Do you follow the religion you were raised with?

Question

For example, if you were raised as a Christian, are you still a Christian?

If not, why did you decide to change?

If so, do you think you would follow that religion if you hadn't been raised with it?

Honest answers please, just to satisfy my own curiosity.

Personally I was sort of raised Christian, in that my parents took me to church on Easter and Christmas. It bored the daylights out of me, and i hated it. When I was still fairly young I refused to go one Christmas, and to their credit my parents didn't make me go.

When I got a bit older and thought about it, I decided that an omnipotent deity just didn't make sense to me. Now I characterize myself as a de facto atheist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_atheist

I don't think my mom's been to church in ages either. My dad probably goes every so often to appease my grandmother, who's a hardcore born again Catholic-type person.

Answer 1

I wasn't really raised in any religion.

My father believed in an "intelligence" of a sort of supernatural sort. And that when we die our essence -- well, sort of analogous to our bodies, which become part of the ground, and then of the plants, and things eat the plants, and so on.

My mother is a Unitarian. (As they say, when Unitarians pray, the open with "To whom it may concern.")

I sort of believed in god, because it just seemed everyone did.

Then I thought about it and realized the idea made no sense to me. I was around 12 or so. Maybe a bit older.

I think if I'd been raised in a religion, I would still have become an atheist, but probably later in life. Not until college.

BTW, in the whole history of the world, the overwhelming majority of people followed the religion of their parents.

Answer 2

Nope. I was baptized a Catholic as an infant and raised in the RCC until I was about 8 or 9, when my mother decided she'd had it with the Church's misogyny, etc. and stopped making us go to mass. By that point, I'd already become too skeptical for the faith anyhow, so it was a relief that I didn't have to go anymore. My interest in religions remains, but I don't believe a word of it. I'm an atheist.

There is no way I'd ever have participated in the RCC if I hadn't been forced as a child.

Answer 3

I was raised a Roman Catholic but do not follow that religion. I found that I could not agree with much of what it said. I can say that since I was around 13 or 14, that religion did nothing to inspire or motivate me. As I matured, I realized I was more of a rational being and that I did not want to count on a non-existant spritual world.

I thought that the present life was more important than awaiting salvation and an afterlife. I recognized too many coercive elements to that religion that made people stay out of guilt over things they had never done. This did not seem like a valid basis for living an ethical life.

Answer 4

I don't follow the religion I have been raised with. I do participate in some rituals just to socialize with other family members.

In my honest opinion - all religions - are commecial institutions with a moral backdrop. There is no God. It's all in the human mind, and like we know;it can be easily controlled-that's what religions do.

Having said that - I have a lot of friends who are religious, and follow different religions - as long as it helps them lead their lives, I respect their need and religion.

I would not follow any religion though for it's own sake. I have my own set of morals I abide by.

As far on the debate on GOD and religion - There's overwhelming evidence for evolution - you can't deny it. Humanity is 'what it is today' because we have strong reasoning and thirst for exploration. I hope we will move away from these inter religious hatred /fights soon and let reason prevail over forced beleif's.

Answer 5

No.
I was raised Christian. Never really liked it. Too much dogma, I guess. At the age of 17, some really sick things were happening both in my home town and in the nation that were centered around Christianity. I took notice, and frankly, it disgusted me!
I became interested in holistic healing after watching a 60 minutes program on a woman working with AIDS patients. At about 25, I went to Pagan camp and knew I was home at last. When I look back at how I was raised now, I see all the subliminal messages that really screw up the minds of the poor children who believe it...and it saddens me greatly.

Answer 6

Ah, for once, excellent questions here: I came of age among primitive Baptists who hated anyone who was not like them, which covered quite a lot of the human species. I learned to read early, and by 9 I had read the KJV twice. It was reading the OT that made me atheist--the genocide, rape, slavery, incest, human sacrifice, stoning to death a child who sasses back, slaughter of the innocent, and stuff like that that many Christians shrug off, yet they say the Bible was the word of God. Today, in my twilight years, I am the kind of fellow--there are many of us who keep in touch with this site--who wants to "know." Your 'curiosity,' you see, is a thing of value, of true worth. I am reading now about Native American religions and also Al-Qur'an in English translation. And, yes, the KJV again. I wish Christians were as questioning as I was as a wee lad in Jim Crow Georgia. Gosh, there have been thousands upon thousands of gods across the centuries. Isn't everyone an atheist, then? Except, among Christians, for a murdering god of Bronze Age desert nomads.

Answer 7

1. No. I'm animistic now. Was Christian.
2. I decided to change because I don't like limits on what I can or cannot do, unless I put it on myself. I also like the more natural feel of animism. Actually, I went Christian, Pagan, Diabolor(or how ever you spell it), Animist. Good idea to get a feel for a few religions, eh?
3. Nah. Just not my thing, wondering about god all the time.

Answer 8

Yes, I was raised a Christian but I'm not the same denomination I was then.

I was raised Methodist and now I'm a devout Catholic. There is a huge difference in the two.

Answer 9

I was raised Catholic and I do not follow or practice that religion. There are many reasons why I don't. The biggest reason of all is because of an experience I had. When I was 5, my father killed himself. There was not memorial or funeral, there was no place for me to go and visit his remains. When I turned 22, my grandfather (dad's dad) passed away and not long after my grandmother told me the story of what happened after my dad died. They went to the catholic priest who told them to forget about my dad because he would spend eternity in hell. as a result, neither of them dealt with their loss or grieved. Both of my grandparents died very ill and in great pain and I believe it was because they did not deal with my dad's death. Catholicism seems to have no room for humanity. It's all about rules that do not serve the people that follow them in a spiritually nurturing way. I cannot accept or be a part of that. I need to believe that god loves me as opposed to holding me to unattainable standards that i never will achieve all for the purpose of me fearing him.

Answer 10

I was raised, baptized and confirmed Lutheran (Missouri Synod).

I am now an atheist.

I read the bible and asked questions, always being told "have faith." That's not a sufficient answer to someone who has questions. Most of the stories in the bible just make no sense to me at all (multiplying food? worldwide floods and HUGE boats? man raised from the dead?) and the more I read, the more I realized it was just fiction masquerading as fact.

I would not follow that religion if not raised with it.