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Did you grow up with religion?

I didn't grow up with religion, to me, it's kind of a foreign concept. It's not something that I think about another person being, so sometimes I am surprised to find out someone is religious. I'm curious how other non believers experience their non belief.

Remi 7 Mar 5
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43 comments

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7

Yes I did. If I know what I know now. It would of save me a lot brainwashing that was put in my head. Shame on Christian for brainwashing people on something that they can't prove. Shame on me for believing these people.

Don’t blame yourself. Religion is mastered with fear.

5

Yes I did, in Christianity and unfortunate events at 16 years saw me lose, 'God'. I went on to do my own study of Theology, which was hampered by my mother stealing my books! (Good Christian that she is, she denied it!). I still admire Christ for questioning and challenging the status quo, but find most so called Christians do not really follow him and as for his prediction of the future being a time of the holy spirit...no one seems to really work on that.

Sometimes I have thoughts that can only be from my upbringing and I need to question them. Like when someone's an utter git to me and I stand up for myself or even avoid them.

Is life simpler never having been indoctrinated? I guess it would be.

Right absolutely right!

5

I'm with you ... so nope, I was fortunate enough to have been born of parents both possessing genes advanced enough to allow their progeny to live free of superstition. Occasionally lonesome, often on the outside, but in the end, having experienced life to it’s fullest 🙂

Varn Level 8 Mar 5, 2018
4

No - I am quite happy with "absence of" all things religious I was never brought up in any faith - I don't feel any lack of anything and I'm quite happy with my life, I think finding out about the religiosity out there in the wide world is interesting - I feel as moral as the next person and don't judge anyone negatively who has a god its just a non subject really that only comes up when soemoen else brings it up but I do like this site and the people on it.

I agree totally. It's just not something I think about and so sometimes I have a hard time relating. And it totally blows my mind that someone would reject me just because I don't believe in a god. That just seems so strange to me. I was raised that people were people and we are all worthy of love and respect. I'm happy to have found this site. I knew there had to be a few of us out there!

4

I did not, and I'm glad for it.

d_day Level 7 Mar 5, 2018
4

No. I'm one of the lucky ones. We had to learn about it at school though.

4

Yes, studied the Bible for a few decades actually.
The insanity I was learning as well as the sequencing of the human genome (making evolution a sure thing) helped me determine that there was no sentient god of any kind.

4

I guess that I was lucky with this. My dad was a Mormon and my mom wasn't religious, but I think that she believes in something. My dad never really talked to us about religion (that I can remember). I do remember trying to force myself to believe in it because the thought of Hell scared me. I would go to church with my half sister or even friends, but I would always have to fight not to laugh or roll my eyes. My grandma in Utah would always try to force it down my throat when I saw her, but that wasn't often.

My favorite thing is when believers ask me if I am afraid to not be admitted into heaven, I always tell them, "just because I have read Harry Potter, doesn't mean that I am expecting my Hogwarts letter." They don't like that very much. 😀

ha ha, yes! By the way, I didn't see a Harry Potter group on here yet!

4

I lived out in the country and a bus came by my house on Sundays and picked my sister and me up and took us to Church. But, for some unknown reason to me even now...I felt out of place. I thought something was not quiet right! Ofcourse, I would have been shamed into next Sunday, had I ever shared my thinking, back then. It was not until my 30s that I really could take a stand for what was not right to my way of thinking. Over, the years my dissatisfaction grew and soon I felt like a whole person...without religion or a man made God!

I remember my aunt taking my brother and I a few times (my parents never went, but wanted us to decide for ourselves which I am grateful for) and feeling the same way, just out of place. I thought it was strange and boring and just stories. I never thought it was real. I remember praying to Jesus to ask forgiveness for taking a cookie one night and thinking "this is stupid, what am I doing?" I think I was in early elementary school.

@Remi I bet there are many such stories...instead of reinforceing our nature, we were led down a rabbet hole, lol.

3

My family was non-practicing protestant until I was about 3 years old, and, long story short, was sucked into evangelical Christianity at that point. I made a "profession of faith" when I was a bit short of my sixth birthday, as did my three older brothers and parents before me. So I suppose that counts as "growing up with religion".

I think what happens to people like myself is that it takes so much to deconvert and pry religion out of your head with a crowbar that it dominates your mental landscape even after you've done that. Or if you don't really try to expunge religious influence from your thinking then it still influences you that way. One way or the other, it's the 500 pound gorilla in the room.

That is not to say I lay awake nights thinking about it. It's just a big part of my formative experience and I have an interest in helping others out of the harmful influence of theism, so I spend time hanging around places like this sharing my experience.

I appreciate that insight -thank you - I don't think till I read your crowbar part that I had given much thought to the hold it has on people even after its rejected mentally.

3

My parents were raised in different religions (one Catholic and the other Baptist), though growing up they chose not to force my sister and I to choose any religion over the other but they did make us go to see the point of view and let us choose what we wanted.
Though I chose neither I'm glad they gave me an option since I read about other people not being so fortunate.

3

Yes, I grew up pentecostal church of god.

3

I grew up in the UK - a very secular and non religious sort of society - being religious was viewed as being rather 'odd' or eccentric.

me too.

@jacpod The irony is that I was born here in NZ and raised in Newcastle - my mother was Jewish from Poland there was a real reluctance to get me involved in anything to do with her ethnicity and what had happened during WWII - I was born twenty years after the end of the war and memories of that time were still very fresh.

@Eltopoman Newcastle upon tyne? You really do have a lot of interesting familial indicators - sorry for the sloppy ;language my brain went a bit dead there. I love Newcastle whenever I am there I lurk behind counters in shops just to hear the accent.

@jacpod I've been here in NZ for over thirty years and the accent is still with me - I suppose this is what happens when you are raised within a mile of the centre of Newcastle City.

3

Raised Lutheran, did Sunday School and Confirmation and all that. When I was a kid I went along with it gamely enough, but sometime in high school I stopped going. My parents thought it was just because I didn't want to get up early on a Sunday morning and I let them think that rather than argue with them about my lack of faith.

3

Yes, but it didn't grow up with me. In fact I outgrew it even before it had a chance to grow on me. I could say I never looked back but there was nothing ever to look back on.

I think it's interesting who some of us never "caught on." I remember my aunt taking my brother and I a few times and I didn't get it at all. Never did I think it could be real. I didn't really understand what it was all about. And I remember very early on rejecting the idea of someone going to hell because they were different than you.

3

Yes, until I was 10 then we stopped going to church. always new something wasn't right

2

No, I had very limited indoctrination with religion. I handle my disbelief in God the same way I handle my disbelief in the tooth fairy.

I heard someone say atheism is a religion like off is a TV channel. I liked that.

@Remi I live in the deep south, and people here have no respect for anyone who doesn't believe in a God. They don't care too much which God you pick as long as you have a God

@paul1967 Loki the trickster sounds like a good 'invisible godfriend' to have around

2

i was forced until i was old enough to say no more, it just did not make sense.

2

I would have to say I grew up when I realized religion was a hoax.

2

I did but never really attended church or was made read the bible

2

Eastern Orthdox Church--seldom went to church though.

2

I did. Methodist Church. I realized it was all nonsense at age 12, but they had great activities: Canoe trips, camping trips, parties, sports nights, etc. for the kids, so I stuck with it until age 18. After I left for college, that was the end of it for me.

BD66 Level 8 Mar 5, 2018

That's how they get you, ha ha. So sneaky! I remember a friend saying to me one time "hey, want to watch a movie and eat pizza with me on Wed?" I was like "sure!" She said "ok, it's at my church!" I was roped in! I was like, "oh... ok... see you there..." I was nice enough not to back out. It was the worst propaganda movie ever. I was in 8th grade and knew it was BS.

1

I was born into fundamentalist Christianity and preached it full time for 40 years. Slow, agonizing study during those years finally brought the light that religion is a crock of lies. My wife and I left the church and religion, and embraced atheism 18 years ago. Happiest years of our life. She died in 2014, but I am so thankful to know she died a free woman.

1

I grew up in the UK - a very secular and non religious sort of society - being religious was viewed as being rather 'odd' or eccentric.

1

Somewhat. Not really, though.

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