Did you grow up religious or not? How did it affect you?

[SchizoGymnast]

My family was agnostic growing up but I became deeply religious later on in life. My parents wanted me to be part of the "real world," to be able to relate to all types of people, be curious, and focus on doing good deeds, not just saying or thinking the right *words.* My hope is for every child to experience that.

 

[Macedonian1987]

I grew up religious, believing for almost 30 years that people who die by suicide go to hell after their death. Something inside me did never truly believe that suicides go to hell, because that seemed like an incredibly cruel and unjust punishment for wanting to end one's own pain. So I started doing research on my own. I read probably thousands of NDE's (Near-Death Experiences), and many of them were suicide-induced. I've also read the research by the doctors Raymond Moody and Mark Pitstick, and now I believe that those who die by suicide don't go to hell, but are warmly and lovingly welcomed by God. God will heal their wounds and the sadness that was plaguing them here on earth.

 

[derpyderpins]

I grew up in a religious house. Not super religious, but religious enough. My first suicidal gesture at age 11 was stopped by my fear of going to hell.

Now I find myself in religious skepticism. I greatly and powerfully believe there is something more to consciousness but I'm not satisfied with established doctrines.

 

[NormallyNeurotic]

I grew up staunchly athiest due to fear that the Christofascist "version" of G-d would read my mind and see that I'm a sinner. My extended family is Christian, and I live in a conservative area, but my parents were athiest/agnostic (supposedly, one lied to me all the time as a kid).

I just stuck my head in the sand like "If G-d doesn't exist, he can't see the horrific intrusive thoughts and memories I experience every day, or judge me for being a sinner!" Considering I was abused as a kid, it makes sense. I also know that I may have repressed memories about more religious trauma, but no lead yet.

As you can see by my "censoring" of G-d's name... I'm no longer atheist! I decided to follow the path of my Jewish family members. I like it much better than whatever cult-like bullshit bastardization of G-d that the conservatives were pushing.

 

[Namelesa Graves]

Grew up catholic then become agnostic due to hatred of God with how I suffered throughout my life then with what some members said here I become atheist due to me seeing it as more logical and that non-existence after death was what I wanted most after death. Wasn't really a big Catholic when I was one as found going to church and such boring but I imagine somethings about it do effect my behavior to this day such as seeing the best thing to do with life is to benefit others.

 

[AtreusMacabre]

I have always been and still am in a deeply religious family and culture, and I am the only atheist I know. I get along with all faiths, but I hate intolerance, superstition and dogma.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I grew up quasi Christian. As in- we didn't go to church or, read the bible but I was raised to believe God and heaven were real. Also, I was taught Christian morality in terms of kindness and, no sex before marriage etc. Later, other relations introduced their idea of hell into the mix and more unfortunately- that suicides go there. Other members of my family were more spiritual rather than orthodox religious.

I suppose it was a comfort initially. All my dead family members I loved dearly and missed were now up in the clouds and, I would get to see them again some day- hopefully.

The suicides going to hell bit didn't help me at all when I started developing ideation- aged 10. Maybe that was the beginning of my questioning really. Do these beliefs make sense? Are they really my beliefs or, this other persons? I was able to pretty quickly decide that my ideation was a reasonable response to my life situation. And that I wasn't even 100% convinced there was a hell.

I guess by my teens and twenties, I was seriously questioning whether God could even be good. I decided there were many things about religion that did more harm than good. From then on, I just had more and more problems with God. Both in terms of whether they do even exist. Whether God and religion are man made and my more worrying feeling that the God who created all this would have a very off moral compass.

In truth, I'd prefer to be a more convinced atheist but, I'm stuck on the fence ultimately. Hoping there isn't a God but, fearing there might be.

Weirdly, I'm actually grateful for my more prudish upbringing- the whole 'no sex before marriage' thing. I guess a lot of people would feel like it had prevented them from freely experiencing fun. I think in my case, it protected me from a bunch of heart break though. For the person I am and the way I view sex- as a profound connection to another person, to have gone for the (very few) opportunities I got to have casual sex I suspect would have been a mistake for me. Not criticising what others want to do here. Even the guys I had crazy limerent crushes on likely wouldn't have worked out as relationships. To have thrown sex into the mix I think would have screwed me up (metaphorically as well as physically) even more. Thankfully, my strict upbringing didn't address masturbation! Apologies for the crudeness but- I'm glad that was still available without feeling guilty over.

 

[Lost.Empyrean]

I think it was the worst thing to ever happen to my bloodline and that it has stolen so much of my life that my experience up until now can hardly be described as living at all.

 

[KlassPowder]

My parents religion really fucked me up. There were times I thought no one else on earth was real except me. Everyone around me were demons and I was in hell being punished for something I couldn't remember.

 

[Maravillosa]

I was baptized in the Catholic Church when I was one month old. However, my father was a decidedly lapsed Catholic and my mother is a non-churchgoing Methodist. I didn't go to church till I was ten years old. A classmate of mine, whose father was a Church of Christ pastor, invited me to her house, gave me a King James Bible, and invited me to attend her church. When I told Mom about it, she told me, "you were baptized Catholic. If you want to go to church, go to the Catholic Church." I didn't know I had been baptized Catholic until then. But Mom dropped me off at the local Catholic parish just before the 10:45 am Sunday Mass, and went shopping for groceries while I was attending Mass. I was enchanted (this was in the late 1970s in a typical large suburban parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles) and insisted on going to CCD classes so I could have my First Holy Communion. After I received my First Holy Communion, my church attendance became sporadic: nobody had told me that deliberately missing Sunday Mass without a good reason is a mortal sin. I was confirmed during my freshman year in college (1985) because I wanted to be confirmed. Again, catechesis was not the greatest.

In 1990, I began attending an Orthodox mission parish and entered the Orthodox Church that year by chrismation. Alas, the jurisdiction was run by a bishop of dubious status who was credibly accused of molesting kids. I switched over to the Serbian Diocese of Western America a few years later, and spent ten years (1993-2003) there. However, lacking Serbian ancestry or a husband of Serbian descent, I didn't feel completely at home among the Serbian-Americans I knew. I was also interested in forms of consecrated life besides rural monasticism. So I reverted to Catholicism, became a Lay Carmelite, and that is where I am today.

As for how this has affected me... I believe fervently in the afterlife, and am a hopeful universalist (I hope everyone ultimately ends up in Heaven). I doubt free will, and have trouble believing God is always good. I am Catholic because Christianity is in the historical background of Western society, and because I feel I must have an organized religion to tether my spirituality. Does this answer the question sufficiently? Thank you.