ok.' followed by denial, and demand that I drop the subject if ever brought up.

Knowing how my situation is, I was wary of asking to go to Skepticon II. but I was tired of hiding who I am, and I wanted to go, as it is by far the closest a meetup has ever been to my location. So I asked my mom if I could go, and her response was "You know I don't approve of that!" To which I responded "I know, but it is part of who I am." She then asked me why I didn't believe, and I responded with the fact that there is, at the very least, lack of evidence for God. She then asked if I believed that Jesus had actually lived, because that "has proof outside the bible." I responded that if she was referring to Josephus, his writings on Jesus consist of 2 references, 1 shown to be a fraud, and the other to be rather vague. At this point she just said "Whatever, I don't want to talk about it!"

She then shifted into saying that she didn't know if she could allow me to do something like expressing myself (in a way that didn't fit her dogma) while living in her house. In essence she said that I cannot be who I am, because It bothers her. She did say she would "do some soul searching" and let me know if I could go to skepticon. So I remain hopeful. I will let you all know if I can attend.

UPDATE: I can go! Sadly, it is not all good though.

2 comments:

  1. Seems like a tricky situation! Hopefully your mom can realize it is a good virtue to be honest and truthful with yourself then to wear a counterfeit mask simply to conform. Maybe your mom and you will gain a stronger relationship by learning to accept (unconditionally) each other, with or with-out beliefs.
    [As an ex-Christian, I can’t make my faith re-appear, it disintegrated on me. Should I pretend it didn’t happen, shackling my mind and disguise who I really am by giving credit to something that isn’t important ~ ‘having faith’]

    from the glorious land of Kansas

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  2. Thanks SkitZoid! I wish that was the case. see the new post, added to the bottom of this one.

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