Is there a connection between religious belief and familial relationships? - Or: Are you an atheist because you had a shitty upbringing?

[Exigent Circumcisions]

Until the age of seven or eight I believed in God; my grandparents strongly believed in God and my parents were agnostic about the whole issue (or rather, they were outwardly agnostic and just let us believe whatever we wanted). After reading the Bible for a while I became steadily disillusioned with God and stopped believing; I spent the subsequent 20-odd years as an atheist (non-fedorafag, though). Full disclosure; I am a Christian now but that's not the subject of this post.

I had a very strained relationship with both of my parents, which I won't get into details about. Suffice it to say that I never properly bonded with them and consequently was distrustful of their support, encouragement, or advice. These are not people to whom you'd trust your deepest thoughts to; you'd risk being misunderstood at best and utterly ignored at worst. So I did most of my growing up in spite of them, not because of them.

Part of what led me back to faith was picking up the pieces from all of that bullshit and realizing that my view of the world as a chaotic, dangerous, uncaring place was informed by the lack of trust I'd had in my parents; how could I trust God if my own mother and father hadn't sheltered me? Once I worked my way out from underneath trying to root myself in a life I had no faith in I fairly quickly made the trip back to belief.

None of this is a pity-play; I've dealt with this and I'm pretty damned happy with where I am in life, finally. Just simply putting the question out there: Does anybody else think that familial relationships have an effect on the basis of belief?

I know that trying to reduce the reasons to have faith to one singular reason is almost pointlessly reductive but it's something that I've wondered about for quite some time so there it is. Serious answers are appreciated but I don't mind shit-posting either.

P.S.: Try typing out the word 'religious' a dozen times and see if it doesn't start to look like the stupidest fucking word in existence.

ETA: This isn't a discussion about the merits of one belief system over another; we're just talking over whether or not there might be connection between a disconnect with family and a disconnect from religious belief. Let's try to stick to the topic and not lapse into white-knighting our personal philosophies.

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

Family's always been a hot fucking mess though I suppose it really could have been worse (somehow). Household was always basically agnostic-apatheist, though mother's side is full of evangelicals and father's side is whatever the fuck Alsatian Frenchies tend to be.

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

Family's always been a hot fucking mess though I suppose it really could have been worse (somehow). Household was always basically agnostic-apatheist, though mother's side is full of evangelicals and father's side is whatever the fuck Alsatian Frenchies tend to be.

Just going to add for clarity that you're an atheist. (Right?)

 

[Sprig of Parsley]

Just going to add for clarity that you're an atheist. (Right?)

If it matters enough to be pinned down to that specific label, I suppose. I'm more or less "don't know, don't care" about the matter for the most part, but I have yet to have any sort of personal experience that has ignited any spark of faith and I find evidence for existence about as uncompelling as I find YouTube atheists annoying.

 

[The Pink Panther]

Non-religious/Religious/Good Relationship

Maybe it's because I haven't told them I'm non-religious. People disagree on ethics all the time, and it's best not to really discuss ethics, because people tie their ethics with their personal identity all the time and they feel really passionate about them...that they become too passionate. So passionate that whenever your form of ethics contradicts with yours, they'll pressure you into thinking that their moral perception of the world is the way that everyone should live, even though not all people might not agree with their conclusions or rather my conclusions either. Everyone's different, people choose their own ethical path.


The reason why I'm non-religious comes not from shitty upbringing, but through watching The Seventh Sign. I will not add anything further than that.

 

[Rand /pol/]

I'm an atheist because there isn't any proof of god existing. My upbringing is kind of irrelevant.

 

[Marco Fucko]

My mom is generically spiritual and hates her christfag parents. Following that, I'm generically irreligious and she and I have a rocky (although not entirely negative) relationship.

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

I'm an atheist because there isn't any proof of god existing. My upbringing is kind of irrelevant.

You're the only guy who can shit post by giving a serious (if incomplete) answer. Fuck off, Ron.

 

[Just A Butt]

Neither my parents or myself are religious, but we come from a fairly religious family. I'd describe my relationship with them as pretty good, but that still doesn't mean they are the people I would trust to understand my deep thoughts / problems. I personally don't think religion vs secular makes that bond any stronger (or weaker) than it would be normally. Parents and kids aren't supposed to be that close, in my opinion.

Slightly off-topic: my uncle once told me I was going to hell simply because I don't go to church. But he's kind of an asshole, so that might be an outlier kind of thing.

 

[Sīn the Moon Daddy]

Nobody ever told me to believe in God. My best friend growing up was a very religious black kid but we mostly bonded over basketball and white girls.

Since I never went to church it just wasn't a part of my life.

 

[The Pink Panther]

religious black kid

A common brand of Nigger.

 

[queue-anon]

My mother was religious in a typical Scandinavian way of never talking about God or attending church. I had a good relationship with her. My father was an atheist in a typical "religious people are morons" way. I had a crappy relationship with him.

I'm an atheist because I wasn't indoctrinated into that belief system by either parent, and both my parents, but especially my father, instilled critical thinking and skepticism in me at an early age. I won't lie to myself to make myself feel better, but I understand why other people do it (I don't agree with my father that religious people are stupid), and I feel a little twinge of envy regarding people who have it comparatively easier when considering death -- their own and their loved ones'.

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

My mother was religious in a typical Scandinavian way of never talking about God or attending church. I had a good relationship with her. My father was an atheist in a typical "religious people are morons" way. I had a crappy relationship with him.

I'm an atheist because I wasn't indoctrinated into that belief system by either parent, and both my parents, but especially my father, instilled critical thinking and skepticism in me at an early age. I won't lie to myself to make myself feel better, but I understand why other people do it (I don't agree with my father that religious people are stupid), and I feel a little twinge of envy regarding people who have it comparatively easier when considering death -- their own and their loved ones'.

I generally avoid condescending to atheists because I get it, I've been there but lol calm down fag. If you think that critical thinking and skepticism will automatically yield atheism you're just smelling your own farts. History would tend to disagree with your assessment. As for indoctrination; I definitely was not indoctrinated and I don't consider indoctrination to be a moral way to induct members to any faith. Believe it or not, I think a healthy dose of critical thinking and skepticism is imperative.

Anyways, let's try to stick to the topic instead of christ or fedora-fagging, shall we? This thread doesn't exist for proselytizing because that shit's gay as hell.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I think it's more of a matter of tradition. For example, East Asia is fairly secular, but family is pretty important.

 

[queue-anon]

I generally avoid condescending to atheists because I get it, I've been there but lol calm down fag. If you think that critical thinking and skepticism will automatically yield atheism you're just smelling your own farts. History would tend to disagree with your assessment. As for indoctrination; I definitely was not indoctrinated and I don't consider indoctrination to be a moral way to induct members to any faith. Believe it or not, I think a healthy dose of critical thinking and skepticism is imperative.

Anyways, let's try to stick to the topic instead of christ or fedora-fagging, shall we? This thread doesn't exist for proselytizing because that shit's gay as hell.

If you don't think that the vast majority of people who are religious got there through indoctrination, I don't know what to tell you. Most people accept what they were told as they were growing up and don't second guess it. If that weren't the case, there would be a lot more lateral conversions to other faiths, but the vast majority stick to whatever their parents believe. Hell, that's even true for politics.

I usually don't attack the tenets of religious people's faiths because it's none of my business, but do go on about how your belief in the trinity and the virgin birth came about through critical thinking and skepticism.

All religious belief requires faith, which is diametrically opposed to rational thinking, as it should be.

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

-snip-

I said we wouldn't be proselytizing, here. So no, I won't explain to you. You could pick up a Bible if you wanted, or talk to a pastor, I don't care. But this isn't the thread for that.

 

[RG 448]

As a kid I believed in God because I was told He was real. Relationship with the folks was often strained but they tried their best and I wasn’t an easy kid to deal with. Anyone who knows me here can see I’ve definitely got a few screws loose. I think we all start to question the faith as we get older, or maybe only some of us do, I don’t really know. Critical thinking skills develope, we understand the world around us better, etc. As an adult when I started going through serious stuff I found Him for real.

 

[1864897514651]

[redacted]

Are you seriously claiming faith is opposed to logic? You must have had one rough childhood. You need to deal with that better than totally repudiating faith in humanity. Even God has faith in us.

 

[wellthathappened]

Grew up Catholic, never believed in god, and the entire concept seemed incidental to a culture I was a part of. I'm not an atheist because I hate religion, in fact there's a great deal of value in it. I don't believe in god because that is how shit is.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

My parents weren't really zealous religious people, they believed in god I think, but they never really went to church or cared too hard about the Bible's teachings beyond the most surface level stuff you can think of. My grandmother though was a huge bible thumper who would cry about how I'm going to hell because I didn't go to church enough and nothing else. So I can't say I was raised to want to believe religion in any way.

I'm personally an atheist, I just can't see the proof of god and I don't see any reason to believe in a book like the Bible because, in theory, anyone can write a book like the Bible. So I am personally vehemently unreligious on a personal level, but I don't care too much what other people do, I just can't believe in religion on a personal level. So I suppose in my case, my relationship with my family did shape my beliefs as my parents didn't care overall and my grandmother was an annoying whiny bitch when it came to the Bible.