Atheist kids these days...

[naz]

...but i won't take her within any religious architecture...

This offends me.

[Seli]

...

I am curious though, for the people who were raised in a household where religion was just totally non-existent, what did you believe while growing up in regards to like, what happens after you die? Surely most kids must ask their parents that question when they're little at least once?

I sadly cannot remember. There must have been some 'you go somewhere nice' as we did bury dead pets.

...but i won't take her within any religious architecture..

A bit of a shame, so much of our nice old surviving buildings are (probably) religious in nature. Perhaps easier to achieve over there in the new world.

[Theda Baratheon]

I sadly cannot remember.

I can't remember ever asking my parents such a question either, or what kind of answer I would have gotten if I had. I don't ever recall Heaven being talked about in our household.

My mum likes to think she had a guardian angel, but then I told her what angels look like in the bible and now she's not quite so sure, lol.

[paddington]

Never really got mentioned in my house ethier. I went to a church of England first school, and I had to go to church once every couple of months when I was a cub scout, to show willing and get badges.

Our vicar looked a little frightening as well, must have been 6ft 6' and liked to walk round the village in a cape. Quite an odd character.

[Snowy89]

I am curious though, for the people who were raised in a household where religion was just totally non-existent, what did you believe while growing up in regards to like, what happens after you die? Surely most kids must ask their parents that question when they're little at least once?

I am not sure if I recall correctly, but I believe the answer my parents gave were something along the lines of "you will go to heaven(the actual heaven you see at night) and become one of the stars in the nightsky". I think that's what they told me after my paternal grandfather died. Nothing about eternal life or being conscious or something along those lines.

My parents were officially kind of catholic, but only when visiting my grandma. I never got confirmed or anything.

[Errant Bard]

I am curious though, for the people who were raised in a household where religion was just totally non-existent, what did you believe while growing up in regards to like, what happens after you die? Surely most kids must ask their parents that question when they're little at least once?

Never asked it for myself. I remember asking it for my first cat when I was six or so, the answer was that it was gone far away and would not come back, something like that, it did not make a lot of sense to me, really, far away for me then was like the forest a few kilometres from home. Never asked again, no idea why, but the thought came eventually, later: death is the end of you.

Thinking about it the moment it hit me the most vividly was one of the only times I had been in church: when my Grandfather died, there was a ceremony in a church, and this minister kept talking about how my grandfather went away and was with god, or in our hearts or something, and then it hit me: I would never see him again, he would never do what he wanted to do, and everything else that was said (afterlife and such) felt like meaningless and redundant bullshit... I was eight.

I'm just doubtful that science can ground progressive thought

Not wanting to discuss it, but if you could just explain succinctly what you mean by this, I would be most grateful. (not getting what "grounding" or "progressive thought" are)

[Gertrude]

I was raised without religion. My dad's family (father's side) was irreligious from the time they immigrated here (mid 1800's) and my mom's family was weakly Lutheran. I don't ever remember my maternal grandparent's going to church, but maybe they did. Obviously it wasn't a big part of their life they felt had to be shared with us. My dad's mother was very Catholic, and he flirted with it for a while, but was very turned off of it after his mother died. (issues with funeral service and money that he thought was distasteful).

I never gave it much thought until taking a few philosophy courses that made me examine it and have been actively calling myself atheist ever since. If it ever comes up - I don't usually talk about it. My parents both describe themselves as spiritual, but it's nothing that shows in day to day life. I remember specifically asking them because growing up I had no idea if they believed in god and just didn't tell us, or if they were atheist, or what.

As for wondering what happens after death, I don't remember ever asking or thinking about it. I'm sure I did, but it didn't make an impression. I don't know why it would be traumatic to tell children that when people die, they return to the earth to be recycled/reborn into other living things. I've always had a strong revulsion for the modern funerary practices, so maybe I did ask at one point and got a similar answer.

I am not sure if I recall correctly, but I believe the answer my parents gave were something along the lines of "you will go to heaven(the actual heaven you see at night) and become one of the stars in the nightsky".

This is kind of beautiful, though. I think I would use this with my (hypothetical) kids.

I remember going to a church day camp with our neighbors. I asked to go because my friend would always have fun and made cool crafts. My mom let me go and looking back, I can see that she was kind of amused that I asked, but didn't want to discourage it. The pastor would give a small sermon each day and then we'd do activities. One day, he told us if we wanted to let Jesus into our hearts, to stay after the sermon. I did, and I asked Jesus into my heart because he sounded nice. I was underwhelmed by the experience and didn't get it. I thought it would be a big thing and I could feel the difference immediately. When I didn't, I wrote it off as a lie and went back to crafting my egg carton walkie talkie.

[sologdin]

A bit of a shame, so much of our nice old surviving buildings are (probably) religious in nature. Perhaps easier to achieve over there in the new world

i'd consider an exception for the hagia sofija. she can otherwise enter upon any mental abbatoir that she wants.

[The Monkey]

Like 95% of Swedes, I had a very secular upbringing. Atheism just came naturally. The fact that atheism always has been the "normal" option in my surroundings have led me to despise this "atheist activism" that certain Americans and Brits engage in (like Richard Dawkins, Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher etc.). They're always shoving their propaganda down people's throat and can't for a minute accept that certain people find inner peace and strength and what not through their religion. I hate that almost as much as I hate religious bigotry.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Both my parents are, like most Brazilians, not particularly religious or interested in religion Catholics. I had Catechism classes when I was 10, but never really believed entirely in it. As a teenager, I begun to question religion more and more until around 17 or so, I've realized I was an atheist.

While, generally speaking, the relationship between Brazilians and God/religion is very superficial (better minds have written about it), being a confessed Atheist is very, very rare, and people often look at you funny, like there was something wrong with you. It made me understand what gays feel when they come out.

If/when I have kids, I plan to raise them atheist.

[Errant Bard]

A bit of a shame, so much of our nice old surviving buildings are (probably) religious in nature. Perhaps easier to achieve over there in the new world

i'd consider an exception for the hagia sofija. she can otherwise enter upon any mental abbatoir that she wants.

Notre Dame is a nice building, too, and it can probably evoke more readily Victor Hugo than God.

Also, the inside of churches is enjoyably cool, when it's above 30°C outside, keep it in mind if you visit the old world during summer at one point or another.

[ThinkerX]

Church on Sunday was a big deal around here growing up. I started asking too many questions about the time I hit high school, and a few years later I was effectively a deist. Later on, I started reading a lot of 'new age' type books and became fascinated with the concept of reincarnation, which resulted in more reading, this time of the serious research into that.

Which brings me to my current stance: Agnostic (because there are far too many unknowns) with a *mild* belief in reincarnation, because at least some quasi objective evidence has been put forth for it - a claim which cannot legitimately be made for formal religions.

My lovely young daughter, now...she was raised by her mother, who was a fundi christian to the max. When my daughter moved in with me, she shared her mothers religious convictions, but bit by bit they fell away, especially as her mothers...lack of mental stability became clear (connecting present day earthquakes with biblical verses to predict the future being a typical example). A couple years ago, the topic of religion came up with her sister while I was present.

Her sister, an unbeliever, asked if my daughter was still into christianity.

Daughter says 'Well, you know how mom's a noodle, right?

Sister agrees.

Daughter goes 'Well, the more I read about christianity, the more noodles I saw.'

Sister said 'Noodle soup.'

Daughter 'yes/.

[Gertrude]

The fact that atheism always has been the "normal" option in my surroundings have led me to despise this "atheist activism" that certain Americans and Brits engage in (like Richard Dawkins, Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher etc.). They're always shoving their propaganda down people's throat and can't for a minute accept that certain people find inner peace and strength and what not through their religion. I hate that almost as much as I hate religious bigotry.

I get this, but I also understand where they are coming from. In America, being religious, or at least tolerant of it is assumed to be the default. By tolerant, I mean accepting of it when it is put in front of us. I find that often, that tolerance doesn't go both ways. (I mean, it's not horrible and OMG I'm being persecuted!, but it's noticeable)

I had a co-worker that was pretty religious, and it would sneak into her normal conversation. Not in an annoying way, but you definitely knew she had a strong faith. Everyone's cool with that. The one time I mentioned that I was atheist, I was looked at with scorn and confusion. (not by all, of course, but it was uncomfortable). As early as grade school, I would say the pledge, but stay silent and not say 'under god'. My teacher noticed and, while nice about it, discussed it with me. I felt like I had done something wrong. So, yeah, it's a fight I think is worth fighting, but either extreme is very distasteful to me. As in most things.

And frankly, it's quite embarrassing that religion has any place in our politics. That's the one that infuriates me. I can imagine a lesbian Muslim in office before an openly atheist one, and that saddens me.

[Sci-2]

And frankly, it's quite embarrassing that religion has any place in our politics.

I can see it having some reasonable place in voter preference, but I dislike the idea that the subjective experience of faith should be a comfortable foundation from which to curtail the rights of others.

Though I'm sympathetic to "unverified personal gnosis" as a personal experience, it seems to me we can safely and to an extent objectively classify commandments from God that are irrationally homophbic/sexist/etc as superstition unworthy of informing policy.

[Seli]

A bit of a shame, so much of our nice old surviving buildings are (probably) religious in nature. Perhaps easier to achieve over there in the new world

i'd consider an exception for the hagia sofija. she can otherwise enter upon any mental abbatoir that she wants.

Understandable. Stonehenge can of course almost be only looked on from a distance these days, the acropolis is nice even when you cannot enter the temples. Although some churches in Rome are great examples of where the wealth of the church ended up. But she can do those on her own.

[six]

I was raised in a mixed household, my dad's family is Jewish and my mum's Catholic. None of them were particularly religious, but they were quite traditionalist so I both went to catechism, to the synagogue, celebrated holidays, etc. I believed in god until around 10-ish, when it all started to sound unreasonable to me. I suppose I'm atheist now, or an agnostic, I'm not quite sure. I don't think there's a god, but I don't really think about it. I know that I never feel the need to address a god, or to pray, and when my grandfather passed away I never for a moment wondered where he went... He was just gone and I was sad.

I'm raising my son in a secular environment though, because I don't agree with religious teaching to children and I think it should be a deliberate choice for adults. It's tough though, because religion seems to be everywhere, and I don't even live in a particularly religious country. My son hears his friends talking about god and decides he believes in god too, just to follow what they say, and tbh I'm more annoyed that at 6 he already feels the pressure of having to follow what his peers say rather than trying to develop his opinion. I might have to work on the being your own person and asking questions more.

I am curious though, for the people who were raised in a household where religion was just totally non-existent, what did you believe while growing up in regards to like, what happens after you die? Surely most kids must ask their parents that question when they're little at least once?

I told my son nobody knows what happens when you die. What I believe is that you probably just stop existing and that is it, but now I'm curious as to what he thinks that happen. Chances are he'll tell me you go to heaven cause he heard it from a mate :rolleyes:

[Liffguard]

Like 95% of Swedes, I had a very secular upbringing. Atheism just came naturally. The fact that atheism always has been the "normal" option in my surroundings have led me to despise this "atheist activism" that certain Americans and Brits engage in (like Richard Dawkins, Ricky Gervais, Bill Maher etc.). They're always shoving their propaganda down people's throat and can't for a minute accept that certain people find inner peace and strength and what not through their religion. I hate that almost as much as I hate religious bigotry.

You say propaganda, I say promoting their arguments and positions in the free marketplace of ideas. Nobody is forced to partake of them.

As for inner peace and strength, that's bullshit. The truth of a hypothesis stands on the arguments and evidence it can marshal in its favour, not on how it makes people feel. I think that publicly active atheists at least pay religion the respect of treating its propositions as actual hypotheses about the world and arguing against it on those merits. If I derive inner peace from a belief that the earth is the centre of the solar system it doesn't make that belief any less unreasonable.

[Daenerys Stormborn]

My father's side of the family was Catholic, my mother's Lutheran. My mother ended up converting to Catholicism, and I went to Catholic school from 1st - 12th grades. I find this funny, because they never really followed strict Catholic ways. In middle school when confirmation rolled around, I decided I didn't want to be confirmed. The priest didn't like this response during my interview, and convinced my parents to make me. That sealed the deal on my already budding atheism. I refused to attend mass during high school, and would come to school late on the days we had mass. Sometime in the last 10 years my parents started to considered themselves Christians, not Catholics. I am an atheist, married to an atheist, and if we were to have children (though we aren't) we would raise them without religion. I would however encourage them, as they aged, to read/study all religions in a historical/cultural sense.

[Gertrude]

If people feel good through their faith, where is the harm in that? No, it's not a good argument for the proof of a god, but I'm not sure who is saying it is? The above mentions activists not believing faith is comforting, but it's not an actual argument for proof for or against, is it?

eta: to respond to Dany above - you know what, I think religion might be a deal breaker for me in a relationship. Not simply being with someone who is religious, but if it was important enough to them that I convert to their religion, even if in name only. It would feel like they aren't respecting me. I have never been in this position, and who knows what would actually happen, but I can't imagine it right now.

[IheartTesla]

Not to hijack this thread or anything, but I would be interested to hear how people came about to lose the faith they were brought up in. I remember my thought process pretty clearly. It went something like this: Every religion seems to think it has the correct answer. However, there doesnt seem to be anything special about any one religion that would elevate it above others. I don't see a reason god would reveal himself to Hindus over say Christians (why not do it at the same time to everyone rather than in a specific geographic location at a specific time). No religion is special, so all religions are similarly incorrect.

At least, that was it in the 7th grade. Since then I've refined my thought process some.