Atheist, unlike Christians, do not have a commandent to suffer and die for their believes. You are dependent on your parents for shelter and food. Even if they wouldn't do anything drastic like throw you out they can continue to nag and badger you until you either become miserable or you break and accept their faith. I would just be quiet and keep my thoughts to myself. In your mind though mock the hell out of what bugs you. Humor is often the best way to deal with situations like these

Yeah, post the crazy shit they say on here and we'll all have a good stomp on it

(February 8, 2015 at 10:04 am)watchamadoodle Wrote: @coolfunkDJ,
- What kind of church do you attend?
- What was expected of you before you hinted at disbelief?
- What is expected of you now?

-Pentecostal
-To pray before every meal (which I thought was stupid when I was religious), To go to church every sunday and attend week long conventions, which is as tiresome as it sounds
-The exact same, which is killing me!

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(February 8, 2015 at 11:36 am)I_am_not_mafia Wrote: By saying you were agnostic you effectively told them that you need more attention to keep you faithful.

If you can't get out of going to church then treat it like an intellectual exercise.

Try to find the fundamental flaw in what you are being taught and phrase it as concisely as possible in the most difficult question to answer.

The more calm and measured you are, the more you stick to facts or point out the logical inconsistency of what you are being taught, the more they will leave you alove. The better you get at this the more calm and relaxed you will be. If you rant then they will write off anything you say as as a rebellion or a phase. If they can't answer you then the fault is with them and that will make it uncomfortable for them. This means that they will try to avoid such situations again in the future.

It's a valuable skill to learn, especially when you get into the work place.

I hate to say it, but telling them I was agnostic probably did draw more attention to me, and I will try to be rational about things, thanks for the advice!

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(February 8, 2015 at 10:45 am)robvalue Wrote: Hello, welcome to the forum

As has been said, it's about balancing how annoying it is for you to keep quiet against what kind of fallout there will be if you come clean. If there is particular stigma in your family about the word atheist (there often is as people misunderstand it completely) maybe you could just say you're not into religion anymore, or it's not for you. I mean, you don't have to even deny that god or whatever exists (from their point of view) to say you don't want to worship it. I wouldn't worship the evil god of the bible, even if I thought it was real. Maybe even just saying it's not something you want to talk about anymore at all.

If it's going to cause major trouble though, then keeping your head down about it until you can move out may be smart. It does absolutely suck that anyone should have to put up with this, I don't believe that children have a responsibility to suck up to their parents and put up with delusion bullshit as a "thank you" for having created and caring for them. It's their responsibility to do that anyhow, and if they require thanks and compliance to their cult then they suck. But you know your parents better than us.

Whatever happens, come vent on this forum. We all love slagging off religion, and we'll happily listen to your thoughts about it all

They said they wont kick me out or anything, but I know that it will cause earthquakes within the house, so im probably going to keep my head down! Thanks so much for the advice, just so you know im going to be following your blog, might be some help

(February 8, 2015 at 12:53 pm)coolfunkDJ Wrote:

(February 8, 2015 at 10:04 am)watchamadoodle Wrote: @coolfunkDJ,
- What kind of church do you attend?
- What was expected of you before you hinted at disbelief?
- What is expected of you now?

-Pentecostal
-To pray before every meal (which I thought was stupid when I was religious), To go to church every sunday and attend week long conventions, which is as tiresome as it sounds
-The exact same, which is killing me!

It will drive you insane but four years will go by quickly, I promise. Come here and complain or make fun of them.

I have been to a couple of Pentecostal services. They are entertaining and good fodder for mockery. My grandmother liked to keep track of her third and fourth cousins. She grew up in a small community and so knew who her extended family were. One day she was invited to see the daughter of one of her cousins' sing in church. Because I was a weird 14 year old who actually liked hanging out with my grandmother and her sister, I begged to go also. We went to this teeny tiny church and everything seemed normal until the services started. Growing up Baptist, I was used to a few Amen and Hallelujahs during the sermon but the congregation were screaming so loud that I couldn't hear either the preaching nor my cousin's singing. To this day, I have no idea if she could sing well or not. I just heard people yelling. My eyes must have been big because my grandmother and great aunt both apologized for unknowingly taking me to a Pentecostal service. LOL

When I was an adult, I went with a friend a few times to her Pentecostal service. At first I liked the music but I noticed that it repeated a lot, almost like chanting. This was not as wild a service as the one my grandmother took me too in Western NC but it still had dancing and praising. A woman in the front row had some sort of long scarf that she waved in the air.

As a sixteen year old, I also attended a friend's Pentecostal church where the members were 'slain in the spirit' The pastor touched some of them and they fell backwards. It was weird but interesting.

Do you have any clothing restrictions? When I was young, a lot of Pentecostal women had long hair and wore long skirts. Do they still do that?

Thanks DJ You're most welcome. Hopefully joining this community can make things more bearable for you, whatever path you choose.

I'll try and work more on my blog soon, I'm happy you like it! I've been doing my wife's website today so I should be able to make it look less like a white pit of despair.

Welcome OP.

Is this what goes on in your church? They could sell tickets, and I might even buy one. Look for the entertainment value. Some of these people probably need medical care after their antics for the Lord. He sure is mysterious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2CezWts6oU

From what i've read, the pentecostal congregations are very close-knit, so they probably wouldn't allow you to disbelieve and lose your soul. It's better to pretend to believe like others have suggested.

(February 8, 2015 at 1:15 pm)Nope Wrote:

(February 8, 2015 at 12:53 pm)coolfunkDJ Wrote: -Pentecostal
-To pray before every meal (which I thought was stupid when I was religious), To go to church every sunday and attend week long conventions, which is as tiresome as it sounds
-The exact same, which is killing me!

It will drive you insane but four years will go by quickly, I promise. Come here and complain or make fun of them.

I have been to a couple of Pentecostal services. They are entertaining and good fodder for mockery. My grandmother liked to keep track of her third and fourth cousins. She grew up in a small community and so knew who her extended family were. One day she was invited to see the daughter of one of her cousins' sing in church. Because I was a weird 14 year old who actually liked hanging out with my grandmother and her sister, I begged to go also. We went to this teeny tiny church and everything seemed normal until the services started. Growing up Baptist, I was used to a few Amen and Hallelujahs during the sermon but the congregation were screaming so loud that I couldn't hear either the preaching nor my cousin's singing. To this day, I have no idea if she could sing well or not. I just heard people yelling. My eyes must have been big because my grandmother and great aunt both apologized for unknowingly taking me to a Pentecostal service. LOL

When I was an adult, I went with a friend a few times to her Pentecostal service. At first I liked the music but I noticed that it repeated a lot, almost like chanting. This was not as wild a service as the one my grandmother took me too in Western NC but it still had dancing and praising. A woman in the front row had some sort of long scarf that she waved in the air.

As a sixteen year old, I also attended a friend's Pentecostal church where the members were 'slain in the spirit' The pastor touched some of them and they fell backwards. It was weird but interesting.

Do you have any clothing restrictions? When I was young, a lot of Pentecostal women had long hair and wore long skirts. Do they still do that?

I agree so much with the repeated songs! It gives me a headache each time they use songs because it is repeated so much, like every week

About the clothing restrictions, no, not really! We can wear whatever we want aslong as it is not "against God"

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(February 8, 2015 at 2:08 pm)watchamadoodle Wrote: From what i've read, the pentecostal congregations are very close-knit, so they probably wouldn't allow you to disbelieve and lose your soul. It's better to pretend to believe like others have suggested.

Okay, thank you my friend!

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(February 8, 2015 at 1:41 pm)JesusHChrist Wrote: Welcome OP.

Is this what goes on in your church? They could sell tickets, and I might even buy one. Look for the entertainment value. Some of these people probably need medical care after their antics for the Lord. He sure is mysterious!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2CezWts6oU

OMG, Thank you for this! No they're not, but i wish they were! Ty for the barrel of laughs!

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(February 8, 2015 at 1:18 pm)robvalue Wrote: Thanks DJ You're most welcome. Hopefully joining this community can make things more bearable for you, whatever path you choose.

I'll try and work more on my blog soon, I'm happy you like it! I've been doing my wife's website today so I should be able to make it look less like a white pit of despair.

Okay, I reccomend making an RSS feed if you know how, they can really help people keep up with your blog

Thanks for the help robvalue!

The people in the video are probably releasing a lot of tension. I don't see that dancing or jumping or screaming to be any different than what tribal people used to do. Perhaps that is why the lyrics in the song seem to repeat over and over. It gets people into a trance like state so that they can allow themselves to lose control.

I did piss off a Pentecostal online when I suggested that she and her congregation were no different than people who used to dance around fires a long time ago. She told me that the difference was her group had the holy spirit. Um...okay.

That is what the congregation that my grandmother took me to see did. It frightened me.

(February 8, 2015 at 3:04 pm)Nope Wrote: The people in the video are probably releasing a lot of tension. I don't see that dancing or jumping or screaming to be any different than what tribal people used to do. Perhaps that is why the lyrics in the song seem to repeat over and over. It gets people into a trance like state so that they can allow themselves to lose control.

maybe they're just high