I’m not so sure how to word the title of this thread but I’m curious as to whether anyone else grew up without being taught any particular beliefs. Basically I grew up without practicing any religion and in fact I wasn’t even aware of what God was until about the age of 6 when some classmates of mine talked about it during recess at school. My parents never said anything to me one way or the other unless I asked a question. We celebrated Xmas and easter but without any religious connotations at all. My dad says it definitely was intentional and that if I ever wanted to know more about a religion he would have bought me any of the needed things for it. I never asked anything really since I had no comprehension of what it all meant anyway. It wasn’t until my mid teens that I even started thinking or asking and by then I was old enough to do my own research and make up my own mind.
Just from the people I’ve come into contact with over the years I’ve known very very few who were brought up on neutral ground so to speak. Generally people have some sort of influence and while some may have weaker influence than others there usually is some present (at least in Canada anyway). So what say you? Did you experience a similar upbringing? Do you know anyone who has?
I’ve never grown up around any. Neither of my parents were particularly religious, and I was never shuffled off to church for anything other than weddings. Officially I was born a protestant, so I’m assuming there was a thin religious vein in my family, but that was about the greatest extent of it. I was never taught religion by my parents or in any formal capacity. I attended public schools where the most religious part of any day was the saying of the Lord’s Prayer immediately following the national anthem. They were just words to me though, something said by rote every morning before class. I knew of God and was aware that others believed in Him, but it never actually struck me that He was someone I could believe in too, or for that matter that there was any reason I should. Religion seemed to me to be just one of those things that some people liked and others didn’t. In school, I was never made aware that there were different religions though. God, as Christianity would have him, was The Man and that was pretty much that. Oh, I knew of *old[/I[ Gods of the mythological variety – the Norse ones, mainly, but that was ancient history fit for stories and had no relevance in the religion I was aware of.
Mind you, I was raised to be a logical and analytical thinker and I was never given to belief in things intangible, so without indocrination into the whole concept at a very early age there was really no hope in getting me into all that stuff once I’d grown old enough to have any concept in the idea.
Me too! I could have written your OP, except for the Canada part. I too didn’t really get the God thing until I was in school and classmates told me I was going to Hell. And I agree – there seem to be very few of us around.
The weirdest thing to me is when people ask what I “am”. I don’t consider myself an athiest, agnostic, or an anything. There’s just nothing there to be.
No influences. Starting 4th grade abouts kids would ask what I was and I would answer that, “I don’t believe in God.” That fully boggled their minds, and none of us knew the word, “atheist,” so they kept trying to figure out which “other” division of Christianity I was. In the end we decided I was a Christian Scientist. None of us knew what it meant, but it had “science” in it so I said, “Yeah, that’s probably it” and they stopped asking, so there it was.
I never much considered why I didn’t believe or doubt my disbelief, but I got the idea pretty quick that most of the kids who believed in God had no idea either. They mostly believed in God so they could get cookies every Sunday at the church. I never went to church, and it seemed pretty obvious to me that if God existed, he had to come from somewhere. If the whole reason that God had to exist was so that the universe could exist, then something had to make him. If the universe couldn’t exist on it’s own, why could God? Overall it just seemed like if Windi Pini can make her own gods, probably humans way back when could too.
My upbringing was pretty much the same as the OP’s. Religion was basically the biggest non-issue in our household. It was just never discussed at all, and we never asked questions. We grew up completely without it. I was dimmly aware that others went to church, but I didn’t really know what that was about. Though, when I was little, the church of jesus christ and latter day saints used to run commercials all the time, which used to confuse me, because one thing I knew was that christians worshipped god, so who was this jesus guy??? and why did they worship him also? I didn’t really figure it out until my late teens when I did a lot of independent research into religions.
As an aside, my parents didn’t stress any particular viewpoint, and it was only as an adult that I learned that my dad was a steadfast atheist. So it wasn’t like we were barred from learning anything. But since we grew up without it, I guess that teaches you that you can continue to do without.
I grew up in Canada, too. Religion was a non-issue in my family. It never, ever came up for discussion. My mother had some religious leanings, I think, but they were of the kind that say “it’s right to go to church.” And so we did, sometimes. Except for my father, who never set foot in a church of his own volition. I went to Sunday School and all that, but I had no frame of reference for all this god stuff they were talking about. No god ever talked to me or guided me or did any other thing to me or for me. Church was just someplace I went because my mother said I had to. None of it ever stuck. I never had to call on it. I was never indoctrinated with a particular ideology. I never felt it. As I got older, I began to get the idea that there was something possibly wrong with a lot of people who claimed to be in constant communication with this nebulous “god”, who in turn looked down upon and actively shunned those who were not. Religion has never mattered to me. It never will.
I’m also from Canada, and basically grew up without religion.
My paternal grandmother goes to church, so I might have gone to a few Christmas or Easter masses, but I didn’t really understand the background so it flew over my head. Other than a few wedding and funerals, that was the extent of church-going. I think we always said the Lord’s prayer before Brownie/Girl Guide meetings, but it was just something I memorized and, although I thought it sounded nice, I didn’t have any deep connection to it.
When I thought about it later (as a teenager), I originally thought that the lack of religion growing up was just incidental. My father stopped attending (Catholic) church around age 10 or 12. My mother’s family is nominally United Church, but I don’t remember my grandparents ever going to church while we were visiting them. My mother had converted to Ba’hai in the 70s, but only for a couple years, and hasn’t practiced any religion since then.
But I remember one time a bunch of kids from my elementary school were going to go to summer camp for a few weeks. It sounded very cool, horseback riding, outdoor activities, etc… Looking at the brochure, I didn’t even have any inkling that there was a religious affiliation at the camp. It wasn’t a “Bible Camp” per se, but just that it brought up religion a lot. My parents absolutely refused to let me attend, because they didn’t like the idea of having a religious component to the camp.
Another upbringing similar to the OPs. Even at school, I knew more about Aesop’s fables and Native legends than anything Biblical. Just vague notions. Then when I was about 9 I went to Sunday school with a friend and just asked her “Seriously?” Then, like so many atheists, I spent the next ten years reading the Bible and arguing with people. But even that was tough. I would have killed for a fundamentalist Christian at my high school. No such luck.
Mine was very much like the rest of you, except that I was always trying to get religion in spite of my areligious household. Neither of my parents were religious, and they maintained a “when you’re older you can decide what to believe” attitude. In primary school, my Catholic friends would come home from CCD, and I’d beg them to tell me what they learned, and then I’d go hug a tree and recite Hail Marys to it. (Seriously.) I was always reading books about the Amish or Hassidim or other hard core religious groups and what I read found its way into my make believe play. In high school, I joined a Christian youth group (Young Life) which most of the other kids were in for the weekly McDonald’s trip, but I was seriously trying to feel Jesus. I helped form a volunteer choir with some other good singers in my high school - we’d go around to various local churches who didn’t have their own choirs and sing during their services. Again, the other girls were there for the music, but I seriously loved being in church.
After college I discovered neopaganism, and am now a priest(ess) and ordained minister.
Another heathen, here. I learned a good bit about various mythologies from library books as a kid, but most of what I learned about Christianity I picked up from TV shows (mainly cartoons)…which wasn’t very much, or very interesting.
I didn’t have any religious instruction at home per se, but my family is psychotically literate, and I soaked up a lot of the Bible just through osmosis. But it never really had any more focus than Shakespeare, or Kipling, or any of the other authors that my mom would regularly quote. They sent me to a private school that was ostensibly Catholic, but when I started there (in the first grade) they were in the process of eliminating all the religious instruction. The Bible classes were pretty indifferent to begin with, and ceased entirely by the third or fourth grade. It was probably another year or two before it really sank in that people actually for real believed this stuff, and would base life-changing decisions on it. I still don’t think I’ve entirely wrapped my mind around that.
We raised little Dan with no religion. He had a slight speech impediment when he was young and was tested by a speech therapist. It was before he could read so the therapist showed flash cards and had him say the words. Afterwards the therapist said "He is really smart, he knew all the words except ‘church’ ".
I grew up without religion. My mom was raised hardcore Catholic but stopped going to church when she left home, and is a total atheist now. My dad comes from a family of communist, atheist Jews, and even though I knew my family was Jewish, I didn’t know what that meant, really. AFAIK, my dad has never been inside a synagogue. (Except for when my mom would light Hanukkah candles and make latkes. Not that she knows a lot about Jewish culture, but I guess she felt it was important for my sister and I to know about our ethnic heritage as much as she was able. Cause my dad sure wasn’t about to do anything about it.) In fact, when my parents were invited to family friends’ house for Shabbes dinner, my dad emailed me and asked if there was anything he should know. I’m not particularly religious, but since becoming an adult, I do associate with Jewish culture and religion. I am going to a nearby city with a synagogue this weekend for Rosh Hashana, for instance.
We had a typical atheist Christmas and Easter when I was a kid, but it wasn’t until I was older that I got the religious connection. AFAICR, the only religious event I’ve ever been to with my parents was my grandpa’s funeral mass. (My aunt picked out some Biblical passages for all the grandkids to read; my dad was annoyed that I ended up with a really Jesus-y passage.)
My parents had no religion, so I grew up without any.
When I was 10 my mother got cancer and she became a Jehova’s Witness.
Being her daughter, I had to go with her to her meetings.
I also had to study the Bible.
When she died two years later, I had to think for myself and like LilyoftheValley said:
goes for me, too.
Now I’m studying the Koran - and I still think ‘there’s nothing there’.
I grew up in Virginia in a nuclear home. Neither parent (both teachers; married 42 years) went to church. Dad refuses to discuss religion for fear of influencing his children (even though we are 36 and 41). Mom believes some version of Baptist and has been known to pray privately. Both grandfathers were medical doctors and atheists. Both grandmothers were uneducated and Christian. My sister and I were allowed to attend church with friends. My sister was scared into a fear of Hell by the Pentecostal church that was frequented by her high school boyfriend. She still believes but does not attend church. In third grade I walked out of a Methodist service after noting that the day’s sermon was a blatant attempt to influence voters. I never returned. I still live in the South and most of my acquaintences are “affiliated”. I do not discuss my lack of belief because I do not want anyone I love to feel afraid for my soul or responsible for saving me. I am not an angry outspoken apostate, heathern, or insert-your-word for faithless here. I did not have a bad experience with Christianity. I just have no personal need for faith. Science has answered all of my Big Questions.
My mother was a Presbyterian in name only and my father would only have gone to a church if they served Canadian Club. I remember a few Sunday school sessions, but that stopped by the time I was in 3rd grade or so. So I grew up free of the strictures and biases of any organized religion, and feel lucky to have done so.
My mom grew up Protestant but had let things lapse long before I was born, and Papa has always been an avowed atheist. I grew up ‘believing’ in god the same way I believed in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. I knew the stories of the Bible, the same way I knew Aesop’s fables or Grimm’s fairy tales. I also watched a lot of Davey and Goliath, but never really got an impression of god as anything beyond an older version of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Jesus never entered the picture.
Never went to Sunday school, never went to church, and was never given God as a answer for any of my questions.
As I got older (Elementary school), I assumed that I was Protestant, since everyone else in my town was Catholic, and I didn’t do any of the stuff they did. Later, I started getting into Martin Gardner books and looking at religions on the same level as belief in UFOs, psychic powers and spirit channelling.
That reminds me of one short point in my life where I did believe in a God in a similar fashion but only because I was feeling very sad about the loss of my dog (who had lived with me from birth until about 7 or 8 yars old). It was a hard thing to grasp at the time but I soon outgrew the feelings and so too the vague notion of a supreme being. Much like Santa. Although I must admit Santa was alot scarier to me because he would know if I was being good or bad and that had a direct impact on whether I’d get anything for Xmas
I pretty much grew up like that too, but my extended family was more religious. Until I was about 15 the only exposure I had to religion was going to church with my grandma once or twice a year. My family never went to church other than for baptisms and weddings. We celebrated christmas and easter but I dont think I even knew Jesus’ relationship with God until I was a teenager.
I can’t say I grew up devoid of religious influence, because I grew up in the Bible Belt, where random people would always be asking if I had accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior. My parents didn’t make me go to church. My dad sort of converted later in life, though it was undoubtedly because my stepmother is a Baptist. Very early on (around age 7 or so), I surmised that there was no God, since a lot of the stuff that supposedly happened in the Bible, etc. violated the laws of physics, etc. Plus, I figured that if God was so omnipotent, he couldn’t care less about us worshipping other Gods before him, nor would he require belief in him to punch your ticket to heaven.
