Have you changed from the religion you were raised?

Great Debates
41

I was baptized a Methodist as an infant but was raised as a Southern Baptist. My father was a preacher who lost his pulpit because of an affair he had with a member of the congregation. My grandmother and my older brother were extremely abusive towards the rest of my family (my grandmother emotionally and my older brother emotionally and physically), and to my astonishment they continually got away with it. Both of them claimed to be religious. I was a shy, bookish sort of kid, and at school I was continually being pushed into fights I didn’t want. I won about as often as I lost, but perhaps my memory is being selective in my favor. I began to wake up to the fact that many of my tormentors went to church and insisted they were good Christians. My family became more and more fundamentalist as I grew older, and by the time I started high school they were deeply immersed in that insanity. Most of them still in it are today.

About age fifteen, I became a fire-breathing atheist. Surprise, suprise!

As I grew older, I began to draw back from the hard-core materialism I’d adopted in my mid-teens and about my mid-twenties I became more agnostic. I read a good deal about religion and philosophy, and a number of personal experiences inclined me towards a mystical view of the world. I would say that I am still an agnostic, but I feel strongly attracted to both Buddhism and Neo-Paganism. (Then again, maybe that’s because they give me an excuse to burn candles and incense, things which I very much enjoy. :smiley: )I have no strong belief in any sort of personal deity, but it seems to me that consciousness and intelligence are in some way basic to existence and not merely by-products of our neurological systems.

Some years ago I joined the Discordians without telling them about it, appointed myself the Pope of Discordia without telling them about it, and excommunicated everybody but myself without telling them about it. So there are no legitimate Discordians today except for myself. Please don’t tell them, though. They might get upset.

42

I wasn’t really raised to be very religious. I mean, my parents taught me that God was out there, and never to take his name in vain, and say the “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayer before bed, but that was about the extent of it.

But then my grandma died and grandpa remarried and his new wife took my sister and me to our local Christian Church. That’s what it was called, so for a long time I never knew how to answer people when they asked what denomination it was. I’ve noticed in recent years they’ve added the word “First” to the name, but I’m still vague on what denomination it’s attached to. Just Protestant, I guess.

I was never baptized there (though my sister was) and I quit going in about middle school because some of the kids in my Sunday school class were really mean to me and other kids who didn’t “fit in” (not terribly Christianly of them, I thought), and some of the talk about what was and wasn’t a sin distressed me (at the time I didn’t even know what, exactly, a homosexual was, but I didn’t like hearing that they were going to fry), and all in all I decided I liked sleeping late on Sundays better.

The last two or three years have been a real challenge to me. My husband was born and raised Catholic, and his mom always nags and pushes at him for not being strong enough in the faith. (I’ve seen the term “cafeteria Catholic” bandied about, and it may well apply to him.) So he’s been trying to learn and do more. (hijack my own thought: yesterday he made it to church for the first time in forever and brought back a palm frond. We used it for a cat toy most of the morning, then went to his grandmother’s for a family dinner. There, he asked his mother what he’s supposed to do with the frond now. She said keep it until next palm Sunday and then either burn it or bury it. “Cat toy” isn’t an option, evidently. But this illustrates the kind of lackadaisical approach he’s always taken toward his faith.)

After my father died, my sister went through an emotional breakdown of sorts and turned to booze. Then she met a cute fundie guy and turned to Calvary Chapel. Then she met a cute Catholic guy, did the Catechism classes and has been Confirmed. I think the guy she’s married to now is either an agnostic or an atheist. He doesn’t seem to give a damn about religion, but he does go to Mass with her because it’s pretty, or something.

And I discovered the SDMB, the Skeptic’s Dictionary, and much, much more on the web. After reading a lot, and watching my husband struggle with his faith (and his mother), and my sister hop around trying to find the right faith (and the right guy), I’ve decided it is all sort of silly. As if there isn’t enough real stuff in life to worry about, you have to add to it the fear that an invisible man is going to send you to hell if you don’t worship him right? How is that going to help me pay the mortgage?

So… my own outlook isn’t a whole helluva lot different than it was as a child, I’m just a little less concerned that I’m going to be toasted to a crisp for eternity. I guess I’m sort of a Deist/agnostic/weak atheist. I just don’t want to outright deny the existence of God because I’m not emotionally strong enough (?) to give up that last crutch, plus I don’t want my husband, sister, mother (who still doesn’t seem that concerned about religion exactly, but rejects out-and-out atheism), or mother-in-law to think I’m heathen heretic scum. I mean, even more than they already do.

43

I was raised Southern Baptist, with all the emotional trauma that particular group can inflict.

I stayed out of church of any sort for years but I am now teetering on the brink of joining UU.

44

I was sort of bounced around as a young kid. Until I was five, the idea of God was foreign to me. Five was the first time I attended church, and that was a charismatic non-denominational church. I went there until I was eight, at which point I moved in with my dad, who was married to a fifth-generation Mormon. By the time I was nine, I had joined the LDS church. I was diligent and didn’t actively question what I had been taught, although sometimes I did accidentally do so by virtue of my curious nature, like the time I asked why Jesus was so different from David Koresh, and then asked why Joseph Smith was (I was only thirteen - I had no idea how offensive people would consider those questions). I tried to be a good Mormon, but I wasn’t at all, because there were so many things about the tenets of the religion that I simply did not agree with and were simply unable to believe in.

When I left home, I left the LDS church, and for the first time, began looking for a belief system for myself. At first, I clung to Christianity, but then gradually learned about Judaism, Buddhism, and Wiccanism - all of which held tons of potential, but none of which I ultimately followed through with. I guess I just realized that I had never really believed in gods at all, ever. I stopped seeing the idea of a deity as an absolute, and more as a man-made creation or myth, something we use to explain that which we don’t understand, just as humans have done since the beginning of time. Ultimately, I know that I really know about as much as a theist, but I don’t think I’m undecided, like an agnostic is. I think I am definitely atheist and humanist, although I have an open mind and would not reject the idea of a higher power if I felt I had reason to believe, and I think I always have been; I just think that I tried to force myself into one religion as a matter of fitting in and feeling normal, not so much as a way to learn more about myself and the world.

45

I was raised Jewish by a reformed (not religious) Ashkenazi (eastern European decent) mother and an orthodox (extremely religious) Sephardim (Spanish decent, specifically Syria, don’t ask). I was bar mitzvahed, attended Hebrew school for 12 years, and was rather kosher (no meat and cheese together, no shell fish, no pork, and other restrictions). I am relatively well versed in the Old Testament, and Jewish law and custom. At the age of 19 I told my parents that for many reasons, mostly science related, I wanted to consider myself an atheist. It’s been a year now and while my non-religious mother took it well, my father still hasn’t completely come to grips with it. Personally, I’ve never been happier or more content with my life or the universe in general. The only cause for chagrin is having to live in a decidedly god-centric country and world, but all in all it might just have been the best life choice I’ve ever made, and I would never and could never go back.

46

In a way. I wasn’t really raised religiously, we went to church occasionally (Methodist), my Dad was raised Episcopalian but a soft atheist, my Mom was raised ‘generic Christian’, believed in God but not organized religion (and in later years shifted to ‘believes in God but is mad at Him’). As soon as I stopped believing in Santa and all that I was a pretty hard atheist, dabbled in the occult as a teen, became more agnostic in my late teens and early twenties, and have become a ‘disorganized theist’ in my late twenties - I’m pretty sure there is some kind of higher power, but I don’t claim to understand it or even know much about it other than it seems to be very powerful and it’s interested in interacting with individual humans.

47

BINGO! I was also raised Southern Baptist, but find myself leaning farther and farther away from their doctrine. Actually, I have been for some time, but have still been a semi-regular member of the church. We attend a relatively liberal SBC church, so it hasn’t been too bad.

However, I really don’t know what I am now. I see myself as a simple Eclectic, since I have gathered many parts from different beliefs and made them into my own personal system. Normally, I don’t know if they would all work, but they do for me.

I would love to go to a UU church. However, I don’t quite know how my husband would react, and for us, church is a family decision. So, the jury is still out on this one.

48

My parents made no effort whatsoever to indoctrinate me in any religion/faith at all. The only time I’ve been to church/synagogue/temple is to attend functions for other people, or because I was doing architectural/artistic research.

My mum tells me I was baptised and christened, but I wasn’t sentient then so I don’t really care.

When Mrs. Barbarian was in elementary school the teacher went around the class asking what religion they belonged to. She had no clue what people were talking about, so said “Mushroom.” I still wonder exactly what the teacher did then.

We both still share the same religious beliefs ie. none.

No god, no rituals, no worry.

However, I have investigated many faiths, from several different viewpoints, and I always find them, or their active practitioners, lacking, and in many cases downright offensive.

But that’s a debate for a different thread.

ps. Hi Elenfair. Les Quebecoises rock!

49

If you were raised without a particular religion or very weakly one . . .,

I was raised pretty much without religion. I think my folks just never really thought about it. There were about two times that my mom decided that we should attend church, once when I was about 5 and once when I was about 12. I think it lasted about two weeks each time. There was never any talk about religion in our house.

I was also a free thinker from an early age. Always got hot about creationism, etc. from elementary on.

are you still not religious, or . . .

I have found religion

have you discovered something that suits you?

I’m one of those annoying Pagans who says, “I always was a Pagan, I just didn’t know what it was called.”

If you did, why the change?

Religion in any form always annoyed me because it all seemed to require a sort of willful ignorance. Any faith I was ever exposed to required that you deny reality in some way and believe some story that blatantly differed from observable fact. I was unable to do this.

Heck I didn’t believe my collage physics Prof. when he told me a specific case of how gravity works. I made him prove it. So I wasn’t going about to swallow any inconsistencies in a religion.

There are several reasons that Paganism works for me. The greatest is that it is a religious path built on discovery. If I want to know how the world works according to my religion I go out into the world and watch it work. If I want to know about ethics I explore the world to see what ethics work. And if I wish to commune with the divine I go out and shake Him/Her by the hand.

Paganism is a “show me” faith. No, “Read this and trust me it’s true. Hey it must be it’s thousands of years old.”

And I really always have been a Pagan. In early elementary school I read about the Gaia theory and liked what I read. (Yea, I know it’s shortcomings now but it made more sense than “God gave man the earth to do with as he wished”)In the 4th grade or so a fellow student pressed me on my belief in a god and I replied, “I don’t believe in god I believe in nature.” How much more Pagan can you get? :slight_smile:

50

**If you were raised without a particular religion or very weakly one . . ., **

My parents are strongly religious, but they belong to a very liberal Protestant denomination (United Church of Canada). My dad is from a line of ministers. I was baptized, confirmed, etc. My mom was in fact baptized a few years ago. They don’t go to church anymore, but they still worship (my dad more so than my mom, who’s more into yoga and whatnot).

**are you still not religious, or . . . **

Aaaah’ve been sayvuhd! Aaaaah’ve been sayvuhd! rocking back and forth ecstatically :smiley:

have you discovered something that suits you?

Now I’m a Wiccan.

If you did, why the change?

I read The Spiral Dance in CEGEP and it all sort of clicked. I found myself not so much agreeing with the book as finding that the book agreed with what I already believed in. I had a sensation of things that had been disparate webbing together. I was able right away to reject parts of that and my other readings that weren’t right for me, and I immediately felt comfortable doing so. The best part, of course, was when I met other Pagans (including my best friend/roommate), long conversations with whom helped me solidify & strengthen my beliefs. Now I consider myself quite religious.

51

Are you still the same religion you were raised?
I was raised Roman Catholic. As a child, I was a very faithful little Catholic: I went to CCD ( Sunday School) and went to parochial school. Heck, I was even an altar boy! Later, in college, I became an Evangelical Christian in an attempt to smother my burgeoning homosexuality.

Practicing or not practicing?
As I grew more mature, I realized that Christianity was a religion founded mostly on hatred and fear, and it occurred to me that if these were God’s people, God had really tacky taste in followers. Besides, they said terrible things about gay people which I knew were just not true, so it seemed to me that if Christians lied about gay folks being evil, they must be lying about everything else, too.

I’ve always had an interest in comparative religions, and I collect religious art. However, in my 39 years I have come to the conclusion that the supernatural world is just a product of human imagination. There is no God, no angels, no spirits of any kind. No Tarot, no astrology, nothing outside the material world.

If I were to follow a religion, it would be Zen Buddhism, because it deals more with how one views the world and being free from temporal attachments, and it involves no articles of faith.

52

Raised in Presbyterian church, became agnostic in college or thereabouts, am now atheist and attend Quaker meeting religiously (bet you didn’t see that coming!). Quakers have no creeds and hence no good excuse to kick me out. Seriously, they are very open-minded and include folks of an amazingly wide variety of viewpoints/beliefs, including Wiccans, Buddhists, agnostics, oh, yeah, and Christians, too. And are fun to hang out with.

Reasons: pretty similar to other posters who have lost faith, so I won’t rehash them.

(Gr8Kat: Gr8 answer!)

53

I once had a history teacher who stated simply that everyone has a choice about religion, and the choice is made in deciding where to be born. I believe he was a Janist.

54

I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Right now I’m questioning my relationship with God, and Christianity in general. If I leave the LDS Church, I leave the whole concept of Christianity. I don’t necessarily disagree with any of the tenets of the LDS Church, but like Goboy said, if Christians are supposed to represent God, then I don’t know if I want to know that God.

This is extremely difficult for me, because I can’t take the step towards being an agnostic, but I don’t feel comfortable with God and Jesus Christ right now. Part of me doesn’t want to leave, but part of me doesn’t like where I’m at.

I really don’t need this in my life right now. I have enough questions and concerns to deal with, without this on my mind constantly.

55

**
are you still the same religion you were raised?**

no.

If you have changed religions, what religion were you, and what are you now?

was raised Lutheran (ELCA), am now Atheist.

** Why did you change?**
Long process. I started to get annoyed w/ the doctrine of original sin and what I perceived to be God’s inability to take responsibility for His own mistakes (i.e., He made a contraption that broke, and blamed the contraption, rather than Himself). I became a rabid atheist for a while, and devoured all the rational counterarguments to theism. I’ve since mellowed out into an honest weak atheism. I don’t currently believe in a god, but am smart enough to admit that I have no way of knowing for sure. So, technically I’m an agnostic, but I feel that term has too many cop-out connotations (no offense to the agnostics here–it’s just been my experience). I would rather “take one for the team” and bear the full brunt of being labeled an atheist.

I’m still looking for evidence of God (only a personal conversion experience would likely sway me now). But I can’t envision myself attending church even if I did find God. I’m pretty solitary by nature, and have no interest at all in ritual, etc. It bores me.

What advantages/disadvantages are there between the two?
You mean besides going from being a good member of society to someone who is now despised by most people? I dunno. My Sundays are free.