Being raised religiously

[Foreigner]

I was raised Catholic but my parents were fairly liberal. I only attended a few Church services as a kid and took part in the usual Christian holidays, but I would say my obligations were light. Catholicism seemed more like some kind of community tradition to me, but I didn't really feel a connection to God through it. Later on I casually drifted away from that religion and there was no fuss about it, but I know it can be a different story for others!

Did your parents raise you under the banner of a certain faith? Did they have certain religious expectations of you?

Did you end up staying with that faith as you got older? Why or why not?

 

[malakaix]

I was sent to a Anglican Christian school, despite my parents been non-religious. I think this was mainly due to it been a 'private' school rather then the religious aspect itself.

My only interaction with religion was through school, during R.E class or the church services they would hold every few weeks. I never paid it much attention, and because my parents weren't religious it was never expected of me to have an understanding of it; i also drifted away from it as the years went on..

I came back to it somewhere around 5 years later with an interest in the metaphorical meanings behind christian mysticism, which evolved into a greater understanding of the similarities between all old faiths at which point i felt i had reached a resolution through my own personal experience of divinity and how religion tied into all of it. Going right back to the source and watching how an interpretation of the indescribable evolved over millenniums.

I dont hold onto any faith, but i left it having an incomplete understanding of its importance throughout history, which i later resolved. It's now a non-issue for me, i have no problem with it.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

Did your parents raise you under the banner of a certain faith? Did they have certain religious expectations of you?

My parents raised me southern baptist. I was forced to attend church as a child although once I got into high school and started working on Sundays, they eased up and let me miss the services.

Did you end up staying with that faith as you got older? Why or why not?

Fuck no. It was no accident that at 16 years old I told my bosses I preferred to work Sundays. I started doubting my faith when the older high school kids in my church youth group turned out to be a bunch of liars and self-righteous hypocrites. By the time I got to college I was agnostic at best and moved to another state. After several more years of self-discovery, I finally settled on atheism. I'm in my thirties and I still have not outright told my family I'm an atheist, mostly because I don't want them pestering me about my soul and shit. I think they figured it out, though.

 

[Seeking Where?]

Hi, Foreigner - glad you are here as a moderator, hope you enjoy your work with Bluelighters.

I was raised as a generic Christian in the American mid-West, but as I grew older, had a hard time with the whole notion of God taking human form as Jesus. It seemed to me that we are either ALL children of God, or NONE of us are (I opt for the former). On one level, I wish someone had had the sense to talk to me at length about the story as metaphor - but I still think I would have struggled with it. I converted to Judaism as an adult - it's okay to struggle the Liberal Jewish community, in fact, it is expected! That being said, my notions about God now are not dissimilar to Paul Tillich's - God as the ground of being, or BEING itself.

One thing I have been grateful for in the Jewish community is the ritual framework around loss. I am saying kaddish (mourner's prayer) and lighting memorial candles for Where Wolf?, a Bluelighter who died in February. The loss is still overwhelming at times, but at least I have a concrete action to perform each day, something to hold onto. Any resources for dealing with grief much appreciated, whatever religious framework they come from.

 

[casualuser]

I was raised in a very devout roman catholic and conservative family. Looking back I can't really say I every truly believed in god though there were periods where I tried. Ultimately I became the polar opposite of my parents atheist and very liberal.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

My parents were liberal Roman Catholics, prominent members of the US's religious left, and proud champions of Liberation Theology. Their social circle -- our family friends -- my world growing up -- was basically the local Christian bohemian and activist crowd. I remember heady, coffee-fueled rap sessions in unkempt living rooms, church basements, and street corners, where heated rants about social issues sat cheek and jowl with far-out theological debates.

It blew my fucking mind -- and not in a good way -- to attend college at an old secular New England liberal arts college, and find that most liberals were not at all religious, and most religious people not at all liberal. It blew my mind even more to get out in the larger world, and see this was more the rule than the exception.

I've been a spiritual vagabond ever since. I believe there is a spark of the divine light at the core of every sentient being, and there are many, many ways to clean off the soot and make the light shine brighter, and get together with others for additive brightness. I very much enjoy brief sojourns with communities of faith of all stripes, as long as they give off a genuinely warm-hearted, inclusive, and humanitarian vibe as an overall group. I enjoy hearing about the spiritual paths they follow, and seeing the similarities with other groups of people who also seek meaning and connectedness. But I have yet to find a religious community that I am absolutely certain I want to be my spiritual home indefinitely. I may not in this lifetime, and that's OK. But I know that if and when I find that group, I will know it right away and give myself fully and without hesitation.

 

[ech0s85]

Fuck no. It was no accident that at 16 years old I told my bosses I preferred to work Sundays. I started doubting my faith when the older high school kids in my church youth group turned out to be a bunch of liars and self-righteous hypocrites.

IME it seems that a large majority of christians fall under that description, with a few people who are naive but wholly good people sprinkled in.



on topic i was raised half assed as a generic christian, i think because of societal pressures mostly, and i was done with religion at a very young age.

 

[Belisarius]

I was raised by religious conservatives, and it's left a lasting mark on my psyche. Though I consider myself a left-centrist, there are things I have a knee-jerk reaction to that they hammered into my head over decades, and other ways of thinking that really aren't going anywhere. I can be deeply conflicted from hour to hour based on who I'm with and what I'm doing, enough to feel like two or three different people fighting within the same mind. ("I hate Christians" / "The ones I know are all right." / "Maybe they're on to something." / "I fucking hate Christians." Ad infinitum.) It sucks, really.

If that isn't agnostic, I don't know what is.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

^ I know the feeling, dude.

 

[L2R]

foreigner, your brief story in this context basically sums up mine.

i encapsulate my experience with the catholic religion with one pro and one con.
pro: the ability to forgive
con: the guilt for everything

 

[Jerry Atrick]

IME it seems that a large majority of christians fall under that description, with a few people who are naive but wholly good people sprinkled in.

Yeh, I didn't mean to imply that all southern baptists or christians are liars and hypocrites. I see the value in organized religion for helping some people cope with the real world....it just isn't for me. I know some very honest and upstanding citizens who practice one faith or another and I know some atheists and agnostics who are just as honest and upstanding.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Jerry & L2R, on a global scale, I don't think being religious correlates with any other behaviors or traits besides needing to be an essential part of a much larger plan, project, or order, in order to find life worthwhile. Besides having this need, I think you'll find the religious come from all walks of life. Besides not having this need, I think you'll find the irreligious come from all walks of life.

Granted, different groups of [ir]religious people will manifest certain intra-group traits in common that have nothing to do with metaphysical viewpoints. This is because the [ir]religious differ in what worldly circumstances brought them to [ir]religion, and what keeps them there, but tend to self-select into groups with others who share similar motivations.

"As above, so below." "On earth as it is in heaven". In other words, people's attitudes toward and relationships with the supernatural tend to mirror in many ways their attitudes toward the conditions and major players in their mundane world. And vice versa.

 

[MrGrunge]

My Mom was raised to be fairly religious (she was brought up in a small town in the Bible Belt) and my Dad's parents are Methodists but never really instilled strong religious ties in him. My Dad is now an atheist and my Mom, while not overtly religious aside from her borderline-crazy obsession with Christmas decorations, keeps her faith (or what's left of it) quietly to herself. I was forced (very much against my will) to be confirmed in the Lutheran religion in my early teens, but as soon as that happened I was allowed to stop attending church. My little sister wasn't made to be confirmed and got to avoid all of that bullshit. I have plenty of religious relatives but luckily none of them talk about it much or ever get into obnoxiously pushy arguments about it - so I consider myself lucky on that front. Like foreigner, my familial experience with Christianity has been more about community tradition than a literal commitment to God.

 

[spare9]

Did your parents raise you under the banner of a certain faith? Did they have certain religious expectations of you?
Yes, I was raised Catholic until about age 15 when my parents each started going to "non denominational" Christian churches. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through senior year. Both of my parents are now what I call "just plain Christian" and do not agree with Catholicism.

Did you end up staying with that faith as you got older? Why or why not?
I began questioning my faith around age 14 or so. At 15 I was positive I was an atheist. I remember the exact moment I knew that I did not agree with the belief in god or religions in general. In my freshman theology class we were asked the question "Why do we believe in god?" and were told to write our answer in out notebooks. I wrote "because we need something to explain the things we cannot". I don't recall what the "correct" answer was. So then I started "coming out" as it were to my parents, friends, and family members. Of course the parents had a hard time with it and sometimes they still do, no one else really has any problems with it. I don't make a show of it or anything, if someone asks my religion then I tell them I'm an atheist. I have absolutely no problems with any religions. I think people have things that work for them and that's great. I'm just about doing what works for me, not about trying to prove something is right or wrong. I think many religions have great teachings.

 

[Thorns Have Roses]

My mother's side of the family is very Catholic (grandparents on that side are very active in the local church and various charities), and I was raised that way, but figured I was an atheist by age 12. I'm more Spinoza-ish these days.

 

[ebola?]

For added fun, I made this into a poll.
...
I was raised irreligiously, and it stuck. Spiritual matters, for me, are not particularly different from other realms of investigation (eg, I apply the same uncertainty and eclecticism that I do in other areas), except that spirituality necessarily involves running up against (or in some cases transcending) the limits of what can be expressed linguistically. As a consequence, I can't really identify with expression of ontology through myth...the window-dressing all seems quite silly, and I crave something more literal.

ebola

 

[Seeking Where?]

I have found Ken Wilbur's (Buddhist theologian) writing helpful when feeling frustrated at the hitting 'the limits of what can be expressed linguistically'. Instead of buying into the rational / irrational dualism, he posits sub-rational, rational, trans-rational.

The most rational conclusion I ever reached was that there are limits to rationality, limits to the power of language. We know when we are naming close to 'the Divine' when all we can do is speak in paradox and in the flawed metaphor of most myths. That is why sometimes I find what I might call 'God' in music and art as often as in prayer. Anyone else find that?

Can you explain something about what you mean by craving something more literal, Ebola?

 

[rangrz]

I was raised irreligious and frequently encouraged to question statements/claims of truth and go for empirical evidence/logic/science and it's methods, both in the formal sense and in the less formal way of "Well, this is made of plastic and lots of plastics dissolve in acetone and get orange peel surfaces and stuff, so I should probably try it on a small corner first before I clean it." sense.

It's served me extremely well.

 

[-=SS=-]

Irreligious. My dad has some christian tint in his side of the family but he is an athiest and made sure that I (and my siblings) were allowed to come to our own conclusions about life etc. I am very grateful for that opportunity.

 

[TheAppleCore]

Basically, I was raised irreligiously, but, my Dad claims he's agnostic.

That's one thing I don't get about him. He never commits to any philosophical, religious, or spiritual belief about anything, ever. Hence, it's nearly impossible to have a philosophical discussion with him, because he pretty much never has an opinion to offer.