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

[no_hypocrisy]

23. Unapologetic atheist.

How open?

At the rehearsal dinner for my brother's wedding, our father was really pissed at me because I wouldn't take his side. What was his side? He was pissed because my brother/his son had converted from Judaism to Sufiism (i.e., mystical Islam). Personally, as long as my brother was happy and that was his Truth, I didn't find anything offensive. But our father was angry in the tradition of our "Dear Leader". So in the traditional Freudian defense mechanism of "transfer of hostility", I was the new target. And I had just about enough BS. Dad was now on the topic of my brother would use his influence so that I would convert as well. Flatly, I responded that I didn't think that was going to happen. My father parried, how could I be so sure. Inwardly sighing, I "came out" and told him that I was an atheist and there was no God. Expecting this to finalize my exclusion from his Will, I was wrong. Dad said that was great. (Of course, great not because I was an atheist, but in his eyes, I wasn't going to convert. My father had a tendency not to make sense and this was another occasion.)