I wouldn't say I grew up Atheist, but religion wasn't a big part of my childhood.  I can count on 2 hands the number of times I'd been in a church between the ages of 1 and 18, and most of those were for marriages or funerals.  I was read bible stories as a child, and was told there was a god. I was told good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell, but that was about it. I lived with my grandparents until I was about 8, and once I moved in with my father, who at the time, I have a suspicion was at least an Agnostic, if not an Atheist, that was pretty much it for me and religion.

I grew up in a religious home, but not fundies. We we Lutherans, which in my hometown means that we mostly believe in coffee, doughnuts, and pot-luck. I was baptized and confirmed a Lutheran. When I was 16, I went looking for a more inspiring church on my own, and found Baptists, which was fun for a while, but it later inspired me to realize that the whole concept was wrong. If I had stayed a Lutheran, I probably wouldn't have decided to take a firm stand on theism one way or the other.

In the end, I don't hold anything against the theists who were involved in my upbringing. They were all acting out of genuine beliefs and feelings, and they ultimately did me no harm. In fact, they presented important questions that I would never have asked without them. That's not to say I couldn't have been exposed to those questions otherwise, but it is still valuable to me.

So, in summary, I was raised religious, but no one stopped me from becoming an atheist.

Yeah, I think this has been posted elsewhere, but no matter.

I was raised in a nominally Christian home.  Irish-Catholic, somewhat conservative, lower middle class, etc.

I only saw the inside of a church a few times (Easter, mostly) until the age of nine or so.  Then my mom and step-dad started going to a Lutheran church, which I was quite bored by.  I found Sunday School uninteresting and played by myself with whatever I had around.  

But 13 years at a Quaker school was very enlightening.  When we had classes called "Religious Thought," we learned about many kinds of religions.  It was this taht ignited an interest in religion, and I was a skeptic immediately.  then i discovered philosophy and my movement from agnsoticism/pantheism to atheism was inevitable.  

I've never believed in a personal god.  I believed in some impersonal force--somehwat like the Tao--that I sometimes referred to as God, but I was never a Christian, Jew, or Moslem.  As soon as I understood what atheism was--when i started reading some of the older forums back in the day as well as yahoo chat--I started calling myself an atheist.

This is why I still participate online; because I understand the power of discussion to educate curious minds.

Shaun 

I was raised in a religious household. (Christian, more specifically Christian Reformed) I wasn't much of a christian though (hardly ever prayed, wasn't crazy for jesus like some people are, etc.). Later, the internet planted some small seeds of atheism, and I began to wonder in church "how do we know that the bible is true?" and the only answer I could think of is "the bible" and I knew that was not a valid answer. Then I got into some debates online by accident, and I found myself up ending up on the atheist side. This gave me enough confidence to look at atheist web sites (later finding this one), all of which strengthen my views.

i am sort of a mix of both actually. my parents i think are more agnostic than atheist, but had me babtized episcipallian when i was a baby for my grandparents. for all i know, they could be buddhists, we never talked about religion in my house. they said that i can believe anything i want to as long as it doesnt require human sacrifice or something.

around 2 years ago, my friend took me into his youth group, as i did not know either side of the argument for or against a god. i stayed with it for a couple years until i saw a special on the history channel that made me question my beliefs. i did some research, and last summer i finally came to the undeniable conclusion that my friends here were full of shit. funny thing was, i was at a church camp at the time, so i was forced to spend a whole week pretending to be worshipping god. im still active in the youth group, playing for the band there and helping set up/tear down every night, i just dont believe with them.

Mostly because of all the religous extremism going on around now, and the fact christianity is becoming part of our government system. also the personal experiences of my christian friends trying to convert people. i really dont think its right. let people believe what they want.

Fair enough. I think I stepped up my interest because of what was happening in the government and what not. I didn't agree with the influences the religious right had on abortion and sex education. The whole gay marriage issue really stirred me up. I thought that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. I have a feeling this religious zealousness is going to continue and get worse and I hope that future generations won't be affected by it. Not to sound completely alarmist, mind you. I certainly don't think they'll be dragging us off by our feet and burning us at the stake or anything like that.

Mainly my motivation is interest in socio-political issues where religious/other unsupported or ridiculous beliefs have gained a foothold they don't deserve. Also interest in philosophy and the sciences play a role.

Secular/humanist/freethought/etc., communities tend to provide a less frustrating outlet for expression, more informative, so that's where I hang.  We live in a strange world, with some prevalently accepted oddities.  It's good to know that I'm not the only one that realizes that.

I grew up in a Methodist household - went to Sunday School and church every Sunday.  My mother was involved in a couple of the ladies' church groups and my father held several postions (such as treasurer).

I was a member of MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) and the choir.

However, I was never a fan of any of it. 

I was raised by fundies, which isn't much better than being raised by wolves. I also went to a fundamentalist Christian school, fundy churches, Vacation Bible School, etc. I was never allowed contact with anyone who didn't believe as my parents did.

I got the full brainwash with a creme rinse. I honestly don't know why I ended up here while others who were raised similarly still believe the load of crap we were forced to swallow.

It would make a great psycho-sociological research topic, don't you think?

I was raised to believe in the Christian God, but not to go to church or be particularly religious - I did go to Vacation Bible School a few times as a kid - I wanted to though. By Junior High I knew it wasn't for me and by the time I was 16 I considered myself agnostic. Only considered myself atheist about 2 years now.

My mom gives me shit all the time - especially since I belong to the FFRF and the RRS site - she uses that tired old "you're as bad as the fundamentalists" argument.

I was born in a household religious in a way that was more superstitious than religious. My parents are Russian Orthodox and the RO church was pretty lenient on things like drinking, swearing, etc.

 I was never forced to read the bible, fortunately. I was taught some prayers, however, but like I said, that was more of a superstitious thing for my parents.

My parents couldn't care less what religion(or non-religion) I am.  I have grandparents and some aunts/uncles that do not handle it well, but we rarely talk about religion when we alll get together.

religion wasent a issue per'se we went to church(a "non dinominational" dinomination called the first christian church, bold hypocritical fucking statment I know considering it was founded in 1908 or some shit) every sunday but rarely spoke about it out side of church. occasionaly it would be a hot topic if some one was sick then we would talk about praying for them, and for most of my childhood I prayed hard every night.  My grandpa would smile and nod about religion and explain evolution to me if I asked as well as big bang theory, always carefull to give me a spin that god made it happen that way to keep from ruffaling my mom and grandma's hair. I even claimed that god put all the evidnce for the big bang and evolution as "bouncers" for his "club" he called heavan. As I got older I stoped feeling as moved by the preacher on sundays, and early in my adult life(living on my own away from home) I started to study the bible who wrote it where it came from how it started. I ended up with alot of questions, and was tired of the compleate fluff that preachers would stuff down my throat as they danced around questions compleatly avoiding any real answers.  Eventually I became an athiest but it was a year later when I finially became a skeptic to other consepts such as ghosts and psycic powers and magic or magik or any other emo spellings. Even then it was a few months befor I would speak up around "believers" of any kind

I never really talked about it with my parents, but I've always had the impression that they believe or did believe to a certain extent. Less so now than previously perhaps. Either way, most of my religious experiences arise from christians and other religious faiths trying to force their religion on me. The only times I ever recall being in a church was to vote. I was baptized, but never went anywhere with it after that to my recollection(of course I don't recall the baptism, I was too young). I've always been an atheist, I just didn't always know what to call myself.

That's interesting to me, since my parents apparently are starting to have some sort of belief in religion.  I found out they were going to a Unitarian church with my Oma.  When I asked them, my mother said it was more about spirituality than god.  I'm not quite sure what to make of that. 

Well I started training in some martial arts and through that started reading about some eastern philosophy (Buddhism/Zen etc) specifically that of Indian philosopher Krishnamurti. That in turn got me involved in various philosophical discussions and obviously theism (mainly Christianity) crept into these discussions. Evolution-Intelligent Design was one issue often discussed. I had never believed in god but was pretty ignorant of most things in this area (religion, atheism, science, philosophy, logic etc). I accepted science for example because, although I lacked understanding in science, I recognised the authority and common sense of scientists and experimentation over priests and holy books. And in order to argue for the side of science, I need to understand it, as well as understand what I was arguing against, creationism. Anyway, it was these types of discussions in which I learnt more and more, and the more I leant the more interested I became.