Question to forum atheists

[Shrykull]

I'm just wondering since most of you are atheists, have you been all of your life (or most of it) and were you brought up by someone who told you (who was a mild christian and not a fundie) about an afterlife and a good god, or I wonder if you were inspired by Mike to admit it here knowing this is a place you're welcome, that perhaps you had lingering doubts that you kept to yourself until you came here an admitted them, I remember one of his posts saying "I am the only one who says 'Yes, I'm an atheist' and defends myself when people start attacking my values?"

[Yuri Prime]

I was raised without religion. My parents are ex-Catholics, so they weren't extremists by any means. A friend of mine convinced me to go to church with him when I was in 7th grade and I was a lukewarm Christian for like 2 and 1/2 years, but after I moved away I decided I didn't really believe it anymore, so I've been an atheist ever since that.

[Icehawk]

I was born into a liberal protestant family. As a kid I was raised to be believe in God and we went to church now and then, but because I was in a liberal family and because I was always interested in technical and scientific things as a kid, I was more or less a deist (but with a christian leaning) for much of my life.

About 1.5 years ago when I first came across Mike's site I started educating myself more on logic, rationality, fallacies, etc. I finally realized the full history and workings behind Christianity and other religious faiths and gladly dumped it all for free minded humanist athiesm.

It took a while to get rid of all the nagging doubts in my head (19 years of and blind faith even though it was liberal is still not easy to get over) but its completely gone now and I love having a free and rational mind. As I look back now I can't believe how I once just blindly assumed such things like god existed.

[Frank Hipper]

I was raised as Christian as you can get without going to church. Methodist, but not very.

By the time I was 18 I was having serious problems with reconciling Christian history and it's popularly held ideals, not to mention despising fundamentalists.
It's pretty much been a voyage of discovery and un-learning from there.

[NapoleonGH]

My mother is an agnostic/atheist depending on the day (she was raised Roman Catholic and some habits are hard to kill), my dad is an atheist. My parents raised me to think for myself and to reason out these kinds of things. so i pretty much was agnostic till like i was 12 when i came to my current atheistic outlook

[Darth Yoshi]

Well, my mom told when I was like 3 that there was a heaven, but that was just to calm me down. I'd just stubbed my toe and was afraid I'd die (yeah, I wasn't exactly the bravest fellow). I thought that there might have been a god when I was ten, but that didn't work out. So I'm an infidel and damn proud of it.

[Robert Treder]

I've always been an atheist, and in fact, I've only ever been to one church service in my life, and I was too young to remember any of it.

I'm pure-blooded atheist.

[Seggybop]

My father is Catholic and my mother is Jewish, but they never made me do anything ritualistic except for fun (like Christmas tree or menorah). I never believed in any religion.

I remember when I was around 3 I was at one of my friend's house. They asked me what my religion was. I told them I didn't know. They asked me if I believed in god, so I said no. They told me it was called 'atheist.' I didn't think any more of it.

Later when I was around 10, I was at another friend's house and we were coloring easter eggs. My friend mentioned the Jesus story and I told him I never heard of it before. He was surprised and told me the thing. I said something to the effect of "yeah, sure..." and continued with the eggs, because eggs are pretty.

Occasionally my parents asked me if I want to go to church or whatever, and I always vehemently refused. I always figured it was a lame waste of time. I actually would sort of like to go now, only to see what it's like..

[Alyrium Denryle]

Former fundamentalist christian. Now look at me, I am probably the most well known atheist on my school campus(debating with the FCA guest speakers tends to earn you some notoriety)

[Shiva Archon]

I was born into a relatively nonreligious family. My dad is Roman Catholic and my mom is agnostic, but we never went to church except for relatives communions and stuff. I never thought about religion until I turned 13. My science teacher at the time (he was Christian, btw) taught us to not believe everything we're told and to find out the answers by examining the evidence.

Since then I've looked at the facts and decided religion is a bunch of convoluted, unsupported claptrap. Viola, atheist.

[zombie84]

My parents werent religious, and kept the few religious elements in my upbringing probably out of guilt, like most people (as most consider it "moral", and have lingering fears of hell and such). I wasnt raised in any sort of environment where conformity was the norm, so i developed an open mind, which was probably fostered by the fact that i was the first born of my siblings so there was no sibling pressure or influence. My father is Catholic and my mother Protestant, so any sort of strict religious limits and narrow worldview was eliminated, as most people probably would not care either. My father was an alter boy, and down the street from my house was a Catholic elementary school; my father had had good experiences as an alter boy, even though he was not religious and was considered a bit of a trouble maker in his day (long-haired teenagers that listen to The Doors arent exactly poster children for Catholicism), and so the decision was made to send me there and raise me as a Catholic. The decision was mostly for practical reasons of school location, but there was a vague sincerity to it, and my fathers parents and family were all devout Catholics as well. As such, i was raised in a Catholic environment; our family only dealt with religious matters because of the school, and literally every teaching i ever recieved about religious came from there (our family was the type that would only attend church at Easter, Christmas and weddings). I would say that i believed all the things i was taught--after all, what child wouldnt? I think the biggest thing was that i never questioned it; once in a while, as i reached my teenage years, i pondered what heaven was like, and at the back of mind wondered if in fact there was one. But i never really thought about the whole "does god exist, etc" thing--it was an accepted fact that i had been brainwashed with since a child.

When i graduated from elementary school, i chose to go to a catholic high school--not at all for religious reasons (i could care less really) but for social, as most of my friends went there. We were all just normal teenagers--we said we believed in god, et cetera, but it never really affected our lives and we never really thought about religion. The only common trait i noticed was the whole guilt issue--people would curse and make racist remarks and bully others, but as soon as someone blasphemied or doubted the Bible it was all "Gasp! What did you just say??!". I had always been an inquisitive and rational, free-thinking kid, much more than anyone else i knew, and i began asking questions about religion by the time i reached high school. I began to think less in terms of Catholicism and more in terms of that universal-god type of belief (im sure you've all run across it). But something about the concept of "Religion" and "god" seemed fishy--it just didnt sit right. The fact that i had been raised in a Catholic environment was key--it was the only environment, the only way of life i had known, and i think had this not been the case i would have been an atheist much sooner. No one i knew was religiously strict--everyone was i guess "liberal christians"; we all believed in evolution and science and stuff because we were all educated and intelligent people so there was never any of that ugly anti-science stuff. As i learned more and more about my religion (of which all of us had been pretty ignorant of--we were taught the "values" and "beliefs" but never the FACTS, and the history of it) i began to doubt more and more. It would have been hard to suddenly do a 180 and proclaim atheism in the midst of a heavily catholic environment, where i had to attend mandatory school masses and religious classes and where, as i stated before, unbelievers were looked upon with contempt as moral degenerates (i was never one to stir up trouble, and didnt have the highest sense of self-esteem).

By the time i was about 15, maybe even 16 i had become pretty much an agnostic, even though i never really admitted it to anyone (nor even myself, for i still carried residual feelings of guilt, as is common). As i slowly began to get more accustomed and comfortable with the issue of doubt i could really begin to delve into the whole belief structure. My brief stint with "agnosticsm" was a transitional period that only really lasted in its full form for a few months, but it was significant nonetheless. Agnosticsm is infamous as being the bullshit belief of an atheist that doesnt have the balls to proclaim outright unbelief, and that applied to me during that period. The internet was the most important role in my beliefs, as it allowed me access to lots of great material that i would have never had access to, especially being in a heavily saturated guilt-ridden catholic environment; i began going to web sites and forum debates, most of which occured on theforce.nets boards, which gave a broad spectrum of religious views but was still heavily chirstian-oriented. By the time i discovered Mike's excellent web site i was on the verge of full blown atheism, i needed only the final bit of bounce to give me the confidence to proclaim it. Mike's site was recommended by a person on theforce.net's boards and it was the final nail in the coffin; i have always credited it with being the final key event that prompted me to finally stand up and say to myself "thats it, theres no turning back now".

I still kept my newfound belief stance to myself for a short while, until i had grown comfortable with it--a few years prior i would have probably just held it in, but atheism gave me a newfound sense of confidence and self-esteem that i had never had before; it changed me for the better and made me a more humane and intelligent person. Many years later, here i am, a heavily vocal advocate and activist of atheism and freethough in real life and online. My family accepted my beliefs without any problem--they are open minded and even shared many of my doubts and criticisms (like i said, much of their beliefs stand from long-term brainwashing and guilt), and i think i have begun influencing those around me to think more critically as well. Atheism not only gave me a more significant emphasis on rational and critical thinking, it gave me confidence and self esteem--its inherant in the belief of an atheist, who is not afraid to stand up and say "you're wrong, things dont make sense", and i think thats one of the most wonderful things about atheism. Its caused me much backlash and criticism from some people, of course, and im not afraid to defend my beliefs, often to the bewilderment of others, who consider religion one of those untouchable subjects. In my final year of high school, when i was most open and vocal of my atheist beliefs, and everyone was sophisticated and intelligent adults, many viewed my atheism with a sense of fascination--"really? your an atheist? wow, whats that like? so what do you think happens when we die?"; it was an interesting and refreshing experience. I think this was very interesting--it seemed as if most people wanted to be atheist, but lacked the willpower to shed the long-standing bonds of catholicism. There were a handful of other atheists in the grade but most werent really vocal about it--i was the premiere defender of reason and atheism in the school and even gained a small bit of novel notoriety. Its been interesting, thats for sure.

[ArmorPierce]

My father is a atheist (muslim ancestry but no one in my family were actually were muslim until they got old and crazy:)) and my mother was a no longer practicing catholic but she did tell me stuff about the bible I guess just so that I would fit in but she is either a atheist or agnostic depending on her mood. As a youth I was agnostic(though I would have accepted science if it ever contradicted). When I was younger (before middle school) I was very much into my agnostic beliefs but that started waning in middle school and I gave it up completely around freshman year in high school when I realized that I was just an atheist that was to much of a coward to admit to myself that I didn't to myself that.

[salm]

mom and dad are officially protestants. to be honest i don´t know if they believe or not and basicly i don´t care either.

i´ve always been an atheist or at least i cant think of a time when i wasn´t. not even in kindergarden in which the folkes who watched the kids were katholic nuns and told us a bunch of bible stories every day.

[Enforcer Talen]

I was a christian. at 16 I started reading the bible. when I was 18, I became an atheist.

[His Divine Shadow]

Grew up in a Lutheran family, in a Lutheran country, though as far as I can tell, it's only Lutheran becaues we're registered there, nothing else, church or religion was never a big part of my life.
When I was 12-13 years old I felt I was getting too old to buy into that stuff anymore.

[InnerBrat]

My mother's a devout athiest, my dad's more bleeding heart agnostic.

Doesn't get me out of buying Christmas presents, mind you. Bloody hypocrites. (:))

[Tosho]

I was a agnostic, then I became christian (moderate at first, sank into fundie mode eventually ). Then I found mike's site which allowed me to shed off my beleifs I "shopped around" for a religion trying out each one I found, my favorites (the religions I'd most likely join if for some reason I stopped being an atheist) were Zen Buddhism, Shintoism, liberal Judaism, and liberal Quakerism. Eventually though I became an atheist, although to be fair Zen is compatible with atheism, hell on beliefnet.org one of the article writers for Buddhism is described as zen baptist.

[InnerBrat]

Oh, and my mother was very worried I'd catch religion (like some sort of STD) at university,

Even though the best efforts of the institutionalised Anglicism of the English School system had failed.

When I was a teen I had a brief bowt of Wicca (sorry, Ver )

[Darth Gojira]

I used to be a zealous Roman Catholic, by raising. When I checked out this website, everything changed. Moderation simply wasn't enough for me. So I became an agnostic for a year or two, then changed to atheist last winter.

[SirNitram]

Lack of religion at all. Seriously, my family simply fails to give a damn overall. As far as I can tell, the faith was lost back in World War II. Then again, I'm not an atheist, but one of the few agnostics here.

[Thirdfain]

Same as SirNitram- my family never did the whole "religion" thing, so I never got into it. My long years as a boy scout exposed me to a great deal of religion, and I went to church once a year to support the presbetyrian group which funded my troop, but that was pretty much it in my brush with the Jesus mythos.

[Peregrin Toker]

Well, my mother's a Lutheran (her father was a vicar - one of the most liberal you'll ever find, but still somewhat religious) but my father has been an atheist the most of his life.

As a child, I believed in Jesus and all that but never went to church (mainly because my parents didn't). I don't remember exactly how my conversion to skepticism happened, but maybe I got increasingly indifferent into the point that I could just as well consider myself an atheist.

Then, as a result of "What If??" thinking I became an agnostic, then an atheist after stumbling across this site.

[Lagmonster]

I had a bizarre childhood. I was raised as if I was an atheist, by people who were atheists, but who trucked off to church because it was the 'family business' to do so.

Coupled with that were my family tradition of storytelling, which led to my intense fascination with cultural folklore and legendry. As a result, I spent my youth as a skeptic ghostbuster of sorts. I know more ghost stories than most people do, that's for sure. Surprisingly, in North America, ghost stories comprise a whopping 50% of folk legendry, behind tall tales of hero-worship (like Paul Bunyan) and urban legends.

Outside of North America, all bets are off on what you'll hear town-to-town in terms of local mythology and folklore.

[Soontir C'boath]

My father was a buddist but he never taught me anything because he always work. Back then I believed in god for a little while then I realize he was just bullshit when something bad happened to me...and thought..if he "loved" you then he shouldn't have let something like this happen in the first place.
I was agnostic for awhile and then a complete atheist from then on.

BTW, I just like to note that George Carlin's comments on religion made my Christian friend turn athiest. ~Jason

[Peregrin Toker]

Surprisingly, in North America, ghost stories comprise a whopping 50% of folk legendry, behind tall tales of hero-worship (like Paul Bunyan) and urban legends.

Maybe that's where H.P. Lovecraft got his ideas...