Have you ever been religious, if so what religion and denomination?
I was forced to attend a baptist church throughout my childhood, where I was force-feed a steady diet of christian bullshit. I can honestly say I HATE, the baptist denomination. I am so glad I am no longer part of that cult.
I had a brief date with LaVeyan Satanism, but mostly because it was pretty much individualistic atheism with a cool name. Otherwise, no, never been religious.
I spent time in a lot of different denominations as a kid, but after my mother's 2nd marriage I spent about 7 yrs with the Mormons and, after moving in with my Dad, about 4 yrs with the Southern Baptists. I was never forced to go to church but that was because I enjoyed it, altho my inability to make sense of what I was being told led to my being excommunicated from the Mormons (at my request) and dropping the Baptists. I do sometimes attend the local Unitarian Universalist Church -- their slogan is "where all your answers are questioned", so I get along pretty well with them.
Catholic my whole life-- up to 18 that is.
Parents are staunch. Maternal grandfather returned to the seminary and became a priest (now a vicar) after grandma passed away. I com from a long line of Catholics and I think that all of it is bullshit.
The God gene has not yet been found in me.
I've never been religious, but me and my sister were forced to attend a tedious Methodist chapel on Sunday mornings for a couple of years when we were kids. It was obviously to get us out of the way for a couple of hours, but I'd rather have gone swimming or something....
I've never believed in god, but we went to a unitarian church as kids. I've done some reading by buddhist writers whom I like (including a buddhist nun), but just for the philosophy. And I've attended some ceremonies loosely related to Native American ceremony on the turn of the seasons. I find some of the eastern and native american spiritual paths of interest. Much more so than any of the abrahamic religions.
Had a little protestant thing (Church of Norway) going in my early teens, but washed that off pretty early...
I was raised very Catholic while I was growing up, my family is still pretty Catholic. So is my husband's, though he's an atheist, too.
I was raised to believe in a god as an orthodox christian. Never forced on me, we went to church only twicce a year (Except for weddings and christening)
Quote from: MariaEvri on December 27, 2011, 05:56:19 PM
I was raised to believe in a god as an orthodox christian. Never forced on me, we went to church only twicce a year (Except for weddings and christening)
I've never even been to a wedding... Or a christening. Is there good, free food? Because if there is, I might just go next time I'm invited... Well, not to a christening, as that's pretty damned close to child abuse in my book, but weddings and funerals... Why not? :D
Quote from: Asmodean on December 27, 2011, 06:26:06 PM
Quote from: MariaEvri on December 27, 2011, 05:56:19 PM
I was raised to believe in a god as an orthodox christian. Never forced on me, we went to church only twicce a year (Except for weddings and christening)
I've never even been to a wedding... Or a christening. Is there good, free food? Because if there is, I might just go next time I'm invited... Well, not to a christening, as that's pretty damned close to child abuse in my book, but weddings and funerals... Why not? :D
The food's not always good, but it is usually free!
I had pancakes at my first communion. Probably the best part about it, come to think of it.
QuoteIs there good, free food?
there's always a party at some hotel (wedding) or restaurant (christening)
although the food is usually from a buffet, which so far I rarely found anythting that tastes good. MOst are just... ok
but if you see one then you;ve seen them all
Quote from: MariaEvri on December 28, 2011, 06:06:41 PM
but if you see one then you;ve seen them all
Kind of like porn, yes? ;D
mmmyyyyywwwwwweeelll at least you enjoy porn!!
I grew up Lutheran and when I was a teenager was a little too adamant about it lol easily would have been the type to get my ass banned from here in a heartbeat...however nowadays, although I feel religion does SOME good in the world and has SOME good messages, for the most part I firmly believe it's backwards, illogical, far fetched and just breeds hate and intolerance.
I grew up Jew-ish. While I did have a Bar Mitzvah, it was in a reformed synagogue and I have pretty much not believed in god since I was old enough to think. My parents sort of made me do it, though I never protested nearly as much as I could have and at the end of the day I walked away with a nice sum of money from the ordeal. That's basically how I look back on it.
Now I just celebrate some of the Jewish holidays for family purposes, but I'm not overly fond of religion in general. In most cases, I think it's just not good for the mind.
I grew up Missouri Synod Lutheran (we called it Catholic Lite because it was sit, stand, kneel, repeat after me). Also tried Catholic, Presbyterian, Assembly of God (pentecostal without the jean skirts), Methodist, Southern Baptist, and non-denominational. I kept bouncing around because nothing ever felt right; they all had their little quirks that just didn't mesh with what it seemed the Bible was saying. After watching Religulous last year and subsequently reading A LOT of stuff, I found out why nothing ever felt right. So we all create God in our image, because we all want to believe that he has the same values as us. Atheism was the closest thing to that, because it was the only time I found a God that had the same views as me. I am that god!!!!
Quote from: Asmodean on December 27, 2011, 06:26:06 PM
I've never even been to a wedding... Or a christening. Is there good, free food? Because if there is, I might just go next time I'm invited... Well, not to a christening, as that's pretty damned close to child abuse in my book, but weddings and funerals... Why not? :D
Weddings usually include free food AND free booze AND dancing. You should totally go. Weddings (or anyway, the reception part) are usually a hoot.
ETA: Oh yeah. I was going to answer the original question. I was raised Evangelical Presbyterian. By my mid teens I was already asking "So wait...Ghandi went to hell?
Ghandi?" It didn't bode well for my future church attendance. ;D
Quote from: Ali on January 03, 2012, 04:06:37 AM
ETA: Oh yeah. I was going to answer the original question. I was raised Evangelical Presbyterian. By my mid teens I was already asking "So wait...Ghandi went to hell? Ghandi?" It didn't bode well for my future church attendance. ;D
Ghandi was a dick.
I was raised Roman Catholic. After I read the Bible and started to reject Christianity...there was the slightest shift to Evangelical Christianity as a result of the Gospels (i.e., Mathew, Mark Luke and John) - which I later figured were nor more authoritive than the Gospels of John, Paul, George, and Richard (i.e., Ringo).
Quote from: Crow on January 03, 2012, 09:53:31 PM
Quote from: Ali on January 03, 2012, 04:06:37 AM
ETA: Oh yeah. I was going to answer the original question. I was raised Evangelical Presbyterian. By my mid teens I was already asking "So wait...Ghandi went to hell? Ghandi?" It didn't bode well for my future church attendance. ;D
Ghandi was a dick.
Gandhi? I mean, I'll admit, I don't know a ton about him other than the whole passive resistance, and "fighting (not really, since he was a pacifist) to get the British out of India and equality between the castes and stuff. I didn't know him personally or anything, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.
Quote from: Crow on January 03, 2012, 09:53:31 PM
Quote from: Ali on January 03, 2012, 04:06:37 AM
ETA: Oh yeah. I was going to answer the original question. I was raised Evangelical Presbyterian. By my mid teens I was already asking "So wait...Ghandi went to hell? Ghandi?" It didn't bode well for my future church attendance. ;D
Ghandi was a dick.
Ghandi was many things...but I would argue that he was not a "Dick".
Ghandi had to play the role of his time, and he did it well, and I appreciate him for doing this. Seriously, I can't figure out how Gandhi was religious in action - and I respect him for this fact.
Quote from: Ali on January 03, 2012, 10:25:40 PM
Gandhi? I mean, I'll admit, I don't know a ton about him other than the whole passive resistance, and "fighting (not really, since he was a pacifist) to get the British out of India and equality between the castes and stuff. I didn't know him personally or anything, but he seemed like a nice enough guy.
Try Holier than Thou episode of P&T Bullshit... A Nice start on Gandhi research. :D
I was forced to attend Catholic church twice a week as a child, once a week at school and than on Sunday's with the family. When I was a sophomore in high school I was dating an atheist girl for about two months, and embarrassingly, I tried to convert her a few times. Obviously that relationship was doomed to fail. I was a douchbag Catholic trying to make here think like me and she refused to put out; come to think of it, it's shocking it lasted two months.
Nine years of Catholic School. Almost became a monk. Became very interested in Islam during the translation from staunch Catholicism to atheism. Didn't last past my teens. Of course, as I'm in my early 20's I have been religious for the vast majority of my life.
Up until I was six or seven we were Church of God (Holiness). A very anal, legalistic church. The women never wore jewelry, including wedding rings because of 1 Peter 3:3 (Your adornment must not be merely external-- braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;)
My mother was the high school Sunday school teacher and my father was the treasurer until they took the high school kids on a snow retreat and a couple of the girls wore pants! This was quite the scandal, something akin to cross dressing and my parents were stripped of their jobs.
We left and joined the Church of the Nazarene. My mother showed how worldly she was by making my dad buy her a wedding ring. Proving that the Church of God was right about her all along. ;D
I attended private Christian schools most years. So on top of the three or four times a week we attended church. (Twice on Sunday, Bible study on Wednesday and sometimes choir practice on Saturday night.) I also had Chapel and bible study at school.
My Sister and I tried a few other churches when I was old enough to drive, mostly Calvary Chapels but that really made my mother worry.
Was raised Roman Catholic and attended 12 years of Catholic school. I even wanted to be a priest for while around 3rd-5th grade or so.
Quote from: Asmodean on January 03, 2012, 11:10:40 PMTry Holier than Thou episode of P&T Bullshit... A Nice start on Gandhi research. :D
Oh, I love Pen and Teller, they're hilarious!
"...To make it easier for God, we're wearing lightning rods
on our heads! Come on, God, we're ready for you! Any time, any place!" And the silent one doing his dance of sheer mockery and ridicule in the background. :D
My parents don't take religion to seriously. They took my brother and I to a Baptist church, and a Congregational church. Then we stopped going, none of us were really too fussed. I went to a friend's non-denominational church (which emerged from Baptist leanings) when I took Christianity more seriously for a while. Eventually, though, I stopped going because of work schedules. I never followed up and went back, and eventually, given thought and consideration of organized religion, I didn't particularly want to.
Like Heisenberg, I grew up reform Jewish and got bar mitzvahed, but the belief was never really there. Funny thing was, none of my family ever really believed either, but they thought it was important to keep up with the traditions. I get that part to some extent, but religion was never a serious part of our lives, and all of my friends and girlfriends tended to not be Jewish for whatever reason. By the time I got to college, I had stopped going even during holidays. Haven't been to synagogue except for weddings and funerals in over 10 years.
The seasons
First season innocent child
Dad atheist but kept pretences at christmas, easter, weddings, christenings, Mum used to believe but lost faith gradually in contact with my father.As soon as I could reason with the current mindset-age of 7 – I understood the bullshit I was fed. When I questioned I was told to decide for myself, when I asked what do you think, a split poll yes M and no D. Grandma was a believer, she went to church, lit candles for the dead, cooked according to calendar. She hadn't finished primary school.
Forced every Monday and Wednesday to attend orthodox church with a standard state primary school and Friday catehism class . I grew very discomforted in church because all the old people sat in the available chairs, and we had to stand silent and immobile for 90 minutes. I fainted once, postural hypotension I think it was.
Noticed for the musical voice and offered to singalong with the chanting instead of passively attending. Grabbed the opportunity.
The state school had religious lessons (and still has but now you can opt to be excluded- a few do as it creates a vibe kids don't want to be in) There I got expelled as I asked about the justice of eternal hell if that meant punishment, against a petty lifespan 50? 70? years of bad behavior. When would the punishment be spent and why not?
Also how come Jesus zapped and destroyed the fig tree that simply produced no figs?? Is productivity a divine command which you better or else?
Second season adolescence dawns
Vandalized, fucked in, and polluted churches, took scull from cemetery spent-grave-dug-up-bone storehouse, once ambush-attacked a fat priest with raw eggs (injected with vinegar for a day)
Third season modern times
I yielded to the demand for a christening with the first child, as I am against marriage there was parental peer disappointment-my condition was Not In a Church
A crooked priest performed in our garden very quickly and quickly ran away at the arrival of my friends/ dressed as the 3 fairies in 10foot walking stick-legs, one was breathing fire with the mouth-petrol, one was throwing flowers from a basket and one had colored long ribbons and tied us in passing.
The old folk about 100 of them were generally pleased, "the lad is a bit weird" but the food was exquisite-banquet of Petronius no less- the booze plenty and they danced and sang well into the night. We younger folk also partied in a -parental censorship- possible in a different adjacent building
After some personal grief of separation combined –nasty slow parental death on one hand and more rapid end of love with the partner then, I needed to create a frame for self support. I did yoga, read bitten by the black snake Manuel Schoch, stillness speaks by eckhart tolle, which helped and started searching how an atheist can justify blind faith as a means to appease oneself in the face of tragedy without insulting the intellect. It sums up all I need to pillow on when the time of grim separation in love, health or any type actually arises again
1) O Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi, which apart from a very nice musical piece by Carl Orff , sums up all time and not only actual medieval atheism by monks.
Chance, luck, a proper uncertain and unknown chaotic backbone is the ruler, really..
In the pot of life we try to fish out from the soup of experience success. But the soup is thick and there are equal pieces of failure as there are of success. Don't dismay, try and try again.
2) logic is problem solving, its a dog and its bone to chew on is any problem. The direction or meaning of our life is not a problem. The general outcome is not a problem. Variables we do not control are not problems. Logic turns them into problems to deal with them. Do not allow logic in the upper deck of your consciousness boat, it is not fit to wonder at open horizons. In my opinion it may endanger a pessimist approach
3) blind faith is thus restricted and used every time we try at the soup. we hope and have indication to expect a positive outcome. Always, because it arrives also from corners you may not expect
I also came up with this hymn fit for any ceremony as long as you debauch to unconsciousness to provide grounds for self-respect
http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=8943.msg147337#msg147337 (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=8943.msg147337#msg147337)
Well, I've been apart of three different churches over my early childhood to early/late teens. In my early childhood I believe my family went to a big Methodist church in the city. I don't have any real memories over it, I know what the place looks like, but that's it. Throughout most of my childhood my family attended an Church of Disciples Christian church. (I had to look it up to find the denomination just now because I never actually knew, and I still don't know what that is. lol). In my mid teens we switched over to another big Methodist church. It's a really large church. I'm technically still a 'member' there, but I haven't been in a while. My family just doesn't go much anymore.
In late 2007/early 2008 when I decided to try to be a Christian again, I identified as a "Progressive Christian", because I wanted to be a Christian but accept myself and others. Everybody picks and chooses, so why couldn't I pick and choose the good?
EDIT: I found out that my original church was Methodist, not Baptist.
Born and raised Roman Catholic. Did the whole First Communion, Confirmation stuff. Used to pray the rosary, etc. My Mom and her mom were devout Roman Catholics. Dad didn't really care about religion.
When I started dating some how I always ended up with pagan boyfriends, LOL.
Now I call myself agnostic and that usually shuts people down. I'm not really an athiest, but I do feel that we as the human race need to move on to more rational ideas than something that is 2000 years old and never made sense in the first place.
I was raised Methodist, and attended Catholic church for a few years in high school. I was another one who had church forced down my throat, as though it could cure me of my doubt. I've identified as an atheist for almost 10 years now.
I actually remembered something from way back when I was in elementary school. Since we have State *cough social club cough* Church, religion is a compulsory school subject, but I never really bought into it, and we never discussed that sort of stuff at home. But one day I remember coming from school and we must have had religion on the last class or something and as I was thinking about it I did the "Well, if there is some god up there, how about sending down an angel or something to prove it?"-thing while walking. Nothing happened. I shrugged. And that was basically it for me, though I was much more of an agnostic then an atheist (something that I remember defined to us as "people or person who doesn't believe in anything", oddly enough...) until I finally realized the truth of it ;D
Oh my gosh, how could I have forgotten to add that my mother forced the whole family to go to church. What's worse, we had to go to Washington DC to the big Italian church. Hard to find parking and we always went to the noon mass which made fasting that long very difficult. And the folks made me, a kid, fast till then. I nearly passed out in church once. Too much incense and an empty stomach.
Worse yet, the masses were always in Italian, so you can imagine how painfully hard it was to sit still, behave, and not understand much for an hour or hour and a half in there. Blah. Another reason why I don't like going.
I have a friend who has become a Deacon in the Catholic church and he invited us to mass one day. He was giving the homily and promised to work in the words "I attack" and Lord of the Rings in there. He did it too. And as I was sitting tehre I was yet again reminded how much the church just isn't for me anymore.
Raised in the Pentacostal Christian church quite literally from infancy. My first questioning of the teachings began around age 6 in Sunday school; the discrepancies between the New Testament books that described the crucifixion bothered me to tears. I remember clearly pressing my Sunday school teacher on these, and the poor woman could only answer that they were "different views of the same event". When we were old enough to begin learning about proselytization and would go on group outings, door-to-door, I was acutely aware of the insincerity in the words "God bless you" as we would part each household - which, again, distressed me to tears and the Sunday school teacher to speechlessness. I oscillated between serious doubts and serious devoutness from age 12 to 15. If I believed, I believed with great faith. When I doubted, I doubted in fear and silence. It was only at 15 or 16 that I put my foot down and refused to attend another church service. My innate, stubborn resistance to hypocrisy would not allow me to continue the charade in full knowledge of my agnosticism. This, of course, lead to the first real divide between myself and my parents, and began the battle of will and truth that continues at the ripe old age of 24. It was only a few years ago that I could have definitively described myself as atheistic.
A long answer to a simple question, and probably far more than anyone would really care to know, but there it is. :P
Not at all too much, Dobermonster. I find all these backgrounds very interesting. We all have such different stories, and this really does help us all understand each other.