Showing my newness here as I'm sure most of you have already discussed this, but I'd just like to see where you came from.
I was raised Lutheran, Missouri Synod, in the Midwest (USA). For those of you unfamiliar with these lunatics, they are about the most oppressive bastards in the business. Their website actually admits that they believe in YEC (5,000 year old earth idiocy). I remember, even as a very young child, the fire and brimstone Sunday sermons and the terror they tried to impart. Somehow, even at that age, it made no sense to me. Remember, these are the idiots who rejected Catholicism because it wasn't dogmatic enough!
My (violent alcoholic) father was an elder, setting a great example. My grandfather, his dad, was a stoic German immigrant. His only words to me consisted of him demanding that I become a pastor. I guess I was the lucky one, being the youngest of his male grandchildren. He must have given up on the others. His wish went mercifully un-fulfilled.
It was overall a horrendous way to be brought up. I never could get past the almost giddy joy these people had in their belief they would find eternal joy in heaven while most people, Catholics and Jews in particular (they were so ignorant I doubt they even knew of Moslems and atheists) would spend eternity on fire with worms in every orifice.
Once I went to college I was done, but closeted to them. Still am to this day. I go along to get along with their hand-holding prayers while finding excuses to avoid going to church. My Mom is 81 and in ill-health. When she passes, I will have had enough and the others will either accept me as I am or bug off. I'm quite sure I'm the only atheist in my family.
My wife and children are aware of my non-belief. None of them are believers in any particular faith, but they are somewhere down the agnostic scale. It's all good there, they should make their own choices. I do sometimes point out the absurdities of religious beliefs.
That's it, my little story. Comments?
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I was raised a secular Jew. No gods.
Catholic. I left at age 13. My folks went Pentecostal after that, but I did not go with them. Joined a Sufi order in my twenties , then lost interest. Been an atheist for the majority of my 58 years.
Church of England (a.k.a., C of E or Anglican). I was baptized in that sect. I also had years of religious indoctrination in daily prayers and scripture classes at schools in England in New Zealand. When I was seven, I lived with my grandfather for a year. He joined every religion that knocked on his door provided that they would give him a book. His daughter, my aunt, who was epileptic and brain-damaged, was extremely devout and would sing hymns loudly whenever the TV was on. When I was eight, I attended a Salvation Army Sunday school for a year so I could join their wolf cub (cub scout) pack.
None of the indoctrination stuck. I was more or less an unbeliever by the age of 13.
my parents practices neo buddhism but they never forced their beliefs or religion on me. May be because they are buddhist atheists so they don't have problem with rational and secular ideologies
Roman Catholic but I never believed in god(s).
Quote, "..It's all good there, they should make their own choices. I do sometimes point out the absurdities of religious beliefs."
That's the way to go. Superstition is best gently challenged and never encouraged.
Episcopalian AKA Church of England. High Mass!
As far as I know, my family has been Christian for centuries.
Primarily Baptist, although I had an Uncle who was a Methodist preacher. Never noticed much difference, though, other than the crackers and teeny-weeny cup of grape juice at the altar every so often at my Uncle's church. (Those little crackers were plain, but tasty. Never enough juice to wash them down, though.)
Parents argued for years over whether I was Church of England or Presbyterian. That was strange for neither went to church nor read bibles. They were just in it for the argument. I confounded them all at age 9/10 by voluntarily attending Sunday schools in several local churches but eventually opting for the Baptists, because they had more amusements.
Sundays, in Sydney, circa 1962 were immensely boring. We didn't get a TV until 1964, even then there were only test patterns until noon on Sundays.
I was born and for a short time raised in the Ozarks southwest corner of Missouri. I understand full well the wacko churches there. Like I said I was born into the Episcopal church High Mass. There is a distinction. High Mass refers to the authority of the church. A low mass church is virtually independent and really isn't Episcopalian at all but rather there is an Episcopalian priest that is there just to read scripture. the congregation decides the practice. In high mass, the church is strictly structured to obey and observe the ordained authority of the Episcopal hierarchy, i.e. the Bishops. But I digress. Rural churches take wild and idiotic turns and twist. They are like children that never have parental guidance. The Unity Church is headquartered in Missouri and it is a wacky as can be.
Take for example my stepfathers sister. She was Nazerine. Her church didn't answer to any church authority and was Nazerine in name only. Two factions of that church emerged fighting over biblical interpretation. My step-aunt was involved in barricading herself in the church with all the children of the congregation. Her faction believed that all the children should be gathered up and taught Sunday school 24/7. She was arrested and sent for a psych evaluation. Most rural churches just wing it. They improvise. They don't know what they are doing but command the complete obedience of their congregation. Take the Branch Davidians. They are all nut cases but the more remote one of those churches is from the core group the wackier they get. It is the same with all religions. There is no set standard for any religion. They fragment split and become different sects and retain the name of the core that they split from. Like Franciscan Monks are supposedly catholic even though they believe almost entirely different than Dominican catholics.
Just take the term "Episcopalian". The religion is the Church of England which became Anglican. Early Americans were Anglicans, but because of the Revolution, they could not cede authority of their faith to the King that they were rebelling against, so they became Episcopalian. From there it gets messy. The authority or governing body of the Church of England is literally the royal family with operational control by the Bishop of Canterbury. So in the USA, the authority is shared by 4 bishops distributed across the country. However, by the early 1800s, some Episcopal churches were so remote that they just didn't answer to that authority thus low mass and the wackiness began. There are even evangelical episcopal churches. Whatever the fuck that means. As I said I was born in the Episcopal Church High Mass, but by 17 I had had enough and rejected all gods and religion.
NewSkeptic: "I was raised Lutheran, Missouri Synod, in the Midwest (USA). For those of you unfamiliar with these lunatics, they are about the most oppressive bastards in the business."
I would beg to differ. I was raised in the North Carolinian Baptist Bible Belters. Only their God was a more vicious and savage and horrific monster than these daemonical vampires. I ain't going into any details here. You will just have to wait until I publish the book I am currently working on.
Basically, as Andy Rooney put it, I was born atheist. Always have been atheist. However, I was a loner. No one else, except my father who did not "give a damn either way," has ever thought like me. When I met my future wife, it was a "godsend" since she was atheist, and her parents were also atheists. However, after my family's deaths, I was again put between the hammer and anvil of those damnable Christians. It was not until I moved out west that I could get away from a mostly absolutist population. However, my family still pummels with the "You need to get saved" bullshit. Saved from what?
I am quitting before I rant uncontrollably...
rmfr
Raised as Catholic, realized I'm Gnostic Atheist.
I was adopted at a young age by my grandparents. My grandmother was the catholic and my grandfather was just a great human being. I remember hating everything about church from a young age and I never felt like I fit in. I was also the only grandchild that was made to go to church. Out of eight grandchildren, I was the only one to get woken up on Sunday morning to go to church. Beyond that my grandmother idolized my sister and our cousins, while she treated me like literal dirt. She physically and mentally abused me, and I guess you could say spiritually by making me go to church even though I didn't want to, and when help from real people didn't come that's when I would try to turn to prayer. After that my depression and anxiety took a turn for the worse, for a long time I contemplated suicide, and actually tried to kill myself a few times.I used to think god hated me for some unknown reason, until I started to piece together the rationalization that there is no god.
That's all it took, a little rational thought, and the ability to see the suffering of the world, to realize there is no all powerful, all knowing being. I moved out of their house the day after I graduated high school and I haven't looked back. Since then my life has gotten better. While I still struggle with depression and anxiety it isn't as bad as it used to be. I have a family now and my son is the best part of my life. My life sure took a huge one-eighty when I became an atheist.
Hello there, I am from England. My story is a bit like yours, initially I was brainwashed as C of E, then my mother and father decide to divvy out the kids, my brother and I were indoctrinated as 'barmy baptists', whille my sister was kept on as C of E. at the abe of 13 just nefore I was dunked in the bath I decided that t was a load of nonsense, stopping going to church a telling my biolent father that he needed his head examining. The Baptists were very doctrinaire and seemed as much to do with the local masons as anything else. What a load of crackpots. My sister remains barking mad, poor thing. All the best to you, i think i will buy a couple of Atheist t shirts, we have to get our rights in society and stop all this child abuse that hides behind relgious facades.
Neither of my parents gave a shit about religion raising me. My dad's an atheist and my mom isn't sure what she believes. My aunt and uncle on my mom's side are devout Baptist, and that's where most of the religious influence came from. Considered myself a Baptist until about 14 when I actually thought about the things I learned in my youth ministry. Been a De Facto atheist since then, and got really into science. Got accepted to a good university nearby recently, and I've got a full ride to get my Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. Hoping to work as a aviation technician for SpaceX. That'd be awesome.