Were you brought up in a primarily atheist or a primarily religious environment? If you were raised religiously, what caused you to leave your old religion, and which one did you once follow?
2007-11-14 04:29:25 · 31 answers · asked by Shinkirou Hasukage 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Can't pick a best answer, better put it to the vote! ^^
2007-11-15 16:24:54 · update #1
I was raised in a non-theist, semi-spiritual home...
2007-11-14 04:32:19 · answer #1 · answered by Eleventy 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
My parents aren't really religious. But I did attend a religious school for Pre-school and Kindergarten (the prime indoctrinating time). But I didn't really have any religion after that. It was Christian. I ended up where I am just form being exposed to a little of everything, and I decided that science was how I wanted to gain knowledge of the universe. And anything that science couldn't answer, I would wait until it could, rather then make up an answer.
2007-11-14 12:44:52 · answer #2 · answered by Take it from Toby 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I was raised in a Roman Catholic household. I left Catholicism when I left South Africa at age 20, though I had been a closet Atheist since age 17. My father was an insane fascist, a former member of the Nazi party, and said that so long as I lived under his roof I would serve the Lord.
Why did I stop believing? I was an avid reader.
2007-11-14 12:44:10 · answer #3 · answered by Kemp the Mad African 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I was raised in a religious household, I attended church services (If I couldn't think of a way out of it... Parents only buy the " bad cramps" bit once a month).. I never followed a religion I simply treaded water until I left my parents house...
Being raised in a religious household does not equate following the religion of the household..
Research and the ability to think for myself lead me to my beliefs that no deity's have every or will ever exist outside the imagination of man...
My family is LDS(Mormon)...
2007-11-14 12:38:41 · answer #4 · answered by Diane (PFLAG) 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I was raised Baptist, and was saved and baptized. I attended church every Sunday, plus bible study, plus AWANA, as a younger child.
A high school education made me realize that everything I had ever been taught about the world and the way it works was incorrect. I prayed for months, asking god to help me understand why science and the bible were so opposed. There was no answer.
Then after an agonizing and frightening bit of soul-searching, and research into other religons, philosophies, and mythologies, I accepted the truth that the religion I had based my life around was nothing but another myth, just like all the rest. This whole process took several years. I believe I finally had the courage to admit that I was a true atheist around the age of 17-18.
It scared me to death at first. But eventually I realized that that fear was just another facet of the brainwashing that I had been subjected to since birth.
I'm all better now.
2007-11-14 12:34:20 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 1⤋
Parents were C of E, I went to Catholic schools, got "born again" when I was 16 and was a Bible fundie until I was 18. Then I thought something wasn't quite right, and regarded myself as agnostic until about 3 months ago when I finally decided the whole thing's a load of bollocks. I'm 33 now.
2007-11-14 12:40:00 · answer #6 · answered by Scumspawn 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I was indoctrinated into the catholic cult at a young age, even went to catholic school until 9th grade. The main factor in my leaving the cult was my education, realizing that my parentss beliefs were based on their parents' beliefs and so on, with no one really questioning or critically examining them. When I did examine those beliefs I found that they were all based on a single set of fairy tales with nothing to back them up. So, I logically thought about what I did believe and came back with nothing supernatural and mystical. The search for truth is what led me away from religious cults.
2007-11-14 12:37:30 · answer #7 · answered by ibushido 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I was raised by a bible-thumping Christian mother, and as soon as I realized she didn't understand radiometric dating (perhaps the age of 9 or 10) I knew we were going to have problems.
Nevertheless, I endured it all, communion, confirmation, church, catechism, read the Bible (three times!) and the entire time it was all a front. I never believed any of it, and when I finally came clean (around 15) my mother was crushed.
She still thinks I rejected her, and that I'm damned. Poor, deluded woman.
2007-11-14 12:46:46 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
My parents were both Catholic as this was the way they were raised. My sister and I were baptised as babies as was the custom but that's where the religion really ended.
Our parents wanted us to find our own way and if that included a belief in Jeebus and his divinity then so be it.
I will add that both my parents aren't religious anymore and see Xianity as being more allegorical than literal.
2007-11-14 12:35:34 · answer #9 · answered by JavaJoe 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I was brought up in a religious home.
Then I graduated from the 6th grade and learned the difference between children's stories and reality.
A graduate degree in a science field pretty much put the final nails in the coffin.
2007-11-14 12:43:31 · answer #10 · answered by Morey000 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Primarily atheist. I received no religious education, but there was no negative talk about religion/god(s), either.
2007-11-14 12:32:57 · answer #11 · answered by Maria - Godmother II of the AM 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋