Tuesday night I got into a very long and winding discussion with my mother on the phone, stemming from the fact that I changed my “religious status” on Facebook from “agnostic” to “atheist”. One of my cousins, who happens to have been my Confirmation sponsor, saw this and called Mom in a bit of a tizzy. “OMG, what’s going on? Why is she saying atheist?” And Mom is all, “Oh, it’s agnostic, you’re just reading it wrong.” So I of course get to tell my mother that, yes, I did mean atheist. And it’s been atheist for awhile, but agnostic was the safer answer. People tend to be way more accepting if you say you don’t believe in any specific tenants but still hold the belief that there is some deity (or more) in charge of everything. But saying you don’t believe in any deity (or deities) at all is, sadly, anathema.
What amuses me about the whole experience is that my family barely batted an eye when I started publishing erotic romance, but when I decide to out myself as an atheist it becomes a major event. As a whole, most of my family members aren’t what you’d call religious, and yet…
Mom brought up a valid point, though: did I do it to “shock” people? I’d be lying if I didn’t say deep down part of me does want to shock people with some of things I do. That’s not the sole reason I would ever do anything, but I can’t say I don’t hope for a “No, you’d never do that, really?” type of reaction. The grasshopper tattoo, the genre I write in, my sexual experience…rarely gets me any major OMG response. Yet I post that I’m an atheist on Facebook and hold the phone! Humans are strange, strange creatures.
