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Did a christian school help you find the truth?

I know only three atheists personally.

Two of them were raised completely devoid of any religion -- no church, no Sunday school, no religious brainwashing whatsoever. These two agree with almost everything posted on this site, but would never care enough to actually join an atheist site. They didn't know of Hitch, Harris, Dawkins, PZ etc. until I introduced them.

The other one, like myself, was raised to be christian. He went to catholic schools through high school. I was forced to church 1 to 3 times per week. I then went on to a christian (church of god) university (for proximity reasons). Other than having to go to chapel every Tues & Thur morning (until I found a way out) and my world history professor being forced (against her will) to skip the section on evolution -- I found it to be a very good education. My required bible classes forced me to look at the bible in a different way than the church had. This started me on the road to my present, very happy, atheist state.

I notice that my catholic-raised friend and I are both active atheists in contrast to the other two. Has anyone else noticed a correlation between your degree of religious upbringing and your zeal for (1) the active search for scientific truth and (2) the defense of the value of evidence and skepticism?

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Comment by annet on March 27, 2012 at 9:24pm: Life long atheists do indeed seem much more blase about the whole thing. Ex-religious seem more militant. But we'd need to do a study to be sure.

Amazing that your bible school helped free your mind, that is good news.

I went to Catholic school for 12 years. I always assumed they meant it all figuratively and I'm still convinced most of them did. After high school I was a cultural catholic agnostic apatheist for many years only to be eventually radicalized by my teenage son. On the way home from his confirmation (done mainly for the very cool retreat trip to Rome with his friends) he announced he was an atheist. I agreed and the whole family has been earnest non-theists ever since. Now it is hard to imagine it took so long to shake off the shackles.

Comment by Jude Johnson on March 27, 2012 at 8:05pm: Thanks, Steph, for commenting on my post. I've been an AN member for years, but I rarely post because I'm always working. I'm going to try to carve out a little more time 'cause the folks on here are great. I'm glad you're so active here - you always have interesting things to say.

Comment by Steph S. on March 27, 2012 at 7:56pm: I went to private school .. And now look at me! I'm very active! And I'm getting more stronger in Atheism everyday!