How has your childhood effected your beliefs about God/or lack there of?

Answer 1

I lived with an Alcoholic Mother and Father W/O love and God in our home life, and was Physically Abused daily for nothing. I had the heck beat out of me everyday for sheer enjoyment it seems with anything they could get their hands on. Sticks, broom handles, wire coat hangers, and anything else that was laying around. Even sometimes fists. I saw the hatefulness and bitterness of a broken home all of my childhood life. Things could NOT have been worse for any kid. I FOLLOWED in their footsteps and became one myself until I reached the age of the mid twenties. There HAD to be something better as I found myself alone and hated by EVERYONE I came into contact with. However I gave my life to Christ, and started reading and studying His Word and applying it to my life, AND while I am still not perfect, (no one is) I have been clean and sober for 9 years now. I have better friends and a life without drugs and booze in it now. I am MORE happy now then I have ever been as I have FELT and SEEN the Love of Christ and he HAS saved me FROM MYSELF, and the hurt I have caused others. I am NOT Holier Than Thou, BUT I do not allow anything around me that will interfere with my relationship between Christ and myself. ALL Praise and Glory to goes to Christ Himself as he WILL ALWAYS be there for ME. Praise God in the Highest for His Love, Grace, and Mercy. I was the Devils right hand man, BUT NOW I will defend Christ with MY LIFE if need be. (I am in my 50's now by the way, and you CAN teach an Old Dog new tricks as I AM proof of that)

Answer 2

My childhood affected my faith in God negatively. I was raised by a half Catholic half atheist family. I always found mass so boring and all those prayers, that people recited without putting any heart on them, so empty. Plus, all those virgins, saints, it felt almost like supersitition.

Then I was a hard core atheist as a teenager. As a grew older, I studied Islam and Buddhism for years before converting to Christianity. When I opened up to the possibility of the existance of God, he sent me a signal so clear that I could no longer pay a blind eye to it.

Answer 3

I had an unusually difficult, painful childhood. As a result, I grew up believing that God hated me, or that I had somehow sinned so badly that He turned His back on me forever. Eventually, I realized I'd done nothing to deserve what life had given to me -- so I blamed God for what happened. Later, I turned from God completely and became an atheist. A very painful adult life, filled with abuse and poverty, only confirmed my judgement that God is non-existant.

But throughout all that happened to me, a dormant seed was lying within my soul: I come from a family of missionaries (several generations removed) and have a very devoutly Christian grandmother. I grew up hearing about God and that belief never truly died. Later in life, after I gained insight into my trials, I picked up a Bible and began to read -- lazily at first, then with growing interest. One year later, I was a saved, Born Again Christian.

I now understand that the torments of my childhood and early adulthood were fertilizer for the seed of God that lay dormant within me. I thank God each day for that seed.

Answer 4

As a child I went to a Catholic school with nuns. It was the best school that I went to throughout my childhood. The discipline was taught to respect the teachers, which were some nuns and some not. The cafe food was the best too. :)
Anyway, I respected the teachers more because they taught us to respect them. They taught us about God and we had plays. I liked being at this school. But, I was taken out because I was having a hard time learning.
But, then I went on to a public school and still had a hard time learning. But, I kept the Catholic school in my memory as the best school I attended. It was the foundation I needed to make my whole life seem like it didn't hurt as bad as it really did. A few years did make a difference for me.
The one thing I didn't admit to any one as to why I had a hard time learning was because I was abused as a kid. And it made focusing a issue for me.
But, I wish I had the money to send my kids to a Catholic school. If I did, they would be there instead of public schools.

Answer 5

As a child my parents sent me to Vacation Bible School each summer for a week. While we weren't particularly religious, and we never attended church regularly, my parents still wanted us to have some basic knowledge of religion. I even got my parents to let me attend CCD classes at the local Catholic church. I was always fascinated with things I didn't know so i decided to check out several to see what each of them had to say. While my parents never told us what we should believe in they gave me the opportunity to make my own decisions. It would be nice if more parents took this approach and gave their child enough credit to make their decisions on their own and let them figure out what is right for them. Forcing ones views down the throats of others is, in my opinion, the best way to keep followers away from a particular faith. In the end, and as a child I had made the choice that there is a higher power out there and that higher power takes on the persona that works best for each of us. I even feel that those of us that believe, believe in the same higher power, it's just that each of us has their own way of interpreting what that higher power has in store for them and who that higher power is. Sadly, for many religious groups, they think that their God is the True God and the only God. Maybe one day more people will come to a similar conclusion and there will be more harmony in the world.

Answer 6

I was raised as a Methodist and went to Sunday school where I learnt the stories of the bible. However, I was also taught to question by my parents and I started to question what I was reading. So I researched. The trinity doctrine never made sense. On researching, I found out that it was an addition to church doctrine. The inconstancies in the biblical accounts of the New Testament convinced me that the bible was not the literal truth.

On researching other faiths, I found more that fit with my own view of the world. Shinto, Buddhism, Wicca and Celtic paganism all speak to me more than Christianity does. I now describe myself as an animist. I believe that all things have a soul and that all life is connected. I live by heart and head, trying to live a good life.

I still respect the Bible, and the Torah, the Qu'ran, and any other holy books. These are guidebooks to how we should live our lives, written by those who wanted to improve things for everyone. They are to be respected, but not followed blindly.

May your god go with you.

Answer 7

I learned to believe in God, but I also learned stuff that makes afraid of, and angry, at God. Christianity has odd beliefs about who God is (Old vs. New Testament especially) and how He operates. I have a lot of trouble with the concept that you can only be saved by going through Jesus to God, and the fact that if you ask God for forgiveness on your death-bed you will be saved, regardless of what you did in your life, and someone who has been saved most of their lives can go to hell because they committed a sin before they died. Pretty gamey isn't it? The New Testament tells us to strive to be like Jesus. I follow that because I know it makes me a better, kinder, more gentle person. The hell and brimstone stuff does nothing but mess up your head.

Answer 8

I was raised Catholic. I never believed any of it. I did try though, and went through years of trying to make my life fit this God thing that people told me to believe.

Eventually, I had to let it go.

So I guess my childhood is where I figured out what I thought about God, but I would have ended up the same, regardless, I think.

Answer 9

My dads a lapse catholic and my moms a christian, but she doesn't believe in everything the bible says because man made it and thus its flawed..she doesn't pray to forgiveness either..not that i know of, but she does think her god is all loving.

Anyways I was always just a bit more stubborn about some things, my dad doesn't do anything he would do as a catholic, so in a way i have an atheist and a Christan in my family. (my brothers agnostic)

I naturally became an atheist, even when i went to church and tried to meditate (I was too young to be able to reject it) All i saw were patterns my eyelids made from being closed..I do remember seeing a door once, it was black sometimes turned to white and was always far away, i got tired of imagining myself running to it and from then on i kept my eyes open, luckily i did so because one day i saw a spider near me.

Even if your raised to be religious you can escape, I did it, and so did others.

Besides there have been so many gods for humans why bother woshiping just one?

I'd perfer many!

Answer 10

My parents did send me to a catholic school for a short period of time, but as I got older they backed off and let me make my own decision about God and religion. I explored many different avenues...I went to Synagogue with a Jewish friend of mine, attended a service at a Buddhist temple with another friend, read extensively about pagan religions....in the end, I decided that I am happier and more content putting my faith in myself, rather than a God, and believing that I have the power to control my destiny....not God.