Today a friend posted a video on FB showing a pastor somewhere bragging how he won a "Is there a God" debate with an atheist in under two minutes. It was a simple God of the Gaps arguement...hardly noteworthy and easily reasoned away, but everyone on her feed was gushing at what a good point it was. It really made me feel upset and frustrated. My fingers flew into a witty retort, but right before I hit send, I paused, thought about the repercussions, and chickened out.

I do feel that not posting some scathing reply was the right thing to do, but I'm also a little bit ashamed. I should be able to be who I am. Right? On the other hand, I feel like if I did outwardly identify as an atheist to certain friends, I'd be cut out of their lives. And while, yes, that would be sad, I could deal with it. But, BUT, I would also be cutting their children out of my son's life. How would I explain to him that he couldn't play with his best friend anymore because of what we don't believe?

In my part of the world, atheists are hard to come by, so I can't just get a new social world for my son (even if I thought that was a good idea). But I don't know what to do anymore. It's grating on my nerves to listen to their Jesus talk, but more importantly, I feel like it's eating away at some part of me. I think they're completely wrong, but I the most I'll say about it is that I'm not religious. Any advice?