Who reacted the worst when you "came out" as an Atheist?

[Brian37]

A female friend of mine had a horrible experience. Her aunt snooped in her room and found atheist literature, told her parents, she admitted that she had become an atheist, and they kicked her out of the house and cut off her college money. It was several years before they would even speak to her again and a few more before she was trusted to be around her nieces and nephews unsupervised. Her parents are Pentecostal like mine, but I was in my 40s when I came out to my father's side of the family and already lived in a different state, so it probably helped that I wasn't as vulnerable as my friend.

See, this is the kind of bullshit that pisses me off.

Parental and family ties shouldn't depend on believing in the same imaginary friend.

If you put religion above family I have nothing but utter contempt for you.

I cut my older brother off, not because he believed, but because he emotionally sucked the life out of me, and the last straw was when he verbally threatened me with physical violence. Having been beaten up by bullies as a kid , and having been emotionally blackmailed by even friends prior to meeting him, I don't play that, not even with family.

No, ditching a loved one or friend over religion is bullshit. I agree, but I will cut anyone off, including family if being around them becomes to the point of having to walk on eggshells or fear verbal abuse or physical threat for what amounts to their baggage. 

My family and friends I will accept even with our differences. but nobody has to be a doormat for someone else because you are afraid of hurting their feelings. There are ways to have disagreements among family and disagreeing with family without being abusive. When it becomes to the point where you have to fear someone that is not love, that is abuse.

[godlessheatheness]

who reacted the worst when I . . . ??

I'd bet Jesus and God were tied for first place in that.

Well they would've, if they were real.

[AceBoogie]

I haven't made it officially open. I have a lot of family that is going to freak the fuck out when they find out. I wanted to see if anybody had any stories about their own coming out.

I don't want to feel like I have to hide it. I want to be open and be able to post things on my facebook but I am absolutely scared of my dad and his family and how they are going to freak.

I thought my family was going to freak out. Turns out I was pretty off the mark. The only one who was truly "upset" was my father. He tried to have debates with me for some time about the subject in an attempt to sort or steer me back into theism but he always ended up getting angry and it would turn into a screaming match between us. Looking back I think he was more bothered that I questioned his authority on the subject rather than actually being mad at me for not believing in the stuff.

So yea my dad was the most upset, but it wasn't anything radical. After arguing with him on and off for maybe a few times in a year or two, he pretty much let it go. Now when the subject comes up he just tells me that he'll pray for me and he loves me and says he hopes god finds his way into my life. Coming from anyone else I would probably take this as a bit of a passive aggressive "fuck you, you're wrong," but I know my father means well. Our relationship is okay now... I'm probably closer with my dad than anyone else in the family.

My mom was just sort of disappointed and she also, even to this day unlike my father, tries to debate the subject with me from time to time. Most times this issue doesn't come up though. When it does my mom just reminds me that god is important in her life regardless of what I think (I'm not sure why she feels the need to make this known).

My grandparents are both basically deists and didn't seem to care when I said I was an atheist.

In fact my grandparents are most accepting of the Satanist title that I've adopted over the past few years. My mom is horrified every time I talk about Satanism (she thinks it's an evil cabal of devil worshipers who lure unsuspecting atheists into the group only to later reveal them to Satan and his evil ways) and my dad just sort of shakes his head in disappointment about it. I think it's funny...

Usually, it's never as bad as you think though. Do you have a plan for how you're going to tell your family???

[Sal]

My mother, by far.

[TheoneandonlytrueGod]

In my home country of Krautistan, nobody cares. My friends in west Texas were a bit upset.

Took me a minute or two before I realized where Krautistan is but when I did I nearly fell off my office chair for laughing so hard

[Cephus]

My best friend of 30+ years got on the phone with me and put me on speaker phone so her very religious husband could sway me. Wasn't going to work. I ended up hanging up on the both of them and refused to speak to her for two weeks. We are still close, but I made damn sure to set up a boundary that religion is not to be talked about when we visit or talk to each other.

See, I would never make that rule because 100% of my "religious friends" that stuck around after I deconverted have also deconverted because I refused to stop attacking their religious beliefs.  I have no religious friends or family members anymore, not because they all left, but because I showed them how idiotic their religion was.

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A female friend of mine had a horrible experience. Her aunt snooped in her room and found atheist literature, told her parents, she admitted that she had become an atheist, and they kicked her out of the house and cut off her college money. It was several years before they would even speak to her again and a few more before she was trusted to be around her nieces and nephews unsupervised. Her parents are Pentecostal like mine, but I was in my 40s when I came out to my father's side of the family and already lived in a different state, so it probably helped that I wasn't as vulnerable as my friend.

Just more proof that religion makes people dicks.