(November 19, 2013 at 3:58 pm)Doubting Thomas Wrote: My mom knows I don't go to church but doesn't say anything to me about it. I don't think she knows I'm an atheist, but as long as she doesn't ask I won't tell.
Like I said, I don't think my mom remembers me telling her I'm an atheist and since the topic of religion so rarely comes up in casual conversation I don't know when it will come up naturally again. When religion does come up I already express my skepticism about whatever the claim is that we're talking about and the conversation never broaches anything about belief in what we're talking about, it stays firmly in the realm of the likelihood of the claim being made.
The other problem is my that mom recognizes that some Christian traditions are adopted from other faith traditions and cultures, she just thinks that Christians were brilliant in adopting those traditions in order to further their cause. Many a time she has commented to me that Christians were brilliant when they moved the date of Christmas to December 25th and incorporated the pagan tree. She's also said things to me about how ingenious ancient priests were when they devised slight-of-hand illusions in order to get people to believe they are capable of miracle working and how they were so clever in devising hidden mechanical ways of opening doors so it would appear they would open on their own or something... SHE KNOWS IT'S ALL BULLSHIT! But she'll follow up statements like these with almost teary eyed awe that when Akhenaten tried to get Egypt to go monotheistic it was like God's rough draft - "he was trying to make himself known, it was just too bad the Egyptians were so conservative!"
Confirmation bias. She sees what she wants.
Anyway, what was this thread about before I derailed it??
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
