I wouldn’t proselytize too directly—you want to stay on their (and their mother’s) good side, and I doubt it would be very effective anyways. You’re better off trying to instill good values—open-mindedness, curiosity, ability to think for oneself, and other elements of rationality & morality—rather than focusing on religion directly. Just knowing an atheist (you) and being on good terms with him could help lead them to consider atheism down the road at some point, which is another reason why it’s important to maintain a good relationship. Think about the parallel case of religious relatives who interfere with parents who are raising their kids non-religiously—there are a lot of similarities between their situation and yours (even though you really are right and they just think they are) and you could run into a lot of the same problems that they do.
I haven’t had the chance to try it out personally, but Dale McGowan’s blog seems useful for this sort of thing, and his books might be even more useful.
I think that’s some very good advice, and I’d like to elaborate a bit. The thing that made me ditch my religion was the fact that I already had a secular, socially liberal, science-friendly worldview, and it clashed with everything they said in church. That conflict drove my de-conversion, and made it easier for me to adjust to atheism. (I was even used to the idea, from most of my favorite authors mentioning that they weren’t religious. Harry Harrison, in particular, had explicitly atheistic characters as soon as his publishers would let him.)
I wouldn’t proselytize too directly—you want to stay on their (and their mother’s) good side, and I doubt it would be very effective anyways. You’re better off trying to instill good values—open-mindedness, curiosity, ability to think for oneself, and other elements of rationality & morality—rather than focusing on religion directly. Just knowing an atheist (you) and being on good terms with him could help lead them to consider atheism down the road at some point, which is another reason why it’s important to maintain a good relationship. Think about the parallel case of religious relatives who interfere with parents who are raising their kids non-religiously—there are a lot of similarities between their situation and yours (even though you really are right and they just think they are) and you could run into a lot of the same problems that they do.
I haven’t had the chance to try it out personally, but Dale McGowan’s blog seems useful for this sort of thing, and his books might be even more useful.
I think that’s some very good advice, and I’d like to elaborate a bit. The thing that made me ditch my religion was the fact that I already had a secular, socially liberal, science-friendly worldview, and it clashed with everything they said in church. That conflict drove my de-conversion, and made it easier for me to adjust to atheism. (I was even used to the idea, from most of my favorite authors mentioning that they weren’t religious. Harry Harrison, in particular, had explicitly atheistic characters as soon as his publishers would let him.)
So, yeah, subtlety is your friend here.