(December 23, 2013 at 10:09 am)FreeTony Wrote:(December 22, 2013 at 6:31 pm)Logisch Wrote: One very difficult part of that was just coming to terms with the fact that I realized I was an atheist. It wasn't an overnight thing. I was terrified of it because I hadn't told my wife. I hadn't told my family. One day I came out to my wife and just sat down and told her. To my amazement she was totally cool with it and said, "Well I had religion forced down my throat my whole life so I really don't give a shit about it anyway. I love you either way, so it's fine." My family on the other hand hasn't quite taken it so well. They've slowly backed off little by little, but only after I send them long rebuttals to the books they send me and when they can't back up their own arguments (safe to say.. they haven't sent me a book in quite a while).
So is it difficult to maintain it? Well, that depends. I think if you're completely surrounded by those people and do everything you can to isolate yourself, well, not really. In fact, what most people would refer to as "Isolation" I think a lot of them might consider "Staying away from temptation!" but of course... what do MOST cults do when they don't want outside influence to disturb their teachings of their followers? Isolate them from the outside world. If that doesn't work, threaten them with social rejection. I hear eternal punishment in a fiery lake works too.
I do wonder how people over here in the UK keep it going*, especially as they will almost all have friends and/or partners who are Atheists. It ends up with them believing things like "my partner is a good person, so will go to heaven" and "just be nice to people" etc etc.
*Most don't, I think the latest figures say 2/3rd of 16-24 yr olds don't believe in God. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion...n-God.html
It definitely does seem like each generation is one step closer and less worried about belief. I'm OK with that
