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Tue 18 Sep, 2007 03:20 pm
I get curious in general, how people come by their belief system.
Getting to know people here, I wonder where all this diversity came from.
Are atheists apt to breed atheists, and believers more believers?
I can imagine that a religious person would be distraught if their child grew up to not believe in a supreme being, regardless of respecting that point of view.
I wonder, do atheists feel the same upset if their child, either in early childhood, teen, or adult years developes a belief in God, or even goes so far to join a religion?
Would an atheist be more accepting of their childs view if they had a belief, but also still believed in evolution?
Would they less accepting of their child if they decided they believed in creationism?
Of course, one can reverse the situation too.
One other question...if both your parents and you belong to a religion, is it the same religion.
Mostly I'd just like to learn the demographics of my fellow A2Kers, but of course learning the how and why is just as interesting.
PS - I tried to divide up Atheism and Agnosticism, but that was too many choices for the poll.
I guess I'm the first one to vote. My parents are/were Roman Catholic. I was raised a Roman Catholic. I began questioning my religion in high school. Stopped going to church at 18. I guess I'd have to call myself an atheist because I don't think it is likely that there is a god in the traditional sense.
My sons were raised to ask questions. The older one is an atheist. The younger one dabled a bit in Buddism and even Methodism (is that a word?) I did feel a little uncomfortable with the Methodism and was relieved when he didn't pursue that religion. I never told him that I was unconfortable and truly want him to follow his own heart, but i have problems with organized religion.
Does that even come close to answering your question?
Yes, very informative answer.
I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of RC's turned Atheist/Agnostic here. :wink:
When you said you were uncomfortable with one son becoming a methodist, was it because it was an organized religion, or is there something about that particular faith.
But you were concerned about the Buddism? What was the reason?
Thanks for your thougtful response squinny, I hope this remains a non-partisan thread.
Well, that's me. My parents were both roman catholic, and I was one very devout teenager. I stopped believing around twenty, and have considered myself atheist for decades.. Should Frank Apisa be lurking, some portion of atheists agree that means "without theism".
My parents had a very simplistic belief in a god. But, they never spoke out about it, and they seemed wary of most ministers. I never saw them enter a church, or heard them pray. When I came home from church one day (I attended faithfully, for about three years), I told them what "Brother" such and such had said during the service. My stepfather gave me a scornful look, and said, "You'll never see the day I call one of them 'brother.'" But, he believed there was a god. He told us, more than once, "It says right there in the Bible, There'll come a day when you eat your own **** and drink your own piss." He never read it, just threw off erroneous quotes, picked up in a bar, most likely.
In those days, I desperately wanted whatever it was the Christian religion had to offer. In the end, I determined they had nothing I wanted.
edgarblythe wrote:My parents had a very simplistic belief in a god. But, they never spoke out about it, and they seemed wary of most ministers. I never saw them enter a church, or heard them pray. When I came home from church one day (I attended faithfully, for about three years), I told them what "Brother" such and such had said during the service. My stepfather gave me a scornful look, and said, "You'll never see the day I call one of them 'brother.'" But, he believed there was a god. He told us, more than once, "It says right there in the Bible, There'll come a day when you eat your own **** and drink your own piss." He never read it, just threw off erroneous quotes, picked up in a bar, most likely. . .
Those words actually occur in the King James version. (2Kings 18:17)
neologist wrote:edgarblythe wrote:My parents had a very simplistic belief in a god. But, they never spoke out about it, and they seemed wary of most ministers. I never saw them enter a church, or heard them pray. When I came home from church one day (I attended faithfully, for about three years), I told them what "Brother" such and such had said during the service. My stepfather gave me a scornful look, and said, "You'll never see the day I call one of them 'brother.'" But, he believed there was a god. He told us, more than once, "It says right there in the Bible, There'll come a day when you eat your own **** and drink your own piss." He never read it, just threw off erroneous quotes, picked up in a bar, most likely. . .
Those words actually occur in the King James version. (2Kings 18:17)
But it does not tell us we will be doing that.
I clocked in with parents/self agnostic/atheist, since that was the dynamic of the house I grew up in. However, when my dad was in high school he was very religiously involved with one of those self-formed charismatic sects that seemed to follow midwestern migrants to the agri-towns of the California central valley and set up shop in little whitewashed plank-board churches with simple names on undecorated black signs. He led Christian youth groups and the like and when he turned 18 (in 1968) was able to establish conscientious objector status on the basis of his beliefs.
My mother was raised by an elder of the same sort of church and a fiercely independent-minded grammar school dropout child of Polish immigrants who believed in God but intensely disliked the fire-and-brimstone character of her husband's church. Mom grew into a staunch atheist.
Then he went to college and became a hippie, and by the time I came along the household was pretty removed from any hint of organized religion save the Christmas decorations -- though we did move into the house of my child-molesting (and very outspokenly religious) uncle for a while.
Now I gather, from the couple of conversations I've had with him over the last few years, that my father, in the midst of his mid-life confusion, is looking for the comfort afforded him by religion when he was younger. He's never been good at reconciling himself to anything unpleasant, though, and I suspect he just misses feeling like there was some great answer at the end of it all. That and the fact that I'm pretty sure he feels his life went in the wrong direction somewhere around 1970 and he wants some thread back then that he can pick up and start over with -- and since his parents are dead (and his mother may have been schizophrenic and was certainly emotionally abusive) and he despises his brother, there aren't many threads available to him. Personally, I think he should start smoking weed again, but that probably wouldn't mix too well with the early senility that seems to plague our line...
Er, so, yeah, I was raised without religion and didn't seek it out on my own, except for a couple of times when I went to church with other families to see what it was all about. (I was not impressed by the pageantry, the philosophy, or the pedantry.)
The first posted response was Swimpy. Lots of people respond to her with my name for some reason.
I grew up with both parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. all Methodist. I carried a belief in God until the last couple of years. They all still believe. They don't know that I don't anymore.
neologist wrote:edgarblythe wrote:My parents had a very simplistic belief in a god. But, they never spoke out about it, and they seemed wary of most ministers. I never saw them enter a church, or heard them pray. When I came home from church one day (I attended faithfully, for about three years), I told them what "Brother" such and such had said during the service. My stepfather gave me a scornful look, and said, "You'll never see the day I call one of them 'brother.'" But, he believed there was a god. He told us, more than once, "It says right there in the Bible, There'll come a day when you eat your own **** and drink your own piss." He never read it, just threw off erroneous quotes, picked up in a bar, most likely. . .
Those words actually occur in the King James version. (2Kings 18:17)
So neo...how did you vote?
Chai wrote:Yes, very informative answer.
I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of RC's turned Atheist/Agnostic here. :wink:
When you said you were uncomfortable with one son becoming a methodist, was it because it was an organized religion, or is there something about that particular faith.
But you were concerned about the Buddism? What was the reason?
Thanks for your thougtful response squinny, I hope this remains a non-partisan thread.
(Thanks for clarifying my identity, squinney. People do rend to confuse us. I take it as a compliment and extend my sympathy to you :wink: )
Anyway, to answer your question, Chai, I wasn't concerned about the Buddism. I know Buddists and admire them. The Methodism scared me, partly because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to relate to him anymore and that he would proselytize. At any rate, he didn't take up Methodist ways. He is happily a-religious.
Re: Yeah, I know, nobody knows, where it comes & where i
Chai wrote:I can imagine that a religious person would be distraught if their child grew up to not believe in a supreme being, regardless of respecting that point of view.
My mother is very upset at my lack of belief.
As a parent I would not mind if my child were religious, however without the indoctrination that occurs in most religious households I can't imagine that it would happen in my home (sans religious indoctrination).
I was raised baptist, by a mother who would drop me off at church to have a day off.
Plain and simple.
She would go with me sometimes, but not always.
It was MY duty to go to church.
I never, in my life, bought into the whole jesus/god thing.
I was not allowed to ask questions, and had religion forced on me through out my childhood.
I first discovered other religions when I was 14 on my own.
I have now come into myself and my own 'beliefs', and feel perfectly comfy where I am. And there is no jesus around... except the one across the street with three kids + a beer bottle.
I grew up in a Baptist Church, my parents are still there and are Christians. I got married and moved and became a member of a Presbyterian Church...I too am a Christian. Some doctrinal differences...but nothing major.
My parents were both raised in very religious families. (Dad's is Presbyterian, Mom's is Orthodox Jewish.) They had each opted out of religion by the time they met in grad school.
I investigated a few organized religions as a teenager and young adult, but didn't find anything for me there.
My mother considers herself a bit of a failure, as one of her four children has become Episcopalian.
<trys not to snort>
excuse the comment - I like it that this thread will work out to be not so much talk about religion, but straightforwards answers of Chai's question.
I'll be surprised if it stays that way, osso.
and I misspelled tries...
Quote:
Those words actually occur in the King James version. (2Kings 18:17)
2 Kings 18:27
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