Were you raised to be an atheist?

I’m a realist.

I am an atheist. I was not raised an atheist, but decided that I was an atheist when I was in grade school. It was my own choice. I am also Jewish. That is also my own choice.

I think it’s ungodly!

I don’t belong to any group and couldn’t care less what others believe regarding religion.

I was around 12 when I started questioning the hypocrisy and total lack of logic in religion. As I have grown older, my distaste for organized religion has only grown.

Atheism: A Non-Prophet Organisation

I would consider myself an atheist

It is another faith and as worthy as any other.

I am agnostic at present.

I’m one, my own choice. (My family is Catholic, and my mom is a hradcore godgobber haha.) I don’t think much of it though, I use that word because I don’t believe in concepts like that of God, but that pretty much encompasses everything else; Odin, Buddha, the Grand Manitou, whatever.
The concept of these ideas presented by religions just doesn’t sit with whatever I call logic, I’d rather there be an other word besides Atheist because my stand on the issue goes beyond the generally religious confinement that Atheism seems to owe its definition to. I believe in fuckall, and my stand for ghosts, vampires or Spiderman (Unfortunately.) is the same as God.
It’s just that it’s easier to say I’m an Atheist than to explain all that crap, most especially when the subject isn’t God.

Nah, don’t believe in it. :)

I see atheism as a soul-damning monster of a religion.

I’m apathetic about religion.

I was raised the son of divorced parents. Dad started out as a Catholic but converted to Protestantism when he remarried. Mom never talks about religion and really doesn’t care.

I was scared into being a Christian when I was younger but was never really happy because I was constantly used as a weapon in the war between my Catholic paternal grandmother and my now-Protestant dad. The Catholics wouldn’t have me, and the Protestants hated me because I was “tainted” by Catholicism. Then I turned 17 and said fuck this noise and stopped caring about religion and I couldn’t be happier.

I think there could be something big and meaningful out there, but I just don’t ponder it that much. I’m not as positive as an atheist, and I’m not as questioning as an agnostic. I just don’t deal with religion on a personal level. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t interest me, and I’m not going to be a dick to religious people as long as they give me the same benefit.

I am a Christian who believes in the bible as God’s message to man. I was raised as a Christian, but was not always one myself. I decided when I was 18 to try and find answers to what was then a meaningless existence, and found them in the faith I was raised in.

I do NOT believe in hell. I believe it is anti-biblical, and has done more than any other pseudo-Christian teaching to create atheists. I also do not believe in dualism, and believe that the bible teaches that death is a state of unconsciousness (I am not a JW).

I also believe that there are too many who claim to be Christians who scare people away by their unwillingness to consider other points of view. Christianity seems to attract a disproportionate number of bigots, unfortunately.

This where I stand. Mock if you will, atheists, but you cannot deny my personal experience.

Well, my answer sure don’t make sense since the question was changed. Just sayin’

@janbb I don’t follow you…either the first post or the second. Can you explain? Thanks..:)

Sure, the question was originally something like “What do you think of atheism?” As a quip, I stated the truism that “I think it’s ungodly.” Now that the question was changed to “Were you raised to be an atheist”, my answer makes no sense. Does that help?

No, I wasn’t raised to be an atheist, although I was born one. I was raised to accept whatever I was told about the bible and about god without questioning all of the ridiculously improbable stuff that went along with it. In my particular case, atheism was just one of the more useful and productive side-effects of acquiring knowledge and seeing things objectively.

@Harold Believe it or not, I admire your faith. I actually have no problem with religion as long as it doesn’t try to make scientific claims.

I was raised atheist. I decided to be a Christian at the age of 16 and by the time I was 18 I realised that my parents were right after all.

@Rarebear – Thank you. There is nothing scientific about Christianity, as to accept it means to reject the popularly held scientific beliefs on origins of life. I believe it IS scientific, in the truest sense, but not as most scientists see it. You cannot reconcile the beliefs of Christians with those of popular science. To do so is to look ridiculous to both sides of the argument.

I also admire a lot of atheists, as it takes courage to make a decision that may be unpopular with friends and family. Thank you for your open mindedness.

No, I was raised religious, I’ve been baptized in the religion of my family but I’m a full blown atheist now.

@Silhouette I was babtised (as a baby and therefore with no sense of understanding in what I was getting into) and I tried to find out how to get un-baptised because unfortunately I live in a country that does not have separation of church and state and our national religion uses the number of people baptised to represent the number of people they represent when it comes to politics and I don’t want them using my number.

Turns out the number of hoops they make you jump through and you have to finish it with a meeting with the Bishop of the area you were baptised and then only with his say so will they strike your number from their list that it was just kinda impractical to go through with, I am pissed off though that my number has even the slightest influence in this countries politics in the favour of the national church just because someone sprinkled a bit of water on my head (and no doubt pissed me off then too) when I was a baby.

@RareDenver Wow, that is a messed up system. May I ask which country you live in?

@RareDenver – as a Christian, I find the practice of infant baptism appalling. You can’t decide for a baby that they want to follow your beliefs, as much as you might want them to. I was baptised at age 18, by my own choice. I was old enough to decide for myself then.

@Silhouette believe it or not I live in the modern and progressive England