To Atheists that were raised in an Atheist home?

Question

When you were a child, did you question atheism or did it make sense?

CHRISTIANS, PLEASE, DO NOT PRETEND TO BE AN ATHEIST AN MAKE SOMETHING UP TO TRY TO MAKE ATHEISTS LOOK BAD

CHRISTIANS, THIS IS FOR ATHEIST ONLY

Answer 1

I am Atheist, but was raised in a "christian" home. I have never believed. My daughter says she is Atheist and has lived with her Christian mother for much of her life, except every other weekend with her Atheist dad, me. She at one time said she believed in Jesus, mainly because all of her friends did. Now she claims to be Atheist, which I suspect is because her boyfriend considers himself to be Atheist. I think children believe whatever gets them through their current social/family situation, and do not investigate their beliefs until they are a little older. Some probably never investigate. Belief without reason isn't really belief.

Answer 2

I was raised Catholic, but became an atheist when I was twelve. It made more sense to me then and now that I have the benefit of thirty years more life, it makes even more sense to be an atheist.

I have four children. 1 and 3 are atheists who view religious belief as quaint or superstitious.
Number 2 is a very spiritual and will likely join some religion or other, I certainly will not stop her. She questions ritual and dogma, but believes in a higher power.
Number 4 is too young to have an opinion.

My own lack of faith is tempered by the respect I have for my friends family and co-workers. I respectfully attend the wedding and funeral services held in churches and temples.

My children have been raised to respect religious beliefs that do not conflict with loyalty to family, community and democratic society.

And I never talk politics or religion unless asked.

That's why I like this yahoo!

Answer 3

I am an atheist but I wasn't raised in an atheist home. I do question atheism right now as well as christianity. I mean.....I'm only a teenager so i i have a while to figure it out.

Answer 4

We were pretty much atheist, probably more agnostic. it was not something to evangelize over and we were taught to respect others beliefs. When belief systems are challenged people tend to get pretty irrational. As kids we were all baptized, we did not go to church regularly, we did have bibles to read, as well as Greek and other mythologies(Norse, Roman,German,Chinese etc). I can remember my dad pointing out a bible story and after I had read it pointing out the same story in other books, some of them translations of works from long before the bible version. It was fun. I respect the bible as a collection of fables historical tales and poems. But I enjoy Hans Christian Anderson stories as well.

Answer 5

I never even knew what athiest meant, and I didnt hear about god at all until I learned it in school and from friends my family didnt go to church and no one ever sat around the house talking about how much we love/hate god....We just learned different, I was raised very close to nature, and most of my learning involved the natural world and all its weather, and geology and the creatures that live on the earth or used to live on the earth. One of the first books I remember is one I had about dinosaurs and all kinds of prehistoric life and I learned alot about the earth and its creatures and how life came about, why they thought some went extinct or changed etc. So since I was interested in science thats what I learned about. When I finally heard about god it didnt make much sense to me because I had already learned about dinosaurs and evolution, not because science was telling me there was no god in fact it never mentioned it at all. When I read about god and religion all I found was they tried to attack and disprove science all of the time, that in itself made me think it was untrue because of thier angry denial also because religion had no proof of what they were saying and never offered any explanations only attacks upon the scientists themselves. Therefore science seemed to make the most sense, and I didnt question my beliefs about it.

Answer 6

It actually never even was a subject.

I'm dutch, raised in Holland. Where i lived it was actually almost an abomination to be a Christian. God was not even a subject. We were just raised in the full understanding that evolution was normal. The creationist-fairy tale was not even a subject of conversation.

That's why, to me, this R&S section is extremely funny to be a part of :)

Answer 7

My mothers side of the family are all christian and my fathers side is catholic. I have never believed in god, there is a video of me at 7 saying there is no god!
at the age of 14 I read the bible just so I knew what I was talking about, and that really set it in concrete for me that there 100% is no god!

Answer 8

I am an athiest, but my parents are both Catholic. I was never really taught the bible, and my parents never tried to convince me God was real. My family celebrated Easter and Christmas, but we only attended church on Easter Sunday. I was baptized, but never given my first communion.

I was not really taught a religion at all, and now that I am the way I am I logically reasoned out for myself that there is no God.

Answer 9

I don't think growing up in a non-practicing christian home counts. He wants people that started with the idea of no gods

HURRY UP LIFE LOVER damn... :)
"I think children believe whatever gets them through their current social/family situation" well said

Answer 10

My parents are non-practicing christians, so i guess i was brought up the same. I made up my own mind as I got older and starting questioning the hypocracy of 'christian values'.