Atheists have you ever considered that...?

Question

maybe if my parents were fundies and brainwashed me as a child or if i would fail to see logic i might be on the other side(fundie)
have you ever thought about this(personally it scares me)

have you ever considered that you might have still been a Christian/religious

Answer 1

Well that's what the movie Jesus Camp showed. Many children attending the camp were thrown into that fundamentalist lifestyle, having been homeschooled by their parents, never really hearing a different side than what goes at the home.

Answer 2

My parents are fundies who tried to brainwash me into it, as a child. And as most children do, I complied with their wishes and went through the motions in every way, being baptized and all, making them very happy. While inside I felt different and not really a part of what everyone else seemed to easily feel and accept. I guess I was just born without the phycological need for a "supreme being" to love and approve of me. The more I learned about the "god" of the bible, the more nasty he seemed, and further from reality. It would take a personal visitation and a slew of miracles to get me to even consider believeing in a god. I guess their god isn't god-enough for me. LOL

Answer 3

My family is traditionally Catholic but my parents are not fundamentalists. I'm sure this had a huge effect on my atheism.

I don't doubt that were I brought up in a very strict religious setting there is a good chance I would be brainwashed. It would be egotistical and naive to not believe that.

That's why I do not get mad at religious people. I only try to explain to them the lack of logic in religion and how really useless the whole concept is.

Answer 4

If your parents were fundies and brainwashed you to believe, would you still really be "you"? Would it be "you" who was the fundie, or somebody else? Besides, you would want to be a fundie if that were the case (if you didn't you'd switch back to logic).

Answer 5

Going to two bible schools (Catholic and Methodist) helped convince me that the bible was a load of rubbish. I had a very strict "moral" upbringing. I'm a very "moral" (or should I say "ethical") person, just not in the same way I was brought up (i.e., premarital sex is not a one way ticket to hell).

Don't you think it is funny how many fundies describe how they used to be horrendous "sinners" before they got "saved"? It seems to me that many of the good people who are Atheists don't need religion to sooth their guilty consciences.

Answer 6

Yes, I have thought about it, but I don't think I would stay. I am very logically minded. I always sought out reality. I remember when I was about 8 years old, they had us do African mask in Art. Girls were drawing hearts and crap on theirs and I made mine look like a real African mask. I got made fun of for it. They were saying it was ugly. Of course it was ugly. It was an African mask. African mask don't have hearts on them.

OR I would watch star trek when I was little and wonder why all Klingons spoke the same language? Seriously, I always thought about how small their planet must be, or that they didn't have separate continents like we did. It use to really frustrate me. I mean, if it were like that for just one specie they created for the show, but all of them, Romulun, Vulcans, all of them had the same issue. It just didn't seem like that was possible to me.

Answer 7

As a kid, I thought that if you did not believe, then you have some moral issues. That's how people were portrayed in movies, programmes etc. But my views changed. I was not a Christian, but I can somewhat understand what it must be like for believers.

Answer 8

Yes, education has huge impact in what a child will later believe in. It dosent mean religious parents always hav religious children, it depends on how they tried to teach them their beliefs. For me, my parents pushed me away from everything they tried to teach me - because they tried to do it by force, and the facts didnt match their words.

Answer 9

I don't have to consider it. My family are all very devout Catholics, and I was raised in the same manner.

Frankly, it doesn't feel like I was lucky enough to see logic. Sometimes it feels like I was unlucky enough to not be able to avoid it.

Answer 10

I am unrighteous and always will be unrighteous. I can never measure up to the Holiness of God. Religion will never justify me. Faith in Jesus Christ is what redeems me. Nothing good lives in me as a person. Christ is my righteousness. And if I seek to be righteous by my own works, then I deserve my condemnation. The law was only brought into place to show us of our unrighteousness. As the bible states, all of my righteous acts are as filthy rags. The book of James states that if if "you have only broken one part of the law, you are guilty of breaking all of it." It is the grace of god, that I recieved by faith, that forgives me and makes me acceptable in gods sight. "For throught the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing."