(August 10, 2021 at 3:28 pm)TheEnd8888 Wrote: Hello,
Does anyone have a difficult family that won't accept you're an Atheist? I've always been an Atheist, but my family all believe in a higher power. I don't mind people believing different to me (as long as they don't get abusive about it in any way), but they simply can't comprehend that I'm an Atheist - if it's ever mentioned they imply I'm in denial, which is ridiculous. I am more looking for input from someone in a similar position on how to approach this better mentally, not holding my breath though as I can see the forum is inactive.
Best Wishes
TheEnd8888
My late adoptive mother raised me Catholic. But she was not forceful about religion. If you want me to complain about how she raised me, it would be more about chores, in that she treated me like slave labor, and she was the type that "buck it up, be a man, boy's don't cry'. But as far as religion, she never forced that on me. In my teens I stopped going to church, and she didn't raise a fuss about it.
Even in her old age, taking care of her at her assisted living and nursing home, she valued me, and didn't make the threat bribe fundy crap far too many do. All she wanted from me was my love. I am sure she had a problem with me not believing, but as independent as she was, she always let me think for myself. Even as an adult, I'd tell her about an atheist author I wanted a book from, and she would buy it for me. My late Catholic mother is literally the reason I have read Dawkins and Hitchens and Victor Stenger and Harris and Ali. If she did not buy me the book personally, she gave me the money to buy the books myself.
I can remember sitting in primary doctor's private practice waiting hall, reading Victor Stenger's "The New Atheism" while my mom was waiting to be called into her appointment. IT WAS A BOOK SHE PAID FOR! Which was far better than all those crappy pop, vacation, garden, bullshit mags you get in the waiting room.
But, just to take a silly dig at her, sometimes when I look back, I wonder if she bought me those books just to shut me up? We were not the same in the least. So I am wondering if she did all that, like a bear knowing there is a claw trap, and placing bait to get me to shut up.
In all seriousness. I am 100% sure she was simply trying to please me.
