I made this topic before, a few months ago. But now I feel stronger that there's no God. I really started thinking about this about half a year ago and arrived at atheism because:

1. I learned how evolution works, and the evidence for it.

2. There's too many things that don't make sense if God created life, or guided evolution. On the other hand, non-guided evolution makes every single thing that we observe in the natural world make perfect sense.

3. I don't think theistic evolution (the only way I could possibly believe in God) is possible.

My parents are EXTREMELY religious. Dedicated their entire life to it. They are members of the Unification Church and were married through it. Earlier in my life (birth through 22 years old), I was basically indifferent to religion. Didn't really think about it much, so it was easier to just go along with what they said and go to church.

I decided to give my church one last chance and went to a church workshop for a week. This was last summer, and that sparked huge interest in the question of "does God exist?". After a long search I decided the answer is "probably not".

I kinda began to tell them once, they got kinda upset (mom only, not dad), then changed my tone and told them "I'm 50% sure God exists". Really I'm much less sure God exists. Since this incident, I've pretended like I believe he probably exists. Should I go ahead and tell them the truth or keep up this act to keep them happy?

Nobody can really answer this question for you.
It all depends on your parents, whom none of us know.
I was a professing atheist for a pretty long time, and hearing one of my children tell me that they are an atheist wouldn't faze me all that much.
I'd just have faith that she would come around, or grow out of it.
It's easy to profess atheism when you have very little experiential references to work from.
I mean, you shouldn't lie to them, but if there's no reason to barge into their Christmas party and drunkenly proclaim yourself a godless atheist, then there's just no reason for it, ya know?

I find the reasons that caused your turn to be very strange ones.
I don't think a biblical reconciliation with evolution is all that difficult to make.
I think it can possibly be reconciled without even assuming divine intervention.
But if evolution is true, I still can't find the logical procession from evolution being true to the universe being a godless one.
That is one giant, unjustified leap, imo.


Maybe you should search within yourself to see if there are any existing hidden psychological motives you may be suppressing.


Let me give you a few different ways christians might look at this issue:

1. Evolution appears to be true, but Jesus Christ appeared to actually be resurrected from the dead and be the Son of God.

If Jesus rose from the dead, and He is the messiah and the Son of God, then evolution's validity is a non-issue.

2. Evolution appears to be true, but through philosophy and intuition, we discover that this is definitely a universe that necessitates a God.

If God's existence can be realized through these means, then evolution being true or false doesn't matter.

3. Evolution appears to be true, but I had a personal and special revelation of Christ through a vision, healing, dream, etc.

To the person who knows that he knows that he knows that Christ is the Son of God because of a supernatural experience, evolution's truthfulness becomes a non-issue.

I could, in fact, add more examples.

The most startling statement you made, however, was this one:

.

That is a statement of faith, imo, in naturalism.
That is not a true statement, or a rational one.

Atheism: It's the new gay.

There are really only two relevant questions:

1. Will you be supremely unhappy if you don't tell your parents?

2. Will your parents be supremely unhappy if you do tell them?

If the answer to the first one is yes, or the second one is no, you should probably tell them. Life is too short to twist yourself into knots about your identity.

If the answer to the first one is no, and the second is yes, just smile your way through things--your relationship with your parents is important, and unless you're living with them, your contact with them is limited enough that "living a lie" shouldn't drastically change your lifestyle.

Now, if there's a dilemma, I'm afraid you'll just have to assign a utility value to each question and see which end outweighs the other.

I'm surprised they didn't give you a ton of **** for saying you were 50% sure. Most devout Christian parents would treat 50% and 0.00...% the same way.

Do you have any idea how insane those reasons sound? For 1, there is much more evidence in favor for evolution than Jesus' resurrection. 2 and 3 are just laughable.
I don't see anything wrong with it. I think you misread it.

Back on topic- I think you should. They might take it hard at first but they'll warm up to it.

I see no reason that alot of things can't be simultaneously true with us not having all the causal links or information between them.

Even if I knew more about evolution than Darwin, Dobzhanksy, Dawkins, Hawking and Francis Collins put together there could still be causal links that only God knows for sure about so I could never definitively say he doesn't exist and since it'd be to my detriment to say that anyway it'd give me double reason not to declare myself an unbeliever.

you cant definitively say he does exist either, so why doesn't that give you a reason not to declare yourself a believer?

Who are you to argue against the prophecies of Nostradamus?

I think based on continuous responses I receive I can say He exists.

It's just not possible for this many coincidences to occur without a mind behind it. I have a revelation or a coincidence occur almost on a daily basis. It's just a matter of my mind being focused enough on higher things to notice it.

Not sure if you're trying to claim if your mind works at a higher level than other people or not. It's just your mind being focused on hunting for reasons to believe in a god. Atheists as a group are vastly more intelligent than theists and have more capacity for understanding the world around us.

It's one thing to accept that a god exists. It's the transition to theism that requires an irrational leap.

I'm not as interested in studying the world around me as I am in understanding God's ways.

I couldn't say definitively that my mind works on a higher level. On materialism/scientific topics I'm sure it doesn't. I just know I actively seek to understand God's precepts so I can come into agreement with Him. All God's people say "Amen". Amen signifies our minds in agreement with God's.

After admitting to your parents, be on the look out for the below - my own experience.

What I found very strange was that, after I fully accepted my agnosticism/atheism, and after I stopped praying, my life actually started to get a whole lot better, and within only a span of 5 years it became awesome - nothing like I would've ever imagined it to be. It's as if, I was finally able to take control of my life, and stop relying on a non-existent father-figure.

I think that atheism liberates people from the tyranny and thought-paralysis that religion relies on. It's empowering.

I would argue that the irrational leap is to believe that some alien
came and blew a load on earth (panspermia - see Frances Crick & Dawkins)
which seeded life, and then from this goo came all of life
as we know it.

Goo to You. Wheeeeeeee.

So wait.. you were raised by super religious parents and then became a poker playing atheist? Awesome.

It's like those super sheltered girls who let loose in college. <3 USA.

I don't know why you would keep posting sarcastic posts like this of stuff no atheist believes in. Plus, just because we don't know how something happened it doesn't mean a god did it. People all throughout history did it and they were all wrong. I think your sarcastic posts are a result of your insecurity with your faith.

God only exists in the gaps of our knowledge. Once these gaps are filled, nothing is supernatural, nothing is mystical, nothing is spiritual and nothing is God.

Confirmation bias strikes again!

If you've never experienced it how can you speak with authority about someone else's experience?

Where there's a will, there's a way. If you already believe something as strongly and all encompassing like "Christianity is the answer to life", then clearly any coincidence will more than likely be attributed to your belief of the meaning of life instead statistical variance.

Also it's clear that we (mentally healthy people) are quite good at deceiving ourselves, and mentally unhealthy people make a habit of it, so I wouldn't put to many chips behind what you interpret to be a coincidence. Speak about it to others, bounce it off of other people. No use bouncing it off of people that already agree with you unless you find some utility in behind surrounded by "yes men." If you don't like your assumptions behind challenged , it shows you know deep down in that your assumptions are 'defeatable', no, rather they are 'human.' And there's nothing wrong with that as long as you value the truth over reconfirming what you already believe to be true.

Some people get bored with life and start making stuff up to make it interesting which isn't necessarily a problem, only when you try to brand it as something diametrically opposed.

If you're still living with them or are otherwise financially dependant on them, probably not.

Nah. I don't need to bounce it off anybody. I'm perceptive enough in my own right to draw my own conclusions.

Anyone can draw their own conclusions about anything. It doesn't make them perceptive, nor is being "perceptive enough" necessary to do so.

Drawing your own conclusions about anything doesn't make them right. If I drew a conclusion that two plus two equals five, it doesn't make my conclusion right.

Some people are by nature more perceptive than others. They don't need to bounce their perceptions off of other people.

You can check personality type traits if you don't believe me but I'm not going to argue it further.