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RE: Need some help
December 24, 2014 at 7:15 pm
(December 24, 2014 at 7:06 pm)Tonus Wrote: As for your mother's demands/requests, you're under 18 and thus you're her responsibility and I would just go along with it. Once you are old enough to make your own decisions and go your own way, you are free to skip the church visits.
Really? Your parents can make this decision for you until you're 18?
We have a law dating back to 1867 that allows you to decide on your religion or lack thereoff once you turn 14. Your parents can only make that choice before that.
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RE: Need some help
December 24, 2014 at 7:22 pm
You're 15, lad. You have plenty of time to figure out that ghosts, bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster aren't real either.
Dump god and you've got the big one out of the way.
Pull up a chair.
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RE: Need some help
December 24, 2014 at 8:31 pm
(This post was last modified: December 24, 2014 at 8:44 pm by Alex K.)
(December 24, 2014 at 4:37 pm)DIRTY_DEEDS_93 Wrote: My name is Drew, I'm 15, and I need help figuring out what I am. I don't believe in God, but I'm not anti-god. According to the definition of atheism ("The lack of a belief in a god") I would be defined as an atheist right? I don't believe there is a heaven or hell. I believe in ghosts and that you stay on earth when you die. So would I be classified as an atheist? Also, on a side note, my mom has been harassing me to go to church on Christmas (my family is Christian) and she guilt trips me about it constantly, what should I say to make her stop? Also I'm sorry if any terms I used are not correct, I've researched atheism a lot but I've never talked to anybody about it so I wouldn't know what is appropriate or not.
Hi Drew,
Welcome to the forums!
I couldn't care less whether any of the terms you use are correct or not, we can sort out these technicalities later once you're settled in 
I'd say you're an atheist in my book, although I don't exactly see why you would believe in ghosts and that other life-after-death stuff - but it would be interesting to discuss that in some dedicated thread if you feel like it. I'm sorry that your family guilt-trips you into going to church. What you should say to make them change their minds depends very much on what exactly it means that they are judgmental - do you think they would actually punish you in some way if you opened up about your lack of belief?
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
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RE: Need some help
December 24, 2014 at 9:29 pm
Welcome to the forums, Drew!
Not buying in to the god thing makes you an atheist. Not claiming outright knowledge makes you an agnostic atheist. Belief in the supernatural is a whole other conversation.
Whatever your beliefs, you are certainly welcome here!
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
PM me your email address to join the Slack chat! I'll give you a taco(or five) if you join! --->There's an app and everything!<---
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RE: Need some help
December 24, 2014 at 11:29 pm
(This post was last modified: December 24, 2014 at 11:30 pm by Violet.)
(December 24, 2014 at 5:11 pm)Aoi Magi Wrote: "Oh you believe in ghosts? the supernatural? Then you are not one of us!" 
Did you really think we'd say something like that?
I sure wouldn't think so. People aren't exactly lining up and calling my bluff. 
* Violet continues sharpening her knives. Scraaaaaape. Scraaaaaaaaape.
So, welcome, newblood
Please give me a home where cloud buffalo roam
Where the dear and the strangers can play
Where sometimes is heard a discouraging word
But the skies are not stormy all day
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RE: Need some help
December 24, 2014 at 11:53 pm
I've known atheists that believed in ghosts, reincarnation, and all manner of supernatural things. The one common thread is that atheists don't believe in any deities. The OP sounds like an atheist to me.
But at the age of 15, he's really at the mercy of what his parents want. My advice is don't push too hard until you are capable of supporting yourself.
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RE: Need some help
December 25, 2014 at 12:03 am
It's become your welcome post Drew! Welcome to you!
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RE: Need some help
December 25, 2014 at 3:18 am
The more shitty and imposing a parent is when they have authority, the more they are damaging the long term relationship and mutual respect.
Maybe you should say if you can't be an atheist, then you'll join Islam.
My parents were the same, they emotionally blackmailed me into doing things, for no reason other than to please them. And as a result of that (and other factors) I now have as little to do with them as possible.
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RE: Need some help
December 25, 2014 at 9:03 am
(December 24, 2014 at 7:15 pm)abaris Wrote: Really? Your parents can make this decision for you until you're 18? I'm not sure where the legal boundaries are, but a person is not a legal adult until 18 and is restricted in other ways (purchasing alcohol, for example) until 21. I don't know if a parent can legally force a child to go to church, but without the recourse of simply leaving home and going it on his own as a legal adult, his options are limited.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Need some help
December 25, 2014 at 10:01 am
Depends where you live. As far as I know, in England you can leave home at 16 and make most of your own decisions.
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