Did anybody else grow up in an atheist household?

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My father was always an outspoken atheist. My mother joined a church for social opportunities, but admitted to me shortly before she died that she never "believed that stuff".

Most people on WP, especially Americans, seem to have grown up in devoutly Christian families. What other exceptions are out there?

I grew up in an atheist household. This is fairly common in the UK.

My dad was baptised as a Mormon but left the religion. Whereas my mum was Christened in a Protestant church but also left the religion. They both sat through two weeks of church and had me Christened in order for me to qualify for a religious school. It had a good reputation, but fell under new management when I was there, so I had a bad time.

I often felt conflicted because my school would tell me that atheists are bad people but my parents were strongly atheist. So I decided to do my own research, on a variety of religions and theories out there was I was twelve and I realised that I was an atheist.

I neither grow up in an atheist household or in a christian/religious one. My parents "didn't know" and were kind of on the fence. We didn't go to church except for big holidays like maybe christmas or easter. As an adult I gradually evolved into being an atheist.

Yes, my family were atheists. Although it wasn't really talked about, particularly. Religion just wasn't something we did. My parents were married in a registry office, they didn't Christen their children. When I came across religion it was through school. I went to some Church of England schools where you say the Lord's prayer every day in assembly and occasionally the vicar from the church would come in and do a bible story but it wasn't a big deal. I don't remember ever being pressured to believe in God at school, or even asked the question.

I never even thought about believing in God, it just seemed preposterous to me. I've always been fascinated by how religion works though, psychologically and societally, and I don't think it's a bad thing, necessarily.

We didn't do God. Mum never mentioned religion. Dad mentioned it infrequently to mock it, except that later in his life when Mum died he simply said that the vicar who paid him a visit was a nice chap. My parents did send my sister to Sunday school, but it's not clear why, and it had little effect. It's plausible that Mum was just trying to raise her in a "respectable" way - she also sent her to piano lessons, another relic of Victorian values. Not that she was a Victorian, she was born in the 1930s. AFAIK, none of my relatives were religious at all, and very few of my peers were. My schools had Christian assemblies (a legal obligation in those days) and they taught Christianity as if it were a fact. I was somewhat convinced of its veracity for a little while, but never completely believed it (which caused me some anxiety on account of its emphasis on belief as a moral obligation), but gradually moved over to the view that there are no deities and that "spiritual" in the religious sense is entirely meaningless.

Given that the religious behaviour of the people in a child's life is one of the strongest determinants of belief, it's interesting, then, that most people on WP don't appear to be Christians.
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... ey_Don%27t

My father was technically Catholic and my mother technically protestant.

My father is now an atheist whereas my mother believes in God, but rarely visits church.

I started out in an atheist household. My dad was a staunch atheist, and my mother was ex communicated from the catholic church and she became an atheist after, just as outspoken about religion as my dad was. When I was a teen they both found jesus. That was a big ole mess. They're both christians now, but in a more balanced, stable, and less terrifying kind of way.

Cool! Where was he?

My family was more secular. This is a fairly common thing in Canada. I mean, at Christmas we'd put up a tree and decorate and give each other gifts, but my parents and I never went to midnight mass or whatever, instead we'd go visit friends and family members on Christmas Eve.

Most Canadians don't make religion as big of a deal as Americans. Except maybe in Alberta.

My parents both belonged to C of E, but my mum's side was more into it than my dad's. Mum used to be Sunday School teacher for the Anglican Church after moving to Canada. I went to Sunday School when I was young, even when she'd stopped teaching. We never went to regular church except for Christmas Eve, when we went to midnight mass.

When my dad was dying he said he was really scared. Out of curiosity, I asked him if he believed in God or any of that stuff. It's weird, but I can't remember what he said. He likely said no, because I don't remember any sense of comfort that at least in his mind, he'd be meeting Jesus or living on clouds in a golden robe.

Mum's family has quite a few religious folk still. The Brits aren't religious but the Americans are, to a greater extent. One of her sisters is quite religious but she's also an extroverted, partying alcoholic. It's weird that all my religious relatives in USA also party their brains out and live a way more crazy life than the rest of us.

He was behind the Coney Island (a crappy fast food joint in my town that kept getting shut down for health code violations before they finally closed for good) of all the damn things. Messed up part, I'm being serious. That's actually where they found him.

Did they take pictures?

^ I doubt it. There were no cell phones back then and neither of my parents were the types to keep a camera nearby. It was a missed photo opportunity for sure.

My family background was not really atheistic... But only slightly religious in that if you asked us we would have said "Christian" but if you would ask details we would not know much! (I realize it may not be directly related to the thread title, but you may find it interesting anyway).

Family history...

My parents and friends of parents, one of whom is my Godparent when in their late teens were experimenting into witchcraft things as some teenagers do. My parents bought the house from my Mums parents where they had bought a second house to give to my Aunt (Mums older sister) and Uncle when they were getting married. House was in the countryside and needed renovating. A lovely spot with land. My Aunt said there was no way they would accept a house that needs doing up, and my Grandparents were upset by this (As they had spent a lot of money on buying the place for them) decided there was no point in trying to help them, and so when my parents married they bought the house from them and they moved to the house and did up the house they had intended to give to my Aunt and Uncle. (My Uncle was a farmworker and they ended up living at the farms he worked at, either in a caravan or ina farmhouse depending on what farm he worked at at the time. He was a nice man. I loved my Aunt too!)
My Dad and my Uncle (Different Uncle. Dads Brother) helped do up the place for my Grandparents. Heard some amusing stories from that time!
Now the house my parents then had was the one theyhad messed about in with witchcraft things. The house ended up haunted. Mum would be too scared to go in the house while my Dad was in work. Was when Mum prayed. Inheritance came from a relative who had died and they were able to afford a mortgage on a place just up the road that had over an acre of land and two old cottages (One was livable in but needed doing up. The other had not been done up for centuaries! Haha! Both were built before the 1100's).
But even while moving, my Mum would be packing pictures that were up on the wall into a box only to turn and find them back on the wall. So when they moved it was an answer to prayer. That place was fantastic. Stayed there for ten years in my early childhood. We ended up with goats as an insurance saleman had them in a field near where my grandparents used to live (Place they did up but later moved from due to Grandads work (Designer) was needed elsewhere). One winter it had snowed so much he could not get to his goats so gave them to my parents to keep as he was worried about them. (He was our insurance salesman for years, as they would go door to door in those days selling insurance). Mum would sing hyms while milking the goats, as singing helped relax the goats while milking.
None of us were what I would call Christians in those days, but if you asked we would say we were.
It was afer a series of miraculous evsnts in the next place we moved to on top of the hill.behind that we became Christians, andthen not all at the same time. I was the first and it took another dacade before my Mum became a Christian and later on my Dad became one as well. A past family friend got in touch after my Dad died who had not been in touch for some 40 years and could not believe my Dad had become a Christian! He knew my Dad well as he was his best friend in school. He kept saying he could not believe it! It was a miriacle that happened to him that he surrendered his life to Jesus!

What I am saying is, that I grew up in an enviroment that was not atheistic, but God had not called us back then! God calls. We responded!

It must be difficult to have grown up in an atheistic background. My background was not atheistic but not religious either as I didn't go to church and didn't know much more than was taught in school through assembly hymns etc, and most of those were in Welsh and we were in an English speaking school where Welsh speaking children went to the Welsh school, so only one child in ouf school could speak Welsh! So our background... We knew the basics but didn't grasp what it meant.

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 30 Nov 2023, 12:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

American here.

My WWII era parents were both Methodists in upbringing, but only Dad's Kansas family was very staunchly religious. His mom kinda traumatized him with religion.

My parents went to a Unitarian Church for a while. But then just sorta dropped off of religion altogether. By they werent stridently militantly atheist either.

Actually I think that my ten year old self inadvertently talked mom out of religion one day. I remember mom and I were talking about the Mormons. She said "I just hate the whole idea of a religion founded by a guy who claimed to talk to angels". I shrugged and said "well isnt that how most religions got started?"

She pondered it and say ...yes...I guess you're right.

That night behind closed I heard mom and dad sorting out their religous beliefs... and lack thereof.