I'm Coming Out

Does anyone else have that Diana Ross song stuck in their heads now? Good, me too.

I was recently watching a talk Richard Dawkins did for Ted called Militant Atheism, where he basically says that more atheists need to come out and be "militant" and stop being so "damned respectful". (I'm sorry, I can't get it to embed.)

It basically inspired me to stop being such a sissy about admiting my atheism.

It's real easy for me to sit here in Germany where atheism is widely accepted with my atheist boyfriend and talk about my atheism.

But when it comes to my family back home, I was terribly afraid of them finding out. Well, mainly of my grandparents finding out.

I had reached the conclusion that to tell my grandmother I was an atheist would be cruel and unnecessary. It would only serve to hurt her feelings. And it's not even that I have to feign belief around her, I don't. We don't even discuss it.

So this fear of my grandmother somehow finding out I was an atheist led me to hide my religious status on facebook and to start this anonymous blog.

It is unbelievable to me, but so far the topic of my religious beliefs has not come up at all with my family. I think that my parents have their suspicions, but tend to think that ignorance is bliss. So I have decided that if my parents do ask me, I will tell them the truth. I can't, however, promise the same for my grandparents. But I will just keep hoping that they never ask.

So, it sounds like an insignificantly tiny step, but I described my religious affiliation as "atheist" on my facebook profile yesterday. Go me!