I don't think you need to make a big production of it, but I do think you should tell the truth up front. First off, the truth is way easier to remember than various and sundry stories told to different folks.

Second, I think folks will be more hurt by hypocrisy than the truth. Yes, the pain is now but you'll be done and it will be over with. Or you can let it fester until people find out later and get really angry at you for lying to them. It's a yanked band-aid vs. having your arm severed. Suck it up, tactfully tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. After all, would you want to be friends with someone who has lied to you for years and pretended to be interested/believe in the same things? I think that is more hurtful and hateful than disagreeing (and agreeing to disagree) with someone over beliefs.

Do it nicely and be done. You're plenty young enough to make new friends, go to another school, have your parents come to terms, etc. Who knows, you may have more compadres in the atheism than you thought. I sure did at my Catholic college.

Every question Cary Tennis raised, and more, are in a book called GOD WITHOUT RELIGION, by (a guy) Sankara Saranam. On his web page, he also has a forum where people can ask questions. The book won like five awards and more kudos than any book I've seen. The first question of the book, apropo to this subject, is What is God? It's not like human beings just came up with one! Anyway, I can't describe this book very well. It's like Einstein meets Gandhi meets the Buddha meets Hegel. I mean, the guy is a scientist, activist, yogi mystic, and philosopher, not to mention religious historian. The big issue he raises is the centralization of power in religions, political parties, and corporations. Web page linked below. I think you'd like it too, Mr. Tennis.

I went through the same thing, although in High School, not in college, but perhaps my experience may help, if only a little bit.

I went to a Catholic High School because the local school system was terrible and it was the only private school I could afford from what I made working summers and after-school jobs. The school required attendance at one religious theology class in every schedule, and by my junior year it was quite obvious that not only was Catholic theology a mess of medieval claptrap, but there also that the concept of God itself was as real as Santa Claus.

But belief systems don't change overnight, and you don't turn a switch and go from believer to non-believer. Many people inside even a Catholic organization are in varying degrees of belief and even questioning their own faith. (Go read a little about Mother Teresa and you'll understand.) Why burden the poor person whose job it is to teach theology by poking holes in the concept of the Trinity, for example? Its cruel, and ridiculously easy to boot, and thus there's no fun in it. Sometimes education is about truth, and sometimes its about memorizing whatever it is they want you to repeat back on the final, and get on with your life.

Now, if I had been "truthful" I would have called out the religion teachers on every inconsistency, and as a result would have had to attend counseling sessions, and met with the priests, and it would have been a huge disruption to my education and emotional state. Or I could have transferred to the terrible public schools, and left all of my friends. Instead, I chose to respect the beliefs of my teachers and co-workers, and finished school, and went on my merry way.

In the end it call comes down to what is truth, and this situation is very much like when people ask "how are you"? The vast majority of the time its better to just say "fine" and leave it that, not blurt out "I don't believe in God! I don't! I don't!".

Essentially they read a "children's story" from their church to my 5yr old about salvation. Her little gears started cranking and she realized that soon she would be dead and in hell alone or she could convert and be with grandma+grandpa. But mom and dad wouldn't be there for her any more - they would be alone in hell. Real idiots write those stories who don't ever think about families with mixed religions.

The way we dealt with this with my 4 year old is that we told him "Christians believe silly things. Silly, silly Christians. It's a pretend story like Buzz Lightyear." That made him giggle really hard and other than a few repetitions of "Silly, silly Christians" at his school, it's all been good.

The "Silly, silly Christians" started a very mild kids came of back and forth at school, though. He says "Silly, silly Christians" and some of the other kids say "Christians aren't silly. They're super-sweet!"

I didn't realize it was necessary to proclaim one's religious beliefs to the world. As I look back over the 50year evolution of my religious beliefs I would've had to make many proclamations. My point is that our beliefs often change, even if only gradually, as we live and learn about life. Why does one have to announce them?

Obviously the LW has a bit more at stake with college and parents. But I also think the youth and inexperience of the LW is playing into this.

Since you lied to get into this college, we must also ask about your ethical beliefs. If one were to argue that man or woman is strictly a biochemical process, utterly alone in the universe, utterly free, responsible to no God and no civil authority, then you might argue that lying to the university is perfectly OK. But if you believe that atheists ought to abide by the ethical system of the society they live in, that's a different story. Are you bound by contracts? Do you believe in the authority of civil law? Or might you reject civil law, too, on the grounds that it is rooted in feudalism and Judeo-Christian morality?

This is the most offensive thing that I've read in a long time. Atheists have ethics. We just don't have ethics that are based on a spirit in the sky watching us. Our ethics are rooted in three sources: 1) our biological nature as cooperative troop animals and 2)our natures as creatures who have empathy and 3) as creatures who have reason. The shape of some Judeo-Christian morality comes from those sources, too.

Murder, lying, coveting, violence -- all these things are harmful to a primate troop and are to be discouraged.