Note to a Young Atheist
If you’re on the journey of freethought and you’re “out” about it, in full view of your religious family and peers, it’s likely you’re going to go through a fairly rough road at some point.
There may well be times when you feel the love is gone from your life, that all the people who should care about you no longer do.
And I’m sorry about that. That road shouldn’t be rough. But the very fact that it is — that’s one of the reasons it’s worth doing, isn’ t it?
The truth is, you don’t have infinite control over who’s going to love you and who isn’t. However, if you put the main part of your effort into being a good person — someone who cares about true things, who cares about love, compassion, kindness and justice, someone who works hard to do a good job of whatever you undertake to do — there will be people in your life, lots of them, who love and value you.
(Also, there’s a nice little side effect: The fact that they respect you for who you really are, who you’re trying to be, that will make them attractive to you.)
The point is that you can’t fake who you are. If you’re an atheist, be the best atheist — the best YOU — you can be.
There will definitely be people who don’t like that and won’t like you. But there will be others — wonderful people! — who will find that to be fantastic. They will be drawn to you, and will care about you.
But only if they know.
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This is post 10 of 12 of Blue Collar Atheist’s Blogathon in support of the Secular Student Alliance. Donate by clicking the “Contribute” link in the SSA ad over in the right column. Or go to the Secular Student Alliance directly.
Or just click this button (It’s the exact color of Pepto-Bismol, isn’t it? Makes me think it’s a way of saying “I’m sick of how powerful religion is in our society, and I want young people to be offered this other choice.”) :
