Did you ever go to church/temple/synogogue on a regular basis?

[TZ]

I'm curious because the mainstream meme of atheists are people who used to be religious but got mad/frustrated and quit. Not me, I've never been to Shule outside of some weddings and funerals. Probably been to more Catholic masses for weddings and such than Jewish services actually. Just raised with very little religion. I figure around these parts, my experiences are VERY unusual.

[LeftishBrit]

1. No - but in the UK, most people don't.

I am a second-generation atheist, though I do know of ultra-religious people (both Jews and Christians) among my extended ancestry.

[LeftishBrit]

27. Actually, come to think of it...

there was one year when I did go to the synagogue once a week. But it wasn't for religious services, but to attend Adult Education classes in Hebrew, run by the local council.

[WhollyHeretic]

2. I went to a church service once and synagogue once

My mother's family is Protestant and my father's is Jewish. Both of them believe in God but dislike organized religion for the most part. My father was fired from the family business because he married a shiksa. My mother's family wasn't particularly religious except for her sister who converted to Catholicism and went insane (she had 11 kids). My mother went to church for a couple years when I was a kid. She never brought me though except once on Easter. She hasn't been to church in over 20 years. Even though they don't like organized religion they are still a little uncomfortable with me being an atheist.

[Iggo]

3. Yep. 'Til they threw me out of Catholic school halfway through 2nd grade.

Immediately after that, not a lot.

Further on down the line, not at all. (Excepting funerals, of course.)

[trotsky]

4. More or less.

Was a fairly regular attendee through childhood and confirmation (~13), then mostly regular through my teen years. Went once or twice in college before realizing I didn't believe any of it. Didn't get mad or frustrated, just didn't want to go through the motions anymore.

[PassingFair]

38. The reverend at my church pulled me aside during confirmation classes...

and told me that all of the question I was asking
were derailing the lessons.

He assured me that I wasn't BAD, but that I might
want to just keep quiet and get confirmed for my
mother's sake.

He was a decent guy and the most positive relationship
I've ever had within a church.

I was twelve, and he told me that my (obviously nascent
atheism) was well founded in reality, that he didn't
necessarily disagree with me on many things and that
it was OK to go through the motions so as not to freak my
mother out.

So, I'm a confirmed Episcopalian and atheist!

[elleng]

48. Happy to hear that, and I'll remember it.

p.s., went to synagogue with family for high holidays as a kid, was confirmed, but reading stuff in prayer book caused me to say to myself, early on, this is definitely not for me. Never discussed it with anyone. Learned to smoke in bathroom at sunday school!

[cleanhippie]

5. Yes, I started attending a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship this summer.

Being an atheist, I was surprised to find that the congregation was made up of a large group of other atheists and agnostics, as well as some Wiccans, New Agers, and a few Christians.

The most open minded, liberal, progressive and socially conscious group of people I have ever met.

[TZ]

7. I went to some UU Sunday School a few times as a child

Because my mother thought we should be exposed to at least a little religion. Mostly I remember standing around in circles and singing songs....

[cleanhippie]

8. Yes, the UU's support religious education, not indoctrination.

Since they (UU's) have no particular faith, other than faith in each other and a belief that everyone should be free to believe what they want, there is no single brand of religion that is taught to the kids. Instead, they are educated about all the different religions and taught to think critically about them all.

Our first visit there this past summer had the deal sealed when we were in the kids area, and there was a poster on the wall a child had made that morning. It was a picture of a big yellow ball with the words "This little light of mine.....powered by the sun" underneath it. We knew that we had found a place we wanted to know more about!

[DavidDvorkin]

6. Yes, because my father was a rabbi

I stopped as soon as I left home for college. Would have stopped far sooner, if I had been able to.

[realisticphish]

9. Fairly regularly

not hardcore, we often skipped church, but I was in choir, etc

[TZ]

10. You were a choir boy?

Oh I'm going to have soooo much fun with this! :P

[realisticphish]

14. Lutheran

and it was a coed choir...

did it for the chicks *puts on sunglasses*

[juxtaposed]

13. I was in choir too

[laconicsax]

11. Define "regular."

I went to synagogue about 2-3 times a year, but my attendance at those services was regular.

[TZ]

15. Thats more than me

Never been to even High Holiday services

[laconicsax]

18. So you never asked God to let you live another year?

To young laconicsax, that whole ritual didn't make much sense:

-Do people die because they didn't do a good enough job forgiving people and asking others for forgiveness?
-Why didn't I die in any of the years before I learned about this?
-Why don't those who don't observe Yom Kippur and go through this whole thing all die before the next year?
-Why am I doing this?

[TZ]

19. Well technically I'm not even an adult in Gods eyes

Considering I was never Bat Mitzvah'd....:rofl:

[juxtaposed]

12. when i was a kid I did

and then I didn't see any light..............................

[frogmarch]

16. My mom made me

go to Sunday school and church services every Sunday when I was a kid. My sisters had to too. If we missed a Sunday, we couldn't go anywhere fun the rest of the week. Mom was a staunch Presbyterian but other than the church thing, she wasn't strict at all. She was kind, loving, and lots of fun to be with. She's been gone 46 years. I miss her.

Dad read children's bible stories to my sisters and me on many evenings while mom, a teacher, corrected papers and prepared lessons for the next day. Dad would pause every few sentences and ask if we had questions. He told us to never be afraid to question things that don't appear to make sense - like the Noah's ark story and stories about Jesus's magical tricks. Largely because of Dad reading us bible stories, the seeds of atheism had taken root in me by the time I was five. I don't know what my dad believed. He went to church with us on Sundays, but I think he may have been an agnostic, if not an atheist. He's been gone 52 years. I miss him too.

[sakabatou]

17. I used to but haven't after I turned 17, I think.

[amyrose2712]

20. Yea, I actually started going on my own around 13...

It actually started because I went with one of my friends to youth group and there was a cute, cool boy that went too. So, I had to go every week too. Then I started attending the church services. Although no particular religion was ever forced on me in my earlier years, I knew my mom believed and I did too. I actually was the one that forced it upon my mom. I pestered her into going with me. Looking back now, it was really much more about being a part of something I thought "normal" families did. I truly just wanted to belong. Had myself baptized and confirmed in the church. As I grew a bit older, I started feeling that many of the people there were hypocrites. I began to notice that many of the people there looked down on us. We were very poor, and my mother was a single, socially awkward cleaning woman, that cursed and listened to hard rock. So I began to pull aways from the organized church, but I supposed I still believed. Then I went to college.

[lazarus]

21. Oh, yes

Went regularly to non-denominational services for most of my childhood (my dad was Air Force, and that's what they had on base). When I hit high school, we were living in the deep south, and began going to a fairly fundamentalist Southern Baptist church. I preached there a couple of Sunday nights. Spent several summers at Bible camp.

Once I headed off to college, though, things changed radically. I was finally exposed to new ideas that I knew were right. I was mostly going through the motions at church. I don't know how much I ever really believed. Not much, I think, given how easily I shed the whole nonsense.

I haven't been to a church service since the Midnight Mass for Christmas Eve, 1985, at a C of E church in London. I went because my hosts invited me, and I was curious about a religion I had never been exposed to. It was kind of neat (nuns in baby blue instead of black!), but more boring than anything else. Just like all church services.

I've not felt the need to go to a UU church for socialization. I suppose we should, as we really don't do much other than a board game group on Wednesday nights, but Sunday mornings we go to the farmer's market.

[Codeine]

22. I didn't enter a church until I was in my 30s and went to a funeral

for my girlfriend's grandmother. Haven't been in one since.

[Kolesar]

23. Yes

And the other neighborhood kids got to stay home and play in the mud. dammit

[enki23]

24. Church, bible study, one room christian parochial school through sixth grade

Fundy nutjob far right Lutherans who taught me the literal truth of Noah's Ark, etc. But they were so goddamned insular that they couldn't even get along with the other crazy fundies, so they don't amount to much other than fucking up the upper left corner of Iowa.

[Warpy]

25. I got dragged to church every damned week by my parents.

I don't even go for weddings and funerals now since I've got a great excuse of poor health. I'll send a present to the wedding and food to the funeral.

The funny part of all this is that my parents both died unbelievers. My mother read the bible and got mad at the whole thing since it was such a load of crap. I have no idea what caused my dad to discard it all, I couldn't grill him on his deathbed.

I did once ask my (before bible) closet agnostic mother why she'd put me through the torture of Catholic school and she said "Because I wanted you to grow up with all the disadvantages I'd had." She got kicked out of a convent school. I kicked my way out of an ordinary parish school.

[MrModerate]

26. Naah. Religion wasn't very big in our house. Notional Christians, but not really. n/t

[Heddi]

28. Yeah, from age 6 to 12 or so I went to a Methodist church. Was an accolyte and all that !

I went on Sundays to sunday school & then regular church. I'd go to the youth groups on Sunday nights and sometimes wednesday nights. I went to Church Camp in the summer and the retreats on weekends. I was an accolyte, and in the choir for a while (which is amazing because I can't sing at ALL!) I played handbells in the handbell choir thing, too, for a bit.

I was never forced, though. My household was very areligious. I only started going because i'd spend the weekends with my great-grandmother, and she went to Church, so I went with her. I was never forced to go, and there was no big deal when I stopped going. Even my great-grandmother was areligious for the most part. I mean, she wasn't a holy roller or anything.

I enjoyed the ritual of it. I enjoyed the songs. I always fell asleep during the surmon.

The sunday school teacher was a water-colour artist. Most of Sunday School was spent either teaching us how to paint, or playing with the Felt Jesus on the Felt Board.

For being a church, it wasn't very holy rolly even for being in Charleston, SC (not called the Holy City for nothing!). I don't recall any of the sermons, but I don't really recall them being fire and brimstoney, but who knows...I was sleeping during the whole hour.

I enjoyed the after-church potlucks in the church basement! Those were fun.

I do remember once in Sunday School playing bible trivia. One of the questions was "In which book of the bible are dinosaurs mentioned?". I thought genesis was too obvious, so i chose exodus. The teacher laughed and said "Nope! Dinosaurs aren't mentioned in the bible, and that tells us that they never existed.". I said "Well, TV's aren't mentioned in the bible, either, but they exist". She didn't like that answer, and that was when I realized that I didn't really necessarily believe 100% what I was being told in Sunday School

But it was a fun social thing for me to do. I was never heavy into the Religion aspect of it, but I enjoyed it socially. I was REALLY into all the youth things. I even was a councelor at the summer camp once!

Then, around age 12 or so, my great grandmother got really sick and couldn't go to church anymore, and the minister and friends would come by and see her. Then her medications got expensive and she couldn't make her tithe anymore, and they stopped coming to see her. And that's when I stopped going to church. It just felt like a fraud. Oh and around that time also was Hurricane Hugo, and we were doing food baskets for people, and someone had made the comment (while we were assembling baskets) that they shoudl only go to people who bothered to go to the church, not just greedy people who wanted free food.

I was kind of done with it at that point. I had come to the realization that this whole organized religion thing wasn't for me, I was bored with Church and was getting nothing social out of it anymore. So I quit.

OH! and in 1st grade I went to a Southern Baptist Private Christian School. OMG! THAT place was a fucking TRIP. They wouldn't let me have my Rat Tail hair-do because they said it was too punk, and you had to wear socks with sandals because otherwise you were scandalous! ha ha! But that's also the first place I ever heard a kid say "fuck" ha ha

[Kolesar]

29. TV's aren't mentioned in the bible, either, but they exist LOL

I remember the story associated with your avatar. And a joke someone made

[Taverner]

30. Yes, I come from a long line of preachers

Grandpa, his father, and my brother are all reverends

I used to believe, or at least pretend to do so, because I could never reconcile God with reality

Once I became and atheist, I didn't have to do that anymore

[yellerpup]

31. My brother, sister, and I walked to the closest Protestant

church in the neighborhood so my parents could stay home and have sex (and quiet). We moved at least once a year, so I've been to Methodist, Baptist, Unitarian, Church of Christ, & other offshoots of offshoots. When I was a senior in HS my aunt Betty my taught Sunday School class and grew so irritated at my questions that she scolded: "If that's the kind of questions you are going to ask...if you don't believe, then why do you come?" I immediately knew there was no sense in continuing to go to church, and had a perfect excuse not to after that. Aunt Betty kicked me out!

[Twillig]

32. Never.

I think our family attended maybe two UU services in my childhood. That was it.

We did Audubon society meetings as a public-get-together-with-other-people-with-common-interest-thing instead.

[RebelOne]

33. As a kid I attended a Baptist church in Miami

quite regularly. Even went to vacation bible school. Then when I reached my teens, I became an Episcopalian and went to services for several years. When I hit my late 30s, I became an atheist. My father was an atheist as is my daughter.

[rrneck]

34. Until I reached the age of reason. nt

[JNelson6563]

35. Yes, I grew up Catholic,

I have a very unusual experience to report: My experience with the Catholic church was positive. Church and, for a few years, Catholic school were actually a haven for me as home was a bit nightmarish. It probably helped that we had liberal nuns too, they taught us that hell was a place where god was not and that's what made it an unhappy place. No talk of burning, suffering or the like.

It was in my adulthood, when the nightmarish home-life was safely behind me, I followed an intellectual quest that landed me at atheism.

Julie

[Deep13]

36. Hey, a TZ thread I somehow missed.

Yeah, I used to be an Episcopal Christian. My Dad insisted my sister and I be baptized Protestant. My mother was an RC. When my mother got remarried, her husband started dragging us to his RC church. My father by then had given up on religion and decided there was no god. I didn't want to go to the RC church (You're not my Dad!) so I went by bicycle to the Episcopal church instead. I kept going during college. I liked it, liked the music, like the people there. But, the more I learned, the more I realized that there was no god.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

37. Nope. Just weddings, funerals, baptisms etc.

[frebrd]

39. Forced to go to Sunday school as a child,

dug in my heels in my teens.

I was given the choice of Sunday school, church or staying home in my room with bread and milk for Sunday dinner.

I actually learned to like bread and milk.

Edited to add:

Left when I was 16.

[cleanhippie]

40. Yes, I started attending a UU fellowship last summer.

I am an atheist, as are much of the congregation.

[Lisa0825]

41. Yes, for about 3 years - starting the end of junior year of college.

For much of that time, I was going 3 times a week - Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. But I went to very moderate Baptist Churches, not SBC. We discussed things like abortion and the death penalty in Sunday School, and while we didn't all agree, there was no shortage of liberals voicing their opinions.

While my mom strongly believed in God and was raised Catholic, we were not a church-going family. I didn't go until I was a young adult, after meeting a new friend who later became my roommate, who was one of the most ethical, caring, generous people I have ever known. She and her husband are now both pastors. Interestingly enough, she never invited me to church. She wasn't one to force things on people like the faux-devout that seem to be everywhere nowadays.

[provis99]

42. yes. It was hilarious.

My family used to go to this non-denominational (ie. Protestant fundamentalist) church. When Sunday service was over, they would plug in the big electric cross so its neon lights glowed. Like landing lights for Jesus in case he ever came back, I guess. I swear, it's true.

But one day, my dad just took me aside and said out of the blue: You know son, all that Bible stuff is bullshit. He was raised Pentecostal, so that might have contributed to his rejection of religion.

[LiberalAndProud]

43. Yes.

My father is a preacher. My brother is a preacher (married to an atheist). I was a believer for half a century.

If you think disclaiming one's childhood faith is not an exercise in intellectual honesty, ask me.

[Ninjaneer]

44. Yes, when I was younger.

I remember a guest speaker coming in and talking about god and logic. Peddling bullshit like "if you find a cell phone in the street, can you assume it wasn't made by anyone? LOLZzzZZ thaz wut teh ATHEIST SAYZ!!!11 LoL".

What I would not give to go back to that moment in time and destroy that POS's argument. If for no other reason than to be a voice of dissent in that room full of young impressionable minds nodding along and lapping it all up.

[rbnyc]

45. Strange story within.

I don't know if I'm an atheist because until just today, I didn't actually know what atheism means. I thought that it meant a denial of the possible existence of god. But I now think it means absence of belief in a particular God.

Anyway, I don't believe in God. I have some kind of complicated, personal, spiritual thing going on in which I sometimes use the word god, but not a capital-G, personified, all-powerful deity God.

I would say my parents are secular humanists. I was not baptized. I was raised to be critical of religion.

Lots of friends' families brought me to lots of different churches when I was growing up, but I thought they were all either boring, creepy or intellectually offensive.

The weirdest and scariest experience was when a neighbor girl's family set their designs upon me. I was about 8. I was very interested in paleontology and fossils and I was overheard talking about evolution. I also was badly supervised and kind of a wild child, even at that age. Mary, my neighbor, came from a very religious family. Her father was an Evangelical minister. They brought me to church one day and during the service, a big theatrical spotlight shone down on some member of the congregation and he started speaking in tongues. It was so dramatic and so freaky to me that everyone took this at face value. It was very disturbing.

The family was disappointed that I was unmoved by the display, and that I questioned the authenticity of what I saw. They gave up on me and would no longer allow Mary to play with me.

Oddly, a few weeks later, I was trying to climb the fence behind their apartment to get into the neighboring yard to pet a dog. It was one of those fences with the sharp barbs across the top. I slipped and was impaled through each palm and into the center of my chest. I was crucified, if you will. Mary heard me crying and she was able to get me down from the fence. So there I was, bleeding from each palm, a non-believer. I had a feeling the image and the irony really struck her.

I still have those scars.

[Odin2005]

46. My mom isn't a devout Lutheran, but she made me go to Sunday school, anyway.

Probably because she really doesn't understand anything different.

[salvorhardin]

47. No

I did three hours of church school every Wednesday afternoon for a whole school year, but I don't think that counts. For one, I did it so I could get off from school with my friends one afternoon a week, but more so since that's the thing that probably made me realize that Christianity is bunk. ("And then Jesus did what!? No way!")

Otherwise, the only other times I spent in churches was for community meetings, (mostly secular) concerts, pot lucks, fish fries and blood drives. Oddly enough, I've never even attended a wedding in a church. All of my closest friends either went for the Justice of the Peace route or had nice, understated, and quite lovely, secular ceremonies.

[awoke_in_2003]

49. during my teen years...

I lived with my grandparents. My grandfather was a Methodist minister. He never made me go to church, but I did this and also joined the choir- but only because there was a female choir member whose pants I wanted (and eventually did) to get into :)