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Permalink Reply by AYFABTU on November 24, 2008 at 8:19pm

I was raised nothing. Had nothing forced upon me. The same is true for my sister.

I am a staunch atheist. She is a very basic theist -- believes in some god-head and a general afterlife. I imagine that her beliefs are largely in part from only being exposed to Christianity throughout her life (more on a social level than a domestic level) and not having explored anything else on her own.

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth on December 17, 2008 at 3:47pm

I have a very similar story, my parents are christian but we very very rarely went to church or ever talked about religion. I'm an atheist (obviously I guess :P) my sister is a christian that doesnt attend church and my brother believes in some alien theory

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Permalink Reply by Victoria's View on November 24, 2008 at 8:59pm

Yep, I went to catholic boarding school although funnily enough my parents gave up when they were not allowed to take the pill. We still had to go to the stupid boarding school any way. I remember going with my Dad to the nuns office and he whispered in my ear. Do you know why they are called Nuns. I was all of thirteen. I said no. He said because they get none!!
I didnt understand till years later what he meant. How confusing is that.

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany on December 5, 2008 at 1:22am

I was raised to be Buddhist but for some reason my parents enjoyed sending me to Christian Private schools. Ironically, they think Christianity is a load of crap. In Pre-school, I once came home and started saying grace at the dinner table but I had no idea why I had to say it. The teachers made us before we ate meals and I never wanted to get in trouble.

My parents never forced me to be Buddhist, they just subtly taught me some of Buddha's teachings of discipline, respect, etc. I researched Buddhism more on my own and felt that I would never go to Temple nor would I ever follow up on Buddhism in a way as to call myself Buddhist. So one fateful day, I came to the conclusion that I was Atheist particularly because I never believed in a higher being. My brother is younger than me and also an Atheist--not because I influenced him to be, he's just come to realize the truth. My father believes in a higher being, so I'd say he's more Agnostic than Buddhist, because Buddhism teaches you to respect other religions and he certainly loves to bash Christianity during dinner!

To tell you the truth, a lot of my friends who have Buddhist parents are Atheist themselves, they just call themselves Buddhist because they were brought up that way, but they don't believe in a God and they definitely don't believe in Christianity.

So to answer your question, it really depends. Watch the documentary, Jesus Camp. Do you really think those kids will end up being Atheist? When you're raised an Evangelical, it's pretty hard to think outside of your beliefs.

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Permalink Reply by Draccataura on January 5, 2009 at 12:06am

Ahh, nothing like a good christian-bashing to free the mind.

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Permalink Reply by Ann Klopping on December 5, 2008 at 9:30am

I was raised Protestant and have recently declared myself as an atheist to my family, though I was rather skeptical for a long time and never felt like I 'fit in' with any church community (except socially in a 'hanging out with people as people' sense).

My mom was raised Catholic but her parents really weren't strict about it and didn't act like 'godly people'. Now she's a very determined Christian/Protestant.

So, yeah, I'd say that is probably relatively accurate. It would be interesting to do a study on a wide scale.

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Permalink Reply by John Wills Lloyd on December 27, 2008 at 6:35am

Park, it's an interesting question.

Part of the reason for your observation about the high proportion of atheists you know having been raised in that particular religion is that you know a large proportion of people who were raised in that tradition. Not that these are the correct %s, but suppose that 80% of the people one knows were raised in the christian tradition. Then at least 80% of the atheists one knows are likely to have been raised in that tradition. One would have to take a random sample of people from all different sorts of upbringings to assess whether any given sect contributed disproportionately to the percentage of atheists.

Thomas Kida, among others, discusses the way people assign lots of significance to their immediate personal experience, overlooking the underlying statistical issues that are evident in large numbers.

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on December 27, 2008 at 9:38am

There is also the bigger picture - western kids embracing all manner of eastern mysticism since the 60's. Not just rejecting your family beliefs - rejecting your entire cultural heritage. This is a massive phenomenon and if you haven't noticed it, you've been living under a rock.

But that pales into insignificance when you see the traffic coming the other way - south east asian kids becoming xtians. Usually of the Baptist or charismatic variety - and usually evangelising it. It is appalling.

As they say, the grass is greener on the other side of the hill.

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Permalink Reply by Michael on February 15, 2009 at 4:14pm

There's no hard and fast rule to such things:
Children of alchoholics may become alcholics, or teetotalers, or social drinkers.
Children of Christians may become Christians, or atheists, or agnostics

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