Alabamian Atheist in Need of Advice

[FKHansen]

or maybe just encouragement.

Hi, I'm Celi. Nutshelling: I'm 16, I live in Alabama, I'm socially anxious and inept, and I'm an atheist. I like sci-fi, fantasy, and other nerd stuff in the form of comics, video games, TV, books, and anime/manga. I also like writing.

And I want to come out. I really, really need to come out. Which is what I'd like advice on: I wrote this to post as a note on Facebook, and I'd really appreciate some input. I'd go on and introduce myself some more, but this says it all:

I'm atheist. I don't believe in Yahweh or any other god. I've wanted to say this for a long time, but I've never been brave enough.

The reason I'm saying this is that I don't want to lie any more. I don't want to sit through church services that alienate, revolt, and offend me, or attend Sundy school and feel like I'm assenting by silence to the lesson. I just want to go ahead and make it very clear that I'm not trying to insult anybody, although people will certainly feel insulted. I believe that something you believe is wrong, and even appalling, but I don't think that makes me superior to Christians, or that Christians are bad/dumb/otherwise contemptible people--just people who have been indoctrinated, usually from early childhood, into an insidious belief system that doesn't allow them to doubt it, lest they risk eternal torment.

Even in my earliest memories of going to church, I was highly skeptical of the accuracy of what I was being taught. To believe in something like a personal god, you have to want to, and the older I got the less I liked the idea of a murderous, misogynistic, jealous, voyueristic control freak who tortures you forever if you don't love him governing the universe. I don't remember a specific point of what a Christian would refer to as "losing my faith" because I never had any; I've always believed that faith--essentially, believing in something that you have no good reason to believe in--was illogical and rather disgusting. I merely gradually went from not knowing or caring whether it exists to believing that it doesn't. More recently, in the past few weeks and months, I've been seeing how appalling this religion is

I know I can't be the only person I know who feels this way. In any community, there are bound to be intelligent, strong-willed people who can see through the bizarre logic of religion. I know it's natural not to want to tell anyone, often not even yourself, especially here in the Bible Belt where there's so much social pressure to follow this one partiular religion and very few people who don't accept it. So, to any closeted atheists or agnostics: if you're a teenager living with religious parents who may have a seriously bad reaction, I'd recommend not coming out, obviously; everyone else, you really should. If more people come out, then it will make it easier for others to come out, and so on. You don't have to keep lying to yourself or anyone else.
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It's really just a rough draft, I suppose, I just think I could benefit from advice from other atheists.

I realize this isn't a typical introductory thread--I'm just sort of showing up and asking for help with something. I really hope I'm not being rude.

This forum looks exceptionally tolerant and open-minded, which is a feat considering the nature of most Internet forums and the tendency of the subject of religion to get people angry. I look forward to posting here.

The text is a bit puffy in places, but it's still very good. If you like to write, use that medium to evolve, for I believe you have talent.
Secondly, I think you are very brave stepping forward like this. Whether it is the right thing to do, I do not know, but you are right concerning finding your peers. The more you are, the easier it gets. No one is to walk alone.

Btw. Welcome from Denmark