How to tell parents I'm an atheist

[Mothonis]

I extremely disagree with this view. lack of belief should not also mean lack of integrity or courage.I would tell the truth even if it means death penalty.Think about how many nazis went along with hitler even though they didnt believe what he believe,they use the excuse,that there safety was being threatened. Besides your sending message that atheists have no courage to the christian community.

I never said that lack of belief equates to lack of integrity or courage if you don't scream about it all the time, and it's all well and good for you to say that you would tell the truth even if it meant the death penalty, but that doesn't take into account different personalities and different attitudes about one's life and its importance. It's people like you, the brave people, the fearless people, that make it possible for the people who aren't as brave and fearless as you to one day step out of their closet and be seen.

Not everyone has the same personality, the same ability to shrug off the bullying, shaming remarks, and not everyone has the same lackadaisical attitude about their life. My life is pretty fuckin' important to me and I'm not sure that I'd give it up to make a point like you would. But neither does that mean that I'll simply cave in to societal pressures.

To use your (atrociously inappropriate) holocaust example, there were people who stood up to the Nazis in defense of the Jews and gave up their lives. But there were also people who kept their mouths shut, made a show of going along with the Nazis, and had 10 Jews hidden in their attic that they fed and cared for and kept safe.

What you're doing is saying that everyone has to fall into the first category, that we all have to scream and shout and be willing to give our lives up. But that's not the only way to help people. That's not the only way to approach the situation. And to claim that everyone has to do what you would do is not seeing the bigger picture and not recognizing that there are other important roles to play. We need both kinds of people - the ones who will shout from the roof tops and take those bullets, and the one who will give people a safe place to stay and protect them when they're in danger, and all sorts of people in between.

I also agree with everything Alex K and Fromper said. Equating the plight of a 15 year old atheist with the systematic killing of a religious sect is inappropriate and totally not the same thing, and it's inappropriate to ask a minor to fight for something that could put his safety and well being at risk. We adults should be fighting for him, and if he agrees with you, Mothonis, than it's up to him to decide that being public about his atheism is worth more to him than having a roof over his head. That's not a choice anyone should prescribe his answer to, not you, not me, not anyone in these forums. He has to make that choice for himself.

Of course its up to him to decide how to live his own life, he is after all a individual.But if you don't stand up for yourself now you may come to regret it later,i know i have.The thing is in life you are gonna be surrounded by people who try to put you down one way or another, wether its because your an atheist or some other reason.Even after he moves out of his parents house the societal pressures wont stop. the community will probably still make it difficult for you.To those who felt the holocaust was inappropriate think about the dark ages. science was surpressed and factual reality was denied simply because there were people who could not handle it.If people stood up soner the damage it caused probably wouldn't have been so bad,and scientific advancement today would be even further along.Iam not so sure that they can simply put a minor out in the street, i believe that would count as child abandonment.I could be wrong but i was always told that your parents have to take care of you as a minor.The thing about courage is that you dont have to be strong or smart to have inner strength.It didn't come naturally to me,i still have plenty of fears but you can learn to overcome them.

iam sorry for the misunderstanding about the holocaust example.