(January 4, 2014 at 3:48 am)ChildOfReason Wrote: Coming out to my parents as an atheist is NOT an option, because they're these ridiculous, irrational, fundamentalists.
Have you seen how they react to nonbelievers or atheists? If you have, use your best judgement with regards to whether or not to come out to them (it seems like your best judgement would be not to).
If you are making an assumption about how they will react it might be an good exercise to test the waters in some way. Find a news article or blog post or something that makes an argument against religion (bonus points if it's your denomination) and see how they react.
If they react negatively you can pass it off as "Just sharing the idiocy of some people" and you can continue on to your confirmation at least knowing for sure you shouldn't probably come out.
If they react noncommittally, or at least less negatively than you thought they might, it might be safe to take the next step and share a second argument against religion and say something like "they make a good point" and see how they feel about you at least sympathizing. Again, if they react negatively you can pass it off by saying something like "I don't agree, I just see their point" or something.
Obviously, this would work best on a long time scale so as not to arouse suspicions about why you've taken a sudden interested in atheism - although even that might plausibly be passed off as researching arguments for your confirmation paper, you know, 1 Peter 3:15 and all...
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
