had a great relationship. I am sure there were times she prayed for me and I often wished I could share
my science studies with her, but I had plenty of support and so did she.

Tikki
ps I really loved her for who she was, all the time.

I personally have not run into this problem. (Of course I am not very vocal about atheism at gatherings like this.)

My mother in law was aghast when she visited many years ago and my birth control was visible on the bathroom shelf. Not aghast that her son and I were unmarried and living together in a 1-bedroom apartment. Aghast that I was attempting to prevent pregnancy.

She was brought up roman catholic and changed to episcopal after she got divorced and re-married. My father in law is a conservative catholic who is okay with adultery and other forms of assholery, but absolutely against atheism as a valued belief system.

I have to be very very very soft about my religious beliefs. Mr Heddi and I have been together 17 years, 14 of them in wedded bliss, and I truly believe that my inlaws feelings about me and my husband would be radically different if we were to be open regarding our shared lack of belief.

So, recently my MIL and her husband (who's like Jim Jones but without the charisma) visited, there was no grace said. There were no visits to church on Sunday. There was no praying and no God talk. At their house, they can pray over food however long they like, and I'll bow my head and be silent, but I won't say Amen and I only go to church for weddings and funerals.

Every year my MIL gives me some religious-inspired book or nick-nack (usually a teddy-bear in a nurse's outfit with a psalm on it).

I think they would rather I be black than Atheist. And they're not too fond of blacks, but they like them a fuck of a lot more than they like Godless heathens like myself.

And the whole "but let them see that all atheists aren't...." is bullshit. My MIL and her husband go to church like 10309248 times a week. My FIL and SIL's are holiday catholics. The other sister who is a soft catholic and is a bit more accepting of the term "agnostic" (about as far into the non-belief as I can be openly with husband's family) even does the "yeah, but everyone believes in SOMETHING, you just don't call it God." Oy. Yeah. that's a great conversation to have over crab-cake sandwiches and beer :-/

Especially the Canadians.

NO ONE CAN TOLERATE ANY OF THEIR IN-LAWS! Atheists or not

truest post in the topic. My MIL is insufferable.

attached to different articles.

They got very little attention.

What is missing is some information about whether there is a trend of any sort. I suspect there is.

The most interesting thing, imo, is the rather dramatic difference between conservatives and liberals. Not terribly surprising I guess, but it still seems pretty dramatic.