(July 7, 2016 at 3:17 pm)afrist34 Wrote: I became an atheist very recently. I grew up evangelical Christian. This past year I did a lot of questioning and searching and thought about joining different religions, but rejected this because I realized the same fundamental problems existed in each of them. I tried universalism and agnosticism but eventually found myself confirmed in atheism. Now I feel content in my beliefs but not at all comfortable sharing them with most of the people I know. I’m very close with my parents and for those who know evangelical Christians pretty well you know that if they find out you don’t believe in their God they will evangelize you for the rest of their lives, even when you stand up for your right to dissent. I don’t want to face that for the rest of my life with my parents yet I also hate living with a huge secret and really dislike still pretending to be a Christian. Have any of you been in this situation –any advice?
I have an idea you might consider. Make sure you understand Christianity to the best of your ability--including studying the answers that very intelligent and thoughtful people have given to atheist arguments over the years. If you do go the atheist route, this at least does two things.
1. At least you will feel better knowing you did right by your parents and gave Christianity a fair hearing and
2. You would be able to converse with your parents in future years at a much more intellectual level about religion and prove to them that you understand what it is you are doing.
The reason I say this is because there are answers to every one of your questions and it may be that you need more answers than did your parents. It may have been the case that they did not realize this and those answers were never made available to you (by them or your church). Don't fall for the atheist line that intelligent people see through the BS of religion, etc. Some of the smartest people in the world, past and present, are Christians who don't think religions is BS.
