I grew up in the Catholic Church and went to Catholic schools for a while so yes. My parents were not really conservative though, they are relatively liberal compared to some of my family members. I still consider myself Catholic today but I don’t go to church much except on holidays.

For a while in the early ‘00s I actually went to a non demoninational evangelical high school (it was cheaper than the Catholic high school), that’s where I was when 9/11 happened. Now that place was WEIRD. Some teachers claimed that God himself actually had put George W. Bush into office. They taught creationism and that the earth is only 6000 years old  ;D (in Catholic school we were taught to accept evolution).

Yup, unfortunately. I'm a staunch atheist now but religion still has a stranglehold on my life.  :-\\

Yup, unfortunately. I'm a staunch atheist now but religion still has a stranglehold on my life.  :-\\


My dad’s family are extremely religious. They will NEVER miss mass every week, it’s pretty crazy. One of my cousins is like an extremely conservative Catholic and is obsessively against contraception, she’s so annoying tbh. I hid her posts on Facebook because I got so tired of seeing that crap.  ::)

Very much so.  My dad is an Independent Fundamental Baptist preacher (the most conservative and extreme of the Baptist denominations).  I live in the buckle of the Bible Belt where religion is pretty much inescapable.  Though I no longer believe, my entire life is the product (and has been ruined because of) of bad decisions I made when I was religious.


Yup, unfortunately. I'm a staunch atheist now but religion still has a stranglehold on my life.  :-\\


How so?

Yes, I've been raised in a conservative, Christian household. I went to a non denominational Protestant church until I was 9 in 2008, may have been early 09. My family (including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) left because they hated how churches were and decided to not call themselves religious, but still called themselves Christians. However, my family does and has had occasional meetings at my grandparents' house relating to Christianity, usually it's when this prophet guy comes over.

My parents wouldn't let me watch, play, or read lot of things when I was a young child such as any anime or Harry Potter, even was banned from watching Wizards of Waverly Place for a while, all my T rated video games were taken away from me when I was 8 (got them back later though), they forced me to stop reading The Magic Tree House in elementary school at one point (re-allowed me to later), made me uninstall Wizard 101, etc.

It seemed so random on some things I could and couldn't watch or play though, and a lot of the times I'd be watching or playing something for a while, then they'd say I can't, and they may later allow to me again or not, it was so irritating as a kid. 

As I've gotten older, my parents have become more lenient and allowed me to do more things, I started playing Elder Scrolls (Skyrim was my first one) when I was 13 and they were pretty iffy on it at first telling me to make sure I don't get addicted to it, make sure it's not like DnD (which I wasn't allowed to play), and my dad said to stay connected to the real world, and of course, a couple weeks later, I was already addicted and started learning the lore and history of the universe, became absolutely obsessed, exactly what they didn't want. ;D

It didn't seem to bother them much, although it got to the point where I'd start talking about Elder Scrolls obsessively everyday, and people on Xbox were surprised on how much I knew about it and I gained a reputation for being an Elder Scrolls lore freak for a few years on Xbox Live, lol.

I wasn't allowed to play video games with nudity until around six months ago when I was 18, now they usually say they'll trust me to watch and play what I want for the most part, and believe it or not, most of my aunts/uncles were more strict than my parents were.

I would say I grew up Christian, but I'm not religious at all now after going through years of trying to figure things out. I found out last Thanksgiving that my brother doesn't believe in Christianity either, he said he hadn't for around a year. Neither of us have told our sister, parents, or anyone else in our family.

Strangely enough, I actually like having in depth discussions or debates about Christianity sometimes, although if I'm debating with a Christian about something such as homosexuality, I do it from a Christian point of view, which usually makes them understand me much better.

Yes, I was raised a Christian in the south growing up especially from my mom. She was very serious about my older sister and I knowing about Jesus, scriptures, and bible stories. There were certain shows I couldn't watch on TV (but I still sneaked and watched them) and certain toys she wouldn't approve of as well. My dad on the other hand didn't care what I watched on TV and didn't care what I played with.

My parents wouldn't let me watch, play, or read lot of things when I was a young child such as any anime or Harry Potter, even was banned from watching Wizards of Waverly Place for a while, all my T rated video games were taken away from me when I was 8 (got them back later though), they forced me to stop reading The Magic Tree House in elementary school at one point (re-allowed me to later), made me uninstall Wizard 101, etc.


My mom was very skeptical about Harry Potter, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh too. My dad was the only reason I was able to watch Harry Potter movies throughout my childhood. I'm gonna be honest, I've heard even worse stories with people who had BOTH conservative Christian parents and a lot of them end up turning out being worse than those who weren't Christians at first then they grow up and become a Christian the correct (non-condemning, loving) way. You set all these boundaries (you can't do this, this is of the devil, you will go to hell if you enjoy this, etc.) instead of teaching the real word, then once you get older you'll end up turning out worse. You'll get tempted to do a bunch of crazy stuff you feel like you missed out on. You would have felt like you'd been sheltered your whole childhood and you'll want to get out of the house and do whatever the hell you want to. I've heard so many stories. Denominational churches cause a lot of division, hate and guilt with their own agenda.

Thankfully no. My parents were atheists. They made me attend religious classes in elementary school though just to get a better understanding of our culture. My mom's mother and her brother converted to Jehova Witnesses but that had little to no impact on me. I'm grateful for that as I can't stand religion. It tends to get in the way of truth in my opinion.

My mom was very skeptical about Harry Potter, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh too. My dad was the only reason I was able to watch Harry Potter movies throughout my childhood. I'm gonna be honest, I've heard even worse stories with people who had BOTH conservative Christian parents and a lot of them end up turning out being worse than those who weren't Christians at first then they grow up and become a Christian the correct (non-condemning, loving) way. You set all these boundaries (you can't do this, this is of the devil, you will go to hell if you enjoy this, etc.) instead of teaching the real word, then once you get older you'll end up turning out worse. You'll get tempted to do a bunch of crazy stuff you feel like you missed out on. You would have felt like you'd been sheltered your whole childhood and you'll want to get out of the house and do whatever the hell you want to. I've heard so many stories. Denominational churches cause a lot of division, hate and guilt with their own agenda.


Yeah generally I don’t think Catholics are conservative about stuff like that. I’ve never seen Catholics that have a problem with Harry Potter or Pokémon, etc. On the other hand I do remember people thinking Harry Potter was evil at the evangelical school. Catholics are conservative when it comes to marriage/divorce, abortion, contraception and gender roles it seems. Some Catholics don’t accept marriage outside the church as a real marriage. My mom was divorced before and couldn’t get an annulment from the church so married my dad outside the church. Apparently to my dad’s conservative Catholic family that is very controversial.  ::)

My older brother and sister were sent to catholic school, and are family used to go to church every Sunday, but me and my little sister never went to any catholic schools and are family stopped going to church and lost interest in religion.

When I was 12 or so, I became an atheist when I started thinking the realities of the world and starting watching atheist YouTubers such as The Amazing Atheist and MrRepzion.

Not not really,we rarely go to church anymore but we are Christian(my mother is strongly one) but I'm an agnostic Christian though.

Not not really,we rarely go to church but we are Christian but I'm an agnostic Christian though.


Yeah I think of myself as an agnostic Catholic. Honestly nobody really knows, we’re all really agnostics but many don’t wanna admit it. I do believe because I do see evidence of a higher power and I do admire the long history and tradition of the Catholic Church.

Yeah I think of myself as an agnostic Catholic. Honestly nobody really knows, we’re all really agnostics but many don’t wanna admit it. I do believe because I do see evidence of a higher power and I do admire the long history and tradition of the Catholic Church.

Yeah,other than that i never got restricted from watching or doing anything for religious reasons.

My older brother and sister were sent to catholic school, and are family used to go to church every Sunday, but me and my little sister never went to any catholic schools and are family stopped going to church and lost interest in religion.

When I was 12 or so, I became an atheist when I started thinking the realities of the world and starting watching atheist YouTubers such as The Amazing Atheist and MrRepzion.

Same when i was 12 or so i told my mom i thought i was a athiest she explained to me about it and i just became agnostic.

But God is definitely real though. Or in other words, there is definitely a creator. You can call him God, Jehovah, Allah, Almighty, etc. or whoever you want to call him. There is a creator. Look at what men and women (human beings in general) can do in this world unlike other living things (such as animals). The inventions, the wars (spiritually and physically), the ideas, etc. How can you look at the human body, and look at our emotions, our moral compass, our digestive system, our reproductive system (male/female), our senses to see, hear, taste, and smell, our nerves that allow us to feel pain and know if something isn't right, and say there isn't a creator? How can you look at the Earth and Sun and see that we're the perfect distance away that we don't burn up or we don't freeze? This is an accident? The fact that we have fruit, vegetables, herbs, nuts, water, and other stuff to sustain our living not just now, but for centuries, and you tell me that there's no creator at all? It's evolution? It's science? You mean to tell me that evolution created our emotions, the way we love, our tears, the way we interact with people, and the way a man & woman reproduces life? The Big Bang created good and evil? This was all an accident? I'm not bashing any atheists out here, but you either believe in the creator who made us in the image of him or science (which includes evolution and the big bang). None of this was an accident. It was spiritual. 

Not not really,we rarely go to church anymore but we are Christian(my mother is strongly one) but I'm an agnostic Christian though.

We haven't been to church since June of 2016.

My mom was very skeptical about Harry Potter, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh too. My dad was the only reason I was able to watch Harry Potter movies throughout my childhood. I'm gonna be honest, I've heard even worse stories with people who had BOTH conservative Christian parents and a lot of them end up turning out being worse than those who weren't Christians at first then they grow up and become a Christian the correct (non-condemning, loving) way. You set all these boundaries (you can't do this, this is of the devil, you will go to hell if you enjoy this, etc.) instead of teaching the real word, then once you get older you'll end up turning out worse. You'll get tempted to do a bunch of crazy stuff you feel like you missed out on. You would have felt like you'd been sheltered your whole childhood and you'll want to get out of the house and do whatever the hell you want to. I've heard so many stories. Denominational churches cause a lot of division, hate and guilt with their own agenda.


I feel like my parents did change quite a bit after we left church and became much less strict. That's the only church I ever went to regularly and it was non-denominational. Yeah, I only saw my first full Pokémon episode in 2016, but I did watch small parts of it as a small kid until my dad or mom would come in and change it. That's the only anime I've seen an episode of unless you count Hello Kitty. ;D

I was allowed to watch Harry Potter when I was 11, so I binge watched all the ones that were out at the time, You're correct that I've felt sheltered my whole life, but homeschooling since 5th grade has had lot to do with that as well. I haven't been tempted to do any crazy things yet, and I honestly feel like I won't, I'm a pretty cautious person and never do anything risky, really.

I also always try to be a morally good person, even though I'm no longer Christian, I think I have good morals and some of them are based on Christian morals such as the Golden Rule, but I also disagree with some morals in the Bible.

I do have a lot of urges to go far away from where I live just to see what life would be like somewhere else, and I really want to see more of the world, but I'm not for sure if I will because of my family, I'm not for sure if I could leave them.

We haven't been to church since June of 2016.

I haven't been in for at least 7 years.

Yeah generally I don’t think Catholics are conservative about stuff like that. I’ve never seen Catholics that have a problem with Harry Potter or Pokémon, etc. On the other hand I do remember people thinking Harry Potter was evil at the evangelical school. Catholics are conservative when it comes to marriage/divorce, abortion, contraception and gender roles it seems. Some Catholics don’t accept marriage outside the church as a real marriage. My mom was divorced before and couldn’t get an annulment from the church so married my dad outside the church. Apparently to my dad’s conservative Catholic family that is very controversial.  ::)


This is why I haven't gone to a denominational church in years. I've only done non-denominational now, and to me it's about UNDERSTANDING about the Bible and getting a relationship with Jesus. There's so many false teachers and false prophets out there and TBH a lot of those false teachers exist in denominational churches who go by their traditional practices. There's only one baptist church I'll visit every now and then for personal reasons, but my main church is non-denominational. No offense to those who don't believe. I just look at what's been going on around this world and the times we're living in. It's crazy.

But God is definitely real though. Or in other words, there is definitely a creator. You can call him God, Jehovah, Allah, Almighty, etc. or whoever you want to call him. There is a creator. Look at what men and women (human beings in general) can do in this world unlike other living things (such as animals). The inventions, the wars (spiritually and physically), the ideas, etc. How can you look at the human body, and look at our emotions, our moral compass, our digestive system, our reproductive system (male/female), our senses to see, hear, taste, and smell, our nerves that allow us to feel pain and know if something isn't right, and say there isn't a creator? How can you look at the Earth and Sun and see that we're the perfect distance away that we don't burn up or we don't freeze? This is an accident? The fact that we have fruit, vegetables, herbs, nuts, water, and other stuff to sustain our living not just now, but for centuries, and you tell me that there's no creator at all? It's evolution? It's science? You mean to tell me that evolution created our emotions, the way we love, our tears, the way we interact with people, and the way a man & woman reproduces life? The Big Bang created good and evil? This was all an accident? I'm not bashing any atheists out here, but you either believe in the creator who made us in the image of him or science (which includes evolution and the big bang). None of this was an accident. It was spiritual.


I've thought about this a lot and have come the the conclusion that I won't know until I die (or will never know at all if I cease to exist).

I mean, it's possible there is a creator, but no afterlife, it's also possible that there is no creator, but there is an afterlife, or maybe a concept that isn't comprehensible to humans, or something none of us have ever thought about before. I'm not saying I believe any of those, I'm just saying they're possibilities.


I haven't been in at least seven years.


Excluding weddings and funerals, I believe it's been 9-10 years for me now.

There was a battle of religions in my family-not outward but it was there. My dad was Jewish and my mother was Episcopalian. We were SUPPOSED to be raised Jewish. However, when we moved to the community which was the first place I lived (my family lived there at least 5 years before I was born), the synagogue there wouldn't accept us. (In the Jewish religion, your mother has to be Jewish). So, we "practiced" at home. My dad wasn't that religious. We did celebrate Hanukkah & Passover but that was about it. (Not even Yom Kippur & Rosh Hashanah which are the Jewish High Holy days.)  We also celebrated Christmas & Easter. People used to come over to our house and asked, "Aren't these kids confused?" We weren't confused. We thought EVERYONE celebrated Christmas & Hanukkah. Two of my sisters and I went to an Episcopal school (for me it was 1st & 2nd grade). I remember on Wednesday mornings we went to Chapel. They taught us the Episcopal religion. 

When I was 8, my parents separated. My mother started going to church, something I don't remember her doing when my parents were together. Of course she would bring us with her. At the age of 10, I was baptized in the Episcopal Church-much to my dad anger.  For about 3 or 4 years, we were pretty active in the Church. I was confirmed when I was 13. But, when I was 14, I went to live with my dad for a short period of time and then my (Jewish) grandmother for about a year before moving back in with my mother-and at this time my step-father. My dad & grandmother NEVER went to Temple. My mother & step-dad only went to church once in a while.

Fast-forward to adulthood. For the longest time I called myself a Jewish-Episcopalian. But, then I realized that I am a Pagan. All of my sibs have chosen different paths. My brother is the only one who calls himself a Jew. Two of my sisters are Episcopalians, and 1 is pretty much agnostic. My late sister was a Unitarian. The funny thing is, before he died, my dad was a Jewish Atheist who joined the Society of Friends (the Quakers). Try figuring that one out.  :D ;D ;D ;D


Cat 

Excluding weddings and funerals, I believe it's been 9-10 years for me now.

Well, I actually went to church for my uncle's funeral and my cousin's wedding in 2013 (5 years ago.)

Oh another thing I didn't mention at the evangelical school one time the one teacher started "speaking in tongues" and randomly mumbling a bunch of gibberish. I was sitting there thinking "is she insane or something?" That was another extremely weird experience at that school.

Oh another thing I didn't mention at the evangelical school one time the one teacher started "speaking in tongues" and randomly mumbling a bunch of gibberish. I was sitting there thinking "is she insane or something?" That was another extremely weird experience at that school.
Maybe she's had too much incense? :D

My father was, I guess, just non-religious, and my mother was Catholic.  They were (first) married in  a secular ceremony.  I was raised Catholic, First Communion and Conformation, and did occasionally make confession and take communion until I was about 15. 

When I was about 7 my mother convinced my father to get married in the Church, so he "took lessons" with the local priest (which consisted of conversations over the priest's scotch), which was ok with dad. 

But religion never made much sense to me.  So gradually I became an atheist.  I am very much impressed by something that Galileo said - "I am not inclined to believe that the same god that gave us sense, reason and intellect intended us to forgo it's use."  So to me to accept anything on blind faith, which is what religions ask us to do, is a betrayal of those very attributes that make us human (which my genetic profile indicates that I am).  As to MQG96 assertion about the existence of god I can only ask where is the evidence?  Evolution is a very convincing alternative to all these god centered explanations, all of which violate Galileo's formula since they all rely on faith rather than science

To steal a line from George Carlin; "I used to be Irish Catholic but you know, you grow."
I did 8 years hard time in a Catholic school and drove the Priest and Nuns nuts. I'd ask
the hard questions like; if God put his son on this earth to die for our sins didn't he also
put the people in place to kill him and shouldn't they be considered heroes for doing his
bidding? Priest don't like those kind of questions.

Also, those who disliked Harry Potter and other wizards. You read a book where the main
character heals the sick, raises the dead, feeds the masses with a never empty basket of
fish and bread, walks on water, changes water into wine and for the grand finale raises from
the dead himself. Man, if that doesn't sound like magic I don't know what does.

How so?


My parents are Muslim. They're actually not as religious as your parents or some of the parents in this thread, but their view on homosexuality is still very backwards. They think it's a Western thing.  ???

^^^^My parents tried to get me to stop playing Pokémon once because they thought it was evil but I was way too into it for them to snatch it off me haha. One time my mom didn't let me go out for Halloween because she said it was the Devil's holiday,  but thankfully my friends knocked on my door to trick or treat and asked me why I wasn't outside, and before I could say "my mom won't let me" she let me go out of embarrassment LOL

Harry Potter, Yugioh etc. was cool with them though, other than how expensive Yugioh was. My dad actually bought and read the Harry Potter books with me when I was 6 :P

My parents are definitely the "nudity is not okay but violence in media is acceptable" type though. Me and my brothers were playing WWE 2005 for PS2, which is wrestling so its obviously very violent, but the menu screen also has Trish Stratus doing erotic dancing in her lingerie. My brother would stand in front of the TV on the side where she was dancing to cover it up, but that wasn't enough for my dad. When he walked in and saw it he took the game away  >:( But by the time I was 16/17 they considered me mature enough to handle it. Now they walk in on me watching a sex scene on TV and they give me a dirty look but they don't say anything lol

I was raised Christian but it wasn't extreme. My mother never forced religion down our throats and I only went to church periodically. However, my brother (although we grew up in the same household) and sister-in-law are very religious and in touch with their spirituality.

When I bought my first car, my sister blessed it and changed my radio station to a Christian station. I get funky looks around here when I tell people I don't go to church lol.

Yes I was. I was raised by my g'parents (religious) when I was young, and then lived with my mother later (not so much, bipolar- which was worse).

The christian and any other religion were, are, and probably always will be a confusing mystery to me.

I was repeatedly kicked out of sunday school or church when I was a child because I asked too many questions that couldn't be answered. Well, the answers always ended up with "Because God wants it that way." or "God works in mysterious ways." As a young child this was not satisfying, but I assumed there were no other choices so this must be so and stopped questioning them. I rebelled through much of my teenage years, and then tried again off and on through my twenties and some of my thirties. I felt so guilty because I was not living the way I should-and didn't feel the way others around me felt. Filled with the lord? What was that supposed to feel like? Peace with Jesus? No, not at all. It was like the game 'light as a feather, stiff as a board' that I played as a child. The other girls would giggle and gasp and swear they would feel themselves become light and almost float. Christianity just felt like a grownup version of that game.

Now, I don't have an actual religion. I guess you could say I'm a pagan. I celebrate nature and find the closest thing I have to deity there. I observe sabbats and esbats (when I remember, or if I feel like it), but very loosely, and not strictly at all.

I was raised Christian but it wasn't extreme. My mother never forced religion down our throats and I only went to church periodically. However, my brother (although we grew up in the same household) and sister-in-law are very religious and in touch with their spirituality.

When I bought my first car, my sister blessed it and changed my radio station to a Christian station. I get funky looks around here when I tell people I don't go to church lol.

Same here (the part in bold).

Some of you had absolutely crazy and extreme parents. My mother is a Christian and she does hold some "reserved" views but she has NEVER been a fundamentalist or anything like that. I was allowed to play, watch and listen to basically anything growing up. The only thing she would complain about (and still does) is how much it cost to buy me video games and such.

No. I had a free upbringing and was able to play any video games and watch any tv show without issues.

Oh another thing I didn't mention at the evangelical school one time the one teacher started "speaking in tongues" and randomly mumbling a bunch of gibberish. I was sitting there thinking "is she insane or something?" That was another extremely weird experience at that school.


LOL I used to think about what would give away that a religion is obviously fake, and "speaking in gibberish to cast spells" was an obvious one. Then I learnt about speaking in tongues and couldn't believe what I was seeing, or hearing rather ;D

I didn't have a religious upbringing, Our family was unorthodox.

I find it interesting how parents have issues with Harry Potter. My niece once had a Harry Potter birthday party and my (Jewish) grandmother participated. Somewhere there is pic of her with Harry Potter glasses like all the 12 year old girls at the party.

As for my dad, I gave him a copy of my audiobooks of Harry Potter. I doubt my mother read any of them-not because she disapproved of it or anything-it just wasn't her cup of tea.


Cat

Yup, and I was more religious then. Secondary school made me realise that those from religious backgrounds mostly end up being boring in terms of their personalities and interests.

I used to be considered a Christian in terms of religion because of my paternal grandmother. She was a Southern Baptist minister in a church that my parents went to if there was a special event. My paternal grandma wanted me to be religious just like her because she thought my dad was a bad influence. I do believe that there is a god because something like death is the only religious thing that I'll feel passionate about.

My older brother and sister went to catholic school, but I didn't. We stopped going to church. I'm now an atheist.

My older brother and sister went to catholic school, but I didn't. We stopped going to church. I'm not an atheist.


Huh? Didn't you just say you were atheist yesterday?  ???

Huh? Didn't you just say you were atheist yesterday?  ???

Wait! That was a typo. I AM an atheist.

Raised in a Christian Charismatic household which is quite rare in Ireland as it is mostly a Catholic country. Charismatic is pretty similar to Baptist really. There's a Baptist and Methodist church where I live and I know people from both. My parents are strongly Christian. My dad is actually a pastor of a small congregation and I'm struggling right now because I still believe in God but I am fully aware that I am not a strongly  religious person in the way that I act and my faith isn't that strong.

I grew up in the Catholic Church and went to Catholic schools for a while so yes.
The same with me.

However, I only went to Catholic/parochial schools through the 2nd grade; even so, I continued to attend church, which I still do today. I also went through confirmation (albeit as an adult; that's when I was ready to do so).

YASSS!! I started attending church when I was 4. Still do today!  :)

I did in a way. But it wasn't strict.

My dad was raised in a Catholic family but none of us ever practiced anything. We believe it’s ok to be a good person, live and let live.

My best friend in school was a hardcore Christian. I went to church with him a few times and didn’t like it. I don’t see him anymore. Can’t say this goes for all but in this case they were so pushy and would drag me up to the front and tell me it was either all or nothing and to be hardcore like them or I was going to hell. That turned me off big time. Now a lot of others who went there weren’t so hardcore including a guy I hang out with now. And in the 90s I played CCM music with a bunch of them in a band off the clock, we played youth groups and teen hangouts and it was a lot of fun.

My parents are Christian and over time I've become a worshiper of a higher being then me. 

My parents seemed more religious when I was like 5-7 years old. I remember I'd go to Sunday school from Kindergarten to first grade. I actually went to a Christian school from 2007-2009. It felt like once I went to a regular public school my parents weren't as religious anymore, but they still believe in God.

I was raised in an irreligious household. My mum doesn’t believe in God, never went to church. Same thing applies to me - only time I’ve been to churches is for weddings and funerals.

No, my parents didn't go to church on a regular basis and only took us kids on special occasions.  I did attend a Catholic high school but as a "non-Catholic", meaning we weren't required to do all the religion classes or programs the Catholic students did.

Once an adult, I started out agnostic.  When I decided to become a Christian, I was fully adult (almost 29).  This decision was the result of (among other things) careful intellectual study after which I decided the claims of Christianity are true.  My subsequent experiences back it up.

My husband is also a Christian - in fact we met at our church.  Unlike me, he did have a church background from childhood.

No, my parents didn't go to church on a regular basis and only took us kids on special occasions.  I did attend a Catholic high school but as a "non-Catholic", meaning we weren't required to do all the religion classes or programs the Catholic students did.

Once an adult, I started out agnostic.  When I decided to become a Christian, I was fully adult (almost 29).  This decision was the result of (among other things) careful intellectual study after which I decided the claims of Christianity are true.  My subsequent experiences back it up.

My husband is also a Christian - in fact we met at our church.  Unlike me, he did have a church background from childhood.

What experiences and research back up your decision as true?

What experiences and research back up your decision as true?


Research happened first, so I'll start there.  People told the younger me stuff, for instance the Bible is human fiction; I believed it.  Later a Christian coworker lady friend posed a troubling question or two to me which set me on a quest to determine if Christianity was really a lie. In my quest I came armed with some big doubts and bigger questions; I was prepared to prove to myself it was all fiction.

I had to work through three essentials, among other questions: 1) Does God exist, 2) Is Jesus who he claims to be, and 3) Is the Bible true.  A lot of my subsequent research tracks with that of the famous ex-atheist Christian author Lee Strobel.  (His findings were a great influence on me.)

Over the course of months, the evidence convinced me that Christianity was true, rather than false.  This didn't make me a Christian, but it made me know I should be.  So I decided to become a Christian.  But my lifestyle was hedonistic - I didn't want to change.  That's where an experience comes in.  Shortly afterwards I asked God to change my desires, because I didn't want to feel deprived of those hedonistic pleasures I was engaged in at the time - I just didn't want to be a sad Christian.  God changed my desires quickly.  Once I dumped the hedonistic stuff, surprise - life got really good.  I have many more experiences to speak of; I'd need to write a book to tell them all.

That's a lot to say - PM me if you want to hear any more.

Sort of, but not really.  So I'm mostly an atheist.  The seed of doubt comes from the fact that h2o is the only substance that is less dense in its  solid form than in its liquid form

Sort of, but not really.  So I'm mostly an atheist.  The seed of doubt comes from the fact that h2o is the only substance that is less dense in its  solid form than in its liquid form


I'm not quite sure I get the connection between lack of religious belief and the properties of h2o.  ???

I'm not quite sure I get the connection between lack of religious belief and the properties of h2o.  ???


Probably just that special property enables us to survive on this planet.  If ice was denser than water, it would sink.  If ice sank, it would never surface to thaw and eventually we would be a mostly frozen world.

Probably just that special property enables us to survive on this planet.  If ice was denser than water, it would sink.  If ice sank, it would never surface to thaw and eventually we would be a mostly frozen world.


Bingo!!!

So why should water be unique?

Bingo!!!

So why should water be unique?


It's the same for me. Becoming more scientifically literate made me less religious.

It started in Grade 7 Science class. The teacher asked the class who gave birth to you, who gave birth to your parents, who gave birth to your grandparents and so on, and finally asked "who gave birth to first human?" and half the kids in class confidently shouted "God". I couldn't believe what I was hearing, it sounded so ridiculous to me give "God" as an answer in Science class of all classes. If that was allowed I would get 100% all the time :P

The teacher said you're not allowed to give God as an answer. And that opened my mind to the possibility that there's always a logical explanation for things instead of thinking the workings of the world were underpinned by a God.