Are You a Closeted Atheist, or an Open Atheist? I mean, do you fake it sometimes?

[NNadir]

Full confession, I do.

I actually had my first son baptized in order to keep members of my family at peace, a small sacrifice.

When I go to my fundamentalist Sister's-in-law house, I bow my head during "grace."

I have participated in Hindu rituals at work.

I don't feel I'm hurting anyone by so doing and in fact, sometimes I feel as if I'm doing good.

I suck it up, "turn the other cheek," if you will allow me some of their mythology.

At the time my father was dying, I made an argument for accepting his death because he was, in fact, terminally ill and there was no hope. I knew this as a scientist. This dose of reality made my crazy brother, something of a religious scammer, very angry, and during a session with the social worker, a Nun, in front of my deeply religious (Catholic) stepmother (who I loved deeply) he screamed that my views held no worth, since as he yelled at the Nun, "He doesn't believe in Jesus Christ!" (How my brother, with whom I increasingly had no relationship knew this truth about me, I don't know. It's not like we were intimate friends.) To comfort my deeply religious (Catholic) step mother, I joined her in her chapel when she was in prayer. It gave her peace. I have never regretted that white lie.

What about you? Are you "in the closet" as I am often, or "out."

My atheism, as a heterosexual male, is a root cause of my deep empathy for gay people who must - let's be clear, it still happens - be closeted.