Does anyone ever tell you that you are not really an atheist

[user4574]

I tell my friends and family that I am an atheist. I have been for a year now. They tell me I am mistaken. I don't know what could be more offensive. If the shoe was on the other foot, and I called them some religion they were not, they would get upset. Why do they feel like they have the right to tell me what I am? I got past the point of getting angry from it, but it still bothers me. Does this happen to anyone else?

[jimmypants]

`That's basically the atheist equivalent of someone telling a lesbian that she just needs a good ----ing with a nice big c--- to set her straight. You should react to this exactly as you would expect the notional lesbian in the above scenario to react.

[resary]

`This is so common, but it happened to me for the first time just this year. A very close friend of mine said this to me with the air of 'calling me out'. I was quite perturbed, as I am close to her and we have open and honest discussions about all things religious and secular. I simply gave her the time to express why she thought I was not an atheist and then explained first that this statement was insulting to me, but why it was insulting. Then, I defined the word atheist for her and continued to assert my disbelief in deity. She gets it now. :)

[gearsofwarqueen (deleted)]

``I find it actually quite common of most people, not just religious nuts. I myself had a very hard time believing Christians really believed their doctrines. It has taken me a long time to realise that religious belief is more than a mere need for comfort, as I thought at first (although obviously that ties in). We don't understand them, and they don't understand us.

Bottom line is, when my own "spiritual" family members express disbelief toward my atheism, I find it endlessly satisfying to smile condescendingly. It drives them crazy.

[kir0s]

`Religion is kind of mental ilness sad but true...