Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by James Beckerleg on September 6, 2010 at 2:09pm

I grew up in Calgary, AB. Yup, its defiantly a bible belt city. I somehow got lucky though. Religion was simply never an issue at all in my house. Christmas was always about family and Santa, in fact I still get the odd gift from "Santa" and I am 33 and have a kid of my own now! Easter was about the easter bunny and hunting for eggs etc.

None of my friends where really religious except for one and he could not be bothered to talk about it. Although he would have to sometimes skip things to go his church and set up chairs for AA meetings and such. The first Time I really got exposed to it was when I was about 17 and my sister got made friends with a girl from an Evangelical family. Her friend started getting My sister to go to church/ Sunday school with them. They started writing things like "god is great!" in some old bible that my parents got as a wedding gift and had never bothered to even open. I found out later in life, her family would tell my sister that her family was going to burn in hell and that she should come to church with them if she didn't want to. I know, nice eh?

Once when my Sister was about 13 her and her friends found the key to my moms car. Her and her friends decided to try driving and ended up smashing the car into the fence of..... A church. Her evangelical friends parents had just won 100k in the lotto and her had just got himself a new corvette with some of the winnings. Can you guess what family was the first to refuse to help pay for any damages? I now think that it was probably because the church was a different denomination or something.

And that was the only experience I ever had with religion until much later into adulthood, so it was very easy for me to see how silly the "teachings of Christ" are when I actually looked to see what those teachings where later in life. My sister also believes that religion is a bunch of shit. So her friends family has failed in their quest to "save" my heathen sister.

I Actually used to be more of an agnostic until after 9-11 I saw a little video called "loose change" and ended up on the Info wars truether nut forums. It was a good fit at first, I was skeptical by nature so it was easy for me to be skeptical of the governments explanation of things. After a while I started to argue with some fellow "truethers" That they could not possibly so skeptical of the government version of events and yet so completely believe the crazy teaching of their church. Oddly, most of them would go on religious rants at that point. That led to me to question the truethers version of events, and realize how nutty they, and their ideas are.

But it wasn't until that that I been truly exposed to the religious in all there full nutty glory that I gave religion enough thought to consider my self an Atheist. Before that I was just a guy who really didn't care about religion or its implications. A true agnostic I guess. Although, I don't think I even knew the meaning of that word back then.

Permalink Reply by Michel Poisson on September 10, 2010 at 1:10pm

In Quebec it was easy.

Catholic church had a stronghold on everything personal and cultural for centuries, but they were completely & thoroughly thrown out of public life. They lost all their influence starting in the sixties. People are still mostly soft-believers and will shy away from discussing their faith or my lack thereof. It doesn't seem religiosity takes a big place in peoples lives here.

Permalink Reply by Taran Meyer on October 19, 2010 at 10:48am

I was raised agnostically (I THINK my father is an atheist but we've actually never discussed it. My mom is/was disaffected with Christianity but not particularly sceptical about other claims like ghosts, spirituality, etc.). My relatives occasionally did take me to Church and Sunday School, which was mostly boring and/or confusing as I had no idea what any of them were talking about. I was a deist as a child but when I was fourteen and actually sat down and thought about it, realized that God made more sense as a comforting delusion than as a reality.

My best friend when I was 9-14 was a devout (although not especially conservative) Mennonite. It wasn't a problem for us at that stage though it is probably part of the reason we drifted apart after. I can't say the religion ever had a big impact on our relationship at the time, although her mother did try to talk to me about God once or twice. This family remains one of my best examples of "Good Christian People" to this day, however.

Personally I've never had bad experiences about being out about atheism, although it's not something I spend a lot of time advertising---in the social circles where I usually move talking about your religion or lack of it would seem equally out of place. It did worry my in-laws (lapsed Catholics) a bit at first, but hasn't come up recently.

It did impact my daughter once, when a fellow child at daycare (seriously, four-year-olds here) told her I was going to Hell because I didn't believe in God. This upset my daughter quite a bit, but I explained that first of all I didn't think Hell existed and even if it did a God who would send me there just for not believing wouldn't be a very good God. Also they were a bit singled out because I wouldn't let the daycare lady put my kids in bible camp in the summer with the other kids, but she was quite good about making up special activities just for them, so they didn't feel too left out.

I don't spend a lot of time advertising my atheism, but then I don't spend a lot of time around people who advertise their religion either. It's certainly not something I hide.

Permalink Reply by Keith on December 4, 2010 at 5:56pm

"Where you raised in a religious or non-religious house hold?"

My parents are Atheist. My brother and sister are too. Even though my immediate family, as welll as most of my extended family were Atheist, my parents never pushed me into anything. I went to church when I was really young. Even then I knew it wasn't for me. I went from being very young to perhaps 11 or 12.

"Was religion predominant in the community you grew up in?"

I was in a fairly religious community. I would say. I didn't know it at the time as a child, but now that I am older, I can really see it.

"Did it cause any issues growing up, if you were raised non-religious among your religious friends?"

Religion was never an issue - ever. Among people I talked to, or friends.

"Have you ever been called out by someone about your stance on religion and belief?"

Yes, many times. The one I find most ridiculous was when I was at a party once. The conversation got into how I don't smoke, do drugs, or drink hardly ever. A guy near me says to me, "What are ya, religious or something??" I said, "No, I am an Atheist". He lunged at me, yelling at me. I don't even recall what he said, but he was clearly angery at me and wanted to physically harm me. I left the party. I find out later he was high on coke and a good ol' christian. I belive that is a microcosm of society at large.

"Do you find it difficult to be an out atheist in Canada?"

Notwithstanding the above situation, it isn't too hard. The odd ocassion you are confronted, but, at least the socio-political environment in Canada heavily supports secularism. Religion in regards to a political leader is not much of an issue. And, ethical/social issues in Canada are settled.

Permalink Reply by Ellemar on February 2, 2011 at 5:23pm

My parents come from religious backgrounds (Catholic), but I was in no way raised religious. My mum took me to church up until I was 5, but I think she did it more out of habit than anything. I would define my mother as a reluctant atheist. My father HATES the Church, but I think he's still spiritual. At a pretty early age I would think about God and came to the conclusion around age 10 that it was a pretty silly idea. I would get into arguments at school with the Catholic girl I knew. She invited me to church once, and I told her I didn't believe in God. I said "If there was a God, why are there little babies in poor countries starving to death?" She told me it was because they must have sinned. Needless to say, that's crazy, and just made me more sure of myself.

I've only met one or two people who objected to my atheism, and I just kind of tuned them out. It's easy for me to be an atheist in Canada, but I suppose it all depends on what region you're from, if you live in a city or a small town, etc. I'm from Vancouver, and I've never really had a problem with it here.

 

Some people have said earlier in this thread that Canadians are a little too concerned with making everybody happy. I do agree with this, but I'm not like that. While I don't go around shoving it down everyone's throat that I'm an atheist and everyone should believe what I believe, I'm not shy about my beliefs. If someone asks what I believe in, I won't hesitate from telling them the truth. If they don't like it, that's their problem. I think some people are ashamed of being an atheist because of the negative connotations that come with it. I'm trying to change that.

 

I feel so sorry for these American atheists that you hear about who are stuck in these fundamentalist communities. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't speak my mind.

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