An agnostic/atheist surrounded by theists.

[Lurking]S'a popular topic. Nothing wrong with one, two, or ten moar. I enjoy reading them.

Now then...[/Lurking moar]

Where've you been man? Missed the old crowd.

It's the law of a large forum: "there shall be (at least) 3 atheist-related threads in full swing at any given time."

Without net connectivity for half a year, actually.

And, I was apparently paying my WoW subscription the whole time.

I'm in a similar situation. My entire family is religious, My grandparents are bible-thumpers, and no other people in my family are religious.

This is how I handled it:
First of all, I told them immediately, so as to avoid awkwardness in the future, then I made sure that any time they tried to passive-aggressively convert me, to destroy their arguments, and leave no doubt that I will not be taken in by their religion, so that the attempts died out as soon as possible. It is still awkward at times ( my parents have seemed to become more religious as I drifted farther from religion, go figure) but all in all, honesty is usually the best policy. Hope you can find a similarly effective solution.

I was actually in a situation very similar to yours about a year ago. I was raised in a very christian household and it was forced on me. I started to question what I was being told and I got to the point where I just didn't believe anymore. For a while I just kept it to myself. Eventually I just couldn't put up with acting religious and flat out told my parents I was atheist. My dad accepted it immediately hut my mom still denies it...

I'd say to tell them, but if you'd wind up gettig kicked out and couldn't take care of yourself you should just try to deal with it until you think you can, if that makes sense. You probably shouldn't have to lie about/hide something like this from your family.

I've been relitively lucky in this. I know my family has been aware of my agnostic atheism for quite a while now (at least a few years) but since it has no impact on our day to day lives we simply do not talk about it. Ever. I know my mum is religious but I have no clue about my dad or sister. We simply just dont talk about it. The only obvious ones in the house are my mum with her books on angels, cards for destiny reading and all the like, and me with my books on evolution, psychology and richard dawkins/christopher hitchens ganging up on the negative effects of religion all bundled up on my shelves.
I believe that religion doesnt usually come up in everyday activities/discussion etc so most people should be able to co-exist with no problems at all. Of course, thats just with me and the people I hang around though, im not sure about those more hardcore religious families :S

I'm Christian, and it bothers me when I see other Christian pointing their fingers at atheists. I believe we should just be tolerant and respectful of each others choices and beliefs. Hell, Jesus said "Do unto others as you would do unto yourself". I hate it when people have be dicks and prove that their right and the other person is wrong.

[size=10]I'm in a rather different situation. My family lets me do anything that I want to. My parents trust and believe in me and we share the same open-mindedness and tolerance and I'm very thankful for that. As for my case, I've been in four religions already, have studied under each religion quite industriously (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jehova's Witnesses, and Born Again Christian) and I still have profound doubts and unending questions. I began my "quest" when I was still 14 years old and now that I'm turning 19, I wanna try Witchcraft but I can't find any coven here. XD Am I starting to sound scary? XD It's just that my spiritual aspect is a very serious matter to me. Anyway, I believe there are other certain entities that exist besides us and I wanna find out more about them. And by the way, I respect other religions and their beliefs. I just find it quite annoying sometimes that some really insist. There was this one time that I was having a healthy debate with a theist and he said to me, "You will burn in hell." I was tempted to answer him back with a quote I read somewhere, "It's your God. It's your hell. You burn in hell." But of course I did not, that would have been REALLY troublesome and I would have lost the debate. XD Well... the outcome was he did give up. I wasn't easy to persuade. LOL.

Be true to yourself. Always.

[/h]

Im in almost the exact same situation. Mother grandmother and all three syblings are Jehovahs Witnesses and Im an in-the-closet atheist/bisexual. My dad doesnt have any religion but he and my mom are divorced so my mom absolutely hates him.

I remember you. Or the avatar at least. I definitely remember the avatar.

Cheers and welcome back.

When it comes to religion (or for most matters in general), people should be allowed free choice. Of course, there will be some form of tension if family members living within the same household have vastly differing religions. The same can be said for couples in a relationship; I have heard of beakups due to differences in opinions with regards to the issue of religion.

I Have A friend that have same case like OP. and I can tell it was a hell live that he experienced. so he decided to moved out from his house this year is already 10 years he lived by himself. he often chalenge me on debate about god. but in the end nothing change. he still atheist, me theist and the good part is we still close friend. did christianity is that worse so man can lose faith on this religion?

You are a theist? So is your avatar meant to be sarcastic?

Alot of the people around me are really just "theists-in-name". They're really not that religious, and, if I try, I can usually convince them that religion is stupid.