Let me tell you a story. It is more like a short conversation between a mother who is a believer and a child who is an atheist.
Mother: I hope you take a religious oath like I did.
Child: No Mom, I won't because I am an atheist.
Mother: What?? Why are u an atheist?
Child: Because I don't think there is evidence proving a god's existence.
Mother: There is evidence.
Child: What is it?
Mother: It is you, us, and this world created by god.
Child: That still doesn't prove anything. You just claimed it.
Mother: (A bit aggressive) So You think god doesn't exist??
Child: I didn't say that. I said we don't have evidence to believe that claim saying god exists.
Mother (Now more aggressive tone): How dare you say that? Do you know how much god gave me hope to survive? I am all surviving and you are too because of god? I do so much worship to the god but my child turns out to be an atheist. How could U hurt me so much? How could my child give me so much pain? Why was it need to be an atheist?
Clearing this point it's not a fiction story. It's almost the same conversation me and my mother had. I tried my best to keep it at a minimal level but it did go to a serious extent as well.
So I'd like to talk about the way that the mother tried to gaslight their own child. When the child expresses that being an atheist then the mother gives a baseless claim as evidence. The child further tries to explain their point but then the real narcissist Gaslighting begins.
Being emotionally manipulative because your adult child refuses to believe in something that you believe is a peak narcissist behavior, You try to blame your child for the hardship you had to go through. It may be true that you suffered a lot to reach this point but it won't justify your words or make your words correct. U and your child are different individuals. They won't go on the same pathway as u and you can't do anything about it. They are a different individual and you can't blame them for existing and making your life harder because they didn't choose to come into existence. It was you who chose to bring them into this world which implies that it's a bare minimum for you to work and raise your child.
Since it was about the existence of god, let me bring it another point as well. The emotional blackmail and the act of victim card. In this conversation, the child just mentioned that they don't believe in god because of lack of evidence but the mother then goes on with the victim card about how they hurt her and caused her pain because they don't believe in something due to lack of evidence.
This conversation gave me a realization that religion is a tool that stops the capacity of an individual to question. It's a tool that even your loved one might use to blame you even if u are not to be blamed. And I am glad that I learned to question things which eventually led me to be an atheist.