Atheists? Do most of you have Christian parents or Atheist parents?

Question

This is more of a Poll but I was just wondering what kind of family backround you all come from? My mother is a hardcore pentecostal. My father calls himself a christian but doesn't take it as serious as my mom. I am an Atheist. How bout you all?

Answer 1

I am atheist but I was raised Catholic by my Catholic mother. Growing up, my father had no religious affiliation and did not attend church. I attended church with my mother (my parents are/were divorced) and my mother sent me to Catholic school until I was 13 years old at which point I asked my father to send me to public school.

My mom was dead set on raising me Catholic while my father let me find my own way and actually never discussed religion or spirituality with me while I was growing up. The first time my father and I discussed religion and spirituality was this past fathers day and I found out and that he and I have remarkably similar beliefs. I found this so interesting that I wound up with the same beliefs as him even though he never discussed his beliefs with me before.

My mother does not know that I am atheist and I suppose she just assumes that I am a Christian or believes what she taught me to believe. It's funny that the parent who was so dead set on pushing her beliefs on me was the one I wound up disagreeing with. This is not from a rebellion or anything of that nature, though. I just find it a bit ironic.

Answer 2

Gee, I do not know about my 'parents'. I was born and grew up in backward Georgia. I was a child of a rape, and my teenage mother abandoned me when I was two. The people in whose house I came of age were fundamentalist 'Primitive Baptist,' as their sect was called. They were racist, unendingly cruel, hateful, spiteful, vengeful, narrow-minded, but holier than Noah's T-Rex. The old woman was there every time the church doors opened. As a wee lad I was forced to attend: foot washing, laying on of hands, snake-handling, talking in tongues, rolling around on the floor screaming and crying and pulling hair. It didn't take, I knew from Day One that it was 100% nonsense. At age 9 I became an open atheist, which I still am. I've lived a life unlike that of most Americans (my avatar speaks a bit about it), I've been fortunate and I'm immensely content, a husband, a father, comfortable in life, and very much at home with unbelief in the murdering, jealous, vengeful god of a Bronze Age tribe of desert rapist, looters, pillagers, genocidal murderers of the innocent. On the day I turned 17 I left Georgia and all that.

Answer 3

I come from a family that lived in a very (at that time) catholic village. My parents were catholics with their mouths only, like most people, afraid of the social pressure.

The parish priest misbehaved in a terrible way. He stole money from the church and from dying people. More and more people stayed away from church, or went to another parish, which was unheard of at that time.

I was the first one in my family to stay away from sunday mass. I could not stand the sermon anymore. My father followed me immediately.
My parents were catholics, formally. Once they saw a way out from the suppression of the church they took it and lived like normal righteous people. The only difference was that they could stay one hour later in bed on sunday. I hope they enjoyed it. Please do not count them as catholics in your poll. They would turn in their grave.

Later in my life I had a short period, in which I wanted to become a priest. A priest, one of the cleverest people I ever met, discouraged me strongly. He gave me books on the history of the church. He was 50 at that time and did not know where to turn if he would leave the church. They had never paid anything for his lessons, ( he was a very good teacher) no social security, no pension, nothing. He was a prisoner there. He said: "Jesus should never go to the Vatican, it would break his heart."

I am an atheist now. I do not need to make a god to know what is good or bad. I do not believe in a guilt driven life. I am fairly happy.

Answer 4

My dad is an Atheist (grew up in a Mormon family with 12 siblings)
My mom is a Catholic.
They allowed me to choose what I want to believe in and I was able to go to different churches, read about different religions.
I am Atheist.

Answer 5

of course, extremes on the two factors are undesirable. yet commonly, i think of they may be. i'm unsure what that's approximately Christianity that makes the religion so worried approximately thinking and interpreting approximately different religions, yet numerous of the Christians i be attentive to do no longer even evaluate different religions. they think of each faith believes their Bible is the notice. (heavily, i be attentive to this from journey.) I additionally don't be attentive to (in my view) an single atheist that has any activity in taking rights faraway from a particular group of persons (like the gay community) because of the fact they do no longer seem to be blinded with the aid of a faith or a e book and can see injustice whilst it promises itself. They then practice this ability to their toddlers. So, barring different factors like abuse and overlook, I accept as true with that.

Answer 6

My parents are Catholic and I was raised going to church, etc... They're not religious so much, but more spiritual if that makes any sense. I turned atheist a couple years ago after study multiple religions and customs for a couple years. Guess none of them made much sense to me.

Answer 7

My parents went to church and Sunday school, like most children of their day; but in both cases it was done more for the social and community aspect than out of any deep religious beliefs.

When growing up, religion was never brought up in our household; and so when I was old enough to start wondering about what was going on with 90% of the rest of the world, I was able to view their belief systems with a degree of objectivity and detachment. It was in this way that I was able to see religion through the eyes of history and recognize it for the superstition and manipulation it is.

Answer 8

Both Christian. Lutheran specifically.

Answer 9

Pretty much the same as yourself, my mother is a practicing Catholic, my father was apparently CofE but never showed any religious tendencies, and I am an atheist.

To her great credit my mother never pushed religion on any of the family.

Answer 10

I don't know if this counts but I'm agnostic. I have two VERY wacky religious parents. My mom's a Catholic and my dad's non-denominational. They may be ok with mixing denominations but they're definitely ultra-conservative Christians.