How can one be raised Christian? (Atheists)?

Question

Many of the atheist here claim that they were "raised" Christian. How can this be when giving your life to Christ is a decission that an individual makes for themself? (parents or political figures can't make you accept Jesus) Did you actually give your life to Christ and then turn away, or just ignored a Christian upbringing?

Great answer Mike M, I was in a similar situation. It didn't hit me till I was 26

A lot of you talk about indoctrination, and gaining critical thinking skills as you got older. At what age did you come to realize that murdering a baby, wasn't really murder because its not a human yet? Or how about without any evidence of transitional fossil forms, nor observable evidence in nature/lab, macroevolution is true? Or all life spontaneously came from nothing? How about a little intellectual honesty please.

who would have thought murder/kill had to be defined (especially to such a 'wise' group of free thinkers)?
kill - to end a life
murder - to end life w/o provocation, (doesn't matter how man 'cells' are involved) war, self defense, death penalty are not without provocation therefore they fall under the 'kill' category.
If you want an unbiased stand on abortion, show one to a child, a see if they see nothing wrong with it. Turn your conscience back on.

daniel, yes I do reject Zeus, Allah, Santa etc. Don't you have to reject something to deny it? Or has postmodernism corrupted your thinking, 2 contradictory items can both be true?

Answer 1

Take the example of Santa Clause. Most kids believe in him because their parents encourage it, but as they age, they realize that no fat old man in a red suit would expend so much energy to give out gifts. I too eventually realized that no god that powerful would ever need to kill.

Answer 2

I was not raised Christian. But I think you are ignoring the fact that ones parents have a significant effect on how one sees the world, as well as what one believes is true. How else would you account for the fact that greater than 95% of all people just follow the religion of their parents?


EDIT:
"At what age did you come to realize that murdering a baby, wasn't really murder because its not a human yet?"

- When I was about 16 and started studying biology seriously. I realized that if an embryo did not have a brain advanced enough to think or suffer enough to even care if it was aborted (before about 22 weeks), we should not cause women to suffer because they do not want their embryos.


"Or how about without any evidence of transitional fossil forms, nor observable evidence in nature/lab, macroevolution is true?"

- None of those statements are correct.


"Or all life spontaneously came from nothing?"

- Who believes that? Certianly no scientists.


"How about a little intellectual honesty please."

- There you have it. Now it's your turn.



EDIT 2:
"who would have thought murder/kill had to be defined (especially to such a 'wise' group of free thinkers)?
kill - to end a life
murder - to end life w/o provocation, (doesn't matter how man 'cells' are involved) war, self defense, death penalty are not without provocation therefore they fall under the 'kill' category."

- So by your definition, getting liposcution, having a tumor removed, etc. are murder?

- My sister and I knew what an abortion was ever since we were about 5 years old. We didn't have a problem with it.

Answer 3

I was raised Catholic, didn't like it, but as an adolescent went to a fundamentalist church and did the whole baptism born again shabang. Then a few years later I did some serious investigating in the questions I had all along and discovered that god was a myth, but thought I would give it another chance and became a pagan. Tried that for a while, it was the most fun, but finally came to the conclusion that I really couldn't believe in god however hard I tried. Now I am happily an atheist. True story of a child "raised christian".

Answer 4

I realized that my "Christian" upbringing was based on a load of crap that denies freedom and self-inquiry. Religion is about indoctrination, and most children who are raised in a certain belief system retain those beliefs, without really "converting."

Sorry, but you asked. I chose not to ignore what other people believed, and that is how I stopped being a Christian.

Add on:

"At what age did you come to realize that murdering a baby, wasn't really murder because its not a human yet?"

An embryo has 100 cells. A fly brain has 100, 000. Our definition of murder is skewered if you support the death penalty against living, breathing human beings but also the imprisonment of women who terminate pregnancy in the first trimester (such as in El Salvador). Ensoulment is a religious idea with no basis in government policy.

"Or how about without any evidence of transitional fossil forms, nor observable evidence in nature/lab, macroevolution is true?"

talkorigins.org. Jesus Christ is your agenda. You will never examine evidence that proves evolution because you find it incompatible with your religious beliefs.

Or all life spontaneously came from nothing?

It didn't come from nothing. Life, according to ambiogenesis came from specific conditions on our planet that led to the formation of amino acids and materials suitable for life. It had billions of years to occur.

"How about a little intellectual honesty please."

-My thoughts exactly.

Now here is where you tell me you have no evidence for god or religion. Isn't it?

Answer 5

Most of us were raised in a Christian teaching home. Some of us thought for ourselves, and determined it be false. Some of us read the Bible and realized it was false. Some of us wish we could believe, but just don't. This is not a decision, it is a belief. Could you choose to believe the sky is polka dotted? Could you choose to believe anything at all? The question you ask is loaded. It implies that the atheist has chosen to reject Christ, when the atheist doesn't believe in Christ. To accept or reject, you must believe. Do you reject or accept Zeus, or simply believe him to be a character in greek mythology? How do you feel about Allah? Have you ever wondered why you believe in Christ? Because your parents told you? They told you about Santa Clause too....

Answer 6

There is no such thing as a christian child... a Moslem child... a Jewish child... a Buddhist child... etc. ALL children are born atheists... they have NO beliefs, whatsoever. What you describe as a 'christian upbringing' is a misrepresentation... it is a christian 'indoctrination'... i.e., brainwashing.

Some people... a very small percentage... learn of something called 'critical thinking'. That small percentage usually possess a lot of what we know as 'intelligence'. Religious beliefs and religious thinking... essentially, gullible self-delusion... cannot withstand the intelligent application of rationality and critical thought. It just evaporates... poof.

When a someone who had a 'christian upbringing' (indoctrination/brainwashing) becomes an 'atheist', they are not 'giving up' something... they are REGAINING something... their sanity.

It is not a matter of 'ignoring a christian upbringing'... it is a matter of overcoming brainwashing. Filling the mind of a child with the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of a gaggle of ignorant Bronze Age fishermen and wandering, marauding goat-herders, and declaring them to be some kind of holy cosmic 'truth' is most aptly described as 'child abuse'. There is absolutely NOTHING that is commendable about it.

"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called Religion." ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Answer 7

There is a misconception from many people about being a Christian. I used to say, "I was raised a Christian" but until I truly gave my life to Christ at the age of 32, I didn't realize that I had been raised in JUST a "Christian Home".
The word Christian is thrown around one's neck now-a-days like a towel after a shower for quite many a people who have no conceptual idea of what it is to give your life to Christ...and groups that have no right to use it but follow after "new prophets" and books other than the bible...anyway...off the subject. I do think that they are getting confused with being raised in a Christian home. I agree with you that they probably did not surrender to Jesus.

...for what it's worth

Answer 8

When you're too small to tell your parents you don't want a funny guy in a robe pouring water over your head and they bring you to church every Sunday that's what I consider being raised christian. It doesn't mean that I didn't think to myself, "I have Atari to play, lego homes to build, and Fraggles to watch, yet I'm stuck in an uncomfortable pew in a god-awful children's suit. The guy has the nerve to pass that collection plate around 2 times to get 2 dollars from us; the least he could do is put cushions on the damn seats!!!

Answer 9

No one can be born or raised Christian- God does not have any grandchildren. Each person must personally come to know Jesus on their own. Just because "I was taken to church" since I was born that does not mean I became a Christian, until I was almost 18 and finally admitted I needed Jesus for my own personal Savior and Lord- within Him I am lost, but I could not be a believer, and follower of Christ- unless I made that personal commitment.

Answer 10

No, it's parallel to academic education. What you are told early on in your life, you accept as truth unquestioningly. When the gaps in your understanding come to light, you become skeptical (as you age). Then many of these apostates actually start reading the Bible and research.

They then discover fallacies and inconsistencies.

They inherited their religion, and were Christians by name, without little regard to it. Then attend Sunday mass etc. They are not true Christians.

In all honesty, most average Christians just believe in a loving God. What makes them not pertain to other religions, aside from the name they call themselves by? Nothing.

Answer 11

God makes the Christian. It is NOTHING we can do on our own. Even the faith we have is a gift of God's grace. That is the thrust of Eph. 2:8-9. There is nothing we can do - not even any supposed "decision" we make. St. Paul is clear:

Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

You become a Christian when you are Baptized.