Religious Baggage (or were you brought up with a religion?)

[Holden Caulfield]

Are any comrades religious or more importantly were you brought up in a specific religion and to what degree does your family adhere to it?

I personally was brought up a Protestant (boring CoE type) and was forced into being confirmed at about 12 years old by my mother (my dad has always been religiously apathetic so I suppose an atheist). She gave up her religion when her parents died and lost all cognitive ability and memory of who she even was on the way.

She is still pretty 'religious-y' even thought she doesn't believe anymore, she has told me off for swearing for saying 'Jesus Christ' before but she doesn't really give a shit.

I explained to her that is God does exist I'm going to heaven so I got nothing to worry about

[Valeofruin]

Personally neutral. Used to have stances on religion, recently have just stopped giving a shit, God? No God? to hell with it.. I got bigger problems. Spent alot of time in religious schooling though..

Family is United Church of Christ.

[Sasha]

leftist conformist liberal pacifist.... does that count as an religion?

[Bud Struggle]

Are any comrades religious or more importantly were you brought up in a specific religion and to what degree does your family adhere to it?

I personally was brought up a Protestant (boring CoE type) and was forced into being confirmed at about 12 years old by my mother (my dad has always been religiously apathetic so I suppose an atheist). She gave up her religion when her parents died and lost all cognitive ability and memory of who she even was on the way.

She is still pretty 'religious-y' even thought she doesn't believe anymore, she has told me off for swearing for saying 'Jesus Christ' before but she doesn't really give a shit.

I explained to her that is God does exist I'm going to heaven so I got nothing to worry about

Holden, I've always had the most respect for you as a poster and as a person--so no offense meant, but I find your post quite sad in a way. I can understand if you have (had) a religion and then rejected it or if your parents and you never had any faith at all. But I find that indefinite on again and off again kind of belief quite upsetting. It's almost (and forgive me if I'm reading too much into your post) like you mom doesn't know who she is.

For me and my faimly it seems that we are this and this and this. And one of those "thises" is Catholic. It's a definition of who I am and who my parents are and who my children are. It's like the nose on my face or the lines on my palm. I guess I never became anything that I wasn't already, I don't know if that's a good thing--but I can say it is a comforting and happy thing.

[Holden Caulfield]

Haha I think its more my writing than my mother having an identiy crisis that gave you that impression. Its not on and off faith, its 'it was on but now it is most definately off'. I think it is more habit to tell me about 'blasphemy' more than anything else.

She doesn't believe in god, she isn't religious/pious I think she just has been brought up to think that its wrong to 'take the lords name in vain'.

Its funny when you say that the religion is what you are, and what your kids are. When me and Bob Kindles discussed the history around the civil war and the glorious revolution he said I was showing my protestant roots with the position I 'naturally' assumed haha. I am not a religious man, never have been but you can never escpe the church.

P.S: How does one link there protestant upbringing with being a staunch republican who goes to the local Irish [sic:Catholic] Centre and might well be the only protestant skinheaded man in there. This (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmPbC1rYYOA) is how

[Bud Struggle]

Thanks for no offense taken. As a Catholic, (tho' not Irish) I'm all for shooting those damn Protestants. :D

[ComradeMan]

In my family there is an odd mix, Judaism and Christianity- hardcore Roman Catholic!!! My parents gave me a religious education in the sense of telling me to read the "Book" and make my own mind up, in my home we had the Bible in English and Hebrew, a Qu'ran in English, the Rig Vedas, loads of books on Buddhism, Sufi writings and so on. My father's attitude was the last place you find God is in a synagogue, mosque or church- just try to be nice!

I must admit when I meet aggressive atheists I sometimes find them as bigotted as religious nutcases- it also amazes me how often people are of the religion they profess or, ironically, attack. When I read some of the so-called Christian sites it's shocking how ignorant they are, unfortunately they are usually American Evangelicals too.

But then people can never work out what my religion is either- :D The Jews have accused me of being a Messianic and the Christians have accused me of being a Judaizer! :D

"In my father's house are many mansions".

Anyway, that's the baggage-:cool:

[Kovacs]

I spent my formative years in a private (fee paying) school which was one of the few english schools following the appallingly biased Accelerate Christian Eduction curriculum.

As such I still have a soppy love of debating theology while actually decrying the concept of religion as a tool for social control. I'm particularly incensed by the claim to superior morality the religious of some sorts claim. How dare they assume that they have higher claim to superior morality because they bought theirs off the shelf from an old abrahmic variant faith. Believe as you wish, but do not have the temerity to suggest yours is the only path to good, or that belief in your god is a pre-requisite for moral behavior. That is so very arrogant.

IMHO

[The Red Next Door]

my family on my dad side is very religious and narrow minded and my family on my mom side are Christian but they are not religious and open minded.

[Comrade Anarchist]

raised baptist and was forced to go every sunday and was actually wanting to get into preaching and such but i when i became a teenager i started thinking how could evolution be true b/c if so then genesis is wrong and therefore the whole damn book is bullshit. When my grandpa died i lost faith big time but was still a christian but i kept questioning it then i kinda just gave up trying to believe and said fuck it and became an atheist. My dad is iffy on religion but my mom has never been big in it till my grandfather died and she reacted the exact opposite i did and became devouter than a fucking nun. so now i hide the fact im atheist just so that i dont get fucked up bible style.

[Dooga Aetrus Blackrazor]

raised baptist and was forced to go every sunday and was actually wanting to get into preaching and such but i when i became a teenager i started thinking how could evolution be true b/c if so then genesis is wrong and therefore the whole damn book is bullshit. When my grandpa died i lost faith big time but was still a christian but i kept questioning it then i kinda just gave up trying to believe and said fuck it and became an atheist. My dad is iffy on religion but my mom has never been big in it till my grandfather died and she reacted the exact opposite i did and became devouter than a fucking nun. so now i hide the fact im atheist just so that i dont get fucked up bible style.

I think you and your Mom seem to share a tendency to react in extreme ways. I'm all for the communist. But egoism? How can you have an ethical obligation to "only yourself?" Shouldn't you have an obligation to either everyone or no one? I really shouldn't lecture because I considered myself an egoist for a few years. But to be honest, that's because I had no idea what egoism actually meant and implied.

As for me, I was Unitarian. It's not much of a religious Church. People go to keep up pretenses, believe in God, interpret the Bible very loosely. It's just basically for people who don't want to be atheist and like a sense of community. The sense of community is the only cool thing about religion. At least my my small hometown, it's amazing when people from Churches are there for everyone when things happen - usually funerals.

I left when I was quite young. My parents didn't really care. They didn't like what it meant for them. They had to explain why they had a young kid is no longer attending church. Small town people probably know what I mean, here. Also, my main motivation was that when I was becoming a teenager, I wanted to sleep more. I also had depression that contributed to my love of sleep. In other words, I didn't want to go to Church when I could sleep in rather than go. I don't remember much about it. They wanted to force me to go. I told them I have a right to believe what I want. Even though I didn't conceptualize myself as an atheist, I could see nonsense when it looked me in the face. They backed off. They might have wanted me to do something instead of go to Church (chores or something). That's probably because if they were miserable, they wanted me to suffer (even parents can be immature). That never amounted to anything because it was more of a bluff.

So yeah, me not going to Church made my parents explain to their elderly relatives and a nosy congregation why some pre-teen boy isn't attending church. I never asked them about that. Frankly, I didn't and still don't care.

[Die Rote Fahne]

I was brought up as a Pentecostal (Evangelical) Christian. Went to church every sunday until I was like 9. Then went on specific holidays until 15/16.

I'm an Agnostic now tho.

[Invincible Summer]

Grew up in a Protestant family, went to church and stuff regularly. My parents sent me to a private Catholic elementary school so I could be educated in a "wholesome" environment, but it really just scarred me for life because everyone was a reactionary bougie and I couldn't stand them.

Around 10th grade I sort of faltered from Christianity and started looking into other religions, eventually falling into agnosticism, now I'm a pretty staunch atheist. My parents are pretty disappointed, and I tend to get into a lot of debates with them. It really annoys me that my parents always tell me to not use the Lord's name "in vain," as if it really matters. I don't believe in that shit, so why does it matter? It's almost as if being in the presence of someone who is saying "Jeeezusss christ!" makes them less holy or some shit.

[Raúl Duke]

Grew up in a non-denominational protestant family however I was baptized in accordance to Catholic rite and perhaps had 1st communion or whatever it's called. My parents and my siblings are protestant type christians. Only my mother is more "into it" then the rest of my family and sometimes it seems that my father is the least "into it."

To my knowledge, I'm the only one in my family (i.e. including uncles and cousins, etc) that is explicitly not religious.

I probably began dropping religion sometime after 2004/2005 which would be when I was 14-15; although I was quite "critical" in a sense (things didn't add up, I preferred evolutionary explanation and material explanation of the existence of the universe over the fairy tale genesis story, etc) long before that. By 2006 I was surely not religious any longer.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

My parents were both Lutheran ministers. (My mother though switched to the Methodist church for some reason, and now I think she's in an Episcopal church, but I'm not really even sure to be honest.) So I was brought up in the Lutheran church. I didn't start to resent it until I was about 12 or 13 when my dad was making me go through confirmation classes. I had to have a "mentor" and talk about all this Bible stuff with him. Oh, it was horrible! I even told my dad I was an atheist and that I would prefer going to hell over heaven to try to get out of confirmation but he made me go through with it. I suppose it would have been embarrassing for the pastor's son to not be confirmed. You can get really cynical being raised in a church. Anyways, I still occasionally attend church services when I'm visiting my parents.

[spiltteeth]

I'm Christian, parents arn't anything - average I supose. They both beleive in "somthing."

[Holden Caulfield]

I even told my dad I was an atheist and that I would prefer going to hell over heaven to try to get out of confirmation but he made me go through with it.

hahaha I been there. my mum told me if I just got confirmed that I would never have to go to church. I think she just wanted it done to me as an insurance policy for my soul haha.

I had to go see the vicker once or twice up I wasn't mentored or anything.

[lombas]

I was raised a café-Catholic, like many Flemish people. We never attended church, but did do all the "rites" (baptism, communion, marriage, funeral, ...).

It's a habit, you know. Probably not an extremely bad one. Those priests are getting older and fewer, someone needs to take care of their pension...

[LeninBalls]

I was baptised a Catholic under one of the lazy Catholic type fathers and a Buddhist mother. Seeing as neither of them ever enforced religious views or talked about it, I became an atheist when I was 10. First, for like a week out of wanting to be a badass, then I actually thought about it and it became serious and I've never looked back etc etc

[LOLseph Stalin]

I wasn't brought up religious, but my mom always encouraged me and my siblings to explore different ideas to come to our own conclusions. My mom is certainly a theist, but doesn't follow any particular religion.