I'm not sure which category I fit into.  My parents, who remain happily married to this day, are as Christians would say "unequally yolked."  My father is an atheist, my mother is a Christian.  I was raised going to church and Sunday school.  Y'know, the whole Christian childhood thing.  Meanwhile, my father was training me to be a critical, rational thinker.  I didn't realize what he was doing at the time, of course, but looking back on my childhood through adult eyes, it's quite obvious.

When I was in my pre-teens and early teens, back before the internet was easily accessible to the general public, I hung out on on locally-based dial-up message boards (Damn, that seems like ancient history).  I remember running across one in which people were seriously discussing the existence of vampires, werewolves, fairies, and other such silliness.  I remember saying, "Hey Dad, look at these crazy people I found.  They actually believe in vampires.  That's crazy."  But he didn't just pat me on the head and say "That's right, son."  He told me to read what they had to say, see how they went about supporting their claims, and decide for myself if there was anything to it.

Of course, he didn't believe in vampires either.  He just wanted me to come to that conclusion the right way, not just because somebody once told me vampires aren't real.

 Anyway, the point of the story is that I was raised by a Christian and an atheist, trained overtly to be a Christian, trained subtly to be an atheist...  And I ended up being an atheist. 

I was raised in a god-believing, yet secular home. We never discussed religion and my parents didn't make me go to church. I am definitely very weak when it comes to bible knowledge. I believed in god most of my life but the older I got, the more skeptical I became. It was a slow process really.

 I suppose a strength of a born again atheist is his or her ability to understand the Christian perspective on a very personal level. 

My mom is a recovered ex-Catholic (did boarding school and the whole nine yards until she moved out on her own and my dad is basically an atheist (maybe a deist) but religion just never comes up.

I went to a preschool in a church, likely because that was the most convenient/best at the time in the area. Nothing overtly religious in there actually... except a book that tried to explain god and I remember reading it and thinking "who are these people who claim what god is?" (maybe in not those words, but regardless, I wasn't buying it.) A little after that, I asked my mom about church and she said my religion was up to me to decide on. So I grew up dealing with the wasteland of Sunday morning TV (actually a decent reason to get out and play more, {codger voice}we didn't have 24 hour cartoon channels when I was a kid!{/codger}) and not thinking much at all about religion (except for the 3(?) times I went to church with friends or relatives) until we moved to Arizona.

A lot, and I mean a _lot_ of people went to church. Wow. So, the religion question popped up in my mind again and, at some point in grade school or junior high, I decided to read the bible to see what it was about. I got to the first round of "begats" and couldn't bear to push through there. Yeesh. At some point my mom went to a UU church a few times and asked me if I wanted to come. We went a couple times, but it was an hour away so that faded pretty quick.

My religious investigation really cranked up in high school as many of my friends got into their youth groups and invited me along. At the time, I was curious, I just didn't "get" religion, so I figured I'd check it out and see what I was missing. Some great stories there. Did you know that "First Assembly of God" is Pentacostal? I didn't before I agreed to attend with a couple friends of mine. Wowza.

I think for a long time I was basically deist. I had come to the conclusion that an all-loving god would let everyone into heaven (yep, a dualist as well) since he could perfectly understand your situation. By the end of high school, I had realized a number of things like that on my own: Pascal's wager is crap (when I first heard it, I didn't have the name, but I knew that making decisions out of fear was bad and my Baptist friend couldn't guarantee that hers was the "right" religion), if God has a plan and is all-knowing then it's impossible to deviate from that plan, and probably some others that I can't quite think of.

By time I got into college, I had a large group of non-religious friends and, from reading about Taoism, the deism turned into pantheism and the dualism still clung on. I remember being shocked when a friend of mine said that when you die, you're gone and they put you in the ground. Seemed a little sad to me at the time.

I think that by time I finished college, I was a little more tolerant of religious people (hate the sin, not the sinner, right? ) and had dropped most of my "magic" belief. At that point, I started studying religion a little more in-depth (beyond asking religious friends about it).

So, yeah, I had to study on my own. This site helped a good bit. Also, it seems like there are only a few intractable things you need to be skilled in debating about with Christians: The problems of an Omni-max god, the question of the bible being the word of god, and maybe the question of how do you know if god is "telling" you something and not the devil? Although frankly, I've never had a Christian get the problem of evil. Either they say "I'll ask my pastor" or they start talking about freewill. *sigh*

Okay, that was a lot of rambling... I hope I answered the question. Sorry. Carry on.

-Triften

I was brought up in a fairly active Catholic household.  Church pretty much every weekend.  But I find that I have a different picture of religion then my atheist compadres from the evangelical side.  As in, I don't hate them as much lol.  In fact, most Catholics hate evangelicals for doing just that, evangelizing.  I find that most Catholics are quite secularized and are more akin to deists with cultural, religious affinities.  Whenever I hear the horror stories of people feeling guilty for not saving enough souls from spending eternity in hell, I'm like WTF religion did you grow up in, because it's not the christianity I know...

I'd say my weakness from coming at this angle is that I percieved my version of religion as the mainstream in the US, when in fact it is not when you look at the statistics.  In the Northeast and the East Coast, where I'm from, the former is true.  People are relatively secular.  But move South and West, and that becomes less true, and I have learned much from my time here at RRS about what lies out there.  It is much worse then where I was born and raised.

I'd say my advantage is that I harbor less hatred towards of my former religion, and can understand their positions as I was there myself fairly recently.  I believe that since I can STAND being around them, I am less alienating, and have thus had quite a lot of success in deconverting people.  I have quite a few friends who are atheist/agnostic now thanks to my dialoge and patience with them! 

As a baby, I reacted as well as I would now to being manhandled and splashed by a priest. I hear my baptism was more like an exorcism; and that was really where I put my foot down on the matter of Catholicism. Conversations with my relatives about religion have been mercifully brief, for the most part, and the exchanges inspired bemusement or pity in me. If there is a gene, or a spot in the brain, which can accept the concepts religion proposes, I don't seem to have it. I'm not convinced most people would had a crater not been carved in their psyche from childhood. I dabbled in forms of mysticism and woo-woo science, but I never honestly cared about the concept of a deity.
I'd describe my mother as an agnostic, and my father as a spiritual opportunist. He likes whatever deity he thinks will help him win the lottery. In contrast to that seeming naivety, he's also a huckster, who will weave ad hoc explanations for any conversation with anyone, just to keep people listening to him. I don't ask myself, "Why would they lie about this?" Although I got more of my general outlook from my mother, my father has, unwittingly, inoculated me against magical thinking.

Sorry for cannibalizing your quote there; it's just a lot to work with. I don't really carry a lot of mental baggage from my formerly religious life. I actually have a lot of good memories from Christianity. My childhood friends were all Christians and we'd get into mischief like any kids. We'd mindfuck our teachers by sticking together even if it meant serious trouble. I had a normal childhood. And I don't necessarily feel bad about that time. I'd kinda like to have that church time back, but time marches on, right? If I carried anything that translates into atheism, it's my ability to argue, but I think that comes more from being raised around my uncle (he's not only a master debater, he's a cunning linguist as well. I love that joke). I guess the part you really highlighted was that I assumed atheists don't know a lot about the Bible. Atheists are just like any other person. Most of them don't know shit about the Bible. I've talked with a few about biblical contradictions and things like that, and, to use something from Bill Hicks, they stared at me like a dog that's just been shown a card trick. One guy, no shit, thought Abraham was one of Jesus's disciples. So if anything, my assumption is based on my experiences and my bias that people are generally stupid (I include myself with that). Again, sorry for cutting up your quote. I liked it, though.

You said a lot of good stuff, but I have to call attention to the fact that church spells "FAG" and it's especially funny that Pentecostals go to "FAG" churches.

I cannibalized your quote, too. I read it, though, as with the others. I like the way your dad taught you. He wanted you to make up your mind and, from the way it sounds, he would've been happy that you looked at both sides no matter what you chose to believe.

I like how no one here really seems to harbor any hatred for their former religion. I guess it's because you can't change the past and we don't worry about what we can't control. If it seems like I have a lot of problems with my former religion, I guess it's because it wouldn't be too interesting of a topic if I talked about bullshit we did to pass the time at Christian school. I know that because I've told some of those stories before and I was the only one that thought they were funny. I hate that shit. Also, my comedy style is negative and I can work my material around negative stuff more easily than positive stuff.

Did you ever tell your parents? If so, how did they react?

Snerd, you might want to read the thread I cited here.

I was raised as a fundie, the only two things I can say is that I have studied the bible moreso than most xtians and that I'm much more understanding the damage it can do. Having being the one who was damaged obviously. I wouldn`t wish a fundie childhood on even my worst enemy no matter what benefits it might bring.

Hi, Former_Follier!

I see that you've been a member for awhile, but have just started posting.  Glad to have you "out and about" on the forums! 

We'd like to get to know you a little better. When you get a minute, we'd love it if you'd hop over to the General Conversation, Introductions and Humor forum and introduce yourself.