Hi, this is my first post and I'm still figuring out how this forum works in general. I thank anyone who is going to read this and help me out. 
Anyhow, to my problem.
I live in Malta, a very religious country. My family needless to say, is full of Christians. My brother and I are atheists and my parents are both Christians. My mother is not the "die-hard" Christian i.e. she goes to mass every Sunday, says a prayer before lunch/dinner but that's it. I share a great relationship with my mother, if I open up to anyone it's her. She doesn't have any anger issues or anything, which makes her a great person to open up to.
My dad, on the other hand, is a devout Christian. Goes to mass everyday if possible, says a 10 minute morning prayer, prays before lunch/dinner, says the rosary on a long trip and so on. He has a temper, he's okay 40% of the time I talk to him but when he's angry he cannot be talked to. On the contrary to my mother, I don't really like my dad. We have one thing in common and that is we love football. But other than that I'm sorry to say that I don't really like him in general. I love him because he's family but that's it.
Now me. I'm an 18 year-old guy, I sort of realised that I'm a atheist when I was around 15 but I never acted on it. Till this very day I have put up with my family's beliefs, going to mass, saying the rosary from time to time etc. However I feel that it has to stop. I have to stop lying about my belief (or non-belief for that matter). I'm tired of wasting time going to church every weekend when I could be studying for my September exams. Whenever they say "Oh how we should thank god for everything we have..." I want to tell them "Thank nobody but yourself, you worked for your it, it's YOUR success not "god's"". My brother is also an atheist but he's fine with living a lie.
Now the thing is that apart from my brother and friends, nobody in my family knows that I'm an atheist. I never "grew the balls" to tell them mostly because I don't want my family to look at me from a different perspective once I declare myself an atheist. I'm afraid that if I tell them, they'll lose hope in me. Since my dad is a devout Christian I am 80% sure that he will never look at me the same way again. Even though I am his son and as a parent he bloody well should accept me no matter what. If I tell them, I will have to face a battle against my whole upbringing. My grandparents are very devout Christians too by the way.
So I hope I painted you an accurate picture of my situation. I'm 18, a couple of more years and I'll hopefully be out of this house and support myself. So the million, scratch that, billion dollar question is this- should I keep my head down and wait till I no longer rely on my family or should I open up to them that I'm an atheist. As of now I am 60% in favour of keeping my head down and 40% in favour of opening up to them. I hope somebody can give me some good advice about this.
Thank you for reading Hope I posted this in the right forum 
Anyhow, to my problem.I live in Malta, a very religious country. My family needless to say, is full of Christians. My brother and I are atheists and my parents are both Christians. My mother is not the "die-hard" Christian i.e. she goes to mass every Sunday, says a prayer before lunch/dinner but that's it. I share a great relationship with my mother, if I open up to anyone it's her. She doesn't have any anger issues or anything, which makes her a great person to open up to.
My dad, on the other hand, is a devout Christian. Goes to mass everyday if possible, says a 10 minute morning prayer, prays before lunch/dinner, says the rosary on a long trip and so on. He has a temper, he's okay 40% of the time I talk to him but when he's angry he cannot be talked to. On the contrary to my mother, I don't really like my dad. We have one thing in common and that is we love football. But other than that I'm sorry to say that I don't really like him in general. I love him because he's family but that's it.
Now me. I'm an 18 year-old guy, I sort of realised that I'm a atheist when I was around 15 but I never acted on it. Till this very day I have put up with my family's beliefs, going to mass, saying the rosary from time to time etc. However I feel that it has to stop. I have to stop lying about my belief (or non-belief for that matter). I'm tired of wasting time going to church every weekend when I could be studying for my September exams. Whenever they say "Oh how we should thank god for everything we have..." I want to tell them "Thank nobody but yourself, you worked for your it, it's YOUR success not "god's"". My brother is also an atheist but he's fine with living a lie.
Now the thing is that apart from my brother and friends, nobody in my family knows that I'm an atheist. I never "grew the balls" to tell them mostly because I don't want my family to look at me from a different perspective once I declare myself an atheist. I'm afraid that if I tell them, they'll lose hope in me. Since my dad is a devout Christian I am 80% sure that he will never look at me the same way again. Even though I am his son and as a parent he bloody well should accept me no matter what. If I tell them, I will have to face a battle against my whole upbringing. My grandparents are very devout Christians too by the way.
So I hope I painted you an accurate picture of my situation. I'm 18, a couple of more years and I'll hopefully be out of this house and support myself. So the million, scratch that, billion dollar question is this- should I keep my head down and wait till I no longer rely on my family or should I open up to them that I'm an atheist. As of now I am 60% in favour of keeping my head down and 40% in favour of opening up to them. I hope somebody can give me some good advice about this.
Thank you for reading
Hope I posted this in the right forum
