Good point...I was a preachers child and I felt indoctrinated at age 7...

Bide your time. Try to see the love in her words through the nonsense. Focus on making your world a better place.

Catholics love their dogma. It is stifling though.
Be yourself. Live love learn and grow. Do what you must to be comfortable in situations but always keep your true self as the priority.
A clearer translation of that: Act the way you know you should and say what you must to keep your life comfortable...until you decide the internal struggle is no longer worth it for you. There is no right and wrong just what you feel like you should do to have your best day everyday

Your mom seems sort of strict. I thought I had it bad growing up an baptist. Religion has screwed up an a lot of lives I'm glad I'm enlightened now. It's very liberating.

It seems like you already know which rules to break and have logical reasons why. I don't know how your parents would react if you were to openly declare your beliefs, but if you were my daughter, I would be damned proud of you.

Now to your mother. She assumes that her beliefs are also yours. The religious advice is something she believes and honestly thinks will be beneficial to you.

The activist advice, I understand as a parent. I have outspoken children. My daughter especially speaks out loudly and often against everything she feels is wrong. I'm proud of her, while it scares the hell out of me. I worry about her safety should she offend the wrong person or group. However, I could never ask her not to stand up for her beliefs.

When I was 15, I made a bargain with my Catholic mother. If I successfully completed my confirmation she would never talk to me about religion.

We both kept our side of the bargain.

My mum is a loving person but each time we talk on the phone, god seems to dominate the conversation. At some point, I had to interrupt her and tell her that we should focus our conversation on other mundane things that concern both of us like health, wellness, career, etc. It can be frustrating to hear my mum dominate the conversation with god, what god wants and what he does not want, and questions like if I prayed or attended church the last Sunday. I actually try to avoid talking with her on Sundays because the conversation would most likely be dominated with god, church and questions of whether I prayed and attended church that day. I know she will be heart broken if I come out openly to her as a non-believer, so I try to be very passive with such conversations. I perfectly understand what you're going through

Considering you live in the Phillipines you need to be an activist and a feminists too.

I wonder where she got the "do not be an activist" namely is it a don't question be a follower a product of religion or a sub product of the misogynistic traits of Catholicism? Perhaps she worries you will become awakened into the land of reality? In any event, I full agree with your standing.

A caveat I can offer is my mother is also a theist. From the position of an open atheist, I have pointed out a few of the evils of religion but reserve my greatest arguments when she states, "without religion (belief in life after death), I would have nothing to be happy about."

I hope your intelligence and clear-headedness continue to flourish in your new environment. I don't envy you the changing interaction with your parents. When you need it I hope you have folks in the 'real' world to lean on. Otherwise you got us too!?

I have friend who has never been overly religious and knows I don’t believe there is a god. He will be turning 70 next month and recently started spouting “truths” from his bible. I know it’s an age thing with him but I was grinding my teeth. Oops! We were disconnected.

I always admired my wife's handling of her daughters early and keen interest in religion. She let her explore ... bought her children's Bible story books, read to her at bedtime from them, allowed her to attend church, even went with her once in awhile.

It was ultimately a way of allowing her to explore things she was genuinely curious about. My wife was secure enough in her [un]beliefs that this didn't threaten her.

Ultimately her daughter scandalized her high school aged catechism class by concluding that god wasn't real. But if my wife had fought her daughters interest in religion or even very much propogandized against it ... I don't know that it would have turned out that way, given that this strong-willed child probably would have fought back rather than worked it out for herself.

So there's some point to the article that curiosity lifts all boats ... if a child learns critical thinking then ultimately they will just be satisfying any curiosity about, e.g., whether or not god is real, with the realization that he isn't.

Do you belong to any secular groups? Freedom From Religion Foundation is a great one but the Humanist [thehumanist.com] is a great one. Many people, young and not so young have issues about coming out to their families. I think you may be having issues with this right now and could use some help in how best to do this. Here is a good example of a famous person and his coming out [en.wikipedia.org]

Moms can be tough. Mine was 100% concerned for my everlasting soul and was absolutely certain I was on a path to hell. One day I just told her that I couldn’t make myself believe something that all evidence and experience told me was not true and she should have faith in her god to convince me otherwise. We had an understanding from them on.

Your mother is being an activist any time she Proselytizes for her god.

I'm sure it must be harder in the Philippines than in Western countries to come out as atheist. Do you have any friends who share your non-belief? Do you have plans when you graduate? I have seen a couple of others here from the Philippines but it is a big country. Keep up the non-faith and we wish you well.

My mother was like that.
I don't miss her.