Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
At this point in my life, there isn't anyone I wouldn't talk to about it. That doesn't mean that everyone I know agrees with me about deities probably not existing, but the people I'm close to who are Christian or another faith would discuss it rationally and agree to disagree with me. It wasn't always that way--I knew more narrow-minded people when I was younger, but I guess I've managed to avoid them in recent years.
I know this isn't really important at all, but bulls are color blind. It doesn't really matter what color the flag is.
LOL, I know but you can imagine what the cartoon is like where the bull isn't color blind and crazed by the sight of the red flag, smoke coming out his nostrils, him pounding the ground with one hoof, if the matador with the red flag has any sense he has LONG since pee'd his pants. Thats what would happen if I told my family.
I was talking to an old friend of mine the other day and we have so much in common. THEN he started going on about religion and how the bible should be taken literally and how all the prophecies in it have come true. WOW, just WOW.
I think people who know me know how I feel, but religion and non-religious issues do not make up the entirety of who I am, and thus do not consume much of my interaction with my peers. I am sure I have friends who are religious and who never say a word about their faith just as I am sure there are people I know who do not know my non -religious values. It is just not the issue we discuss, and in most situations has no bearing or value as input in our discussions.
My family knows, but it is not an issue there as the religious to non religious split it about 50/50. With extended family, I make a judgment call and try to see if a person is using religion as a crutch, and if so I would try to avoid any non-religious discussions which might cause more stress in their lives.
In any situation, if asked directly, I would answer as I feel, and expect the same respect I give the person asking the question.
Location: In the North Idaho woods, still surrounded by terriers
2,179 posts, read 7,018,586 times
Reputation: 1014
In my immediate family, only my sister is a very religious person, but the topic of belief does not come up with the rest of the family, really. I don't think anyone cares very much. My sister does not condemn me but she will not talk to me about my beliefs. She shuts me off completely when I try to explain how I feel...she is afraid to hear it, I guess.
My family, friends, and co-workers all know I'm a nontheist. I have no problem talking about it with anyone ~ I'm very proud of the fact that I think freely.
I'm fairly cautious about revealing the depth of my non-belief. My mother thinks I'm missing something by having no spiritual life. I have a brother who is sanctimoniously religious that I avoid discussing much of anything with other than family details.
Unless I get pushed, then I fight back if they don't get the hint with my non answers.
I really wouldn't want to share my point of view about god and religion with anybody in my family.
I'll always be a closet non-believer with them.
I don't think I'd have any family left if I did. They'd bug me non stop about how I needed to find a good church and get right with god, and I'd eventually lose my patience (which I seem to have less and less of as I get older) and it'd be all over.
I don't have any anymore, with me it starts when they notice my large collection of Buddhist books or hear me saying koans at appropriate times. Its seems that its not nearly as shocking for them to think I believe in something(regardless of what that could be) than nothing at all. I Then cheerily dismiss the god idea and eventually I let them know I'm a barbaric nihilist.
I have no particular problem discussing my agnosticism with most people, but I never discuss it with my patients (nor do I discuss politics with them). The great majority of the time, religion wouldn't come up in a 15-minute office visit, but there are instances of longer patient encounters, and sometimes they bring up something. If they do, I make no comment about my own beliefs, but just say "It's good you feel that way," or something generic. Since half the battle in medicine is to gain a patient's confidence, I won't risk losing that because of a misconception he/she may have about whether you can be a "good" doctor if you aren't a Christian.
My sister and I talk daily and have for all of our lives, we're in our 50s.
I have no idea of her religious beliefs, if she has any or not.
We respect private matters as private.
Actually, I have no idea what any of my other siblings believe/don't believe either.
I can probably safely assume that none are evangelicals.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
