Poll: A Question To Atheists

[Rouglead]

My grandpa was raised catholic, he went to church and Sunday school. He told me that he was scared by all the stories they told him, you will go to hell if you do this. But when he was old enough to think for himself he just couldn't understand the whole religion thing.

He told me he just didn't know why people wasted there time going to church and praying to something he never saw.

 

[A random person]

I could never be a atheist but i find strong faith in anything even the disbelief in a god an amazing thing. As for my self im agnostic i just cant deny the possibility that there is some sort of god like being or force out there. Hell i cant even deny that the christian god might exist even if it is almost impossible that it exists exactly how it does in the bible.

I'd at least partly agree with you on some god-like force existing. For anything to exist, you would need some means to bypass the second law of thermodynamics, since the creation of the universe or whatever preceded the universe would have resulted in reduced entropy. You might also need to bypass conservation of energy. Unless all that stuff always existed, and even then how would it have always existed?

And your avatar is awesome, had to be said.

 

[Emperorpeng]

Ooops, answered the question without thinking. I'm a practicing Christian! Sorry for throwing off your data.

 

[King_Paco]

lol catholic, i had to do some church stuff when i was 13 and that's when we started attending for like a year, afterwards we just stopped. now we go during Christmas, ash Sunday, and other stuff like that happens.

 

[Summerstorm]

My father is protestant, but isn't really practicing anything (But he believes in god... i think). My mother is roman-catholic and imparted that to us children. We were going to church sometimes, and i am baptized and had a confirmation. (Of course this is a bit hollow, since i was a bit too young to question that.)

One of my sisters raises her kids as protestants (She only got active religiously for the children, to impart them with a moral code, and the gift of believing something). The other is very lax with her kids. Baptising, yes... but wasting sunday mornings? Naaah.

I myself am an agnostic atheist. And my parents are ok with that. They know i am a nice guy... that is enough. (God isn't unfair they say).

So, yeah i took the second option. I learned everything about "my" religion. I had all the rites done, had to visit the church (sometimes). But my parents are no nutjobs. My Father is a wise man and my mother realistic. They never pushed anything and helped me discover my own way of thinking and (not) believing.

 

[Neotericity]

I'm an atheist in an atheist family, named after an atheist philosopher and surrounded by atheist literature. That about sums that up.

 

[neuromantic]

Nobody really talked about it until my stepdad showed up, he's a pretty hardcore christian and me & him do not see eye to eye on the subject.

I myself was christian up until the I was old enough to think for myself, then became an atheist until just this year when I started considering paganism.

When pressed on the subject I think my Dad is an atheist and my Mum is just going along with Christianity cause thats how she was raised and doesn't really think much of it either way.

 

[dunnace]

I went to a Church of England school for 7 ears and left an atheist, but my Father was also quite an atheist. Personally, I found that I just never believed what I was told, I always thought they were just guidance stories, not real.

 

[Ethereal.Frog]

Me and my family never said anything about religion and such. I either believe in every god from Zeus to Baldur to the aptly named God of Christian religion, or believe in none of them.

 

[A random person]

Very conservative religious family.
Goddamn southern baptists.

Amen to that.
/irony

We (I'm not one, but I'm from the bible belt where Bob Jones is) take the worst aspects of Christianity like the embarrassment of arbitrary rules and the bigotry and leave out the nice things like the awesome architecture the Catholics have, the cool Latin chanting, or generally most anything pleasant about Christianity.

But since I look on the bright side, there's plenty of idiots to make fun of here, and I'm so used to it I'd go insane if surrounded by kind, intelligent people.

 

[dodo1331]

I agree with the idea of God, and I am currently raised in a Catholic family. I disagree with how the Church teaches most things, though. Does anyone know what this makes me?

 

[iblis666]

I could never be a atheist but i find strong faith in anything even the disbelief in a god an amazing thing. As for my self im agnostic i just cant deny the possibility that there is some sort of god like being or force out there. Hell i cant even deny that the christian god might exist even if it is almost impossible that it exists exactly how it does in the bible.

I'd at least partly agree with you on some god-like force existing. For anything to exist, you would need some means to bypass the second law of thermodynamics, since the creation of the universe or whatever preceded the universe would have resulted in reduced entropy. You might also need to bypass conservation of energy. Unless all that stuff always existed, and even then how would it have always existed?

And your avatar is awesome, had to be said.

thx as you can tell from my name i dont take any organized religion seriously and when i came across it i found it just fit so well

 

[9NineBreaker9]

My mother was somewhat religious and only took me to a Catholic church on occasion. My father, however, is now a devout member of the Latter Day Saints church (Mormon), which was entirely horrifying. I've only been to one service, but I'm not going back any time soon.

My beliefs are constructed on an educated decision looking at religion from a neutral point and deciding: "If it helps people, all the power to them, just leave me out of it."

Or Nickolas Angel's line of "I'm open to the concept of religion, but not entirely convinced by it". Go Hot Fuzz xD

 

[Zydrate]

I grew up with very casual religious parents. So I voted "wasn't forced or anything." When I lost my faith, my mother is sad because she thinks I'm going to hell (even though I don't believe there is a hell to go to), but it really isn't the primary factor in any of my family's lives (exception being my grandmother). God may be great, but he's not getting us jobs.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Whoa hold on a minute. Atheists for the most part don't believe in any supernatrual phenomena... that includes the concept of an afterlife and the idea that life has some greater meaning.

I think you might be confusing that with agnosticism. Atheists just don't believe in God(s).

Well, no, not really. By definition an Atheist is simply somone who lacks a belief in deities. However the reasons that the majority of atheists have for not believing in them is that they can't see enough evidence of their existance. And because of that most atheists would not believe in an afterlife either. I'm not saying all atheists lack the belief, but the majority do. The quote I was replying to claimed that atheists belive in the afterlife/meaning of life... which by definition has nothing to do with atheism, and shouldn't really be linked to it.

Do you mean to imply that life has no greater meaning without the presence of deities?

 

[Ultrasnail]

when i was around 5/6 my parents kinda raise me christian but i kept thinking that if there was a good he was either a very mean person or just didnt exist.

so i decided to be an athiest, although i didnt know what it was called at the time. until i was around 12 my oarents kept trying to get me to go to church around christmas and i was like "why? if there is a god surely he doesnt care if i go or not." i figure my parents eventualy gave up.

now i just spend my time annoying my friend and telling them there is no god, if i have kids one day i will definently raise them athiest.

 

[vamp rocks]

i suppose im more agnostic.... i just dont think its possible one being created all this... but thats beyond the point.....

my parents were very open, they let us make our own choices and i came to the conclusion that i do not really believe in god..

 

[Levk]

my family is christan, (don't care about spelling) my mom and dad (if you can call him that) never really went to church when i was young but believed it, and later on when i lived with grandmother for a few months I went to the boring thing, and then later on my mom decided to go back with me stepdad dad and my sister's kids, and wanted me to get baptise and I didn't because well ima an adult and also i don't believe in it. For me there is no real proof of such things, so when people ask me I just say i believe in the Moon Dragon Goddess and really that made up thing pretty much make as much sense as anything else imo

 

[KSarty]

Both of my parents were forced to go to church, with my mother going to catholic school her entire life. Both of them hated it, so they didn't make my brother and I go. They always said that if we wanted to go they would bring us, but seriously what kind of kids want to go to church?

So basically, no atheism wasn't pushed on me but I also have never attended church in my life.

 

[Fallingwater]

I am not only an atheist, but also strongly antireligious.
I voted other. My family was as follows:
Mom: never particularly cared about religion, but isn't strong in her feelings. I guess she classifies as an agnostic.
Dad: catholic, but not active. Fairly sure as time went by he was increasingly nearing agnosticism/atheism, then cancer struck him, and he rediscovered his faith. Died convinced that the christian god exists.

Mom's parents died before I knew them very well, but weren't religious as far as I know. Dad's parents were catholic, but only his mother was strongly so. She remains so to this day despite, astonishingly, the untimely death of both her son and her husband, and a lifetime of unhappiness.

My family explained religion to me, but they didn't indoctrinate me. They told me the bare facts, and left it for me to decide whether I wanted to pursue spiritual things further.
I did go to religion class as most other children did, and had the usual ceremonies, but my family never put much emphasis on the whole thing. Back then I didn't have very strong feelings about atheism (as opposed to now), but the whole religion thing already smelled somewhat fishy to me.
The only person who was, and still is, bothered by my subsequent strong atheism is my grandmother, who keeps telling me I'll eventually come around (which irritates me to no end). My dad didn't particularly like it that I had no qualms saying I was atheist and antireligious, but never forced me to stop either.

Basically, I think I've had a very balanced religious education. My ideas were formed by me and me alone, without being forced on me in any way.