Poll: A Question To Atheists

[similar.squirrel]

I was baptised a Roman Catholic, but only really went at Christmas, back when I was younger.
My parents seem to like the architecture and disregard the creed, which suits me.
They're probably atheists. I know I got the God Delusion last Christmas...

 

[MercenaryCanary]

Yes.
My father is a preacher but never talks to me about my Atheism, my mother is a Baptist but is open minded and just lets things be, and my sister is Baptist and attacks me for being an Atheist.

that would suck

It does suck.

 

[LordCraigus]

Religion was and has never been an issue at all in our family.

 

[Martymer]

My parents are both atheists, but didn't force that on me. I was curious about religion, and they encouraged me to investigate it. As a result I'm one of those who have read (at least parts of) the Bible with an open mind. My conclusion: The stories are fictional. Some may be loosely based on real events or people, but they are still fictional. There are some good moral points in there, but a lot of bad ones as well. God cannot exist, because he is described as a good, loving and forgiving entity that murders innocent people left and right just for the hell of it. Both conditions cannot be met, as they contradict each other. The logical conclusion is that the described entity cannot possibly exist. This says nothing about the existance of some God that doesn't fit the Bible's description, but I've never seen any reason to believe in such a God. There's just nothing to support it. I need a reason to believe, not a reason not to.

 

[Booze Zombie]

No, my family never actually mentioned religion. When I actually learned what it was I was like: "Well, I've lived up to now without killing, being killed or anything else without religion, why do I need it now?"

 

[Tossth Esalad]

Religon isn't really someting we talk about in my family... The only thing i can think about is my grandfather who is openly atheistic.

I think the reason people from religous families grow up to be athiests, is a form of teenage rebellion.
Conversly a kid brought up by a atheist family can use religion as their own rebellion,
eg. my sister who has developed a close bond with the danish baptist church

 

[Alphavillain]

I tend to see my atheism as a stage in my life which I'll grow out of. I can't accept the fact that the God I will come to accept is not one I like the sound of. In other words, I'm not entirely sure there isn't a God. All I am sure of, and what I find most terrifying, is not the prospect of the absence of a higher power, but that if there is a God, it is a terrible and vengeful one.

 

[cobra_ky]

My family consists of semi-observant Jews, but my parents are very open minded and tolerant. My mom converted to Judaism, so she understands having doubts about religion.

I'm more of an agnostic than an atheist, but I don't really feel the need to bring it up with my family. It's easy for me to live in a semi-religious family because even though I don't believe in God I still identify as being Jewish in a sort of cultural way, so I don't have a problem with attending services or celebrating holidays.

This is almost exactly my situation, except that my mum's Catholic and doesn't want to convert. Not that anybody tried to make her in the first place.

this is almost exactly MY situation, only my mom was catholic and DID convert. i'm not sure if my parents know i'm agnostic or not, but i'm sure my mother wouldn't mind since her father was agnostic too. my dad's only concern is that he really wants any kids i have to be raised Jewish, which i'm more than willing to do, if only for the cultural background.

Well, not exactly. I think he might care about other people on this planet, just not me.

what makes you less important than anyone else on earth?

 

[OniSuika]

None of my family are religious, but all are very open. I've also grown up an atheist.

Although on the contrary, a lot of my family are superstitious, which I'm also not.

 

[Aesir23]

My sister and I are both atheist/agnostic and we come from a slightly religious family. Both of my parents and my brother believe in a God but in their own way. My sister and I just can't find enough evidence in a God for us to believe in one, that and we have a severe dislike for organized religion. But hopefully there is an afterlife because that would really suck if there wasn't anything after the end.

 

[Joshimodo]

Nope, I clicked other.

I was raised by my mum to believe what I wanted to believe. I've always found religion to be a corrupt, senseless cancer on modern society. I've never seen anything good come from it.


Also, I always wonder why people believe some old book or scripture. If I handed someone Lord of the Rings and told them to believe every word of it, and live by it's teachings, I'd be called insane.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Other. We used to go to church regularly but it was more a nice community thing and meet up with people than anything religious. My mum's vaguely Christian and my Dad and I are atheists.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I was raised catholic... We used to go to church every sunday, then eventually it turned into only christmas/easter, then we just stopped going... Then I started thinking about stuff and that screwed up the whole "believing in god/religion" thing...

 

[Simalacrum]

my father is techincally a Christian, but he doesn't practice it in any way.

My mother... well, when she was a kid she wanted to rebel against her Communist parents by becomming a nun. Now she's an athiest... its kinda wierd

I'm an athiest, but I used to go to a Catholic school (it had a facility that helped with my Asperger Syndrome), and right now I go to a Quaker school, so I have experience in Christianity.

Actually, generaly speaking I do agree with Quaker beliefs, e.g. complete pacifism and understanding that you may be mistaken in something, etc. So I'd say I'm an 'athiest quaker' - I don't believe in God, but I believe in Quaker values.

 

[SlickShot]

My Mother started taking my brother and I to church when I was 8. She died of a freak lightning strike about a month before I turned 12. My grandmother (Mom's mom) convinced my father, who was otherwise apathetic about the matter, to go to church. I struggled with my faith in the Christian god until I was about 15 when I started dating a Muslim and tried to wrestle with that particular religion until I was about 17 and just said fuck it with the entire thing and now I am a faithless 20 year old living in a some what happy stage on bliss. Seems to me that the people without faith are the happiest because they have no one to hate except the crazies with faith.

 

[Koeryn]

My family's Christian, but hasn't been really big on church going. My brother's and I are Atheist, which deeply troubles my grandmother and bothers my parents, but it's not something we talk really talk about. My sister's not Christian, but she she believes in something. No one really attacks anyone, (except for the usual sibling disputes you get with 4 kids in a family), and we all get along fair well.

I take that back, the Jehova's witnesses that come by every once and a while get attacked with Science generally. The last time they came, they caught my sister and she taught them about evolution and how it fits into intelligent design. They seemed... incredibly shocked, somewhat worried, praised my sister as a scholar, and haven't been back in several months.

But yeah, that's more or less where I am.

 

[Hellion25]

Eh, went to Sunday School for a few years, then my parents broke up and I stopped. I was never particularly religious though, I only really went on Sundays so I could go to adventure club on Tuesdays. Plus I wanted the whole bread and wine dealie but I didn't stick around that long.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

My parents are probably more opinionated than they let on. The few times I asked them what they thought about certain things, the answer I got was more or less "it doesn't matter what I think, make your own mind up". Which is pretty cool, I think. So, other than the daily praising at my primary school (apparently a manditory thing in English primary schools) I wasn't exposed to a great deal of religion.

 

[traceur_]

My parents aren't aethiest but they aren't very religious either. I was raised to always be open-minded, which led into me finding my own ethical system, not one defined by Christianity (my parents are christian).

So no, my parents aren't very religious and they let me grow as an individual without forcing anything on me.

Pretty much this but my dad isn't religious. My mum and grandmother introduced me to Catholicism, sent me to catholic schools that barely give a damn about religion, but I just went with atheism because it makes the most sense to me.