How has the way you were raised impacted your views?

How much have your parents or the people who raised you impacted your views on religion, morality, ethics, racial and gender equality, and political stance?

My dad kidnapped us and took us to Fatima Portugal after my mom won custody. He was hoping to raise us there, but the plan was foiled.

I've been really attached to the message of Fatima, the rosary, and Our Lady of Fatima ever since.

She allegedly told three Shepherd children about coming of World War II, the rise of Communism in Russia, and the spread of "Russia's errors" throughout the world.

She promised a sign for everybody who showed up at the Cova Da Iria, in Fatima Portugal, 1917, and 70000 people showed up, many of them atheist Communists and Freemasons, who gave the testimony that they had a vision of the Sun zigzagging in the sky and plunging down on the crowd, for approximately 12 minutes.
Miracle of the Sun - Wikipedia

It led to many conversions, and arguably the fall of Communism in Portugal.

She told two of the children, Francisco Marto and jacinta Marto, that she would take them to Heaven soon, and both passed away as children, not long afterwards.

Both of them are now canonized saints in the Catholic Church.

There is currently a large Shrine there, where millions of people make pilgrimages to each year.

I cannot thank my dad enough for teaching us about that, and taking us there, because it has really impacted the rule of life that I live by.

The message was to pray the rosary, make sacrifices for the fall of Communism and the conversion of sinners, and pray prayers of reparation for sins, and that by doing so, you can bring more Grace from God upon Our World.

The message was also that suffering is meritorious and can atone for sin, and to offer up all of our sufferings in reparation for sin.

Mary asked for the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart by the Pope, in Union with all the Bishops, and that Russia would be converted. The fall of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union did take place without firing a shot, that some would consider miraculous.

Other than that, I don't really share the views of my parents.

I have a lot more compassion for homosexuals, pro-choicers, and sympathize more with liberal views, which leads to intense arguments, especially with my mother.

Much of my hatred for Communism comes from how I was raised. Would anyone care to share the positive ways that communism has impacted the world?

Also, to change the topic a little, do you have thoughts and views that you typically keep to yourself? Would you care to share any of those?

I'm so absorbed in politics, morality, religion, and history, that it is hard for me to hold a conversation without talking about those topics.
Much of that probably has to do with what I learned from my folks, cuz that's what they talked about.

It just seems really superficial to me, to try to hold a conversation, but not talk about what's going on in my head.

That's kind of how my parents are. My mom and Dad both pray before abortion clinics, have pro-life bumper stickers, anti socialism bumper stickers, write right-wing letters to the editor, and my mom was president of a movement to get signatures to get "life begins at conception" on the ballot.

I'm sure that mentality still affects my opinions on those issues.

PopeADope said:

How much have your parents or the people who raised you impacted your views on religion, morality, ethics, racial and gender equality, and political stance?

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My dad was a great dad with one flaw, he put work and another woman before his family ending up in a divorce when I was 16. I don't think we ever went to church.

The result was I was following his footsteps. Had I not received Jesus at age 28, would have repeated the same error.

My family imparted to me a religious mindset, and a strong desire to know God.

I think with a christian mentality, even though i have not chosen a religion.

I find it very natural to speaketh the old english, because the king james bible was slammed into my head so many times.

Thee's and Thou's come naturally. I guess otherwise i speaketh like a normal American.

My mother was catholic,and my father died a converted born again baptist.

I remain agnostic, with a spiritual mentality. I see humans as having souls.

I've ran the spectrum of faith, atheism, and finally agnosticism.

I cant stand politics whatsoever.

I do wonder if there is a God now, but its been an endless wait to detect God's presence. So far i never have.

All my life ive been under pressure to be a christian by my family minus my mother. My mother encourages me to be an independent thinker. The rest of my family would disown me for not being christian.

My mother seemingly made one attempt at instilling religion into me - taking me to the Methodist chapel nearby on a Sunday, but I soon got bored of that and just didn't turn up after going once or twice. I preferred to be out playing with all the other kids. Not sure if my mother knew about this but she never said anything as far as I can recall. No religious stuff in the house at all really. Hence, I grew up with the only religious influence coming from school - where I was just bored with someone reciting stuff from the Bible or whatever. I doubted that any particular religious belief was true when I discovered there were so many different beliefs - in the last year at primary school.

My mother was a very nice and capable person with the morals of a saint, such that I think that she had the greatest influence in my life. Why would I need anything else? I've looked into many different faiths - books comparing religious beliefs, for example, and I do have most of the texts for the major religions. None make me inclined to believe one over another. Buddhism is the nearest belief to make any sense for me. I've never felt a need for anything spiritual, and I am more inclined towards philosophy and psychology for understanding the human condition. I've never had any spiritual experiences either - not that one might call spiritual.

Nothing much has changed over six decades since my initial suspicions. Anything that might support any particular religious belief, for me, can be explained by a different interpretation or the evidence just being suspicious. All writings from the past I take with a pinch of salt as to their veracity - like much other evidence similarly. I suppose being an ex-engineer and more rationally inclined makes me more suspicious of certain supposed evidence. I don't care who says what - it's what they say that counts, and if it makes no sense (to me) then I will not accept it. Hence, all religions are seen as much the same, but I am agnostic as regards a God or creative force. Since my physics knowledge is not that good - although I do read a lot of science stuff - I can't really comment on the fundamental nature of the universe. Quantum theory obviously troubles me - and some.

I should perhaps add that I don't tend to believe in such things as ghosts, the soul, an afterlife (of course), UFOs, etc., having never experienced some of these, and I'm just suspicious of all first-person accounts who relate their experiences. For UFOs, I can accept that there might be intelligent life elsewhere - I just don't believe such has visited us yet.

My Dad was a passive athiest on a good day. But he was very open minded and really wanted me to have a strong connection to my heritage I guess.
I grew up sort of running round temple and interacting with all these very different philosophies just constantly. I also have a hard time seperating religion and culture. Because in my mind they just bleed into each other. The rituals are not religion to me, they're the motions of a club.
I also don't know if I qualify as an atheist or theist, just because I sort of wander in and out of those circles without really thinking about it. And having grown up with two very definitions of those concepts doesn't help.

My dad was also a bit of a storyteller and relished in relaying verious fairytales and stories. So I think I got into literature and kind of having these lofty weird dumb ideas of "the power of storytelling" because of my dad despite him not actually reading anything to me.
My Ma is very gentle and I guess growing up against a backdrop of this philosophy/religion whatever that really stresses accepting reality as is and being pragmatic encouraged me to try (and often fail) to incorporate that in my life.
Also a lot of our family friends are teachers by trade, so they were really good at sneakily getting me interested in learning and exploring any curiosity that took hold of me.
Which is probably why when someone I guess throws me information my first instinct is to google it to see the original source. And why I do want to question things sort of haphazardly.

PopeADope said:

How much have your parents or the people who raised you impacted your views on religion, morality, ethics, racial and gender equality, and political stance?

My dad kidnapped us and took us to Fatima Portugal after my mom won custody. He was hoping to raise us there, but the plan was foiled.

I've been really attached to the message of Fatima, the rosary, and Our Lady of Fatima ever since.

She allegedly told three Shepherd children about coming of World War II, the rise of Communism in Russia, and the spread of "Russia's errors" throughout the world.

She promised a sign for everybody who showed up at the Cova Da Iria, in Fatima Portugal, 1917, and 70000 people showed up, many of them atheist Communists and Freemasons, who gave the testimony that they had a vision of the Sun zigzagging in the sky and plunging down on the crowd, for approximately 12 minutes.
Miracle of the Sun - Wikipedia

It led to many conversions, and arguably the fall of Communism in Portugal.

She told two of the children, Francisco Marto and jacinta Marto, that she would take them to Heaven soon, and both passed away as children, not long afterwards.

Both of them are now canonized saints in the Catholic Church.

There is currently a large Shrine there, where millions of people make pilgrimages to each year.

I cannot thank my dad enough for teaching us about that, and taking us there, because it has really impacted the rule of life that I live by.
.

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Hi there,
let me start by saying that whatever parents teach their children, it would be questioned by the children as they grow..

So, people normally make their choices, whether based on their logical thinking, or influenced by their own illogic desires and lusts!

Then I would like to ask you a question that is related to something you mentioned in your OP, although it is not related to the main point..

You mentioned lady Fatima. In Shia Islam lady Fatima, is the daughter of our prophet, the wife of his cousin, that is our first Imam, and the mother or grandmother of all of the remaining imams..

We consider her, the third highest human in rank after her father and her husband..

we relate many miracles to her..

In your own opinion, and without being influenced by your own religious beliefs: is their a possibility that the miracle that happened In Portugal has some links to OUR lady Fatima? or did you her anybody hinting about such a link?

Most core values are much the same as my parents have, so I would guess that I've been impacted a lot.

Among other things too numerous to count, my mother gave me a love and appreciation for logical, evidence based, thinking. She was a very logical, empirical thinker herself. One of her most precious gifts to me.

Sunstone said:

Among other things too numerous to count, my mother gave me a love and appreciation for logical, evidence based, thinking.

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Prove it.

Bahahahaha...sorry, couldn't help myself. That's a great gift to give if offset with some recognition or appreciation of creativity.

Where does your interest in visual arts come from, do you think?

I'm glad my parents had more pressing concerns than whether we were all going to heaven or not.

Onyx said:

I'm glad my parents had more pressing concerns than whether we were all going to heaven or not.

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That doesn't say much.

lewisnotmiller said:

Where does your interest in visual arts come from, do you think?

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Thanks for asking. My father was an artist, among other things (He also was an inventor, manufacturer, and devilishly handsome man, much like his second son). So were most of the men and women on his side of the family. I've heard that a disposition for the arts can be genetically inherited.

The family has a long history as artists and craftspeople. There was a woman who married into the family in the 1500s, and it all seems to start with her. She was the daughter of a minor German artist. Before her, we were peasants, all farmers. After her, craftspeople and artists -- though never famous ones.

Dad was far and away more accomplished than I'll ever be, since I'm lazy and don't work too hard at painting portraits.

As an artist, he specialized in oil portraiture. Since you tend to get few commissions and thus starve to death in your early years as a portrait artist, he early on developed -- as I mentioned -- other sources of income. Near the end of his short life, however, he was commanding $10,000 for a portrait in late 1950s dollars, and had a backlog of orders. My family lived in the proverbial richest part of town -- in an area called "The Golden Mile". I hope to some day emulate him in making money, but I hope to do it without any work on my part by marrying an heiress. So far, my plan has had dismal success.

Inside my family it was the general consensus that the best painter among them was an aunt of mine. I've seen some of her work -- she liked to paint flowers -- and it's superb. Her flowers are passionate, they burst out at you. She painted them like they were on fire. The general consensus within the family is also that she couldn't get established as an artist because she allowed, or was forced to allow, the discrimination against women in her day and age to get her down. Maybe. I don't know. Seems to me it had more to do with her confining herself to a small market. She didn't show in places like Chicago or New York. Just a small city of about 100,000, her hometown.

PopeADope said:

How much have your parents or the people who raised you impacted your views on religion, morality, ethics, racial and gender equality, and political stance?

Click to expand...

I grew up in Catholic household that held racist views, where my step-father was the bread winner and my mother was the homemaker. Money, power, and popularity were important to both.

Did they have an impact? Yes, but essentially my upbringing, for me, was an example of what not to do. I've made a concerted effort to break many patterns and traditions when raising my children.

My parents influenced me a lot, mainly in the ethical realm. That rural culture was just so incredibly honest, fun-loving and co-operative within the community. It would be hard not to be affected, which I believe is the commonality for all of us. Those first 10 years before formal thought arrives are incredibly formative.

PopeADope said:

How much have your parents or the people who raised you impacted your views on religion, morality, ethics, racial and gender equality, and political stance?

Click to expand...

My parents were divorced when I was young, although I was influenced by both, as well as my maternal grandparents with whom I spent a good deal of time growing up. I also had an older brother who was kind of domineering and liked imposing his views on others who were younger and smaller than he was.

My mother was a staunch liberal Democrat, about 10 years older than the average hippie in the 60s, yet was still very much in line with that viewpoint. My maternal grandparents were also liberal Democrats, although more of the "old guard" variety - not hippies or anti-war.

My father and his side of the family were kind of the opposite, mostly conservative Republicans, some very staunchly so. They were Dutch Reformed, although my dad converted converted to Catholicism when he married my mother, who was Catholic all her life.

I was also baptized Catholic when I was born, although my parents stopped going to church after they were divorced. However, whenever I was with my maternal grandparents, I had to go to church with them. My parents were steeped in alcoholism through most of my childhood and early teen years, and my brother was pretty violently abusive. It was not a happy time.

I was also influenced by the political atmosphere at the time - late 60s, 1970s. The Cold War was still going on, although there were sharp divisions and reactions against the political establishment at the time. A lot of people talked about revolution, at least in a theoretical sense, although it was mostly just talk that never amounted to anything. There were many who were afraid of the USSR and the possibility of nuclear war. I wanted to learn more about what was going on, and I wanted to learn more about Russia.

Jumi said:

That doesn't say much.

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Sorry for the one-liner, but I have good reasons for being vague sometimes.

Shia Islam said:

Hi there,
let me start by saying that whatever parents teach their children, it would be questioned by the children as they grow..

So, people normally make their choices, whether based on their logical thinking, or influenced by their own illogic desires and lusts!

Then I would like to ask you a question that is related to something you mentioned in your OP, although it is not related to the main point..

You mentioned lady Fatima. In Shia Islam lady Fatima, is the daughter of our prophet, the wife of his cousin, that is our first Imam, and the mother or grandmother of all of the remaining imams..

We consider her, the third highest human in rank after her father and her husband..

we relate many miracles to her..

In your own opinion, and without being influenced by your own religious beliefs: is their a possibility that the miracle that happened In Portugal has some links to OUR lady Fatima? or did you her anybody hinting about such a link?

Click to expand...

Our Lady of Fatima is named after the city of Fatima, the Moors gave the city that name, but Our Lady of Fatima said she was "the lady of the Rosary", which would mean she was the Virgin Mary... but anything is possible

PopeADope said:

Our Lady of Fatima is named after the city of Fatima, the Moors gave the city that name, but Our Lady of Fatima said she was "the lady of the Rosary", which would mean she was the Virgin Mary... but anything is possible

Click to expand...

Interesting..
Our lady Fatima is called "Fatima Al Zahra'a"
Al Zahra'a means the "Rose"
And the Word Zahra'a in Arabic has also another meaning that is difficult to translate, but I will translate it as: "Radiating holy light"..
We have some religious sources saying that she was named "Alzahra'a" because she "Radiates Holy light" to the occupants of the heavens..

Got a bit curious and put "portugal fatima islam" into google. The place was named after a Muslim princess named Fatima who married a Catholic prince, so a town was named after her. Apparently there are lots of Muslims who visit the site also, because many think a miracle happened there.