I was raised roman catholic, but I was never devout. Before I was even a teenager I had essentially became a non-denominational christian. Most of what was preached or written was too ridiculous to take seriously. It wasn't til much later (25ish) that I actually started to put the bible under serious scrutiny. It didn't hold up. I think most believers rationalize away all the dumb stuff (like I did) and unwittingly create a god they agree with. It's that final step of asking "why believe any of it?" that many Americans struggle with.

I was raised in a family that baptized infants due to tradition, rather than belief. We never attended church and expressed the same level of belief that is allotted to the Easter bunny. I played with religion for a brief period in my 20’s but could never maintain a belief that allowed it to be more than wishful thinking. Critical thought was a part of my childhood and indoctrination was not. I am grateful to have missed the brainwashing that many clearly experience as young children.

I was raised fundamental independent Baptist. I would tell my story but I've done it too many times. Lol

I was raised in the Lutheran faith and had parents who were active in the church most of my childhood. And it was the Missouri Synod, the more conservative branch of the Lutheran Church. My sisters and I went to church on Sundays, plus Bible study classes, and Catechism classes as teens. It wasn't until college that I even questioned any of the biblical scripture or gave much deep thought to what religion is on a societal level as a 'group activity' or 'social construct'. And I recall now that any time I went to church during that time of my life, I really did find myself uncomfortable with a lot of the sermon topics. Mainly the topics of 'sinfulness' and 'hell/punishment'. As I took more classes in anthropology, sociology, Women's Studies and psychology, all the information I gathered just seemed to point in one direction to me: religion is man made, religion tends to be patriarchal and conservative, and people use their faith to cope with the unknown and with scary human life events. Plus, I made my first atheist friend in college so he really helped me talk and debate about some of this new found knowledge I was getting in our classes. It was very liberating to me. Like a huge burden removed. But it did hurt my mother, sadly. I know she took it very hard when she found out my non-belief status! I was in my early 20's when my parents figured it out or I brought it up...I honestly don't remember the exact moment. But anyway, I've been an atheist for 30+ years and raised kids with no religious affiliation. My son and daughter are also non-believers.

The first time I realized that adults really believed the stories in the bible was when I was about 16 at a party at a HS friend's house. Before that I had been in churches, but just to play music or sing in a chorus. I didn't think much about what was going on there because I had a specific role to play (violin). When I was 12, my mother had us read the Old Testament, a couple chapters after dinner. We had all read Aesop's Fables and Ancient Greek Myths, so we assumed this was just more of the same, but more violent.

My parents are not religious. My Dad's father and mother were health practitioners, not religious. My Mom's Mom was not religious. She was ostracized by her family for being "out" in 1916! She married an Irish Catholic after he promised her their kids would not have to be baptized or join the church. They weren't. Neither my aunt nor my uncle are religious and none of my cousins are either.

I took a comparative religion class in College as part of my BA in Psychology. We looked mostly at non-Abrahamic religions including some of the more obscure ones like Scientology as well as cults like the Moonies.

Religious people are hard for me to understand. I generally avoid conversations with them about religious topics.

The evangelicals being the antithesis of christianity woke me up. I realized bible study was not learning gods word but rather learning how to bend gods word to your way of thinking. That was back in 2004, it took another year or so to see what bible study was and what the christian really stood for.