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

[cougarfang.livejournal.com]

I assume you're the one speaking in that quote?

At one point I was talking to the vet tech in charge of the spay-and-neuter clinic of the MDSPCA, and we got on the topic of religion, and I was explaining to him how my parents raised the family entirely areligious except for the yearly Chinese New Year temple visit to appease my paternal grandma (mostly because they were too lazy to be actively any-sort-of-religious) and he boggled at me like I'd sprouted a Martian out of my ear. For him it was a tough struggle to throw off the confines of his Catholic upbringing (getting to atheism "uphill both ways in the snow, barefoot") and it was just incredible to him that I could "attain Nirvana" without a second thought. XD;;

_{apologies for the horrendous religious mixaphor >_>;;}

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who was also raised atheist. He once pointed out that he's perplexed by the idea of a soul, let alone the need to believe in one.

As what I like to refer to as a "belligerent agnostic", I feel it's part of my duty to my own beliefs to understand that perspective. I was raised Lutheran. It's been the most difficult act of empathy I've attempted. Once taught, the concept of a soul is a very difficult thing to let go of.

I hope more children continue to be raise atheist. The world needs it. I'm not entirely against religion or spiritualism, but I'm completely for the perspective.

[agenttrojie.livejournal.com]

I was raised atheist as well. I was and still am kind of ... confused ... by faith.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

Now I'm trying to remember what my mindset was when my family still went to church. I'm not sure I ever really believed in most of the stuff I heard in Bible school. I suspect that part of the reason it just never stuck was because my parents didn't really seem to be taking it seriously either, and just went to church because they'd always gone to church, and when we moved to a new place it was kind of a social thing, rather than a "we believe this" thing.

So I don't think that atheism was necessarily my default, since I was aware of religion and decided it wasn't for me and that it was rather silly to believe in some of the things they believed. But I also think that my personal moral code was heavily influenced by religion when I was young. It's also entirely possible that I'm making that up, and that I did default to atheism. Hm.

When I have kids, I'm probably going to spend a lot of time teaching them about a lot of different religions, just so they have awareness of them. That way, if they ever get the "You're going to hell" thing, they can have snappy answers, like "Well, you're probably going to Hel too, unless you plan on dying valiantly in battle and heading to Valhalla instead."

[marag.livejournal.com]

This is what worries me about sending my kids to Hebrew School. Because I *want* to raise atheist kids, but I also want them to learn all the traditions and learn Hebrew and all the stuff like that that I don't have the time or patience or ability to teach them :(

I did believe in a god for quite a while, but it didn't really *matter* to me, if that makes any sense. I was all, "okay, whatever, there's some dude in the sky, now let's go eat more latkes." And when I reached college, all my doubts crystallized and I realized that the latkes were great, but the whole god thing made NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.

I just hope I'm not screwing my kids up. ::sigh::

[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.

[sofish-sasha.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, here in Sweden it's more unusual to be raised into religion than it is to be raised as an atheist. Proper secularity FTW!

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I seem to be an oddity in these here parts: raised atheist, later turned agnostic, in a "pretty sure there's something out there but hell if I know what" kind of way. Never have seen any compelling reason that logic, science, and all those other beautiful things that make society tick can't coexist peacefully with religion. It continues to confound me that people insist that they're mutually exclusive - from either side of the debate.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

It's always seemed to me that Atheism is just another religion, or at least a religious position. People can be raised into it as easily as any other ideology, and grown people can convert to or from it just as with any other. It's not a more inherently sensible idea than any other.

(I'm an ignostic, by the way)

[(Anonymous)]

I hate that it's so often assumed that atheism is some big rebellious statement against the organized religion of one's youth. I've had this conversations more times than I can count:

Person A: "What religion are you?"

Me: "I'm not religious."

Person A: "Yeah, yeah, but you know what I mean. What religion are your parents?"

Me: "None."

Person A: "But...what kind of church do they go to?"

Me: "None. They're not religious either.

Person A: *blank stare*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wastrel/]

I'm afraid that my story doesn't quite refute the trope the way yours does, since as I think I may have mentioned, I was raised Christian and it took me until I was all of 22 years old to become the atheist I've been for the past 6 years. (Of course, I believed in the other gods too back then, just that they were supposed to be lower in the hierarchy or something) My b/f, like you, has always been an atheist and has no idea of what it could be like to be brought up otherwise. I have to admit that I sometimes trust his judgment more than mine based on that, because if I could be that wrong about something that seems so obvious now for such a long time without having been aware of it, how do I know what I could be missing now?

[killabee886.livejournal.com]

I was raised more agnostic than atheist, and religion was never really a topic we discussed. I knew of churches and some kids went to it on Sundays. But I always viewed it as an extra activity some kids do, like I did Girl Scouts.

In fact, it wasn't until my little sister became "saved" and went to a Christian college that any discussion of religion really came up, and it wasn't from my sister, but from my mother. Now my mother asks constantly about my beliefs, "Do you believe in God?" "Do you have faith?" I think my mother has some guilt about not taking us to church and getting us baptized, she's even brought up the subject about me getting baptized, which I shot right down. I think it would be insulting to get baptized, even when I have no belief in the religion just for a "just in case" scenario.

I also find it odd that people need religion to be reminded to be good. I can be a good person without the need of an intangible parent figure watching me. *looks up suspiciously* I'm also weary of ANYONE who says they have the answers. I may not be religious, but I'm not going to be persumptious enough to say "I'm right, they're wrong," or "look how much better I am you mindless sheep," because I don't have any answers either.

Can we just all agree to play nicely with EVERYONE in the sand box?