Just converted my mom to atheism.....????

[robvalue]

I think you are right. Voicing niggling doubts can be hard in a religious community, so maybe she internalised the "cracks" and this was the last whack that made it all come crashing down.

[Dystopia]

I de-converted mine by buying her anti-religion fictional novels that bring lots of criticism into Christianity. It worked.

[Aisha]

Life is full of surprises. It is great she has you, and in time you will have each other.
I think, at the moment people open their eyes and start searching, and I mean really properly searching, it is inevitable.

[RobbyPants]

But she was quite a faithful woman and I feel like I crushed something in her I get why some people need religion and faith, y'know, it seemed to be making her happy. I had no intention of converting her when this conversation started. She did mention it's "liberating," however...

Hopefully she just needs time to process it. I can say that the first six months or so after I got comfortable with my disbelief were very odd. I found myself reevaluating things I'd believed for a long time, because I knew certain core assumptions were now gone.

I totally agree with her saying it's "liberating". If her deconversion was anything like mine, it was fraught lots of doubts, questions, and introspection. There was lots of trying to defend things that made no sense, only to be able to finally let go of them later. Dropping all that baggage is a huge relief, because that baggage gets so heavy toward the end. In fact, I think that threshold might be what's responsible for a lot of people from leaving their faiths. My short answer for why I stopped believing is "It stopped making sense and I got sick of making excuses for it".

[Simon Moon]

Well, if all that comes from your conversation is that your mom admits that faith is not a reliable path to truth, mission accomplished.

[Minimalist]

There are plenty of catholics who have abandoned the church in recent years. Frankly, I can't see how anyone with half a brain continues to remain a member of that corrupt pile of slime. Maybe she just needed a little nudge?

[emilynghiem]

Yes.

But don't count your chickens before they hatch. You might have sown the seed of her atheism, but wait to proclaim victory until she, you know, says she is one. :p

Haha, absolutely. She did call me the "Atheist Prophet" LOL. And she's doing research online already. She does seem rather distant, though not necessarily mad at me, at the moment. But she was quite a faithful woman and I feel like I crushed something in her I get why some people need religion and faith, y'know, it seemed to be making her happy. I had no intention of converting her when this conversation started. She did mention it's "liberating," however...
I'm starting to feel better already, at first it was just like, whoa... :'D

Good discussions often lead to good things. Be there for her. If you have any lessons learned from your deconversion, you might want to help her out.

Absolutely. I want to be absolutely sure that she's okay. I hope I can provide that well for her.

1. even Buddha had to let go of all he believed in order to receive the truth that came to him, not the other way.
you may have helped your mom with this Buddhist step of letting go.
so that only things that are truly consistent are what prevail, naturally.
striving to hold on to them is not necessary if they are really true.

2. there is nothing wrong with reconciling between these beliefs that are different languages for universal laws.

we are all under natural laws that predict human nature and how we relate to one another.

the same laws remain true, and just detaching from one language or another means being open to all of them and not shutting any out.

3. as for your dad, you need to work this out anyway to be at peace.
your relations with your mother shape your ability to communicate intuitively
your relations with your father shape your relations and perceptions of authority, and change or control in relations with others especially romantic relations

so make sure you resolve any mommy issues or daddy issues
in order to be a balanced person

this is a natural law of human nature that all people connect and reflect
patterns we carry from our parents, and them from their parents

so make peace with the closest people in your life and everything else will work out

collectively our relations with our mothers and fathers
between husbands and wives
are projected onto relations with church and state authority figures and institutions.

so whatever you resolve locally
then collectively there is peace in society between mother figures that the church represents and father figures that the state represents.