: Should I tell my parents that I don't believe in God anymore? Good evening! I am a 19-year old Computer Science student living in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with my parents and I am having difficulty deciding whether I should

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Should I tell my parents that I don't believe in God anymore?
Good evening!

I am a 19-year old Computer Science student living in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with my parents and I am having difficulty deciding whether I should tell my parents and other family members about my (absolute) loss of belief in God.

In realize there are similar questions available on this site, but I found none that really matched my situation. In the other questions the OP is usually older and is also "known" for doubting his/her faith, whilst this is not known about me by my family.

Some background info: My parents, sister and I are members of the Dutch "Christelijk gereformeerde kerk" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Reformed_Churches if you're interested.) This church is relatively right-leaning and very orthodox. My mother is also a very traditional, somewhat controlling orthodox christian. My father and sister are only slightly less orthodox. The rest of my family (grandparents etc.) are just as traditional as my mother.

Since I was 15 I have had serious doubts about my faith, and about 1 year ago I completely stopped believing in God (and any other Deity for that matter).

My dillemma is the following: I am still going to church with my parents, I sing the hymns, the whole nine yards. If I declare my Atheism right now, it will probably be a devastating shock to my family and it might destroy my relationship with my parents altogether. I love my parents and my family and I do not want this to happen.

But if I keep up the appearance of being a normal believer, I will be a hypocrite. Another problem is that my parents keep pressing me to find a Christian girlfriend; if I start dating a Christian girl, I will have another "problem" to add to my list when I eventually come forward about being an Atheist.

My apologies for the long post. This dillemma has plagued me for months now, and I would really love to hear some advice and other peoples' thoughts.

Thanks in advance,

Robert

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