A Poll for Atheists.

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is a poll for atheists. It’s partly inspired by the atheist wars in the BBQ pit, but it’s also something I’ve been wondering about for a while.

Q1: What comes closest to describing your religious upbringing?

A.) Atheist. No prayers, no church[sup]1[/sup] attendance outside of weddings and funerals, no professions of belief. Your parents may not have openly professed atheism, but they do (did) not believe.

B.) Mild religious. Church attendance, maybe some Sunday School, but religion wasn’t a large part of your upbringing. Outside of Church relgion was rarely discussed and was more something done out of tradition rather than any deep spiritual commitment.

C.) Strong religious but “liberal” or non-fundamentalist. Regular Church attendance, family prayers, grace before meals, etc. Religion a strong part of life. However your parents accepted modern science, were more or less tolerant towards other faiths, were not riled up about wedge issues (abortion, gay rights). Parts of the Bible can be interpreted allegorically

D.) Fundamentalist. The Bible is the innerant word of God. If science and the Bible are in conflict, the Bible wins. Hot button social issues are very important. Evolution is a pernicious lie propogated by atheists.

Q2: Which of the following best describes your current attitude towards religion and religious people?[sup]2[/sup]

I.) You do not have a strong attitude towards religion in general, even though you find the claims of most religions impossible to believe. You may be opposed to aspects of some religious beliefs–creationism taught as science, for example–but you don’t beleive that means you have to be opposed to religion in general. You find religion factually wrong, but it doesn’t bother you. There are some aspects of religion you admire, maybe art, or charity.

II.) You are strongly opposed to religion and wish it could be eradicated completely. You feel that any irrational belief system is ultimately pernicious. The history of religious wars and massacres horrify you. Even those religious people who accept science and minority rights are enabling ignorance and superstition. The good that religion may have done is so overwhelmed by the bad that it doesn’t count.

note 1.) I’ve used some Christian-centric terms to describe religion in general. No offence intended, it just seemed easier to write. Please substitute “Synagoge” or “Koran” as appropriate.

note 2.) Obviously I’m using my words, not yours. However if you could describe the position that comes closest to yours, I’d appreciate it. Please first answer along the lines of (A,II) or (C,I) as appropriate. I know they won’t match your upbringing or current beliefs exactly. If you would like to add clarifications on your specific beliefs or upbringing feel free.

Please no debating. There are already plenty of threads for that in the pit and GD.

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I’ll start:
(A,I)

My father is a proffessed atheist and while my mother has never proffessed atheism and (I think) feels a little guilt for abandoning her childhood lutheranism she never prays or attends church.

2

C, Ii

3

B, I

My father was Presbyterian, my mother Catholic. They tried to split the difference and failed, then pretty much gave up on organized religion entirely. (Vatican II punched a big hole in my Mom’s faith as well.)

4

C, 1.

5

Between A and B (sorry, none of them are really closer than the other, due to cultural differences). In Sweden, church attendance would be considered strongly religious. I have never (strangely enough, now that I come to think of it) discussed religion much with my parents, but I have a feeling they’re lightly religious. It’s only ever been a holidays/weddings/baptism/confirmation/funeral thing in the family, though, and my parents may well be atheists. I’ll have to ask. My maternal grandmother is religious and the rest kinda keep it to themselves, which is par for the course over here.

II.

6

B, II

I was exposed to religion at Sunday School and occasionaly church, but with a more “it’s what we are supposed to do” attitude, without much passion behind it.

7

B, I.

8

C, Ii

9

C,1.

My sisters and parents are all Catholic, and I was raised Catholic. When I turned 18, my mom and dad allowed me to stop going to Mass. Religion does a lot of bad, but I don’t think that’s inherent in its nature except insofar as accepting someone else’s answers for the questions that matter to you is going to discourage critical thought on your part. Not all religious people do that, but a heck of a lot more than atheists.

10

C II

The C is tinged with B a bit, and II isn’t exactly accurate, other than as an ideal. What I want is for people to feel restrained from imposing their beliefs on anyone, including their children, which will result in eradication, but I feel that any attempt to eradicate religion directly will backfire.

11

C,I

If I were to marry a religious girl I would likely attend, just for the hell of it. I don’t think being brought up in a religion was particularly harmful to me, and most likely was beneficial. The only reason I don’t go now is because I don’t see any point in it.

12

A - Red Diaper baby. My parents are stone atheists of the “religion is the opiate of the masses” sort. Despite that they were comfortably secular about religious holidays and we celebrated Christmas with all ( or most ) of the standard trappings and got chocolate at Easter. My grandparents were culturally religious at best, though I do have one aunt who ultimately entered an Eastern Orthodox nunnery in Quebec ( in middle age, after a failed marriage ).

I - I’m pretty live and let live and in fact I have and have had a couple of friends who are/were quite religious and a few more who are mildly so. Though most are pretty solidly agnostic/atheist.

When I was young I was a bit more obnoxiously militant in my atheism, though honestly New Wave hokum always annoyed me much more than traditional religiousity. But I’ve mellowed considerably since then, not a little bit due to my interest in history. I do still have one militantly atheist friend who is extreme enough that he refuses to celebrate Christmas.

  • Tamerlane
13

Somewhere between A and B (family was only passively culturally Christian in the raised-in-the-south, grace-on-Thanksgiving, Christmas songs kind of way, more out of apathy/sloth than conviction, so I was never encouraged in any positive way to believe in any gods. I was given a New Testament when I was 9 by a grandmother and I thought it was a strange gesture. As a kid I described myself as atheist but my parents would probably not have. Then at 10 was introduced to church by one of the parents after a divorce, likely to spite the other parent, which lasted for maybe 3 years and I fell back into non-belief)

I, until someone gets pushy or gets in my face or puts forward policy that curtails my rights as a ranting heathen, then I quickly flip to somewhere close to II and get ‘evangelical’.

14

B, I usually, sometimes II if they’re trying to pull some sorta stunt that involves foisting off their beliefs on everyone else in a particularly offensive manner; extra rage points if they’re smiling and inferring that they’re doing me or anyone else a favor, you know, they’re just trying to save my soul. Come to think of it, that’s all too frequent these days. Sigh…

15

A,I

Childhood - religous belief was pretty much not discussed. Religion was recognized as a cultural phenomenon. Rational, natural causes were explored for all physical history.

16

B, 2.

Well I think your 2 over-egged it slightly… but only slightly. So really, B, 1.86. But not B, 1, let’s not be wusses.

17

A; Between I and II, depending on my mood.

18

A, I.

I’d really say somewhere between I and II, because certain kinds of faith do tend to bother me. That said, live and let live, and I is closer.

19

A, closer to II than I. I think the world would be better off without it, but I don’t think there’s a way to actually achieve that.

20

b. went to catholic school, but parents weren’t religions, it was just the best school available.
II. Its always so dissapointing when otherwise smart people chose to believe in delusions.