I had an interesting experience once, when a relative I was very close to died. A fellow mourner, who was really distraught, made some religious comment. I said something sympathetic but clearly NOT religious. He noticed and asked about my beliefs. Here we go, I thought, and prepared for a really awkward situation. I said that I was an atheist. What happened next really took me by surprise: we got into a long conversation about belief, lack of belief, death, fear, loss, and how to cope. I realized that he wanted to talk — genuinely, curiously, and respectfully. It dawned on me that he was comforted by the close human contact created by our willingness to be open and honest with one another, to drop the platitudes and social walls, and to respect one another enough to really talk. At that moment, the human closeness generated by real honesty was more comforting than a theist vs. atheist argument. To tell the truth, I came away comforted as well.

At my dad's Jewish funeral me and my two brothers read some Hebrew prayers (in English phonetics). Both my brothers are atheists, I actually don't know if my dad believed in god (he certainly never mentioned it) however my mother definitely believed in being seen to be Jewish.

I thanked the Rabbi but said to him to be honest I don't really believe in this stuff but I was doing this for my mother, He said that was what the important bit about being Jewish.

If you are an atheist there are problem times to keep quiet about it and a wedding/funeral is probably one of them. If you are British you will probably be in the majority

I would certainly like if there weren't situations in which I feel as though I need to hide my lack of belief in a god or gods. I'd really like that. I wish being open about it weren't distressing to others too. My experience suggests though that I save myself and others a lot of grief by being silent about it or smiling and nodding in some situations. I guess I'm not enough of a revolutionary to take on the burden of transparency on this issue.

Maybe I just shouldn't exclusively date men with really religious parents.