Atheist, are most of your loved ones believers or are you surrounded mainly by atheists like yourself?

Answer 1

I was raised Christian and so was my husband. Hence, our families are both Christian. My husband and I are the lone Atheists in the family. Most have no idea. I just don't want to deal with the harassment from some and the sorrow from others. I'm comfortable with my [lack of] beliefs. But they would not be. I don't want them to fret. However, this certainly does pose a problem should either my husband or I die. Neither of us wants ANY religion at the funeral. But I'm sure family would expect they usual preacher stuff. I'm not sure how to handle that.

Answer 2

Most friends and family are religious. Religious indoctrination isn't an easy thing to break free of. Imagine a child from birth being told he or she is ugly and every person that child comes in contact with agrees and says the child is ugly. So the child grows up believing he or she is truly ugly. Because of this indoctrination the person will always believe they are ugly because it's all they've ever been told.

Religion works the same way. A child is told from birth about God and taught to pray and believe in this non-existent supernatural being. They are never told anything differently because every single person they come in contact with says the same exact thing. It's a form of brainwashing but it's not viewed that way because the people doing the brainwashing believe it too because they were taught the exact same thing themselves in exactly the same way so they truly believe it to be accurate and they teach their children as well.

Only someone with a strong mind can break free of it and think for themselves... question how utterly ridiculous the whole idea is that some omnipotent God responsible for creation being all-powerful is at the same time so vain that he requires the regular worship and actually egotistical enough to expect people to believe in his existence or else you will burn in the fires of hell when you die.

Why would such a God care so much about faith and belief? An omnipotent God would be able to prove his existence beyond any reasonable doubt. A God who supposedly created us and loves us wouldn't banish us to hell for simply not believing in his existence. Like I said... ridiculous. Yet religious indoctrination is so deeply rooted in the human psyche that only a strong free thinking mind can break free of it's foolish religious prison.

Answer 3

My boyfriend wants to be catholic, because he likes the gregorian sining and the concepts of eternal, relentless damnation, but he's actually an atheist by his beliefs.

My mother believes in god. Non denominational, could be Zeus for all I know.

dad's atheist. Twin brother's atheist. Sister is atheist. My guinea pigs are athiest. We're an atheist family!

Answer 4

I don't really make it a point to know the religion of all of my peers, but my closest friends among my colleagues are atheists. My daughter, who still lives at home with me, is a Catholic by her own choice. My son, who is married now, is still an atheist, but was baptized into the Orthodox Church upon his marriage.

Answer 5

All my loved ones are believers (Mostly Catholics and/or Christians). I am the only one i personally know who is an Atheist. I Only have one friend that is Agnostic.

See ya!

Answer 6

Believers.

Answer 7

It's about a 70/30 split. Most are of some religious persuasion. In my immediate family only one of my sisters follows any religion.

Answer 8

I'm a closet agnostic and sometimes atheist and if anyone in my family found out, I'd be like prayed over with anointing oil and they'd cry.

Answer 9

My spouse is also an atheist. My children are currently leaning towards Buddhism... the rest of my family is Mormon... and we all get along just fine...

Answer 10

I am surrounded by believers of many faiths.