To be sociable, I used to tell fundies I was agnostic, so as to allow them the possibility that they might be right, something an atheist would deny out of hand. That was stupid of me - fundies think I’m going to Hell if I’m an on the fence agnostic, an over the fence atheist, or, (especially)if I’m as my parents see me, a lapsed Catholic.
Actually, my parents are right. You can’t just be an atheist. Your belief system has to be based on some foundation.
The good atheists I’ve known have kept the valuable qualitites of their parents’ religions - besides the hocus pocus and the authortarianism, Catholicism does have a strong doctrine of all people being equal and worthy of dignity. Ex-Baptist seem to hold onto the Protestant belief in rightousness as ones’ personal burden. Ex-Jews let thire kids have theri afternoons free, but they still don’t revel in ignorance.
The bad atheists I’ve known just have a lot of unresolved anger at their childhoods. Some of the meanset drunks I’ve known were preachers’ kids. Well, as the fundies like to say when confronted with backsliders like Swaggert & Bakker, “don’t blame the soap for the dirt.” Just because your nun in CCD was a cunt does that make St. Fracis of Assisi one too?
I don’t know if I could technically be considered an agnostic, because I simply don’t believe in any of the theological theories man has put forth, but I’m also not an atheist, because I don’t claim to know that there isn’t a deity or deities of some sort. I was raised loosly Catholic. I spent grades one to four in Catholic school and during that time I would periodically attend church on Sunday and go to mass on Christmas and Easter. There were a few sparsely laid periods after that where I’d try to embrace Christianity, but it always ended up as a short lived passing fancy. There are still some bad times when I find myself praying out of a kind of superstition, but ultimately I don’t think there’s some element of the universe that grants favor based on things like that. I don’t know if the desire for prayer is a result of my upbringing, but I’m sure it could easily be. Some times I almost think things would be easier if I could believe in a mainstream religion, but I can’t. Somewhere deep inside me I know they’re not true. I guesss it’s no different than a Christian firmly believing in Christ and I could be wrong, but who knows?
I am a recovering Catholic. My parents sent me to CCD and bible camps and I never fit in because I asked way too many questions that they couldn’t answer. At age 12 I started to question religion and did my own research. I came “out of the closet” at my confirmation. We had to kiss the ring of the bishop or cardnal, not sure. Well there was no way I was kissing someones ring, that was the last straw. I was forced to go. So I went up to the bishop/cardnal and said to the whole church, “If there is a God this church is not what she intended” and then spat on the ring and walked out.
I suspect there is something about Catholism that encourages agnosticism. First there is the whole “virgin birth - really?” Then you start questioning some of the other less sensical ideas of the Catholic church. What stops you from continuing to question the basis of the faith. You kind of get on a roll.
I was raised Catholic, became a “lapsed Catholic,” decided if I couldn’t reconsile Catholic with Feminist, became a non-practising Christian, decided the Jesus thing was overblown (about the time I married my atheist husband), became a non-specific emotional Theist and intellectual Agnostic (emotionally can’t comprehend there not being a God, so there must be one, intellectually know its an unknown). Decided that my Theism was more Deist than Theist and usually call myself that.
I recommend telling your neighbors you are a Unitarian, if you aren’t ready (or don’t want to) come out of the closet as an atheist or agnostic. Keeps the questions down - most people don’t really know what it means but they are pretty sure it doesn’t involve sacrificing goats. And you can show up in their church, too, if you are looking for the social aspect (or spiritual-ness without the theology) of church (and you can find Unitarians near you - in some areas its tough). They are a pretty accepting bunch.
Baptised and confirmed catholic. Now atheist. Attend a Unitarian church.
During a recent series of classes on the history of Unitarianism and our church, our minister observed that we might be doing our children a disservice by not giving them enough to rebel against. Seemed like the greatest number of folks at those classes who stated their history were lapsed Catholics. Of course, some of that may have to do with the geography. I believe northern industrial US cities have a greater percentage of Catholics than elsewhere.
Uh… heh heh… you do realize that St. Francis was a man, don’t you?
As for myself, I was raised Methodist. When I went to military school I started attending the Presbyterian church because a) it was closer to the school, and b) the minister there had a great singing voice and sang at every service.
Eventually I realized that church wasn’t as nourishing to a young adult who cherished the ability to think for himself as it had been for the child, and I gradually stopped going. Now I consider myself agnostic.
Oh, and CalMeacham? Although I bet they didn’t mean it this way, I would have to agree that Science isn’t the chief teacher of Truth. To paraphrase Indiana Jones, science is the chief teacher of fact, not truth. If you’re looking for truth, you’re supposed to go down the hall to the philosophy department.
Baptised Catholic, never confirmed; I decided I was an atheist sometime before I was 12.
One of the things I remember about my early Catholic upbringing is that, even with all the ritual and dogma of the RCC, we were never discouraged from close examination of our beliefs. Speaking with other lapsed Catholics over the years, I’ve come to believe that this openness to intellectual criticism of the faith is/was not unusual; the Jesuits seem to delight in this sort of thing.
I contrast this attitude with the attitudes I’ve encountered in some of the Protestant faiths, particularly Southern Baptist or CoC, where strict adherence to church teachings is insisted on, and where the only questioning permitted involves interpretation of scripture rather than overall theology. I believe it’s the intellectual freedom of the Catholic church, rather than its strictness, that allows such a high percentage of Catholics to “stray” from the Church.
My mother attempted to raise me as a Roman Catholic. I had my first memory of attending Mass at about the age of three. I immediately realized what they were doing and found it to be completely insane. There I was, the three year old atheist, fighting my mother at each step as she tried to indoctrinate me into her tradition.
Raised Baptist (the Southern variety). Never really questioned it till teenhood, that’s when I noticed (or was forced to notice) the hypocritical nature of devotees. Still I figured there must be something to it. Following into the tradition (Grand father, greatgranfather, both preachers), I went to Seminary (What to you mean, you don’t know?)where all my beliefs came tumbling down.
I still haven’t decided whether I’m atheist or agnostics and really haven’t found much need to nail it down specifically.
I was raised Catholic, but it was more formal Catholicism than a way of life. We went to church on Sunday and holy days, didn’t eat meat on Fridays, etc. But it didn’t pervade my family’s life at all. I don’t really remember being taught morality through religion so much as simple empathy. Even as a kid, I couldn’t swallow many Catholic beliefs (the host is literally Christ’s flesh? Innocent babies go to hell/limbo if not baptised?!), and just kind of did it because it was the thing to do. It never occurred to me to think about my beliefs or what was true. I fell more and more away from religion, but still searched for some belief system that felt comfortable. Then I got into skepticism, and as I examined why claims like aliens and miracle cures were unbelievable, I finally realized that if I honestly turned that same skepticism on religion of any kind, my belief could not survive.
Shhh zzzz, I would say your church didn’t fail, your reason prevailed. That’s a good thing. Remember that there are a lot of us out here, and perhaps even hiding in your own community. You might want to check out the local UU church, or secular humanist organizations, to find like-minded people. Good luck.
My family is Lutheran based. I was confirmed, mostly to make my grandmother happy, but since then, I’ve come clean as an atheist.
I always had felt there was something wrong with the whole “church thing” and studied a number of religions to see if anything clicked - nothing did. I believe that most religious organizations are just sucessful businesses and that I’m smart enough to make my own moral decisions.
My family no longer makes me go to church or gives me a hard time, although my granny periodically asks me if I’ve changed my mind.
My mother recently admitted to me that she doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ (as the son of God) but she likes the social events and friends she’s made at church functions. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
My parents went to a Methodist church, but were not religious - it was more of a thing you had to do, living in a small town. My Dad is an atheist, my Mom believes in God but not organized religion - since my sister was murdered, she has said she believes in God but she’s mad at him, and in more recent years she has begun to believe in aliens as an explanation for the ‘supernatural’. I became an atheist at 5, when I looked up religion in our World Book encyclopedia and saw that there were different kinds, that believed different things, and it all looked pretty irrational to me - I immediately classified God and the supernatural with Santa Claus and other things I believed in at one time but outgrew.
I went on like that until my early 20s, when I realized I could no longer say truthfully and with certainty that there was nothing supernatural in this universe, and I started calling myself agnostic instead.
In just the last year or two I have taken another step away from atheism - I believe that there is something god-like in the universe watching things and occasionally communicating with us. I call myself a disorganized theist, but since I also accept this could all be a delusion I am suffering from I would probably still be counted as agnostic.
I went through all the motions of being a Catholic but never got anything from it. Well apart from a hatred of the huge hypocrisy that goes along with the church. Here in Ireland we have a history of priests/nuns that were cruel mothers, sexually,physically and mentally. The Church protected these bastards/bitches for years and basically ruled my country with literally the fear of god. The way women were treated by the church was unforgivable.
I realise there are also a huge amount of really great nice people who are in the church and dedicate their lives to help people.
All the negative elements of the church is not why I’m a atheist however. I just cannot see how there could be a god/sentient being or anything other that natural forces governing our lives.
I have been fairly vocal on recent Atheist/agnostic threads so you can find out quite a bit about my philosophy (reductive materialism) if you care to look.
It’s been longer since I said anything about how I was raised. I was raised mostly RLDS (I don’t feel like explaining that church but I’ll say that it’s less like LDS than you would think, it gets more unitarian all the time). I went to a Lutheran elementary for 2 years and a Lutheran high school for 1 year.
I stopped believing in God LONG before I stopped attending Church because much of my social life was centered there. Started doubting around age 10. Complete disbelief came around age 15. My current belief structure has developed in the last 3 years. I’m 34.
I have noticed that my Mother’s beliefs have strengthened with age. My Dad’s have weakened though he was/is in the priesthood (He hasn’t been to church at all in years but I don’t think they’ve officially taken away his priesthood). The RLDS church has changed a lot in the last 10 years, allowing women in the priesthood, open communion, and other things generally toward making the church less exclusive. I think there was an official ‘don’t ask don’t tell policy’ put into place for gays.
This is the way I see it. Most religions encourage lifestyles that I would largely encourage as well (at least as far as obey the golden rule etc.). A lot of the rules I don’t like get ignored by those with the sense to make up their own mind (like using birth control). People can talk themselves into stronger and stronger belief and it the stronger their belief the better it alol makes them feel. So, they do good deeds (charity work etc.) and it helps everyone. Unfortunately sometimes they decide that proselytizing is the best deed they can do and they do not choose a good audience for it but it’s mostly their own time that they waste so it’s not too bad. So, at least in America, religions help more than they hurt.
When I need to ask a trustworthy local some questions I try to call the pastor of a local church. When my Mom asks me to help her with a Church project I usually comply. Mostly, I leave them alone. I mostly avoid revealing my beliefs and am very rarely asked directly. I think that bowing my head during prayers etc. is just showing respect for someone else’s beliefs. I don’t take communion but most people, I think, just figure I’m not Catholic (or whatever) they don’t peg me as non-Christian. I frequently argue with religious types that the Ten Commandments are insufficient. I have never been persecuted for my Atheism. If you are being persecuted for your beliefs, you need to find new friends. What do you mean you don’t fit in? Are they all so busy with church functions that they don’t have time for other activities? Maybe you should go to some church events - you don’t have to proclaim your beliefs. Just pitch in and help, and respect their beliefs, and they’ll probably love to have you. Works for me.
I was not raised in a religious family at all. And I’m definitely not Catholic.
But …
Because I sang in so many choruses through my school and college years, I can now recite the entire Gloria from the ordinary of the mass, in Latin, in under one minute.
I’m an agnostic. In my case, I just came to the conclusion that all the stories I came across were silly and self-contradictory, and were unbelievable without proof…and there was no proof. It had nothing to do with rejecting my upbringing–my mother was technically Catholic, and my father was technically Lutheran, but neither practiced it when I was growing up.
I was raised very non-denomenational Protestant but I have a mother who was raised Catholic. She told me all about the oddities of the faith: Latin mass, cannibalism (via the transubstantiation), Papal bullshit, inconsistent and stupid dogma, and general stupidity. She was pretty much an atheist, and she got me on the track. My dad’s a Deist, as far as I can tell, but very non-practicing (nobody in my immediate family goes to any sort of church). No resistance from him when I went Atheist. So, no, not all Atheists are ‘recovering Catholics’.