I would say for me it was a big advantage.   By the time I started attending Church youth group/bible study at 14 I was already thinking critically well enough that I don't think I could have been sucked into religion.  I wasn't aware of that at the time, and continued to go because a) it was fun (activities, cute girls etc.) and b) I was going with a close friend.  

During bible study I started to ask questions, innocently at first.  I noticed the other kids questions they were asking to understand didn't raise eyebrows, but mine did.  So I went to one of the youth pastors and told him that I was asking questions to try and understand and the other youth group leader had gotten irritated with me.  I told him that I wanted someone to help me fill in some blanks, so I asked more questions.  Some of my questions about Noah's ark apparently offended him, when he didn't have an answer.  At that point he told me I needed to go home and get a better understanding of what faith means, and yelled at me as if I was defiantly attacking his beliefs.  That was pretty much the beginning of the end for me.  I saw through exactly what was happening, whereas it took my friend many more years to leave because of his being raised in a fundie family.  Interestingly enough, he became an unabashed atheist.  I think the beginnings of that for him were the conversations we had together about trying to make sense of the bible, and how people got mad when we tried to understand.   We also talked a lot about the incredible level of hypocrisy we saw in the church.

When I made it a point not to get caught in my parent's superstitions -they struck me as a useless waste of time I resisted at every angle- I was given the largely secular freedom to choose my own beliefs and (yes) belief system. Have a particularly potent psychological fantasy life that I (usually) keep to myself, and it helps determine my next course of action... sometimes with great (astounding, even) precision. But that is nothing more than a component of being a little more intellectually accomplished and proficient than most of my same-aged peers. (according to one test at age 8 or 9... MENSA-level intellect. Yes, it was an IQ test.)

IIRC, some of my social studies books had "Critical Thinking" skills as part of a chapter. I grasped most of them right away. I guess being a smart skeptic is one of those innate, congenital capacities of mine. My Dad encouraged skepticism, my mother encouraged self-control (but in a secular, easily frustrated and narcissistic manner.) This was a top-notch school district, you see... and it was very "redneck-punk" friendly, as well. Good schools; bad authoritorian principles and teachers. (tl:dr story)

I would say childhood environment played a pivotal role in my development of becoming a skeptic. It did not help me deal with bullies, nonconformists, and lead-headed cliques of idiots that seemed to specialize in 'intellectually barren' casual socialization largely because of me having a pacifistic non-confrontational Dad, and a perpetually irate mother who showed interest in motherhood only when it was convenient.

Now look where public schooling is now. Tennessee is passing anti-bullying laws with Repubs trying to weasel in allowances for bullying someone because of race, sexual orientation, etc. Because, if their is one thing that must be made an inalienable right... it is bullying via bigotry in the south, confirming the-already profound stereotype much of our nation and world has of us. for idiotic, sell-out "Dixiecrats"

Anyways, despite my "bitch of a mother"'s numerous actions... I was not an inherently socially-accomplished child. There's a very probable reason for that, and in modern medicine it is known as the "autism spectrum". I didn't have a language delay (I babbled as an infant), but I certainly did have all the profound personality traits of such. My mother did not use the authority of god or whatever demagogic related bs on me, so I can say I was fairly religion-free unless one of my grandmothers wanted to show me off. (Occasional, but still happened.) That sent whatever avoidance I had into overdrive in a 'keep your distance and we can be friends' sort of way.

Thus, like other "aspies", I am very much a natural-born skeptic. I personally have yet to meet an HFA or Aspie that wasn't inherently skeptical of religion and "theistards" to some extent. Alas, I am also undiagnosed, and I don't "flap hands". But I certainly have many of the traits, including things like OCD, ADHD (when it is at least 50F or warmer outside, and I have actual energy from things like reduced dopamine and seratonin uptake amounts), and a lack of a will to socialize with ingrates and "hugs and kisses" types of morbid southerners-don't-reject-the-kindness-of-strangers obesity individual. Autism, regardless of the "label", means (for me) an inability to give a shit what idiots think. As it happens, I consider myself to have inherited most of my so-called "spectrum traits" from my dad. He considers his friends his greatest asset, I am a 'if I don't like the people I am hanging out with or the people I look up to, I cut them loose'. Sign of the times, eh?

Speaking of which, I have never been able to understand why other people consider their passions and predjudices so important, when it essentially makes them irrational. This includes becoming mecurial as one of our mods did not too long ago (over a year or so) because of the thought that not all secular atheists did not share whatever "angry little man" level of ethics he had. It was basically a pre-emptive verbal attack on anyone that might have disagreed with him or not give a shit about some moral dilemma, somewhere in the world. This basically amounted to Dubya's "You are either with me, or you are with my enemies" mantra.

I adopted "harmful idiot" as my occupation as a "pisstake" in response. People can and will be rendered persona non grata, regardless of label, and regardless of whatever "club" they are members of. This certainly includes activists, as Sapient's post about CFI proves beyond a doubt. Preventing persona non grata is one thing, becoming self-righteous and mercurial towards anyone who disagrees with you is uncalled for, an anomaly amongst a site that attempt(s/ed) to promote rationality and secularism, is entirely reactionistic in choice of words, and shows poor control over one's emotions. Yes, the dictionary definition of emotions, not the "trick of language" definition of emotion Bobspence admittedly uses. I don't care for reactionists, myself. I've dealt with them all my life, and they seem to hail from older, more idealistic/histrionic generations. (No offense to cj) I make a point of questioning and challenging whatever arguments of thunderous moral authority and meaningless (a)theistic drivel they make. As a sidenote, Sapient thinks that "unity" is possible amongst atheists, eventually; I like to stand behind him, on that. But I also wonder how could atheism, secularism, etc can get past individuals like the ones I describe (where impassioned charges based on "ethics", regional culture, acedemic thinking, "philosophy" and possible differences in neurology... are unavoidable.)

Apologies for rambling, but it was necessary to explain how, exactly I became a secular individual with "critical thinking skills" no one else seems to use. That includes people who "wear their heart on their sleeve", "turn a blind eye" towards the assholes they keep company with, will not back down from whatever misguided special interests they hold. This is assuming a more secular world is not a "special interest", unless... you enjoy sharing it with kooks.

I don't.

I really can't say. It might have given me an advantage, but there's nothing I can point to and say it would have been different if I were raised to believe.
I wasn't raised to disbelieve either though.

I had a couple phases where I latched onto one idea or another over the years of my youth, but I never fully embraced any until I heard the term atheist.

Yea, and in your stint here last year you told everyone you were dying.

So you lied about that too. Big surprise. Not.