The Atheists Conundrum

[uriel1972]

95. I'm an atheist from an atheist family,

but I was a believer too, on my way to my current position. So I was the odd one out in my family growing up and not to mention, not straight in a straight world. So I know what alienation feels like.

There is no safe place even in your own home, no-one you can talk to without fear of exposure. Mockery and ridicule are part of the daily deal, with the threat of real violence not far away. You have to pretend to be someone else just to survive, not just out in the street but everywhere.

You do feel as if you are the only one feeling like this, that somehow you are blind, malformed or otherwise impaired because you don't feel like others do. It seems like the world is crazy as well.

It hardens you in some ways, makes you bitter, more extreme in some ways too. So if the OP sounds a bit offensive to theist ears I say cut them some slack, they may have walked a very hard road that those that are part of an in-group will never know.

Not that I am saying all believers are part of an in-group or do not experience persecution/alienation.