I'm an atheist, but my parents sometimes force me to be religious. They do all emotional drama so that I should pray to God every now and then. What should I do?
First, your parents cannot force you to do anything, but they can put pressure. The amount of pressure depends on the circumstances of your life and their personalities and so does the amount of pressure you choose to ignore or to yield to. So it is your choice, do what is best for you. I am sure you love your parents and do not want to upset them. I am also sure you love yourself and want to stay true to your beliefs. It is a choice, your choice to be firm or to do what they like or to try and strike a compromise. (I will say a prayer every night, if you promise not to bring religion up at other times would be a good example).Secondly, no one can force you to be religious, you could not even force yourself, even if you wanted. But you can be forced or you can choose to pretend to be. It is not so bad. There is no atheist god to punish you, so what is a few silly words you say or an hour wasted for religious service?Thirdly, you can try to understand your parents. If they a truly religious, they likely believe that1. their beloved child will suffer eternal punishment2. it is their fault for not bringing you up right. Imagine believing in such a thing! Horrible, right? So you can cut them some slack and be generous.
I feel uncomfortable around my parents?
I am 14, and I would think that a normal person my age would not feel as uncomfortable around their parents as I do. They both work, which means about 3 hours of free time for me every day when I get home from school. As soon as they get home, I don t want to talk to them. Is this because I don t believe in the religion they are attempting to raise me in, or because I have many different views on things than they do? I don t know. I think it s because I m afraid of what they ll say that might offend me, or even make me embarrassed. I spend most of my time in my room. I have unhealthy obsessions with things such as TV Shows, bands, etc. I use them as an escape. They make me feel so happy, and like I belong SOMEWHERE when I m associating with them. I use them as an escape because I am mostly unhappy with my surroundings. I have big ambitions, and I know they ll never be able to be acomprised while still under my parent s control. I feel like I am waiting until I graduate to finally become my own person. Around my parents, I can never tell them how I feel because it goes against what they believe. I try so hard not to be irritated with them, because I know they love me and I know I love them. I get so worked up and overthink things and get easily angry at my parents. I would just like to know why I am feeling this way...
My parents are very religious and make me uncomfortable with them trying to push their views down my throat. How do I deal with them?
Well, don't challenge their ideas around them, that makes people very defensive and will make your life harder. Once you live on your own, independently from them it'll be a lot easier and you can speak your mind. I find it's often best to divert the conversation into something else. Ask them questions they’ll be excited to explain, tell them things that will get their minds off of religion for a second. Comply with religous things that don't go against your own morals, do your very best to play the part of a believer, until you leave home, which I'm assuming you still live with them. Once you’re independent, tell them that you don't believe in their religion, but you respect their beliefs, and you don't want to hear about them. Be consistently against hearing about religion, shut them down when they do, but don't sweat the little mentions they'll make. If they can't accept you with your beliefs, then that is too bad for them. Try to coexist with your parents and love them regardless of religion.
I feel really uncomfortable being around my boyfriend's family :(?
My boyfriend and I have been together for about 3 months. We are both 15. It hasn't been that long, but I find him the most interesting, mysterious, and attractive person I've ever met. Things with us are pretty rough a lot. He always likes me to go over his house. His family is his everything. And he wants his love and his family to be able to be together and happy. One thing. I do NOT feel comfortable around his family at all. He has a sister who is 18, a brother who is 8, and his parents are together. They work for the Salvation Army and are both pastors. Being pastors, they are heavily religious. He is pretty religious. He gets along with them very much, and they hardly fight. I, on the other hand, come from a divorced family. I am an only child. I never had good relationships with either of my parents, let alone anyone in my family. I have been alone for everything. Our upbringing is completely different, and I feel uncomfortable being around a family so different than mine. I don't like to go over his house because they literally sit with us the whole time, and we hardly every get privacy. It's very frustrating. I would prefer to be alone with my boyfriend, there being the only time I can completely be comfortable and myself around him. I hardly talk to them. It's weird since we're always together. I just don't like it and I don't know what to do. This whole situation is just really bothering me, I just hate myself so much, why am I like this? why can't I just be normal, and act like I do around my family
Why do i feel uncomfortable at church?
I will attempt to guess for you .... you probably felt like a hypocrite ... even though you have nothing against these people and their belief system ... it is not the same as yours ... you say "that I consider myself to be Christian " ... do you believe Jesus is the son of god ...? or do you believe something else ...? I don't know i am not you ... but let's say you struggle with the thought of Jesus being actually a divine being ... that would be enough perhaps to make you feel like you might be pretending to these people ...? You don't want to lie to them ... but also you don't feel at ease lying to yourself ... I don't know I am guessing ... only you can answer if any of things I have said is true ...
Don't Feel Comfortable Around Heavily Religious People?
So true, it seems like they want to relate everything to religion. I guess it is just their way of dealing with their own insecurities. I hope that they don't realize how irritating it is for others.