Joining just for advice, really

[Aractus]

Hey everyone,

My name is Mike, I'm 24 and I live in the UK. I've been an atheist for roughly 10 years now. I was brought up in a catholic household, all of my relatives are either catholic or protestant and I was baptised and had my first communion, but I was never confirmed.

From an early age I always questioned religion to a certain degree and when I finally decided and announced myself as an atheist, all my family were completely fine with it (it even rubbed off on them a little).

Recently, I have started to look into excommunicating myself from the church. I have no desire to have my name associated with them in any way. However, I was wondering if there would be any cons with doing such a thing, e.g, I might find it hard for any children I have in the future finding a good school.

I can't really find many cons, so I just want to make sure I'm not missing out on any real benefits. Also, after saying this to my parents, I was surprised when they told me that they would be disappointed if I went ahead with this. That surprised me a lot. If I was to tell them I wanted to be a muslim, hindu, any other religion they'd be accepting. They are accepting of me as an atheist. If I was homosexual or bisexual, they'd be accepting. But this decision seems to have hit a nerve.

Would be grateful to hear any advice or even stories from members of this forum.

Thanks,
Mike.

Advice?? WHY CERTAINLY MY GOOD FRIEND! [/egerness]

I don't hold much esteem for the RCC myself, and totally understand how it alienates people. The idea that you would want to ex-communicate yourself from it, tells me that they have clearly done a very poor job - in this instance - at being warm, friendly and hospitable. Because if they did that - first and foremost - you wouldn't want to, you'd want to be able to leave the church, but stay involved with activities - stay friends with them, continue doing community (assuming that they are helping the community that is) etc.

I hope it works out for you ... don't forget there are plenty of other denominations out there and we don't hold the heretical doctrines that they do!