Was/Is your family religious?

[Jotto999]

My mother believes in some quantum mysticism, and my father used to refer to himself as "agnostic" but for about a year I have been teaching him about atheism. After reading a couple Richard Dawkins books, browsing godisimaginary.com and having time to think about it, he's an atheist now, it was easy because he never did like religion much anyways. (Victory!)

All four grandparents are alive and religious, but in varying degrees. One grandmother is a fanatic and for this reason I hope never to speak to her or see her again, and I wish it wasn't like that but she made it so. My other three grandparents aren't as religious and are actually pretty easy to get along with, even though they know I don't go to church or anything.

Overall I'm pretty pleased, out of all my relatives only a few are religious enough that it is difficult to get along with them as a skeptic/thinker. The trend of religiosity between the generations matches what the rest of the modern world is doing perfectly. All grandparents are religious, aunts/uncles are mostly all religious but less extreme, and maybe half my cousins are religious, the other half either atheist, or that near-atheistic "agnostic" position where they would be atheist if they just gave it more thought but are nearly there already (that's where my dad was not long ago).

By the time I'm a great uncle or grandfather, I don't think there will be much religion in my family anymore, even though all current grandparents are religious, some fanatic. I love that I can see this transition in action.

 

[Whitelightning1161]

my family is full of fundies, both of my parents deny evolution, and they both try to censor what websites i go to,( you see how well that is working) and my sister, is a devout Christian, and my grandparents, both of them are heavily religious, and conservative.(my grandpa gave me going rouge as a Christmas present)

 

[MRaverz]

I think my family are mainly either apathetic or atheistic in some sense, I have a couple of slightly Christian aunts but generally it's all non-religious.

 

[Andiferous]

I was a good Catholic growing up. Despite my complete detachment to it now, I think there was benefit in the exposure for me.

Curiosity drove me to enroll in a Religion class in University and I had a candid discussion with my professor (who happened to be Anglican); I asked why a majority of the Religious Studies professors in the department were Atheists, and he replied that most of them began as Catholics. Whether that's true or not, I don't know... but it made me smile.

 

[TaylorX04]

My parents are both conservative Christians, and until a couple years ago, my father was the pastor of an evangelical church. It seems like he's retired from it now, but not due to any crisis of faith, as far as I can tell.

I took my time thinking about whether or not to let them know that I had become an atheist. In the end, I decided any discomfort was a small price to pay in order to be true to myself. And it's a good thing I felt that way, because my parents have almost treated my profession of atheism like I confessed to being a serial killer. We've since had more discussions on religion than I can count, and every one of them goes nowhere. My mom has expressed that she thinks I'm still technically saved and I'll come back to Christianity sometime soon. I haven't really told her yet, but if I ever do entertain belief in a god again, Christianity will be excluded from the options. As much as I've learned about it, there's no doubt in my mind that it is a man-made religion, and a barbaric one at that.

One of my younger brothers is also an atheist, and he was probably the first one in our family to "see the light", even though rebellion was primarily what motivated his line of thinking back then. My other little brother is kind of a religious hippy, as I think of it. He seems to dislike mainstream religion, but thinks there may be a god, and I suspect he thinks in senselessly abstract terms about it (i.e. "god is love"). He's a big fan of Alex Jones too, which worries me a lot more than his wishy-washy take on spirituality.

 

[Zoten001]

For the early years in my life, I had little concept of what religion was (to about age 9). I had no idea what my parents beliefs where but they consitantly fostered my curiosity. I had heard of the "god" concept but my little mind at the time equated god with nature.

After I was nine I found out what religion was. My Step-Mother was a Seventh Day Adventist *shudders* and utterly narrow-minded at that. Of course she dragged me and my father to her church and we went along with it, at the time you could even say I believed it, but thanks to the way I had been brought up, I thought of all kinds of questions they could not answer ( 9-yr old vs. pastor, guess who won?). I had not wanted to tell her once I became an atheist at age 16, but my cousin, who knew, invited me to a church and I declined to go. You can imagine how that went. Thankfully she had very little actual understanding of the world worked and I used that to my advantage, safe to say she don't bug me about it anymore.

My dad is a deist for the most part and has his own unique ideals on spirituality and the afterlife and such, but he hardly holds to them like his life depends on it.

 

[jDower]

Yes, with the acception of myself and my brother. Any attempt at discussing religion is immediatly dismissed by them.

 

[benjy85pb]

No-one in my family are religious, however I don't know how fact that goes back in our family. But as far as I'm aware none of my gran parents were religious in any way. However, some members of my family have views that have their roots in religious, such as gays being immoral and what not. But in general, and apart from the odd racist view (I'm won't go into details), they think religion is a waste of time.

I personally don't think it has a place in the modern world and modern views. I think it's only relavent as being a part of human history and the impact it's had on history, as well as in modern times and the present. I prefer a more rational and educated view of the world.

 

[Nogre]

My mom is pretty much a deist, although she's not very serious about it. My brother is probably about the same or just apatheistic. I don't really know about my dad...he was once deeply religious, but his father wasn't and it caused a huge ammount of tension with his family, so I think he just views it as a very private and personal thing. I don't really know much about my dad's side of the family as they're out in the eastern US and I've never gotten to know them as well as my mom's side. My mom's side is about 50% morman with catholics, jews, and a bunch that are only vaguely religious. I probably have a few cousins that share my views. It's not really discussed. We're a pretty diverse bunch and everyone has their problems and there are tons of differences, so tolerance has become the important virtue. I mean, I have an uncle that's basically an alcoholic and has been divorced twice and his youngest daughter is married to a high priest of the Morman church.