Regret

[FlyingNarwhal]

Do you still live with your parents or are still financially dependent upon them?

Meant this for your other thread.

[Minimalist]

Your choice is to be yourself or pretend to be what others want you to be.

Thats true, but i wish i knew why he's being such a jerk

There are many answers to that question. Some people see the repudiation of their fairy tales as a repudiation of them. You know him. You'll have to sort that out.

[SteelCurtain]

Is your brother older or younger? He sounds like a young kid.

Sit him down, tell him you want him to understand where you're coming from, and tell him to ask questions. Let him get all the bullshit out there, and you can calmly bat away the flies. Express that atheism is just a lack of belief in any gods, nothing more. It doesn't have to change your relationship with your brother or your parents.

If he tells your parents, then you'll have to deal with that. If your parents aren't really super religious, it's probably worse in your head.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

What's done is done. You cannot change the past, but you sound like you're trying to work towards a better future.

Don't live with regret. It's a useless emotion that won't change a thing for you.

I wish you good luck and I hope your brother comes around.

[Bob Kelso]

What's done is done. You cannot change the past, but you sound like you're trying to work towards a better future.

Don't live with regret. It's a useless emotion that won't change a thing for you.

I wish you good luck and I hope your brother comes around.

Pay attention to Fidel on this one, sound advice there.

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I understand your feelings about not wanting to alienate, or be hated by, family. The entirety of my family is theistic (Southern Baptists or Catholics the lot of them), and I was concerned about this as well. At first.

I met a lot of disbelief, anger, and debate over my atheism. I handled it by keeping my cool, explaining myself and defending my decision rationally, and intelligently. The best thing you can do is to explain yourself matter of fact, and educate yourself (about fallacious arguments in particular, because trust me you're going to face a lot of that shit if you intend to be upfront about being an atheist).

[Wyrd of Gawd]

You didn't give any ages but your brother sounds like he's a snitch. Remember that when you have something really important that you are tempted to blab about.

[BlackMason]

Your choice is to be yourself or pretend to be what others want you to be.

Thats true, but i wish i knew why he's being such a jerk

My take on it is that his behaviour isn't surprising. Don't doubt that your bro cares about you. It's because he does, that's why he's being like this. To him hell fire is real. He don't wanna lose his bro. So you're fighting against his love for you. He thinks your folks can talk some sense into ya. Win you back for the lord, ya dig?

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Your choice is to be yourself or pretend to be what others want you to be.

False Dilemma.

How so? Seems pretty legit to me. He either comes out and he won't have to tip toe around anyone or he goes incognito. Incognito is frustrating.

[ThePinsir]

Are you old enough/independent enough to tell your parents to fuck off of their give you trouble? If not, it may be prudent to sugar coat things.

"Mom, dad, I may or may not be agnostic," then pretend to ponder the ensuing apologetic bs

[Elskidor]

Something tells me his brother snitched and he's stuck in a snake pit..

[Sludgeman101]

Just an update for everyone. The original conversation with my bro was my older one. I have two, and i thought a younger, less engrained in the christian faith, point of view would be a positive one. Long story short, i was wrong. Actually, he displayed very ignorant and biased views of atheism. In fact, he even said things that i thought he would know to be false, such as "if you don't worship god, you might as well worship the devil." I'm disapointed by the outcome, but i geuss, not suprised