
This is not at all comparable. Christianity is the main stream in
western culture. You are trivializing the experiences of others.

I remember what it was like being "different" as a Christian. We
were told all the time that we were different, and in fact that
only members of the our church were really Christians (though others
who believed in God weren't as bad as atheists), so we were a small
minority. That was nothing compared to being an atheist.

The only thing comparable would be a young child being Christian
being surrounded by staunch atheists, including parents, who
actively persecute any religious tendancies - both actual punishments
and, even worse, emotional blackmail. They would also have
to have the whole mainstream society on their side. Maybe these
conditions could have occured in the old Soviet Union* not in a
country with "under God" in its pledge of allegiance.

* I doubt it even then, because children have to be taught to be
Christians and hence must have support somewhere.


Yes. My atheism was "born of necessity." For an intellectually honest
person belief is mostly a response to evidence. Will or wishes have
nothing to do with it. I could choose to lie, or to be silent about
my true beliefs. I could no more choose to believe in the God of
Christianity than I could decide that the ordinary sky looks red to
me. Still I should be clear that I'm not equating what I went through
with what gays go through. However it is a mistake to assume that
everyone who goes through painful experiences are broken by them.
Happily some are made stronger, once we get past it.


Not without going to details and violating the confidences of some of my
childhood friends. Suffice it say to that religion does not guarantee
that a person will be happy and strong emotionally, and a repressive
upbringing can leave its scars even, or especially, on those who don't
get free of it. I doubt that any sane and sincere person doubts that and
I feel no need to defend it.

By the way I am much happier and stronger being out of the closet. In
the end it has been, as someone eloquently put it in private email, an
experience of liberation rather than disillusion.