Growing up Atheist

In My Humble Opinion
21

I think my atheism can be traced to my grandparents. My grandparents were Catholic, but they were not as devoutly religious as many Catholics. My grandfather was a traditionalist about many things, but he had an unusually liberal attitude toward religion. I can remember him taking me aside one day and telling me, “feel free to choose whatever religion best suits you. Nobody’s forcing you to be a Catholic the rest of your life.” This struck me as an odd thing to say at the time (I was only about six), because I couldn’t imagine why anybody would want to switch religions. But his advice is still stuck in my head after all these years.

My parents were even less religious. They attended church only when it was expected of them. I can remember a period when I was a teenager when my mother and I decided to start attending church regularly. It didn’t last long. We always left along with the other pseudo-Catholics right before Communion, and we NEVER went to confession. I was a fair-weather theist: I would honestly believe in God once I set foot in the church, only to have my belief evaporate on the way to the car after the service. My mother later admitted that she didn’t really believe much of what the priest was saying, she just liked the tradition – the white robes, the prayers, the singing, etc. She had better memories of church from her childhood, when the sermons were spoken in Latin, a language that she enjoyed listening to.

It was only natural that in college I would discover atheism. I brought it home to my parents and had little trouble converting them to non-believers. My dad admitted that he had always been an atheist at heart, ever since a chaplain insulted him in his army days. My mother refused to be called an atheist. She preferred the word “agnostic,” not wanting to offend the Almighty too much should he actually exist.

22

Growing up atheist was a pretty painless experience for me. My father was atheist (his mother left the Roman Catholic church when her husband was arrested by the Nazis and the local priest was remarkably unsupportive) and my mother was a non-practicing Protestant (she lost interest after having to put up with a particularly obnoxious born-again chaplain at the base where she worked). I grew up in a town that was 95% Roman Catholic, but I never took any flak from anyone for not being a member (my next-door neighbors did have me baptized, though). I knew that my friends went to church on Sunday and went to a special religion class on Wednesdays, but I don’t think most of them really believed in it either. It was kind of frustrating during my teenage years to not be able to shock anyone with my godlessness :).

I’m still an atheist, but now I’m also an ordained christian minister on the weekends. The pay is good, and my parents think it’s hilarious. It’s also a great pick-up line in the bars.

–sublight.

23

Red-Diaper Baby here :slight_smile: . Atheist son of atheist parents and essentially irreligious grandparents. Frankly, it didn’t come up much one way or another when I was young. Went through a brief “doubting” phase around 12 or 13, wherein I considered the question of spirituality. After some thought I settled into my current state of atheism, which wavers between “hard” and “soft” depending on how dogmatic I’m feeling that day :wink: .

24

My parents were moderately devout Roman Catholics. They sent us to Catholic school, insisted we didn’t miss a Mass, etc. On the other hand, they didn’t use threats of eternal damnation in our moral upbringing, and they didn’t talk down other religions unless said religion was specifically anti-Catholic. Sometime in college it dawned on me that I simply didn’t believe in any god, and I quietly became an atheist/humanist.

Fella bilong missus flodnak has beliefs that could peg him either as an atheist or a deist, depending. He was brought up State Church Lutheran (he’s a Norskie, remember), in true Norwegian fashion. His parents married in the church, they made sure all their children were baptized and confirmed, and arranged for church funerals for their own parents when they passed on… but hubby can’t remember anyone in the family going to church outside of those occasions and sometimes Christmas Eve. Their religious education was taken care of by the public schools they attended.

Now, tell me, when you read this, who do you think was the only grandparent to have a fit when we didn’t baptize the little flodnaks? Right, my mother-in-law :rolleyes:

25

I can tell that Mr. flodnak and I share the same spiritual background, except that I’m Danish. Lutheran State Church for baptisms, confirmations, marriages & funerals, religious education through public school - and that’s more or less it.

Well, we did usually sing a hymn every day at morning assembly, but that was more a cultural than a religious idea. Even an agnostic Dane should bloody well know Kingo, Grundtvig and Brorson - but I digress.

My mother went to church every now and then (still does), and I had a kid’s bible, some Christian poems etc. - not in a big way, but they were there if I wanted to read them. And back then, I read everything I could get my hands on.

I thought things over between ages 12 and 16, more or less arrived at agnosticism and though the idea of meeting some of the dead people that I missed so much certainly was appealing, even back then I’d rather stick to what I could know than to what I hoped. My mother disagreed, but completely respected it.

Growing up agnostic in Denmark is no big deal at all - religion is a private subject, church attendance is low and it’s simply not considered other people’s business.

S. Norman

26

Raised in a strict Catholic household…oh yes, I had a miserable childhood!

I questioned the existence of a god since I was a small child - I wondered why a god didn’t hear my prayers when I was sexually molested at age 4, and later at age 19, when I got raped. It eventually dawned on me that there ISN’T any god, and I wasted most of my life (at that point) praying to something that doesn’t exist.

I’m happy to say that I am religion and god-free now!

27

I was raised in a reform judisum hosuehold. My fater was and is still more religious then I am. I went to Hebrew School and Temple while going to Hebrew School, but didn’t really like it. After I had my barmitavah my family stopped attending. That year they refused to sell my father a ticket for the High Holy Days ceromines and it was hard for him but he did find a temple that let non members in for the ceromines. A few years ago he even stopped doing that. I’m 26 now and while I don’t consider msyelf an athiest because I beleive there is a higher power out there I don’t beleive that the higer power is one of any orginized religions I have come across.

28

My Dad’s an agnostic leaning towards atheist, my Mom believes in God but isn’t talking to him (still mad over my sister’s death). We went to a Methodist church as a social thing in the dawn of my memories, but when we moved out of that town when I was 4 we only went to church for weddings and funerals. I became an atheist when I was 4 or 5 and started reading the encyclopedia and saw that there were a number of religions that were incompatible with each other and they all felt ‘made up’.

In my early '20s I stopped being a ‘hard’ atheist and started calling myself agnostic, though ‘soft’ atheist is probably a better description of my beliefs at the time. About two years ago (maybe more recently) I became a step further away from atheism, I believe there is some intelligent force watching and shaping us, but for all I know it could just be hyperadvanced aliens or some aspect of the universe we don’t understand yet, perhaps the opposite of entropy…

29

I was raised as a generic Christian, except for few years in my 'teens when my family belonged to a Baptist church. Being a natural researcher, I started reading up on the bible and religion after we joined this church. This research led to my loss of faith. I have been an agnostic/soft atheist since age 15. My parents have always been completely supportive of my feelings in this matter – as they have been supportive of all of our personal decisions in adulthood. However, until recently, I didn’t feel that they really understood my beliefs.

Something happened a few weeks ago, though, and I think my Dad and I really came to a meeting of the minds on the subject. They were here visiting for a few weeks, and we all went to the local Mariner’s Museum to check out the exhibits. One of the exhibits was on the History of the Steam Engine. As Dad and I walked around looking at the engine models, I commented, “Dad, this is my religion!”

Dad was bit perplexed – as I’ve never had much of an interest in mechanical things – and replied, “You worship motors?”

“Not exactly. These engines represent humankind’s drive to invent and innovate and build. That’s what I revere.”

“Ah…” said Dad, in comprehension. We wandered happily through the exhibit, and he explained and described all the engines with a true motor-head’s enthusiasm.

A few rooms on, we came to an exhibit on slavery, and Dad said, “Here’s the downside to your religion – Man’s capacity for evil. Your God and your Devil are one.”

“Yeah,” I replied, “That’s where faith comes in. I have faith that our capacity for greatness will eventually overcome our tendency to evil.”

Dad reached out and took my shoulder and shook it a little. “You’re an optimist.”

I said, “Yes.” And we stood there a moment in perfect accord.

It was a lovely day.

30

Sorry it took so long to respond – it was an accident that I even found the thread! :slight_smile:

Anyway, first I’d like to say that I don’t know that I can claim the title of being the most well-spoken. But thank you, nonetheless.

My background is Jewish, but not in a highly religious way. We didn’t belong to a synagogue, though me and my siblings did attend “Hebrew school” (after school 2 days a week and on Sundays) for some Jewish education; and we all had bar mitvahs.

Don’t know when I stopped believing – it was probably a slow, ongoing, thing.

As far as how my parents react – religion is one of a number of things we don’t discuss. :slight_smile: