Quote of the Day, Department of Religious Affairs

[bloodyrosemccoy]

“When I say I realized I was an atheist when I was a teenager, I’m simplifying things a bit, because I was always an atheist. My big revelation wasn’t so much a realization that I was an atheist as it was a realization that other people weren’t.”

This quote was brought to you by our discussions of churchgoing at work. My coworker was totally cool with my being an atheist, because he’s one too, but he was also puzzled by the idea that I had been raised that way. Who knew atheism could be the default setting?

Comments

[beccastareyes]

Same here. Though I remember seeing a discussion over on Pharyngula about when the commenters learned of Hell and realizing that there were other people who never really grokked religion because they weren't raised religious. It feels like there's this default assumption, even in atheist circles, that every atheist has some enlightening deconversion story, despite the fact that a lot of the commenters have kids who they aren't raising in the church. Maybe because religion is so prevalent that one assumes everyone has a 'Christian' upbringing and changes later.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it's because a lot of atheists do have that sort of story, and yeah, it's probably because religious upbringings are so prevalent. But I think nobody puts enough stock in the "Hey, wait, I just realized I've been an atheist all along" story, or even the "Yeah, I'm an atheist, always have been" one.