Poll: What's your religious background?

[RedHammer]

I know there have been religion polls, but I'm also curious to see what your religious views are today in contrast to your religious background.

RevLeft is such a diverse website (globally) and I anticipate interesting responses.

Post away, comrades!

[Peoples' War]

Evangelical Christian -> non-denominational christian -> deist -> agnostic -> atheist.

[Comrade Samuel]

Atheist from a Christian background, lemme tell you that is not a very fun transition to make.

[Permanent Revolutionary]

Atheist from a Christian background, lemme tell you that is not a very fun transition to make.

I can second that

[The Jay]

^ It did suck.

[JPSartre12]

Baptized Catholic as a child, but my family has never practiced it. We were Catholic in name only, really. Later left the Church and became an evangelical, born-again Christian - you know, the real sort of Christian, that helps the poor and actually follows the oh-so-socialist Bible and hates the bourgeois religious institution.

[RedHammer]

Baptized Catholic as a child, but my family has never practiced it. We were Catholic in name only, really. Later left the Church and became an evangelical, born-again Christian - you know, the real sort of Christian, that helps the poor and actually follows the oh-so-socialist Bible and hates the bourgeois religious institution.

Interesting. Yes, it's pretty funny how "conservative Christians" justify war-mongering, greed, arrogance, etc, considering Jesus's views were "socialist for his time".

[JPSartre12]

Interesting. Yes, it's pretty funny how "conservative Christians" justify war-mongering, greed, arrogance, etc, considering Jesus's views were "socialist for his time".

Yeah it gets me pretty mad :mad: I just remind myself that Jesus fought against the institution and even though they called him insane and anti-establishment he was right in the end

[Raúl Duke]

Raised by Protestant/'evangelical' Christians in a catholic-majority Latin-American country -> "agnosticism" -> atheist, for the most part (once realizing that agnosticism is an epistemological position, atheism a theological one. I say most atheists are agnostic atheists).

The only 'religion' that interests me is buddhism due to its focus on "ending" or "enduring" one own life's suffering.

[Landsharks eat metal]

My path: Christian-->not giving a shit but still pretending to be a Christian since it's easier-->Atheist but still pretending to be a Christian and going to church because I fight enough with my parents already (and I hope the next step of me being able to openly be atheist and not going to church will come someday soon because I can't stand it for much longer.)

[TheRedAnarchist23]

I don't have any particular religion, but I beleive in freedom of religion.

I come from atheist background.

[Althusser]

Mom and grandma both Roman Catholic. Grew up and realized it's all pretty much bullshit. Read up on the history of the spread of christianity. I find religious people laughable and too lazy to research.

[Ostrinski]

atheist, non religious background. easy livin'. I don't give a shit, they don't give a shit.

[Ocean Seal]

Vaguely deist from a non-religious background in other words other.

[ed miliband]

apatheist from a culturally catholic but non-religious background. still, i was confirmed and shit.

i like to overplay the fact that my great-grandmother on my mother's side was jewish, but that's really clutching at straws.

[cynicles]

atheist, non religious background. easy livin'. I don't give a shit, they don't give a shit.
Amen to that!

[Positivist]

Catholic--> Atheist. And after I became an atheist I tried to find an objective morality, and then a universally applicable subjective one to no avail.

[Welshy]

Catholic > Buddhist > Atheist

I still like some parts of buddhism though.

[RedAnarchist]

I'm an agnostic atheist who was baptised as an Anglican, my mother being from an Anglican family (although some branches were Catholic until recently) and my father being from a Catholic family (although some branches were Anglican until recently). My mother, like my siblings and I, was brought up in a mostly secular way, whilst my father was brought up Catholic.

[Misanthrope]

Raised Catholic, confirmed and everything but I have the catholic church and am an atheist.

[Zostrianos]

My family was mainly Catholic (not really practicing though). I've always been spiritually inclined, and started looking into different religions when I was about 13. When I was 16 I actually went through with getting myself baptized as a catholic (which I regret now) - I didn't know anything about the Church's misdeeds and I thought my life might improve as a result. Within 2 years I started looking into the church's past, and that's when I abandoned it. Nowadays I'm more of a philosophical Pagan - Neoplatonism, Hermetism and Gnostic texts really resonate with me.

[Luc]

Rege Satana! Ave Satana!

parents were protestants

[L.A.P.]

son of a Catholic father and Hindu mother, but they're non-practicing. It was only in name, but I didn't know they were pretty much atheists until I told them I was an atheist.

[Jazzratt]

I was raised in a (presumably*) non-religious household. When I was a kid I assumed that religions were just made up stories and anyone could just make one up: I used to have my own little pantheon of gods drawn from my imagination and the books I'd read which I took to be a "religion." When it turned out that people (adults, no less) actually believed these things were real it seemed quite weird to me.

*I say "presumably" because I've never really inquired. None of my family seem all that religious. If I was forced to guess the religion of each member I'd go with "atheist except for entrances and exits."

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

I come from a Christian background, and am an agnostic theist. I was strongly religious, but then had doubts. I decided I didnt want to be a part of the church, and found organized religion to be a bad thing. At this point, I think there's probably a god, but I agree that there's no way to know.

[Yugo45]

I come form a muslim background but my parents were non-religious (and some of my grandparents) and thus I wasn't raised religiously.

I consider myself to be an agnostic.

[The Jay]

Nowadays I'm more of a philosophical Pagan - Neoplatonism, Hermetism and Gnostic texts really resonate with me.


You know how I'm always calling people out for misusing the term Idealism right? This is one of the times that the word is apt since I used to be heavily interested in Hermeticism and other mystic beliefs. I still think they're interesting from a people-watching perspective but they are certainly idealistic in the "bad" way.

PS: We still love you.

[Brosa Luxemburg]

Came from a very fundamentalist Christian background (parents believed we were in the "end times" and shit) and by the time I was about 10 or 11 I started to seriously doubt all of that and I have been an atheist since I was about 14-16.

EDIT: I think I told people I was an atheist (outside of friends) when they asked at 17 or 18 (like telling my parents and whatnot).

[Zostrianos]

This is one of the times that the word is apt since I used to be heavily interested in Hermeticism and other mystic beliefs. I still think they're interesting from a people-watching perspective but they are certainly idealistic in the "bad" way.

How exactly are they bad?

[ВАЛТЕР]

My parents are atheists. In fact, pretty much my whole family are atheists.
My grandma is the only theist, she is an Orthodox Christian and she used to be annoying with it. She doesn't bring it up anymore as much. Since me and my younger brothers pretty much made fun of her every chance we got. She'd bring up some religious crap and I'd always have some kind of scientific or historical tidbit of information which would confuse her. She doesn't bring it up for sure ever since I threatened a priest and his helper (Helper priest? Idk the term).

Call me mean for mocking an old lady but it is hilarious to me. It's one of those things you have to see to be funny. She gets so upset when I say blasphemous things. It's just great. :laugh:

Although she always stick religious icons in my bags, wallets, pockets, etc. and it is annoying as all hell. I was at the gym one day and I was looking in my bag for my hand wraps, and I found a picture of some saint or whatever with a prayer on it. I know her intentions are good, but I find it infuriating that I've had to asked her so many times to stop.

[Hermes]

My parents are Christian, but they never really go to church. I went to Vacation Bible School a couple times when I was very young.

I'm an atheist, though, and my parents never really cared. I often think that they'd be atheists as well, but leaving tradition is difficult for them. I'm probably wrong, though.

[The Jay]

How exactly are they bad?

I meant bad in that they are idealistic in a way that runs contrary to Historical Materialism, not in a moral way. I consider it bad logic that's all.

[Zostrianos]

Like anything, if it remains personal it shouldn't pose an obstacle to other aspects of life and progress. On the contrary, if it brings fulfillment to the individual, it can make such progress better.

[Yugo45]

I was at the gym one day and I was looking in my bag for my hand wraps, and I found a picture of some saint or whatever with a prayer on it.
:laugh::laugh::laugh: Maybe she's messing with you?

[Quail]

I'm an atheist from a non-religious Christian background. I was christened as a baby and I think people in my family used to go to church, but I have never really believed in a god as far as I can remember. I remember telling my mum I didn't believe in god when I was about 8 and she said, "That's a big statement to make," but I don't think she believes in god either.

[Tjis]

My parents grew up Catholic, but I grew up non-religious. I considered myself an atheist, but didn't really give it much thought.
Some years ago, I was investigating what would be needed to build a truly human-like artificial intelligence (an ongoing interest of mine). While trying to understand the nature of consciousness and what drives people to act, rather than just being decaying lumps of cells, I stumbled upon Buddhism. In Buddhism I found an explanation of the human condition that (surprisingly, to me anyway) did not rely on the existence of a soul, god, or inherent human nature. The more I read, the more I found myself agreeing with this doctrine, until eventually I felt that these teachings had changed my worldview so much that I couldn't consider myself to be non-religious anymore. I've identified as a buddhist ever since.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

My family has never been one with much time for religion. I remember when I was a teenager that whenever Jehovah's Witnesses came knocking, my mum would let me talk to them while she did something else; my memory may be playing tricks on me but I think I also remember her making disparaging comments about religious believers on occasion. We celebrated Christmas and Easter with food and gifts, economic circumstances permitting, but never went to church. We had better things to do on a Sunday.

I'm glad that my family wasn't religious, all those strictures and obligations would have driven me to distraction.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

My close family was never religious, but my cousins, aunts and uncles were.

I started off as agnostic, if that's what you'd label it. I really couldn't have given a crap if there were deities or not, since they weren't an intergal part of my life (I always hated churches though).

I then became athiest and subsequently opposed to religion after a combination of happenings, notable events being forced anti-intellectualism at my (catholic) school after I began to read into religious history, my strong interest in biological engineering and the alienation I had got from it, witnessing disgusting atrocities by the Church first hand and my strong dissonance with dogmatism.


Though to be perfectly honest, the main thing that made me so hateful of theism was when I began to trace back religious history after deciding that there was no concrete evidence for any god, was that it was such a powerful tool of exploitation!

Why need the dominance of agriculture!? You don't! Just pledge to everyone that you are a messiah and will suffer if you don't follow to the book these holy, unchangeable texts that your magical sky-brother has passed down to you!

I am certainly opposed to forcing athiesm upon people, but I do class religion as a dangerous and potentionally fatal aspect of society. When it is passed down from parent to child at a very early age, it becomes nothing more than psychological disease.

[Veovis]

I am an atheist from a Roman Catholic family.

[Crux]

My parents are agnostics, but they both have a hippe past so throw in a bit of orientalist interest in buddhism and daoism in there. That corresponds a bit with my own journey, I've always been an atheist, but I have had periods of interest in the mysticist traditions. I'm a lapsed discordian.

[smellincoffee]

Grew up in a fundamentalist Pentecostal sect, left that behind at the age of twenty. I've been a humanist ever since, though I read in Buddhist philosophy.

[Aussie Trotskyist]

I posted atheist from religious background. However, I only said that because as a child (4-5) I went to church etc. My immediate family hasn't been to church in years.

[Robespierres Neck]

I'm atheist from a non-religious background. When I was little, my parents would take my sister & I to church, but I don't think they were ever serious about. Probably just doing it because it seemed like the right thing to do to them. We eventually stopped going.
They never restrained me when I was younger, which gave me the ability to think and learn for myself. By the age of 13, I was a self-proclaimed agnostic. A year later, I decided I was atheist.
My parents have always been iffy about their religious beliefs. The last I heard them talking about the subject - they both said they believe in God, but a few months before this my mom claimed she was atheist. This has happened often with both of my parents.
I had an 'atheist in a foxhole' discussion with my mom about a month ago. :sleep: It was simply ridiculous.

[bad ideas actualised by alcohol]

Voted Jewish from non-religious background. But what I ment was: I don't believe and my family is Jewish (They call themselves that) but don't believe in God.

[Aristophenes McTwitch]

I was raised in a fundamentalist christian household and am now atheist. I have even "converted" some of my friends to atheism : )

[leftistman]

I went from a somewhat religious Jew to an Orthodox Jew to an atheist overnight(literally).

[cantwealljustgetalong]

Jewish --> Buddhist --> Atheist

[Igor]

i'm atheist, my folks are technically religious i guess but really p much the most secular christians ever.

[ComradeChe]

Born a Muslim for non religious Muslim parents, baptized as Coptic Christian as a child by the same parents, brought up as wutever u believe in is just an idea, kicked out from schools for sharing these believes!!

[human strike]

Atheist raised in a Mormon family.

[Yuppie Grinder]

Poll probably should have been written differently considering almost everyone here is an atheist.

[Agent Ducky]

My parents both escaped Christianity and vowed to raise their children without any religion. And here I am, 16 years later and atheist.
Although they do "threaten" sometimes "if you don't do X we might just make you go to church," even though the threats are empty. Even if that did happen, nobody would benefit.

[the last donut of the night]

atheist, but i do find something very beautiful about spirituality