Poll: A Question To Atheists

[Jamous]

Technically I'm not actually atheist, but I'm kind of leaning more in that direction. Agnostic. Pascal's Wager ftw.

 

[Ophiuchus]

I'll go with 'other'. My nan (mum's side) was a particularly devout Christian who often felt the need to go on about it, while my mum believes and occasionally goes to church but doesn't care what anyone else does or believes. All of my dad's side of the family are atheist.

I was christened and went to church and Sunday School as a child, at my nan's insistence. Can't remember why I stopped going so I can only assume that it was when we moved away, I was about 8 at the time. We talked about the whole religion and choice thing as I grew up, but over time I realised it wasn't for me.

So, there we go - no real bad experiences with religious nutjobs to put me off, I'm simply unable to believe in it.

 

[Spektre41]

I grew up with religious family members, and went to church frequently until I was 9 or 10, when I was traumatized by a play of sorts they were putting on. I pretty much never went after that until recently. I myself am an agnostic, I can't bring myself to believe that there's someone who, quite literally, has all the power in the universe, and he just sits around and does nothing with it. By contrast, I find it hard to believe that everything we see here is the result of nothing exploding into nothing, which caused a chain reaction in the nothing which created us.

 

[TankCopter]

My parents are supposed to be Christians, but we never go to church and I doubt they would mind if instead of being an atheist, I was Jewish, a Buddhist or a Wiccan.

 

[Overlord_Dave]

My family never really discussed it.

I think my parents believe in a God, as well as my brother, but are in no way religious, and certainly not Christian. I guess you could call them theists.

In fact, the only other person in my family that is as atheist as I am (for want of a better phrase), is my grandmother!

EDIT:

It's shocking to me how few people are atheist because it is the end of a long train of logical conclusions.

This person speaks the truth.

 

[Lexodus]

I was raised by a Jew and a Catholic, though neither was *that* religious (despite my mum going to a Convent school). Instead of becoming a hilarious sitcom, entitled 'Oh my God it's a Jew, let's burn the heretic bastard', I turned out a staunch antitheist, which is a pretty far cry from either.

 

[NeutralMunchHotel]

Let me say this first, this is not meant to be against atheism, and certainly not meant to be insulting in any way, you have been warned.

Okay, now that thats out of the way, I would like to ask the atheists here a question, Did you guys Grow up in a very religious family?

My reason for asking this is because I have noticed that a large number of the Atheists I have debated with had came from very religious families and I would like to see if there is any truth to something my teacher said a long time ago regarding the issue, he said that children will almost always go with there parents, or completely against them.

@ Mods; If this becomes a religious flame thread please close it.

EDIT: I guess it is only fair that I explain my situation, my parents are Christian, as am I, but I am more "liberal" with it for lack of a better word. We go to church every time the planets align(figure of speech), but my parents didnt force me or my brother, as a matter of fact my brother is atheist and no one really gives a damn.

I love my parents for the simple fact that they didn't christen me. While all my friends (children of parents that my parents socialised with) were being christened my parents decided to leave it up to me.

I declined.

 

[Cuniculus]

I have to disagree with the OP. Kids aren't always totally for or totally against their parents. I grew up in a religious family, and actually was very religious myself before turning to Atheism. It fit me more anyway.

I still talk to my family, and not only that, openly discuss my choice with them. They'd rather I wasn't Atheist, what with the going to hell part of it, but they understand it's my choice. Likewise I understand that's how they are. We exist equally.

 

[wyrdsister]

Personally, I was raised to be Atheist. My dad is one of the intolerant crowd, who believes that religion is responsible for all the problems in the world and that religious people are fools. However, I know a narrow-minded smacktard when I see one. He's been known to start fights with the preachers in our town centre, and I've had to bodily drag him away - and as he has never had any reason or logical argument to back this up, I have not felt the need to copy him. Granted, I'm still atheist, but I'm not bothered if a friend or family member wants to be religious. It's their call, not mine. Just keep the lectures to yourself, and I'm happy.

 

[space_oddity]

the majority of wars are from religious beliefs

Majority?
Imagine the number of wars ever fought by humans throughout the entire history of everything.
Now name me 5 wars that we fought purely on the grounds of religious belief.

It's shocking to me how few people are atheist because it is the end of a long train of logical conclusions.

Totally with you man.

 

[ohgodalex]

My immediate family is composed of agnostics and atheists, but my extended family includes some more liberal Christians.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I grew up in a religious family. Everyone in my family tree is a christian, except for me. Every family reunion my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, parents, sister all gather around and try to convert me to christianity. They of course fail. Officially I'm a christian, because my dad was a dick and told the lady making my IC I was christian, but unofficially I'm atheist.

It really pisses me off though. Why can't they just respect my decision?

 

[SamuelT]

I wasn't forced into a religious way. I just...didn't really care about religion, and my parents respected that. Not to say that they pray every time before going to bed, but they are christian.

I lurve mah family =)

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Yes, I did grow up in a semi-religious family. My grandmother was very religious but my grandfather...well you could say he was a Christian but for the most part he just didn't care about religion that much. My mother...well she called herself a Christian but didn't really care and never really went to church. My father was pretty religious at the time tho.

I did go to church a few times with my grandmother but I just couldn't stand hearing a priest talk crap for 3 hours. My classmates did bash me for the fact that I rarely went to church...I mean I did call myself a Christian but going to church was not my thing, I did pray a lot tho.

After becoming an atheist(Was in the 6th grade at the time, 13 years old) most of my family didn't give a crap apart from my dad. He blamed the fact that I almost failed 7th grade because I was an atheist, but after a while he managed to deal with it.

I have to thank my biology teacher for teaching us evolution in class one day. That's pretty much the thing that made me curious about...well pretty much science. You could say my biology teacher was the one who put me on the road to become an atheist.

 

[Mavand]

My Mother was religious but after I became an atheist I managed to convert her to atheism.

EDIT: I didn't even try.

 

[Second Letter]

My immediate family varies, but is deist to atheist. Get into the extended family, and you start seeing fundamentalists added to the mix.

On the majority of wars started because of religion, or at least having religion as a major cause. The argument of asking someone to list wars started on religious bases is fallacious, not only do we have no historical evidence of the reason for the many of these wars, an individual wouldn't know all the available information.

You want five wars? There were five crusades, that covers it all on its own, using only two religions. Add in the current Afghanistan and Iraq wars, seven, still using the same two religions. The Israeli Palestinian conflict brings it to eight, with the addition of one new religion. This is wars that are proven to exist. If you take the bible as accurate there are more. The Caanites, Assyrians, and many other groups all get brought in, and the number easily listed soars.

 

[PAGEToap44]

When I was younger I was taken to church a few times but it left no impression on me. My parents aren't religious, I don't know what they believe, but they do appreciate the moral guidelines of the Bible. I couldn't care less about it though because I am a self made devout Atheist.

 

[Second Letter]

The cleaned up moral guidelines or what the bible actually says?

 

[RebelRising]

I was by separate parents: my father came from a loose Communist background in Russia and Hungary, having himself been raised by a very traditional Stalinist mother and former Central Intelligence director for a dad. He's ended up being quite anti-religious, but is still technically agnostic. He's also very personally aggrieved with religion for various reasons.

My mother was raised as a Clifornia girl from a rich family over in Los Angeles, though they were more lawyers than they were religious. She just ended up being very loosely Christian, taking me to Church for holidays and occasionally Sunday School. I was passively bored with all that. My dad would take me to a Russian Orthodox church for Christmas sometimes, although that was more for the ritual than the actual religion behind it.

My mother ended up sending me, after years of home-schooling, to a Christian Private school in my area. While I ended up enjoying it and being comfortable with most of the people there, their overt religiosity was essentially what pushed me over the edge. The entire dogma, and the prejudices that seeped into the teachings did not make sense to me. As I read the Bible more and more, I was surprised at how, well...at the risk of offending anybody, how archaic i was, and how much it didn't properly apply to civilization 3,000 years later.

My mother was a little shocked when I accidently slipped one day that I wasn't religious at all, but she got over it pretty quickly. My father, on the other hand, was very approving.

I ended up staying at the school, where only one friend knows I'm not Christian. They're not bad people, once you realize that the religion is not all that's going for them.

...Damn, this longer than I expected.