How did you come by your current religious/atheist paridigm?
Were you born to it, or did you gradually change your mind as you grew up? Do you read philosophical or theological texts to support your position? Do you think you ever may change your mind? For that matter, do you strongly believe in your current philosophy, or are you uncertain?
I’m an atheist, and I was definitely not born into it. All the members of my family are very religious, and I’ve been going to church (mostly on holidays) since I was a kid. I also went to Christian school for nine years (not Catholic, more of a Lutheran/Protestant denomination), and was a very strong believer up until I was about 16. When I hit 10th grade, I went into public school (couldn’t afford private anymore); once I stopped having the “believe with all your heart or you’ll end up in hell, oh yes, and God loves you” thing drilled into me every day, my faith very slowly, bit by bit, came undone. Now I couldn’t be more atheist if I tried; I believe with my whole being that there is no God, no devil, no heaven or hell, only this earth, this life, and what we do with it. Oh, and my family would disown me if they ever knew.
I used to believe that faith was something people either had or they didn’t and I was one of the ones who didn’t. I didn’t know I could choose to have faith. It took addiction and a program of recovery to convince me that I needed some kind of higher power in my life because self reliance (as in believing my own thinking) was availing me a lot of misery and failure.
Today I choose to believe in a power greater than me. I’m not religious and I don’t believe in any religous “God”. I just believe that I’m not in charge of everything, accept my powerlessness where it exists and trust that a higher power works in my life and in those around me.
I was born into a Christian family, grew up with it, but regarded it as sort of alien and extrinsic until I was about fifteen or so, and didn’t become devout until maybe eighteen. I started to become theologically educated around twenty or so, and left my denomination-of-birth at 28, after a years-long slow conversion process, to become Roman Catholic. My husband and I joined at Easter Vigil 2007.
My husband wasn’t Christian until about ten years ago. His Mom is general New Age, and his Dad is Anglican by not particularly devout.
We read our way into the RC. Thomas Merton, Michael O’Brien, Pascal, Scott Hahn, the Catechism, G. K. Chesterton, Richard John Neuhaus, St. Therese of Lisieux, Julian of Norwich.
We strongly believe in our current position. Getting here wasn’t a warm and fuzzy process. We didn’t set out to become Catholic initially, and spent years dithering, trying to find a way out. I’m glad we didn’t, although a lot of parts of Catholic culture are still new or odd to us.
My parents are atheists and that is how I was raised. I went through a period of exploring my Jewish heritage that started when I was in college that lasted until a couple years ago, really. I am now open about my atheism, but at the same time, I still feel a strong connection with the Jewish community. I tried, but I couldn’t force myself to believe in god. I am definitely not a militant atheist, though, and I have respect for religious beliefs in general.
I grew up naturally assuming there was a person in white robes and a white beard called ‘God’ who decided when it rained and thundered. Can’t really remember if I thought that person created everything.
Then I think my ‘common-sense system’ gradually began to come on-line at an early age. And I secretly sort of knew God probably didn’t exist in the same way that Santa doesn’t and the tooth fairy doesn’t.
I do remember wondering why I was at a Church of England (Primary) school if I didn’t believe any of it. Just a slightly confused kid I was.
Born and raised Roman Catholic. Went through a brief period of attending a fundamentalist Baptist church in college, which lasted only a semester, thank the God I no Longer Believe in.
I lost my faith in the army when I was 25 years old. It was nothing earth-shattering. I was into philosophy at the time, and I suppose I just fell out of the swing of religion. I couldn’t reconcile a kind and loving god with the evil in the world, and I think that by the time I came across what Sydney Hook wrote about the Holocaust being the 20th century argument against God, my atheism had taken root. I haven’t looked back since, except to regret that I spent my free time during that semester in a Baptist church instead of learning how to pick up girls.
I’m no militant. My feelings about the underlying logic of religion and faith aside, I have no problems with theists as long as they keep it civil and out of my government, if not out of my face. Actually, I am beginning to seriously worry about Islam precisely for this reason, but the rest of the religions are OK, fuckheads aside. Frankly, even now, I’d sooner take a serious problem to an experienced preacher or a rabbi than to a fellow atheist, if for no other reason than a preacher or rabbi with any experience and perspective would already have seen it all and know how to deal with it. The ones I’ve met have tended to have their heads screwed on pretty straight.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve been an atheist. My mother is Christian, but we went to a super-liberal church (my dad never went- religion’s just not for him). So my mother and sister and I would head off to church most Sundays, and I never wanted to be there. Sunday school? I don’t ever remember actually believing any of it. My mother forced me to continue going to church most weeks until eighth grade, when I finally decided I’d had enough and drew the line there. I haven’t been back since (except for Christmas, when the whole family went and I just tolerated it).
As for the degree of my atheism, I’d have to say, “very, very atheist.” Not once in my life have I believed in a higher power, and I find it hard to believe that I ever will. Just the thought of a god existing seems so utterly ridiculous and fantastical that I can’t even imagine myself subscribing to any religion. (Sometimes I have trouble taking people seriously when they announce their religious beliefs.) Deep down in my heart I know I’m right and that all religions are false, despite the fact that my brain recognizes that I have no proof as such and that many religious people have the same (but opposite) convictions. Oh well.
Born into the Catholic faith and attended Catholic school for six years. I read too much for their own good (Burroughs, Kipling et. al) and began to question stuff about age 13.
By age 17 the questions had become unimportant to me, and for lo, these many decades I find that I’m simply not interested in religion.
This quote, attributed to Cecil Rhodes, sums it up for me: “I give god fifty-fifty. He may exist, he may not. I don’t bother him.”
I’m not sure if my parents are atheist. I think my mom is agnostic.
I’m an atheist.
99% of people end up following some denomination of the religion they were brought up in though, just to add some non-anecdotal data to the thread.
Cite? Since we’re all being non-ancecdotal and everything.
My nuclear family was fairly agnostic/a-spiritual up until a few tragedies drove some siblings towards Catholicism - to date most of my relatives might fill out “Catholic” on a census poll, but do little else to support their deity. Personally, my atheism never had a defining moment, but I still have memories of, as a child, asking the kinds of specific, evidence-seeking questions deists generally fail catastrophically to answer. By around ten, I’d say my heathenism was solidly set.
As I’ve grown older my contempt for religion has steadily increased as I watch the ignorance and intolerance it fosters. While perhaps not militant in that I don’t consider it a reasonable topic for debate (as logic in general fails when dealing with the supernatural) I find myself uncomfortable around anybody who brings up the Big Man on any regular basis.
More abstract concepts of higher powers (the Original Cause, Big Bang, whatever) I have no problem with, but consider it more a loophole in the scientific process than anything else.
I came from a religiously mixed marriage: Dad is a Protestant raised agnostic and Mom a Roman Catholic. Us kids were brought up and educated Catholic. Although I took a short swing through Evangelical Christianity in my early twenties, I really couldn’t buy any more of the premises than the ones in RC.
I did study religion in college (Catholic college) and learned to respect some of the more positive aspects of many religions, but nothing really took hold as far as dogmatic beliefs go.
A few years ago, I came to the conclusion that if I really wanted to put a label on myself, it would be agnostic humanist. I am a hit and miss attendee of the Unitarian Universalist church (although the music in the bible thumping churches and even the RC church is better :p).
I’m an atheist and was raised as such. Not in the sense that I was taught there was no god, but that the topic just didn’t come up. At least not that I can remember. According to my mother I questioned the existence of Santa around the age of three, yet I have no memory of that either…
The earliest I can remember expressing an overtly atheist opinion was at about age 8 when my best friend and I had an argument about dinosaurs and Adam and Eve.
Slight hijack: Does anybody else raised as an atheist feel slightly cheated? I’d love to be able to tell a story about how I opened my eyes to reason and threw off the shackles of religious thought. As it stands though, I have no way of knowing whether I would have been one of those people or just lived happily under (what I believe to be) a delusion.
Not that I would seriously change anything, of course 
I spent many years in an all out assault a war waged on my own beliefs. I debased myself morally and tried every drug I could get my hands on, I sought out people that challenged my core assumptions at every turn. I read philosophy though I skimmed much of it because it was saying things I already knew. Eventually I found myself much more interested in bias itself. Interested in how people process and maintain information, more than I was interested in deontological motives or axiological results.
Raised Baptist, private schooling and all. Turned away from that around age 12 or 13, but didn’t start questioning or doing any reading and exploring until 18 or 19. I’m happy being agnostic and not caring much about the entire thing, although I do so enjoy giggling at Scientologists. I can’t fathom changing my mind, even though I still like hymns.
The rest of my family are still nominally Baptist, though none of them are active at all. They sort of tsk in my general direction that I should pay meaningless lip service to religion and make some effort to indoctrinate my child, but not with any real enthusiasm.
The majority of my friends are Christian, with actual church attendance, service to the church, paying for their kids to attend church schools and the whole 9 yards. I got preached at a lot years ago as they realized I was a perfectly happy heathen, many of us were choosing one another as godparents to our children and I didn’t qualify, but it’s a non-issue for us now. I attend all their rituals and events and don’t disrespect their beliefs in front of the kids, they make an effort not to proselytize or base political discussions on religious beliefs and it works out fine.
I was raised Catholic, and always believed in God and Jesus Christ. In my late teens I began to doubt some of the points of Catholic doctrine and started looking elsewhere. I really liked Christianity so while I did look into non-Christian religions, my heart just wasn’t into those. Took me a couple of years (in the meantime not attending any church) and then at age 21 I joined the Mormon church (yes, we are Christians). Best thing I ever did. My faith is stronger now than it ever has been. The best “text” I read was the Book of Mormon. I very strongly believe in my current position and can’t imagine what apocalyptic event would have to happen to make me think I made a mistake with this church. Theological texts: I guess that would include various books by church authorities on church history and teaching manuals for Sunday School classes and institute classes. I come across anti-Mormon stuff once in a while, but it just makes me laugh.
Will I ever change my mind? I don’t know. Right now I am 100% satisfied with what the doctrine does for my life, so it would take a lot of discontent to make me look elsewhere. 20 years after I joined I am still grateful every day that I’m part of this.
I was born into an Episcopalian family. My parents are religious to the degree that they go to church every Sunday, but they aren’t Bible thumpers or anything.
While growing up, there was nothing I hated more than being dragged to church every Sunday. Even as a little kid I didn’t buy the whole bearded-guy-upstairs thing.
I wouldn’t say I was raised Atheïst, relifgion was just something that didn’t come up. I still am not entirely convinced what my parents belief with regard to afterlife etc. (they sure as hell - excuse the pun - are not openly religious). I heard most of the stories - also at friends’places - but they never left a bigger impression on me than the (Iwon’t say other) fairytales I read and heard as a young child. I just recently found out my grandparents - from both sides - actually believe in an afterlife and (I think) also a god, it just never was something that came up, which also tells you how important it is to them.
And no, this will not change; I can’t imagine anything happening that would make me religious.
I probably should post a reply to my own question.
I have been an Orthodox Jew from birth. I remain that way because it makes sense to me.
I read a lot of theology and religious philosophy. Very interesting stuff- everything from “why do good people suffer?” to “why does it matter in the grand scheme of things if I have a bacon sandwich?” Anyway, the whole system makes sense to me. At least, 99% of it does, so I have good reason to assume the other 1% will work itself out.
No one is 100% sure of their faith, and I am currently struggling with a few issues, but I think I will continue to retain my beliefs for life.