Breaking the News to the Parentals

So it's not like I was ever deeply religious. I always had an aversion to attending church and/or Sunday school as a child. But the guilt that comes with Christianity had definitely been instilled in me. Even though we didn't regularly attend church, my mother always told me to pray. On Christmas Eve she would tell me to thank God for His only son. You get the picture. If I didn't pray, ask God for forgiveness, and believe in God, I was going to hell.

As you can imagine, I have been trying to figure out ways to break the atheism news to my mother. Even before I was atheist, I greatly disliked Christianity, and made it a point to say so when the topic came up at home. My mother's response was usually, "You aren't atheist, are you?!?" At the time, I could honestly say, no, I wasn't. Now, however, I was imagining the conversation going something like:

Mom: You aren't atheist, are you?!
Me: Yes.
Mom: No! You don't want to go to hell!
Me: Well, I'm pretty sure as a Christian I was going to hell anyways. Now I don't believe in hell so surely I can't go there.

In reality, the conversation was much less thrilling. My mom thinks I'm crazy and hell bound, and I'm not even sure I blatantly admitted my atheism, just implied it. But in my family we sweep things under the rug and pretend they never happened. So... All's well that ends well.

See you in hell :-D (I'm pretty sure all the cool people are there anyways)