By Ryland ~
I'm just going to dive into this head first.
I am a 21-year-old veteran and current college student living at home. I grew up with a younger brother and two loving, fair, and intelligent parents who instilled good, strong ideologies and morals in both my brother and I. We never went to church as a family despite my parents both having Christian beliefs and identifying themselves as Christians.
No complaints here. They never tried to shove a Bible down my throat nor did they ever become angered when I reached the age of half-decisions and decided to attend church briefly.
However, now that I have reached the age of somewhat-informed logic I just don't buy the whole Christian thing; I don't buy into any religious concept actually. So when in conversation with my mother a few nights ago religion was brought up by way of a question from my mother. I responded with the truth -- that I am atheist -- and she immediately went on the offensive and seemed outraged by this fact considering my younger brother is becoming a Bible-thumper.
It was strange for me because for the entirety of my life no one really mentioned religion, so it was obviously not all that important... unless of course my parents are some of the few Christian parents that choose not to hammer their beliefs into their children's heads.
Regardless, things around the house have been a bit off since that conversation until last night when my mother finally came out and said, "I don't agree with your beliefs but I will respect them." Which in my mind was a "fair enough" situation.
Even with this knowledge in the air things are still awkward in their house with me around. Any suggestions on how to go about handling this for the long term? The last thing I want is to be isolated from my family because my parents have become some of my best friends as I have gotten older.
Random side note: I am moving to a University in January.
I'm just going to dive into this head first.
I am a 21-year-old veteran and current college student living at home. I grew up with a younger brother and two loving, fair, and intelligent parents who instilled good, strong ideologies and morals in both my brother and I. We never went to church as a family despite my parents both having Christian beliefs and identifying themselves as Christians.
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| Parents with child Statue, Hrobákova street, Petržalka, Bratislava (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
No complaints here. They never tried to shove a Bible down my throat nor did they ever become angered when I reached the age of half-decisions and decided to attend church briefly.
However, now that I have reached the age of somewhat-informed logic I just don't buy the whole Christian thing; I don't buy into any religious concept actually. So when in conversation with my mother a few nights ago religion was brought up by way of a question from my mother. I responded with the truth -- that I am atheist -- and she immediately went on the offensive and seemed outraged by this fact considering my younger brother is becoming a Bible-thumper.
It was strange for me because for the entirety of my life no one really mentioned religion, so it was obviously not all that important... unless of course my parents are some of the few Christian parents that choose not to hammer their beliefs into their children's heads.
Regardless, things around the house have been a bit off since that conversation until last night when my mother finally came out and said, "I don't agree with your beliefs but I will respect them." Which in my mind was a "fair enough" situation.
Even with this knowledge in the air things are still awkward in their house with me around. Any suggestions on how to go about handling this for the long term? The last thing I want is to be isolated from my family because my parents have become some of my best friends as I have gotten older.
Random side note: I am moving to a University in January.
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