Have most athiests been religious at some point? Have most Christians or Muslims been something else prior?

Question

I ask because I'm wondering if the athiest perspective is more broad because they have already tried Christianity, for example. I would expect this is true.

Conversely, I would expect that Christians have not looked deeply at other perspectives as much.

Answer 1

I was brought up as a Methodist and attended regular Sunday school classes as a child. Christianity, as taught, never resounded in my heart and the older I got, the more questions and inconsistencies I found. In my journey toward faith, I read the Bible, the Qur'an, the Noble Eightfold Path, plus various books about and by the Dalai Lama. I looked at Shinto, Wicca and other pagan faiths. In the end I just considered what I believed in my heart, looked around at what I'd seen and started referring to myself as an animist.

Answer 2

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that most people change religions as the develop new ideas and experiences. I was raised Methodist, but declared myself an atheist during my teen years. But when I lost faith in a meaningless, accidental existence, I became a Catholic. Later I spent a few years in an evangelical Protestant church before returning to Catholicism.

In my years as an atheist, it would not be accurate to say that I had "tried" Christianity. I had never been initiated into the richness of Christian thought. I knew little about biblical interpretation or the history of Christianity beyond the events in the Acts of the Apostles. I had never read anything from the Fathers of the Church in the early centuries. I knew nothing of the great Christian philosophers through history, from Thomas Aquinas to Thomas More to G. K. Chesterton to C. S. Lewis. Furthermore, I had only received one sacrament, baptism. My rejection of Christianity was like an immigrant leaving America because he found New Yorkers rude.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 3

I think there are a lot of Christians and Muslims who were raised with their religions and remained in them.

People choose what works for them. Very often - part of what makes it work - is getting along with - and not rebelling against your family. So - they just go with the family religion.

There are Christians who have come from other religions, I'm sure. Jews for Jesus and all of that.

I think it is more common for someone to convert from Christianity to Atheism. But - sometimes - when the person is young - it has to do with rebellion against the parents and not much to do with gaining a broader perspective.

I have a Religious Science minister friend who was raised Atheist and decided, at 50 - that there is a God. Her Atheist Mom was at the 9/11 meditation last night and read the Baha'i peace prayer. (It has no mention of God) Now THAT is a having a broad perspective.

Namaste!

Answer 4

As an atheist myself, I'd fit your description quite well, as I grew up in a strongly christian family. Everyone in my immediate family and every side around me is christian for generations, and thus, so was I. And I believed it pretty much all the way into my very early 20s.

However, I live in America, and in many areas of America, atheism is seen as a very negative thing by the populace. However, there are areas and other countries across the world where atheism would be far more common, and it's not at all a guarantee that an atheist would have a greater knowledge base than a christian.

As a generalization specifically from experience though, I would say that yes, around the area of the U.S. I'm in, a Christian person is less likely to do research and learn in detail about other religions than an atheist might. That's not at all a universal, but from talking to people on both sides, it's pretty common. There's a sad theme of "There's us, and then there's everybody else going to hell" among many christians that leads them to not bother with anything else that would be considered sinful/unholy. Learning in detail about another religion could be considered exposing yourself to that belief system, which would upset your family, for instance.

But again, I may be in the minority. For me, giving up my belief in theism is what got me more open and fascinated by various religions and people's beliefs than I ever was with Christianity. I don't discount that their gods may somehow exist, but given that religion sometimes dictates a person's entire life, I'd rather learn about it than just stick to what I grew up learning. Also, because atheists have to so thoroughly defend themselves among a conservative crowd, some may do research on religion just so they can hold up their opinions if cornered by a fundamentalist.

Answer 5

I think stereotypes about "most" this or that are irrelevant. Our stories - all of us - are personal and individual ones.

Religion is not like the dress shop, and you don't make a better impression for having tried on five different belief systems. You're not necessarily any more experienced a person if you tried out the Dalai Lama, Richard Dawkins, the Pope, and the Aga Kahn.

Take the late Pope's "Crossing the Threshold of Hope." He wrote extensively on his impressions of Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. He did not need to "convert" to these things to be able to have a broad minded view of them.

I myself have been a Protestant, an agnostic, and finally a Catholic. But I don't wave that about as though it were some kind of badge of honour - quite the contrary, it makes me very much a spiritual late bloomer, who finally found what he was looking for quite late in life!

But even being Catholic hasn't closed me off... one of my favourite books is "Transforming Suffering," a book written by a group of Buddhist and Catholic monks, nuns, and laypeople who meet at the Gethsemane Encounter.

Answer 6

How could there be any one who has not had doubts one way or the other.

If you are a thinking person, you have wondered ,had doubts or questioned.

Some folks make decisions out of fear, or distrust or anger due to past grievances.
These decisions about what to keep and what to discard, can go in either direction.

Lets face , people on both sides can be judge mental and downright mean about the way they feel on the subject of religion .

Answer 7

I was raised as a Christian, became an atheist, and then became a pagan. I continually try to examine and empathize with all perspectives, although I may find their dogmas lacking and their fanaticism unpleasant. I measure folks by how they act, not what belief system they follow.

Answer 8

Well the sad truth is that many people (majority? who knows) never question or investigate the beliefs they were raised with whether that be Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, etc, etc.

I think it is good for people to have an understanding of all the major world religions. Do they need to "try" them all to fully understand them? Absolutely not. I am a Christian. I have studied the texts and the claims of every single major world religion. I have even visited multiple "worship" venues of these religions and spoken to various leaders and adherents to these religions as well.

Answer 9

Yes, in the United States at least, most atheists are former Christians.

And yes, you're right, it does give us a broader perspective than the believers have. As you've noticed, atheists' complaints about believers are based on what believers really do and who they are, while believers' complains about atheists are based on false notions of what atheists really do and who they are.

Answer 10

As an atheist I tried, I really did, to believe (mostly for the sake of pleasing my mom) but in the end I have to be true to myself. No, I was never really a christian before. Even as a child I never recall ever believing in god.