[HollyOllyOxenfre...]

DH and I are both atheists, although we came to it in different ways. I don't remember ever having faith as such, although I think I was in high school when I started questioning whether or not what I was told in scripture was real or just a story. I realised after a while that I just didn't believe, and that was that. I was never christened, never went to church and my family wasn't religious so it was no big deal, and still isn't

DH on the other hand was christened and went to church as a child, then embraced catholicism in his late teens, then turned his back on everything and is now passionately anti religion. We've discussed how we'll broach things when the time comes with DS, and will be more going for my live and let live attitude, but DH still gets very annoyed at a lot of things done in the name of religion as if they're a personal affront.

So what has your experience of atheism been? Did you start out religious and just change at some point, or was faith just something that was never there? Are you and your partner on the same page? If you have children, what do you tell them?

[HerringToMarmala...]

I don't think it was ever a deliberate decision for me, iykwim. I went to an anglican school which involved religion classes and chapel services but my family never did anything religious. I distinctly remember coming home one day after school in grade 1 or 2 and I knelt down by my bed to pray like we'd been told about at school and I just felt ridiculous. I didn't try again and I never really thought about it after that. Religion is just way, way, way down the list of things that are important to me. I generally don't think about it ever.

I would explain to my children about religion but I wouldn't push them either way.

This post has been edited by lololololol: 10/04/2012, 05:41 PM

[BadCat]

I never believed at all. As far as I know neither did DH. Neither of us are from religious families. We asked the question of ourselves shortly after we were married as to whether we were agnostic or atheist and looked into religious beliefs. We both came down as firmly atheist and that's where we are today.

We teach our kids very little about religion. Every so often they see some sort of religious thing and ask about it. We tell them the story. They shrug and carry on as happy little non-believers.

I am firmly against the oft stated position on EB of exposing my kids to all religions and letting them make up their own minds. If they want to pursue any sort of religion they will ask about it. I see no reason to teach them a bunch of stuff I don't believe and that they have no interest in.

[JuliaD]

My parents are both atheists who were both christened but turned their back on religion.
I went to an Anglican school for 8 years and had extensive education about religion and had to attend a service every week. I made up my mind that it wasn't for me.
I feel satisfied that I was educated about what I could believe in if I felt the need. I think someone who chooses atheism (or even religion for that matter) without education are rather misguided.
My DH I would say is agnostic. He was baptised, was brought up in a devoutly catholic family and has turned his back on it somewhat. He refuses to attend mass, but if he has to go to church e.g. for a christening etc, he will still cross himself and do that thing with holy water etc...
I would prefer that our children are brought up in the same way I was - not christened but with education, so that they can choose what they want to believe in. It will be interesting to see what my MIL thinks when we decide that we don't want to have our children christened in the catholic church.....

This post has been edited by JuliaD: 10/04/2012, 05:57 PM

[CubaLulu]

I've pretty much always been a non believer. I dabbled a bit in 'maybes' during my pre-teen years, but by the time I started school at my strict Anglican school in grade 8 my mind was well and truly made up. I still remember not really believing our divinity teacher that she 100% believed in God. I just couldn't fathom a fully grown intelligent adult believing in what I equated to the Easter Bunny.

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I am firmly against the oft stated position on EB of exposing my kids to all religions and letting them make up their own minds. If they want to pursue any sort of religion they will ask about it. I see no reason to teach them a bunch of stuff I don't believe and that they have no interest in.

This entirely!! I will not be raising my children with any religion at all. I find it totally unnecessary. If they ask I'll explain that it's something some people believe in, but our family does not.

[mum201]

My DH and I are both committed atheists. I have always been an athiest, DH is the son of a minister who 'turned' in uni. We will teach DS about Christianity just as we will teach him about any other religion.

[**Xena**]

I am not atheist but I am a non-theist Pagan. I would love to believe in Gods/Goddesses but logically I just cannot bring myself to it.

I was brought up in an atheist family and my Mum was open to letting me expore my own spirituality. As such I have looked into many until I found something that resnated with me. DH is very similar in his spirituality so we are on the same page. We don't really teach the kids anything but are open to their questions about different religions and why we believe what we do.

I am firmly against the oft stated position on EB of exposing my kids to all religions and letting them make up their own minds. If they want to pursue any sort of religion they will ask about it. I see no reason to teach them a bunch of stuff I don't believe and that they have no interest in.

I see it less as actively teaching your child about all religions and more being open to discuss all religions without completely disregarding them if your child asks. I will not be teaching my children about all the religions of the World but if they ask about religion I would help guide their education on the topic and be supportive of my child. I wouldn't deny them the opportunity to learn about it just because I myself don't believe in it IYKWIM.

This post has been edited by **Xena**: 10/04/2012, 06:11 PM

[katpaws]

I was raised in the Anglican faith and i was even a Sunday School teacher in my teens. During my teens i became confused by the fact that even though i was praying to God i never received any response from God - i was living an awful home life and God never intervened to help me, which was contrary to what i had been taught in the Church.

Also, when i was questioning why God had abandoned me, i started to find the people at the Church very hypocritical and not very nice, even though they were supposed to be Christians. I felt ripped off when a visiting priest at his sermon said that Adam and Eve were not true and i had believed that all the bits in the bible were true, to the extent of believing women had one more rib than men. I could not understand why we were told stories about the religion and God that were not true.

I think though, the main reason i left, although it was later in life that i worked it out, was that a friend at the church was abused by her dad - my mother had actually gone out with this man (who it appears was looking for a "new" family at the time, if you get my drift) even though he was married and we were socially involved with this family. My friend got kicked out of the house by her mum and the Church never offered to help the poor girl. WHen the dad came out of prison he was welcomed back into the Church and i think i stopped going to Church (subconsciously) when he came back. I could not reconcile someone as evil as that being welcomed in a church when his daughter - a victim - had been ousted.

I had thought i was agnostic until i did an atheist test and found out i was more an atheist. I find many religions impose discrimination against women which i cannot accept. While i believe that Jesus existed, i believe that many crimes against humanity have been done in his name, which is so wrong as it is totally against his philosophy and teachings.

[bubmakes3]

I don't intend to tell DS anything about religion- if he asks then I guess I will attempt to explain but I will prob need to rely on the internet or library as I really know next to nothing about it.
My dad grew up in a strictly catholic family - small convent school for primary followed by Marist brothers boarding school for secondary - he came out a confirmmed non believer. My mums family were never big on it though I think she was christened as it was the done thing. My dads mum nearly refused to go to their wedding as it was in a Methodist church (for no other reason than mum liked the stained glass windows).
I have never been to church in my life (except as a tourist in overseas countries) and was excused from RE at school. My dad will when travelling go into a cathedral and light a candle for his mum but only as a mark of respect for her not for any religious reason.
DH family are pretty much the same - his parents both went to Anglican schools but on scholorships not becasue they were religiously affiliated or rich (the other main reasons one attends these two particular schools). DH regularly confuses his 'christian' holidays and just this year was heard asking whether christmas was when jesus dies or wait was it something else?!?

On a funny note was in Dymocks the other day and DH noticed a pile of bibles sitting directly under an 'adult fiction' sign - we thought it was pretty appropriate (at least thats our POV)

This post has been edited by bubmakes3: 10/04/2012, 06:15 PM

[RatbagBob]

I grew up in an atheist family. My dad was Catholic, and this extended enough to get me and my siblings christened when we were born, but it pretty much ended there. My mum is from a long line of atheists, including my grandfather who used to say "Ah, there'll be pie in the sky when you die. That's a lie!" and a set of great greats in the 1880s who were Catholic, but got married in a Protestant church.

I went through various phases as a child where I wanted to believe, but ultimately couldn't. It seems like it would be a great source of comfort at times, but I guess I'm just not built that way.

DH grew up in an Irish Catholic family. In his teens he started questioning the Church, especially following all the scandals like Bishop Casey, who brought the Pope out in 1979 but was discovered in 1990/91 with a defacto wife and kids. The X case and a few more clerical scandals turned him into a hard core atheist, from which he will never waver.

If DD is interested in any religion, she can investigate it herself. I'm not going to forbid her going to mass with her granny if she ever shows any interest, but neither am I going to encourage it. And while I think a basic knowledge of the main religions is useful so as not to inadvertently offend people, I'm not going to go out of my way to encourage it.