shawmutt Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Nope, not my faith. I've considered myself an atheist for many years now. I'll probably get around to typing my story on the topic in a couple days. My crisis has to do with other's faith. I've been working at the same place for 9 years now, and my boss tells me in order to advance I need to go back to school and finish my bachelors. I have two young kids, a wife, a home, and a full time job. I don't have any way of attending a traditional college, time and money are very short. Online courses are available, but at a premium. Work reimburses a small amount, but no where near what I would need. There's a local college that offers accelerated degrees. Classes are one night a week, four hours a class, and each course is a five week course. This is a legit school, well recognized in the area, and many of the people I work with have degrees from this church. The issue is that it's a private Catholic university. That's not the crises. I have already started attending, and there are a few mandatory religious classes I have to take. In fact, my first class is Foundations of Christian Theology. The idea is that I'm just going through some mythology courses, learning the sociology of Christians, etc. Being Catholic is not a requirement for the church--according to the website: "Do I have to be Catholic to attend...? Absolutely not. It’s true that the education you will find ... is founded in the Catholic liberal arts tradition, but we don’t expect every student to be Catholic. Around 70 percent of our students are Catholic, but more important to us is a willingness to be open to your and others’ beliefs, and recognize the value of ministry and community service efforts that stand at the heart of our vibrant liturgical life." There are no other requirements like church service or attendance. There are no prayers before each class or other such overt religious nonsense. It sounds OK so far, but here is the crisis. I have to a write weekly "reflection" paper--the one due next week is a paper on a religious experience that was brought on by a crisis. The paper that is writing itself in my head is about my atheism and how I deal with crises as an atheist. I thought it would be easy to just stay on the sidelines, muscle through the religious stuff, and get my business degree. I'm not even at week two and I'm failing--it's just not me to sit down and shut up. I did well during the lecture part--even though I wanted to argue at points I kept my mouth shut. Part of me thinks being open about my atheism is educational suicide. Part of me thinks this will make the class go easier and might even open interesting discussions. Given the circumstances, how open would you be about your atheism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawmutt Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 OK, no edit on this forum. Disregard this post due to Freudian typo, people get degrees by the school, not the church Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Is there an academic advisor you can ask about this? Or any like-minded students you can talk to? Is there an SSA affiliate there or in a nearby college (as I bet they'd kind of know the climate even if it's not their school), or any other humanist org you can talk to? Does the college newspaper mention any non-Catholic issues and imply that expressing dissent is punished? Or is there a professor you trust that you can ask (not the one teaching this class, but another)? Because my inclination is to give 'em both barrels, based on their own words, but I know how religious groups can often say one thing out one side of their mouths, and another totally different thing out the other. I've had friends in Catholic schools who were profoundly not Catholic and were quite open about it, and my aunt's a nun who teaches in a parochial school where the students are largely not Catholic at all. So I don't think in *most* Catholic schools situations this would be a bad thing to be honest about. But mileage may vary institution by institution, and I can totally understand you being reticent given that it's YOUR education and YOUR future potentially at stake. I'd suggest finding out from someone there in the know before you plunge in. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrNo Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 By the website's own description, you are not required to be Catholic. If they tried to hold this against you or any other student they could be looking at a lawsuit. I understand your reluctance completely, but you could consider this reflection paper a litmus test. I assume it is not a large enough portion of your grade to fail you. If you get a lot of flak, then you will know where you stand and how to blend in the rest of the way. If not, then you can be open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midniterider Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Nope, not my faith. I've considered myself an atheist for many years now. I'll probably get around to typing my story on the topic in a couple days. My crisis has to do with other's faith. I've been working at the same place for 9 years now, and my boss tells me in order to advance I need to go back to school and finish my bachelors. I have two young kids, a wife, a home, and a full time job. I don't have any way of attending a traditional college, time and money are very short. Online courses are available, but at a premium. Work reimburses a small amount, but no where near what I would need. There's a local college that offers accelerated degrees. Classes are one night a week, four hours a class, and each course is a five week course. This is a legit school, well recognized in the area, and many of the people I work with have degrees from this church. The issue is that it's a private Catholic university. That's not the crises. I have already started attending, and there are a few mandatory religious classes I have to take. In fact, my first class is Foundations of Christian Theology. The idea is that I'm just going through some mythology courses, learning the sociology of Christians, etc. Being Catholic is not a requirement for the church--according to the website: "Do I have to be Catholic to attend...? Absolutely not. It’s true that the education you will find ... is founded in the Catholic liberal arts tradition, but we don’t expect every student to be Catholic. Around 70 percent of our students are Catholic, but more important to us is a willingness to be open to your and others’ beliefs, and recognize the value of ministry and community service efforts that stand at the heart of our vibrant liturgical life." There are no other requirements like church service or attendance. There are no prayers before each class or other such overt religious nonsense. It sounds OK so far, but here is the crisis. I have to a write weekly "reflection" paper--the one due next week is a paper on a religious experience that was brought on by a crisis. The paper that is writing itself in my head is about my atheism and how I deal with crises as an atheist. I thought it would be easy to just stay on the sidelines, muscle through the religious stuff, and get my business degree. I'm not even at week two and I'm failing--it's just not me to sit down and shut up. I did well during the lecture part--even though I wanted to argue at points I kept my mouth shut. Part of me thinks being open about my atheism is educational suicide. Part of me thinks this will make the class go easier and might even open interesting discussions. Given the circumstances, how open would you be about your atheism? I suppose giving them both barrels would allow you to find out if they are accepting of atheists. If they aren't then you'll have to find a new college. But letting them know your belief/non-belief isn't going to change their curriculum. You will still be dealing with religion...but if it's only a few classes that last 5 weeks long, you could quietly handle that, right? I pretended that I could do algebra for 10 weeks though I knew it was totally a waste of time, I would never use it and got into a heated argument with a teacher about the waste of time it was. It didn't matter. I still had to take the class to get a degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandora Posted February 24, 2013 Share Posted February 24, 2013 Catholic Universities are generally pretty open-minded and even liberal in some cases. I wouldn't worry too much about expressing my opinion. If you can't tell thus far that the professor of that class is a conservative Catholic, then you are safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawmutt Posted February 25, 2013 Author Share Posted February 25, 2013 Thanks for the responses! I'm going to just write the paper I want and come out of the closet (again ). Worst that could happen is that I find out the school is not for me and go to a different (albeit a more expensive) school. I'll be sure to give an update. Pretty nice group you folks have around here! This forum was suggested to me by a guy in my freethinker dinner group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 It sounds to me like you won't be able to hide your atheism. I think the key here is that you not discourage others from having faith. That is probably what they mean by keeping an open mind. Let them have their religion and you should be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new2me Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Thanks for the responses! I'm going to just write the paper I want and come out of the closet (again ). Worst that could happen is that I find out the school is not for me and go to a different (albeit a more expensive) school. I'll be sure to give an update. Pretty nice group you folks have around here! This forum was suggested to me by a guy in my freethinker dinner group. I vote for writing the paper that is in your heart! If you are graded poorly for this, you can discuss with your professor why your experiences are not valued as highly as those who have religious beliefs. And welcome to the site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NyxPeregrine Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 I went to a Christian college for a year while I was already deconverted. The first semester I had to take a Bible class. One of our assignments was to write our own psalm. Everyone else wrote theirs about god. I wrote mine about waffles. Got an A. My final paper was about how Yahweh was a sadistic dictator...I cited the Bible, my arguments were sound, and I got an A. Then for another class I had an assignment very similar to yours--a reflection paper about my religious experience. I wrote about my deconversion, The comment I got back on it was, "Honest, courageous, and somehow devastating." Another A. So go for it. They'll respect you for being truthful, and who knows, maybe what you write will help someone else think twice too. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shawmutt Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 Got my paper back (10/10)! Here's a pic of the ending of the actual paper--never appreciated a smiley face more: I'll probably clean the whole thing up and post it on my deconversion story here, but first I have to write my term paper on Genesis 1-3. Sigh, I'll like it better when I'm actually taking the business classes towards my business degree. Thanks for being a set of ears everyone! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Well done!! Congratulations! Good job indeed I'm glad it turned out so well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrNo Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Awesome! Glad to see this worked out. You took a stand not knowing the outcome. That shows courage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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