 20070413
An atheist comes out of the closet.
I'm shocked by how similar the setting was when I first explained my atheism to my parents -- granted, they never cursed or threatened to banish Christmas, it was a kitchen conversation and was equally emotional and intense. This video relieved me. I never considered that the situation might be common in suburbia, that lots of kids have to figure out how to admit that they don't believe something their parents cherish so much. Man, it's heartbreaking 7
Comments:
William said... My parents didn't care when I told them I didn't think Jesus was some sort of Godlike being... They always went to church for the community nature of such institutions. My Mom still wants us to go to church on Christmas. She knows we don't believe in it but asks us to "do it for her anyways". The way she looks at it, religion make her feel happy, and she doesn't really care what anyone else has to say about it or what anyone else believes in. I'm pretty sure my Dad is an atheist and just went to church to humor my Mom. 4:31 PM Reciprocal said... Ditto for little Reciprocal, My parents are Latin American and Roman Catholicism was the rule that was further emphasized in my Catholic grade school. From about 4th or 5th grade I started to really doubt the whole God thing. Genesis was a fun read but it seemed too simple. By the time confirmation came around in 8th I really didn't want to carry on with what felt like a ruse. I felt nothing but apathy as I was forced by my parents to go through the motions of the ceremony. Years later I felt a chill of emptiness reading Sartre late at night and I wished for something more. The funny thing is my folks haven't been to church in years now. I like to think they slowly traded in their faith for the chance to enjoy what little time we have here with each other. 4:37 PM Scott Greider said... I'll say. Heartbreaking! Have you told them, though, where you'll be Sunday morning?? ;-) 5:23 PM Zach said... Nope, not yet ... Mom and Dad, This Sunday, I'm going to a Presbyterian church to witness a First Communion. My interest is anthropological. 5:29 PM Scott Greider said... Ahh, that's what you think! 11:54 PM Ryan said... I've got no idea how I'm going to discuss this with my parents. My dad, who is a Southern Baptist minister, is somehow becoming more conservative--he and my mom apparently now believe that people coexisted with dinosaurs. So it's not going to be pleasant. 11:30 AM said... It's funny... I feel like my parents were more suprised when I told them I do genuinely believe in G-d... But I think it's my Judaism... It's a lot harder for us to renounce a religion that's had the crap beaten out of it. 9:16 AM Post a Comment |
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 Hi, I'm Zach. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from Wake Forest. After college, I moved to Manhattan to get serious about a company I ran with friends. We sold it to Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp in 2006. I just wrapped up with a project I co-founded called Vimeo and left CV to focus on being a twenty-five year old. I have another blog called Copy and Taste, where I post about learning to cook. I live in Brooklyn now.  Del.icio.us My Flickr Me on Flickr Last.fm Linked in MySpace Netflix History Vimeo  Amir Blumenfeld Chris Bodenner Mareen Fischinger Fort Wayne Observed Nick Gray Hype Machine Jake and Amir Jakob Lodwick Oh My Rockness Jonathan Marcus Youngna Park Megan Scheminske Eliot Shepard Shorpy Signal vs. Noise Alex Soth Stereogum Ricky Van Veen Khoi Vinh Eugene Wyatt   Postal Skype SMS (via AIM) |