Religion: What Were You Raised As?

[Algernon]

1. What religion/spirituality/belief were you raised up in? What were you brought up to believe, what was your family?

2. What do you believe now, and how do you practice it?

[Hyper Sonic]

I was brainwashed into Catholicism like my mom, my dad is Protestant. I was brought up to believe what moderate Catholics believe.

Now I am atheist

[Toast]

1. I was never taught religion as a child

2. I am Agnostic because I don't believe anyone can really know, but I'm leaning more towards Atheism.

[MadPoet]

1. I was raised as a Christian. I went to Methodist church for a long time, and then switched over to Catholic School, so naturally I made my first communion at a Catholic church and became Catholic rather than Methodist, but I really see no difference between the two.

2. I have no idea, to put it simply.

[Strider]

1. I was brought up with no religion and a fairly open mind to other peoples' beliefs. We still celebrated Easter and Christmas, but only the presents and chocolate aspects of it :P I was never really certain of what my parents believed until I was much older, and they seem to have undecided views.

2. I am an atheist because I'm a very factual and visual based person. I grew up with no belief and my parents never forced me into anything. I believe in science and evolution now that I am more educated. I have nothing against other peoples' beliefs, and I don't mind the practice of any faith as long as it's positive towards others.

[Double X]

My mom is an intense catholic (quite annoying) and my dad is an atheist (whole side of his family is)

me : atheist, but I enjoy reading things about religion because I really want something like that to exist, even if I know it doesn't.

[almostinvisible]

1. I was/am brought up Roman Catholic. My mom is Roman Catholic, my dad Lutheran and my sister doesn't really care anymore.
2. I still believe the same. Not because they tell me to but because to me personally it makes sense and I like my religion. I don't know if I'll believe the same my whole life but as for right now it's okay.

[Music]

I was raised as a catholic, my mom is pretty into the whole religion and repenting and praying at every single moment of the day thing, and that's what I grew up around.

Now, I don't know what I'd say I am. I believe that there's a god or something like that, but I don't believe spending time praying and worshiping something that most likely isn't paying attention is worth the time, effort, or money.

[Blackwing]

Xmas and chanukah. Are my two Fav holidays. Raised Christian/Jewish.

[BrittneyNicole]

1. What religion/spirituality/belief were you raised up in? What were you brought up to believe, what was your family?
- I don't know that I was really brought us as any certain religion. My father's side is Catholic and my mother's side is Baptist. We spent a year or so at a Baptist church and then a year or so at the Catholic church and then we finally settled on a Nondenominational church.

2. What do you believe now, and how do you practice it?
- Right now.. I'm a Christian. I attend a Nondenominational church when I can and I read the Bible when I have time.

[LifeSong]

1. I was brought up Roman Catholic. Catholic grade school since kindergarten. Catholic high school-the works. My brother and I were brought up to believe in pretty much whatever we were taught at school...so basically Catholicism to a tee.

2. Currently, I'm not sure what I am. I'm interested in looking outside Christianity all together, but I suppose at this moment I would define myself as 'general' Christian. In all honesty, I don't really practice my faith at all. I don't attend mass, read the bible, pray...nothing

[Khadra]

I wasn't exactly raised to believe anything in particular, at least not by my mom and dad. My step-mom took me to church quite a bit thoughout my life, my grandparents also took me quite a few times and for a few years I went to sunday school with a friend. As a result, I believed in god until the age of 11 or 12.

Now I'm agnostic. The only thing I really "practice" with regards to agnosticism is that I try to be as open minded as possible.

[Gram Negative]

1. Baptized, raised as Christian Orthodox. Then sent to Jew camp later on.

2. Agnostic

[SillyEvee]

1. My mom is from a long line of what we call "ethnic Jews," or (in my words) Jews for the food, so I had latkes on Chanukkah, but it's not like we went to Shul or anything. We celebrated Christmas and Easter (as Nat put it) just with the presents and chocolate aspects. :P Neither of my parents is religious.

2. I'm in the slow process of becoming a practicing Jew, which is sort of hard at a non-religious boarding school. Yesterday, it was pork for dinner. I ate salad. But I totally love it. I'm also a pretty scientific/factual person. I don't see that there's much contradiction in my faith and my physics and bio classes, to be honest. Not really a big deal for me.

[Tara.]

1. What religion/spirituality/belief were you raised up in? What were you brought up to believe, what was your family?
Catholic. As was my parents, though - more so on my dad's side.

2. What do you believe now, and how do you practice it?
Buddhism, by learning more about it. And by getting to know myself, and taking responsibility for myself and my own actions. I think being open-minded goes along with being Buddhist.

[InSovietRussiaORGASMGotU]

1) I was raised and forced to go to a christian then catholic school and learn about christianity. If you refused to obey or to go, you got punished and usually, the teachers singled out non-believers. This included getting it shoved down your throat and not obeying, even if you were a christian resulted in being condemned to hell and other bullshit.

2) Turned to LaVeyan Satanism then Theistic Satanism then finally, atheism while adopting some philosophical traits from them.

[I ♥ Jehovah Shalom!]

Originally Posted by xHolyValorx

1. What religion/spirituality/belief were you raised up in? What were you brought up to believe, what was your family?

Idk what you can call it, my dads an athiest and my mom believed in God. So it was kind of a lil love/hate with God.

2. What do you believe now, and how do you practice it?

I'm now a Christian.

[Marie]

My mother is Christian, raised in a Catholic family, my father is athiest raised in an athiest family so I was pretty much brought up to choose what I want to believe. I was Christened.

I am a non believer now. I am pretty much a cynic. I don't believe in ghosts, spirits, that we have a soul, that God created us, that Jesus was the son of God (though I do believe he existed), I don't believe we were born with soul mates or that we're reincarnated or that there is a heaven/hell. I don't believe in angels or guardian angels or fate or destiny. That's not to say I believe everything science tells us either. But basically.. I don't care. I don't question why I'm here or where I'm going.. what my "purpose" is. i just live life, day by day, accepting that I'm here and making the most of it.

[R.K.]

Um... a mix between a pretty liberal almost non practising Roman Catholic & Protestant (family is split in half).

Now atheist.

[Kathey]

My father was high Church of England. I was sort of brought up with that, until he left the church because he didn't agree with women priests. [long story].
My mum, no particular strong beliefs really.

I'm now what could be called Pantheistic, although some might describe me as Pagan. My spirituality is my way of living, not a separate religious practice.

[Gingerbread Latte]

1. I wasn't really raised but my mum keeps telling me I'm Christian because I've been christened which is annoying because I keep trying to tell her I might be following a religion.

2. I'm not sure which one yet I want to read up on more religions that aren't the major ones.

[wanderlust]

Catholic. The whole family is in on the gig lol, and i went to catholic schools(something like 96 percent of schools in Ireland are catholic though)

Im catholic myself! i was a diehard atheist for a good while, but I've come to my senses (no prompting was needed im very stubborn so it wouldve hindered more than helped)

[Ellie]

I guess I was raised as a Christian; Methodist. I say I guess because that's what my mum is and she took us to church but she was never strict with religion. It was just something we did. But then again, Methodism isn't *that* strict anyway.

I'm now agnostic.

[Acheron]

My parents were both atheists when I was little, so I wasn't baptised and wasn't really taught to believe anything until I went to primary school, at which Christianity was taught as fact. I kind of believed for a little while, then turned agnostic and finally atheist when I was about eleven. Ironically, this was about the same time that my mum turned Christian (Church of England, and she's still very liberal).

I'm still an atheist, and there aren't really any particular practices associated with atheism. I still celebrate Easter and Christmas, but they're pretty much secular festivals anyway.

[Just Duckie]

1. Brought up catholic .

2. I don't know what i believe in, but i know it's not ''God''.

[Fallen Angel]

I was raised as a CEO - to quote Holly. My parents brought me up to only celebrate Christmas and Easter (Christmas, Easter Only - CEO). That way, I wasn't forced to believe what anyone else believed. My mum and her partner are both agnostic; but vear towards Christianity very strongly.

I now belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. I attend Church at least once a week, I practise family home evening, I read my scriptures and pray daily and I do all my studies and prayers both individually and together with Daniel as a couple who intend to be sealed in the temple next year.

Daniel has 3 children from his previous marriage. They stay with us 3/4 weekends; and so they come to church with us on a Sunday and 2 of them read their scriptures and pray throughout the week at their mother's house. His daughter, who goes to Church but only because she has to, isn't forced to do anything else and indeed wouldn't be made to go to Church if there was somewhere else for her to go for 3+ hours on a Sunday.

[InSovietRussiaORGASMGotU]

Originally Posted by Chelsea-Marie

I was raised as a CEO - to quote Holly. My parents brought me up to only celebrate Christmas and Easter (Christmas, Easter Only - CEO). That way, I wasn't forced to believe what anyone else believed. My mum and her partner are both agnostic; but vear towards Christianity very strongly.

I now belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. I attend Church at least once a week, I practise family home evening, I read my scriptures and pray daily and I do all my studies and prayers both individually and together with Daniel as a couple who intend to be sealed in the temple next year.

Daniel has 3 children from his previous marriage. They stay with us 3/4 weekends; and so they come to church with us on a Sunday and 2 of them read their scriptures and pray throughout the week at their mother's house. His daughter, who goes to Church but only because she has to, isn't forced to do anything else and indeed wouldn't be made to go to Church if there was somewhere else for her to go for 3+ hours on a Sunday.

How can someone be agnostic yet be heavily influenced by christianity?

[Fallen Angel]

Originally Posted by YourNightmare

How can someone be agnostic yet be heavily influenced by christianity?

They believe in something. But are not sure what is true. They do the whole Christmas and Easter thing, and when searching for what to believe in they tend to search through branches of Christianity; they have yet to find one that accepts them for who they are and their personal beliefs and is believable. They both somewhat like my church but unfortunately it does not accept their lifestyle and allow them to be together. And they refuse to be forced to seperate and neither should they IMO.

[Youth Pastor]

I didn't grow up in a church. My mom was raised Church of Christ and my dad was raised Pentecostal.

I was saved when I was 18 so I became a Christian then. I'm Baptist now but I say I'm a Christian before I say I'm a Baptist.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by xHolyValorx

1. What religion/spirituality/belief were you raised up in? What were you brought up to believe, what was your family?

I was raised as a Christian, technically my parents are protestant but my Christian upbringing was more non-denominational. My parents are very liberal Christians so not much importance was placed on religion however despite that I was rabidly Christian until I was 13 or 14 and then I started to think about and question it more.

2. What do you believe now, and how do you practice it?

I am an atheist with agnostic leanings now.

[Algernon]

My turn.

I was raised in a home where God existed, but I didn't know anything about him. I think it's because my mom was a drug addict/sold so my environment wasn't great. When she finally got caught I went to a receiving home, ended up in foster care with my grandma. When my mom came back, she put her trust in God again. I didn't want to believe her and follow God or go to church. One day she made me go to a Christian camp/retreat up in Chico. I came back a believer, I saw too much happen that couldn't be explained by anything else but God.

I'm a nondenominational Christian. I learn what I can, fight for what I believe with an open-mind. I'm quite liberal, but I take the bible seriously and not the churches beliefs. I'm not perfect, but I have a strong foundation on God.

[Tearxstained]

1. I was raised kind of Jewish/Christian... which makes absolutely no sense. . . But basically I spent half of my time with Mom and half of my time with Dad. One was Jewish, one was Christian. I guess I got the best of both worlds. The only thing I really understood back then was that I got more presents than everybody else! [Christmukah!]

2. I follow the Jewish faith. I'm kind of a lazy Jew though, lol. On Fridays I do the whole Shabbat thing, and on major holidays I celebrate and stuff but usually it's either by myself or with my family. I never, ever go to synagogue.

Yaaay ! =D

[Gixxers rock]

1. Jedi Knight
2. Nuff said

[LucyLouWho]

Well, when I was little, my family didn't talk much about religion. I think they all believed in God, but there was no praying, going to church, or anything like that. All of that started when I was about 10 years old when my grandparents got rededicated their lives. Before that, I'd go to church once in awhile with my aunt, so I guess most of my life I've been raised in a Christian setting.

[Oiseau the Little Bird!]

Originally Posted by xHolyValorx

1. What religion/spirituality/belief were you raised up in? What were you brought up to believe, what was your family?

2. What do you believe now, and how do you practice it?

1. I was baptised as something or other, but I was raised to accept people for who they were and learn as much as I could.

2. I considered myself Wiccan for a long time, but lately I've been questioning that particular path and I've been exploring others.

[*Faith*]

I was baptised and such, my parents didn't really have an input it was more my catholic primary school that tried to make me believe in God (i.e making me go to mass every Wednesday and making Holy Communion).

Now, I'm just agnostic.

[Katieeee]

1. I come from a family that's a mixture between Mormons and hardcore Christians so both have really had an effect on my belief system.
2. Agnostic

[Gaia]

1. raised as christian
2. Agnostic, my scientific side needs more proof

However, I'd like to raise my children in a similar environment to me, perhaps not going to church every sunday, but at least giving them the values and morals I received from going to church.

[WhisperingSilence]

i was baptised as the church of england, but my dad was rasied as a catholic. so i was rasied as two realy catholic and church of england, i went to catholic schools but i went to the church of england church.

[udontno]

My parents did not regularly attend church when I was little. They both are Christian. My mother was Baptist, but she stopped believing in what they were preaching when she heard a sermon about adultery after you've divorced someone. My father was raised Methodist.

I am some sort of Christian. I haven't found a church that's right for me and I've struggled with my faith for quite some time now. I'm very relaxed about it all.