(January 31, 2014 at 11:57 am)c172 Wrote: My extended family is pretty Christian. My father sees no reason to believe in a God (which is somewhat milder than my seeing many reasons not to believe in a God, and furthermore not to worship the Christian god if it turns out the Xians are right). My mother believes in a vague God that she sees in a child's smile, in a snappy tune on the radio, in a kind deed, in a sunny day, etc.
Overall, I haven't had any problems. I did post some sort of atheist pic on my FB that had some quote. A cousin did kind of challenge me on it, but in a respectful way. His family is big on respect for people.
I've occasionally been challenged, but never made to feel bad for my Atheism. I realize I am lucky.
You are lucky. My extended family is also quite religious but they all know I don't share that and couldn't care less.
In my family my mother's only brother was famous for being the only atheist anyone knew. I thank him for planting the idea in my mind that it was possible not to believe in weird shit. Recently on fb I reconnected with his daughter so I asked if either her or her brother shared his disbelief. She, having become a holy roller, was happy to announce that both her parents had found Jesus before their death. I didn't tell her I didn't believe that and that they would have claimed to believe absolutely anything in order to have a relationship with their grand kids.
