Forgot to answer the last bit: I’m a deist.
Raised Catholic by Catholic parents. I’m an atheist.
My parents were culturally Christian and raised us so. We attended church every once in a while.
I started taking it a lot more seriously as a teenager, and still do to this day.
Both my parents were raised in a typical Roman Catholic fashion. My mother is an Italian Catholic who went to Mt. St. Dominic. My father, an alum of Bergen Catholic, is half Irish Catholic and half Lithuanian (which side I secretly hope is Litvak).
My mother remains a pretty inertial Catholic. My stepmother is Jewish (Reform, naturally) as are my stepbrothers. My father and stepmother’s ceremony was Jewish, but my father most recently identified, seemingly semi-ironically, as Buddhist.
Obviously, then, I am Episcopalian, with a taste for High Church liturgy (but not its theology).
I grew up in first the ELCA then the LCMS. My father was an Elder for several years (two or three terms, IIRC) from about 9th grade on, I went to two national youth gatherings for the LCMS.
My father takes my (and my sister’s) churchlessness more in stride than mother (or worse, her mother). I still believe in a god, but nothing that resembles the active, Christian God of my youth.
My mom was Lutheran when I was born, and I was baptized Lutheran and we went to Lutheran church until I was about 5. Then my mom converted to Catholicism for some reason. I went to Catholic school from 1st to 7th grade, unfortunately, but my mom always went back and forth on attending church regularly, so sometimes I was forced to go and sometimes I wasn’t.
My dad has always been an Atheist, but I wasn’t raised with his influence very much.
I gradually realized I didn’t believe in Catholicism throughout most of my teen years. 9 years ago, when I was 18, my daughter was born and my mom wanted her baptized so I did because I didn’t feel too strongly about it one way or the other, and had my little bit of residual Catholic guilt and fear.
Now, I wouldn’t even bother with that, and actually her baptism was the last time I set foot in a church. I don’t know what I would call myself though. I’m not Atheist; maybe Agnostic but I still have a little bit of irrational Catholic guilt so I feel wrong to even say that. I suppose it’s true though. I am interested in Unitarian Universalism though (which is compatible with Agnosticism anyway), but haven’t become involved in it so far, mainly because I don’t know anybody who is UU and I’m too shy to jump in by myself.
Grandma was raised Catholic, but left the church when she met my grandpa, who was Protestant. Neither one of them attended church. I started attending a Southern Baptist church at age 9 by myself: grandma would go with me when I would sing or something, but never joined.
After a time as a Wiccan, and searching for a church, I’m back in the Southern Baptist church. But I identify as a Christian and not as a Southern Baptist.
I don’t really know how to vote. My dad is nominally Christian but non-religious; my Mom has been Baptist most of her life. I grew up Baptist/Evangelical but gradually migrated to Anglicanism. For most people, it’s probably a distinction without difference since we’re all protestant – but moving from Baptist to Episcopal seems pretty rebellious sometimes.
I was raised in a non-denominational protestant church, and when I met my husband in college I started going to the church he’d grown up in - a Covenant Church (the Evangelical Covenant Church is a Swedish offshoot of the Lutheran church). We still go there almost every week.
So, yes, my parents and I are all protestants, but they’re considerably more conservative than I am. They’re not Fundies, thankfully, but I’m pretty much flaming liberal and they’re more middle-of-the-road conservative Christian. Which is funny, because the church I was raised in is very non-liturgical, so my parents tease me about turning “practically Catholic” because my church does things like have the pastors wear robes, and we do some call-and-response in worship. And we observe Advent and Lent. Practically Catholic! 
Ahem…technically, we are both Protestant and Catholic at once!
Screwed up my answer since I didn’t scroll down to see the third question.
Anyway, Catholic & my parents are Catholic. Where “Catholic” is defined as “Someone who stops by a Catholic church on Christmas, Easter and when they have a spiritual hankering”.
Oops, I forgot to check the box for current religion. Is it possible to somehow add a vote for Judaism (long shot, I know, but maybe)?
No, the spaghetti are NOT allowed to fly. Pasta is about the only thing I always take seriously.
I know… in fact I consider myself more Catholic than Protestant. But most non-Anglicans think of it as a Protestant denomination.
Raised in a Methodist household, although I don’t know how devout my parents were (are). I think we went so dad could play the piano for service.
Wavered between Methodist, Christian, Atheist and Agnostic in my teens, then eventually settled on Atheism.
More specifically, I settled on the idea that there is no god unless someone can prove to me otherwise.
Back in caveman days, when my mom and dad wanted to get married, he was nominally a Catholic and mom was Russian Orthodox. In order to marry, mom had to sign a paper (?) and swear any offspring would be raised Catholic! Well, I was grudgingly carted to church by my father when I was a child for a while and then told on Sundays to “get dressed and go to church” all by myself. Of course I had to go to religious ed classes, first communion (for which I needed a white dress - I was handed some money and told to walk to a department store 3 miles away and buy myself one - when I was 12!). After confirmation, I went to religious ed until 9th grade when I (and a whole lot of other kids) absolutely refused to attend any more. So I guess you could say I didn’t get much out of the Catholic experience. I haven’t attended Catholic church except for weddings and funerals for decades. Though we did put our daughter through the ordeal, and it was an ordeal. Sunday night religious ed classes from 6 - 8 p.m.! Disgusting, I had to drive her 10 miles and either wait the two hours there, or go back home and then go back to pick her up. Not to mention all the free labor the church got out of those kids while they were waiting how many years to be confirmed! Daughter got little out of the Catholic experience and swears she is a bitter atheist now. She may change, though…Right now I kind of wish I DID belong to a church and may begin shopping around, though I don’t know where to go. There’s a big popular megachurch that the suburban families flock to. There are a couple of Baptist churches I occasionally drop in on. There’s a Baptist church near a strip mall that sets up a tent in the summer near the park-n-ride bus stop that takes people to the NYS Fair. The church workers hand out free granola bars, bottles of water, and any free tickets to the fair - I could do that! And bake sales, I would be good at bake sales! But I digress…right now I think a lot about God and I pray every day. I believe in karma. I believe in the golden rule. But I don’t ever want anything to do with Catholics ever again, too many bad experiences to mention, not to mention the scandals and pigheaded refusal to change their way of thinking no. matter. what. …My mom’s church is awesome. It’s very old, filled with priceless icons, gold leaf on the carvings, ancient murals of saints, they burn enough incense that can permeate your clothes for days, beeswax candles. The services are very, very very long, though. Mom goes because it’s her only social outlet. She used to work at their Bingo Hall for cigarette money until the last few years! Their priest was an awesome huge man, a millionaire several times over, very wealthy. He died and was replaced by a younger drabber poorer priest. (There’s plenty of corruption in the Russian Orthodox church regarding money and embezzlement.)…Again, I digress. No, I’m not a Catholic any more, not that I was ever one - I was so poorly instructed in the faith it never made any impression, and the nuns were mean bitches to boot. I believe in karma and the golden rule, I pray, and I raised my child up Catholic, more or less, because I didn’t know where else to go or what else to do - better to be safe than sorry! … Secretly, I would love to be a Wiccan dancing in a circle around a bonfire! But I’m afraid of going to hell, LOL!
(reading the above I realize I sound as shallow as a puddle in a parking lot. So be it. If the churches want enthusiastic adherents, they should show some kind of Christian or non-Christian charity and try to connect with kids instead of boring them senseless in a church basement hours on end.)
:eek: Blasphemer! Aren’t you afraid he’ll smite you with his Noodly Appendage?
My father was Catholic; my mother was raised Southern Baptist, and converted to Catholicism when I was in the 2nd grade. When I was a kid, we went to the “casual” mass every Saturday evening, except during the busy summer season at Dad’s workplace. I also remember attending Christmas or Easter mass a few times. I stopped attending church in 2002 or so due to political reasons; I never attended any confirmation classes. (I don’t think my parents really cared, though I do wonder if my grandmother has given any thought to this.) My mother doesn’t attend church anymore either (largely, I suspect, due to the overwhelming lack of support from their church at the time of my father’s death), though she still says she’s Catholic. I’m not really sure what I am…I would probably attend a Unitarian Universalist church if it was closer. I also have a mild interest in Asatru.
My mom is Episcopalian, and my dad grew up Baptist but became an Eposcopalian when he married my mom, and that’ s how my brother and I were raised.
I’m not sure how old I was when I stopped really believing in it all. I was confirmed under protest at 12, and thought it was all hooey then.
I still enjoy the occasional midnight Christmas Eve service, and our Scottish group’s kirkin’o’the tartans is at the Episcopal cathedral, but I don’t take Communion.
I knew there are a lot of agnostics/atheists on this board, and that this is an unscientific and self-selected poll, but… wow. I feel bad that organized religion has let so many people down.
Actually I’m not an atheist because religion let me down. I had no bad experiences with my religious training or upbringing. I’m an atheist purely out of reasoning about god. Now, I think I don’t have a lot of religious genes (or get them from my mother’s side) since her father was clearly an atheist (though in the closet) and my family was not exactly religious. I went to Hebrew School more because our temple had a policy that those who did got the good Saturday morning bar mitzvah slots, and the party and the event was far more important to my father than me learning about god.