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Anyone Else Here Without Any Religious Background Ever?

Nimos

Well-Known Member
My family was without any religion.
I was born not believing, & remained so.
Now, I read threads here about experiences in churches, temples, etc.
It's all gorillas in the mist....entirely foreign to me.
Anyone else here who finds religions to be utterly alien?

I can be tolerant of religions & believers at a distance though.
But I've had unsettling brushes with religions.
A couple....

I once worked as a sexton in a Methodist church...very
creepy...the accoutrements...the clothing...the preaching.
And they're one of the less bizarre flavors.

Attending a niece's bat mitzvah, I had a barely controllable
visceral urge to escape the religion & politics of it all.
Never again. So her younger sister was later blessed with
my not attending hers.
Never been part of any religion either. Have participated in all the standard Christian stuff, like married, funerals etc. But the religious part of this, have never held any meaning to me.
 
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Heyo

Veteran Member
My family was without any religion.
I was born not believing, & remained so.
Now, I read threads here about experiences in churches, temples, etc.
It's all gorillas in the mist....entirely foreign to me.
Anyone else here who finds religions to be utterly alien?

I can be tolerant of religions & believers at a distance though.
But I've had unsettling brushes with religions.
A couple....

I once worked as a sexton in a Methodist church...very
creepy...the accoutrements...the clothing...the preaching.
And they're one of the less bizarre flavors.

Attending a niece's bat mitzvah, I had a barely controllable
visceral urge to escape the religion & politics of it all.
Never again. So her younger sister was later blessed with
my not attending hers.
My family is culturally Lutheran, so I know church, but I never got the believing thing. First time I heard a bible story, I knew it was just a fairy tale. I was surprised when I later found out that people believed that stuff.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
@Revoltingest by the way I'm not trying to make light of your thread. I do think America is a kind of a religion.

Be that as it may I understand what you're saying about your experience with religion and am trying to suggest that you actually have some experience with religion through your political discourse. It works much the same way. We believe certain things, share certain behaviors in common such as driving on the same side of the road, all have drivers licenses, common concerns and some squabbles and differences.
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
Merchan.jpg
(Me at Pickering College -- front row third from left, tall guy holding the hand of the big-haired girl. Play is Merchant of Venice, and I'm playing Lorenzo, who steals Shylock's daughter Jessica.)

I grew up in the Children's Aid, and remember next to nothing about my early life with family (as a battered kid, I suppressed almost all memory of it). The Children's Aid in Toronto paid next to no attention to religion, and we weren't taught any. Kids could be taken to church if they wanted to attend, but I simply didn't, after a couple of times and knowing just about immediately that it felt completely untrue to me.

My high school was a boy's (now co-ed) private boarding school run by Quakers, but the Society of Friends doesn't push religion on anybody, so again, nothing really. By the way, at more than $65,000 per high school year for boarding students, you can imagine how expensive that was for the Children's Aid. I was troubled, but considered bright enough they were willing to spend the dough. Cost of a PC Education - Pickering College
 
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My family was without any religion.
I was born not believing, & remained so.

Me too

Although I did attend a 'religious' school for 3 years as it was better than the one in the 'hood.

It was basically the least religious religious school in the world anyway, some vicar popped in once a week and we sang hymns and he told us to be kind to other people. Other than that, no Jesusing. Can't really remember anything that a good secular liberal could have objected to being a worthwhile moral lesson tbh.
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
My family was without any religion.
I was born not believing, & remained so.
Now, I read threads here about experiences in churches, temples, etc.
It's all gorillas in the mist....entirely foreign to me.
Anyone else here who finds religions to be utterly alien?

/Puts hand up

I hear ya.
Although my family isn't "without religion" though.
My mother is, what I call, a "cultural christian". She had a christian education growing up in a country with judeo-christian background, did commune, etc. But when I hear her talking about it, it seems to me that she was an atheist for as long as she can remember and never took it seriously.

My dad.... he takes it a little more seriously, in the sense that he actually does believe a god exists, but still I'ld call him a "cultural muslim" more so then anything else. When really questioned, I think he'ld qualify more as a deist then a theist, let alone a muslim.

In any case, they had a choice to make: raise us christian or muslim. And with that, I mean primarily which "rituals" to go through. Commune or circumcision? Quran class or bible class?

And since they thought neither would be fair towards the other, and since neither of them took religion seriously, they opted for "neither", resulting in me having a secular upbringing, where gods and religions were complete non-issues. It wasn't even discussed.

I was 15-16 when I first entered a church, for a funeral. During that mass, I actually got nervous a little. The uniforms, the crowd all knowing when to stand up and mumble the same words... all that ritualistic behavior made me quite uncomfortable. It all felt very cultish and I wanted to get out of there asap.

That's the moment that I gained an interest in religion in general, which later on morphed into an interest in the psychology behind "belief".

Even after all these years of reading and talking to theists.... it feels as "alien" as ever.


I can be tolerant of religions & believers at a distance though.
But I've had unsettling brushes with religions.
A couple....

I once worked as a sexton in a Methodist church...very
creepy...the accoutrements...the clothing...the preaching.
And they're one of the less bizarre flavors.

Attending a niece's bat mitzvah, I had a barely controllable
visceral urge to escape the religion & politics of it all.
Never again. So her younger sister was later blessed with
my not attending hers.

I totally get that.
After that funeral, I never joined a mass again except when I really had no other choice (exactly 3 other funerals).

Whenever there's a wedding with a church ceremony, a baptism, ... I'm all like
"see you guys at the party".
"Ow, you are not coming to church??"
"No. I'ld rather not burst into flames and ruin the wedding / baptism. Besides, I have better things to do with my time, like watching paint dry"
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
Alas, I found it uninteresting.
It lacked the appeal of The Simpsons & Futurama.

Same. After episode 1, I had no urge to see episode 2. Not that I thought it was that terrible. It just... it didn't "hit me".


As opposed to Futurama.... Man, till this day I remember when that pilot aired for the first time. I was blown away. While Simpsons are iconic in their own right, I think Futurama has a flavor of brilliance that the Simpsons lack.

I've actually been binging Futurama again these past couple weeks on Disney streaming.
It never stops being hilarious. I think the character development is unmatched. Dr Zoidberg is one of my absolute favs of all time! :D :D
 

TagliatelliMonster

Veteran Member
it's the lack of believing I don't get
What's there not to get?

You know perfectly well how it is to not believe something because you are not a hindu, not a muslim, not a scientologist.

Consider how little you lie awake at night worrying about not having reached the level of Operating Thetan or even just "clear" in Scientology, or how little you worry about reincarnating as a cockroach.

Then you'll know and realize how little I care about the religion you follow.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
@Revoltingest by the way I'm not trying to make light of your thread. I do think America is a kind of a religion.
No problem with making light.
But saying "America is a kind of religion" is utterly ridiculous,
bonkers, insane, ludicrous, unreasonable, pathetic, strange,
wrong, & idiotic dunderblitzerigencrotchelfestering.
(Pardon me French.)
Be that as it may I understand what you're saying about your experience with religion and am trying to suggest that you actually have some experience with religion through your political discourse. It works much the same way. We believe certain things, share certain behaviors in common such as driving on the same side of the road, all have drivers licenses, common concerns and some squabbles and differences.
I understand religion as I do wildlife behavior,
ie, knowing some things, but having no empathy.
 
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Kenny

Face to face with my Father
Premium Member
My family was without any religion.
I was born not believing, & remained so.
Now, I read threads here about experiences in churches, temples, etc.
It's all gorillas in the mist....entirely foreign to me.
Anyone else here who finds religions to be utterly alien?

I can be tolerant of religions & believers at a distance though.
But I've had unsettling brushes with religions.
A couple....

I once worked as a sexton in a Methodist church...very
creepy...the accoutrements...the clothing...the preaching.
And they're one of the less bizarre flavors.

Attending a niece's bat mitzvah, I had a barely controllable
visceral urge to escape the religion & politics of it all.
Never again. So her younger sister was later blessed with
my not attending hers.
Not until my twenties
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
No problem with making light.
But saying "America is a kind of religion" is utterly ridiculous,
bonkers, insane, ludicrous, unreasonable, pathetic, strange,
wrong, & idiotic duderblitzerenigencrotchelfestering.
That its insane makes it no less arguable.
I understand religion as I do wildlife behavior,
ie, knowing some things, but having no empathy.
...and you don't have a religious background. I grasp what you mean.

I enjoy many things, eg, watching
Game Of Thrones. It's not a religion.
Yes, Game of Thrones isn't a religion, nor is Star Trek etc.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
Be that as it may I understand what you're saying about your experience with religion and am trying to suggest that you actually have some experience with religion through your political discourse. It works much the same way. We believe certain things, share certain behaviors in common such as driving on the same side of the road, all have drivers licenses, common concerns and some squabbles and differences.
All the things you might refer to in this vein are markedly different than most religions in that the subject matter of the beliefs you are trying to cast into the lot with "religion" have, at their core, ACTUAL physical manifestations that we can all agree appear to exist between us. For example - something like abortion. The fetus in question is a physical thing, as are the mother, and the abortion clinic. Our thoughts and feelings surrounding the accumulation of those things resulting in an abortion may not be "physical" - but all of that non-physical thought and concern are pointed at very real/verifiable objects and circumstances. Religious beliefs tend not to be like this... at all. They are abstracts on top of abstracts. Religion tends to be a composite of beliefs in the reality of things that do not manifest in reality... nor do even their predecessors necessarily manifest thusly (e.g. "God", or "original sin" or "creation").
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
My family was without any religion.
I was born not believing, & remained so.
I was brought up with no religion at all and no belief in God.
Both my parents were fallen-away Christians which was very rare back in the 1950s when 95% of Americans were Christian.
I became a Baha'i during my first year of college but God was still pretty foreign to me.
I never really warmed up to God and I have an atheist bent. I am trying to warm up to God but it is not easy.
I never warmed up to my religion as far as being part of the organization and attending activities, I am a loner.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Me too

Although I did attend a 'religious' school for 3 years as it was better than the one in the 'hood.
I was not brought up in a religion either but I got in trouble in the public school so my mother put me in a Catholic school for one year of high school. All the God stuff, Father, Son and Holy Spirit scared the **** out of me so then I was removed and put back in a public school.
 

Brickjectivity

Turned to Stone. Now I stretch daily.
Staff member
Premium Member
All the things you might refer to in this vein are markedly different than most religions in that the subject matter of the beliefs you are trying to cast into the lot with "religion" have, at their core, ACTUAL physical manifestations that we can all agree appear to exist between us. For example - something like abortion. The fetus in question is a physical thing, as are the mother, and the abortion clinic. Our thoughts and feelings surrounding the accumulation of those things resulting in an abortion may not be "physical" - but all of that non-physical thought and concern are pointed at very real/verifiable objects and circumstances. Religious beliefs tend not to be like this... at all. They are abstracts on top of abstracts. Religion tends to be a composite of beliefs in the reality of things that do not manifest in reality... nor do even their predecessors necessarily manifest thusly (e.g. "God", or "original sin" or "creation").
I'm not able to follow your explanation, but I'm not claiming that secular things are religious or that politics and religion are necessarily always the same thing. I'm also not claiming that church and state cannot be separated. For someone who's never been in a religion there are some parallels.

Political beliefs can determine religious beliefs.
Why the relationship between religion and politics is more complicated than you think
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I was brought up with no religion at all and no belief in God.
Both my parents were fallen-away Christians which was very rare back in the 1950s when 95% of Americans were Christian.
I became a Baha'i during my first year of college but God was still pretty foreign to me.
I never really warmed up to God and I have an atheist bent. I am trying to warm up to God but it is not easy.
I never warmed up to my religion as far as being part of the organization and attending activities, I am a loner.
You're in good company.
loner.jpg
 
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