They span from very religious to not religious at all. My self and my immediate family (apart from one of my brothers) are in the most religious category out of everyone in our family. Oh, and my aunt (mom's sister). She's probably the most, actually. And then us.

I realize these days Methodists are pretty liberal as far as churchy people go, but in this rural backwater back in the 60s, my experience was pretty far the other way. Sunday school teaches drilled in a pretty strict view of God, Bible and Jesus.

And Methodism was about as good, true and pure as any church was going to get. We did have a 'glasnost' period as the 70s rolled around, the local churches got the ecumenism bug as they all noticed it worked better when they all went in together to approach the city council, or the public schools on whatever corn cob of an issue was up their ass at the time.

(I don't remember the JWs being much part of that, and the Lutherans were conspicuously reluctant to get too chummy with the unSaved filth they had to put up with)

We had RLDS in the area, but I don't recall ever encountering any actual Mormons until much later in life. I've sat through a bunch of RLDS funerals, but I don't recall ever being exposed to any of the Joe Smith bullshit during one, just the generic Jesus pap you hear at any of them.

As a grown up, I moved on to Unitarian/Universalist, and my, my, my, they are an interesting bunch. I can't say even the pastor himself believed in any remotely recognizable god concept. After I moved a couple times, I stopped going to church at all, other than tagging along a few times to some Metropolitan Community Church services with some friends that take it seriously. It's a tough sell for the MCC types to make to me, but I admit I love having them around, a gay denomination to aggravate the other Christians is pretty enjoyable. And it's amazing, opponents of MCC aren't at all bashful about having a fit about MCC for what is their biggest (besides dirty filthy naked homo sex) sin, cherry picking the WRONG Bible verses, LOL !!

And I think you know what I've moved on to since . . . .

Both my parents are strict Catholics. My dad converted from Protestant to Catholic in his 20s and my mom started the process to become a Catholic nun in the early 1960s but left before taking her final vows.

My 4 brothers aren't religious that I know of. I suspect one of my brothers is atheist-leaning but hasn't been too open about it possibly because his profession isn't particularly known to be atheist-friendly.

My daughter - I try to keep her away from religious/ spiritual freaks like you would with a Zika mosquito but there are just so many, even here in progressive California.

My parents and brothers aren't religious at all. I have a grandmother who is religious, who raised my father and his siblings that way. It only stuck with one of them, my Aunt. She married another religious guy, and they tried to raise their two kids religious. It didn't stick for one; I'm not sure about the other.

As far as I know my other Aunt and her kids are not religious.

I wasn't "raised atheist" (is anyone?), it was just never discussed and I came to my own conclusions.

Not a one. My late grandparents on my fathers side were very religious, but my father has not to my memory stepped foot inside a church except for weddings or funerals. My mother went through a phase, encouraged by her mother in law, of going to church when I was relatively young, even going as far as being baptised, when my fathers alcoholism and philandering got really bad. My brothers and I ended up having to go to Sunday school for a few years *shudder* but it didn't stick for any of us.

My husbands family are also not religious (except my niece, who started going to a baptist church youth club when she was quite young to get a break from her own dysfunctional family, and got in deep) and I would say are probably mostly atheist/agnostic going by their reaction to the pastors speech at my nieces wedding.

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(December 15, 2016 at 7:47 pm)Mr Greene Wrote:

(December 15, 2016 at 7:11 pm)Asmodee Wrote:   Childhood is a blur to me, though.  My whole life, really.  I only realized a few years ago that most people have vivid memories of their past.  I never have.  It's all random flashes for me, almost like I'm remembering a story someone else told me.  Kind of sucks, now that I know it's not normal.

Some sort of trauma? It sounds like my early memory, I fell off a ledge when I was a kid and everything before that is a jumbled blur.

No.  Just a stupid brain.

My mom's English, so she was Anglican by name and atheist in practice. My dad's side of the family is a giant German Catholic clan (he was 1 of 8, his dad was 1 of 10). My brother and I moved around to all sorts of different countries growing up. Whenever we were in the US, my dad sent us to Sunday school and took us to mass, although my brother and I never really cared about either. I suppose I was Catholic by association. Outside of the US my dad tried to teach us the kiddie bible stories and the prayers and all that, but eventually though "fuck it, it's too much trouble and not worth it,' and stopped all that, including going to church himself. As I got older and more comfortable with my atheism, he revealed that he never really believed any of the supernatural stuff, but it was such a strong part of his family culture that he felt like he had to make an attempt with my brother and me. It's still kind of weird though, whenever we travel nowadays and end up in some Catholic church (we both love the architecture) he still habitually does the sign of the cross and dips his fingers in the holy water, etc. I asked him about that in specific and he said (apparently) jokingly that he felt like something bad would happen if he didn't.

Nobody on my mom's side (all in England) are religious in the least. All of my dad's brothers are religious, and none of his 4 sisters are (coincidentally, they were some of the first in our family to go to college in America).

(December 16, 2016 at 11:17 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: It's still kind of weird though, whenever we travel nowadays and end up in some Catholic church (we both love the architecture) he still habitually does the sign of the cross and dips his fingers in the holy water, etc.  I asked him about that in specific and he said (apparently) jokingly that he felt like something bad would happen if he didn't.  

I adore going into the different catholic cathedrals just to look at them. They are so pretty. I reckon when you get to take people's money and aren't taxed you have some to spare to really go all out in the architecture lol

None of my parents was religious... I'd say my dad is a bit spiritual, but he keeps it to himself.
I did grow up with my dad, only, as they got divorced quite early on...

I only went to mass (this is Portugal, so catholic was the only flavor available) with my mum's mum... she was always trying to pour the kool aid down my throat... but only rarely did she get a chance... so it never stuck.

Nowadays, the wife is catholic... going to mass every Sunday... I stay home. Seems like a nice arrangement.
But a few years ago, she decided to go deeper and joined the ranks of Opus Dei... which changed some things... not for the best, mind you.

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(December 16, 2016 at 11:47 am)mlmooney89 Wrote:

(December 16, 2016 at 11:17 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: It's still kind of weird though, whenever we travel nowadays and end up in some Catholic church (we both love the architecture) he still habitually does the sign of the cross and dips his fingers in the holy water, etc.  I asked him about that in specific and he said (apparently) jokingly that he felt like something bad would happen if he didn't.  

I adore going into the different catholic cathedrals just to look at them. They are so pretty. I reckon when you get to take people's money and aren't taxed you have some to spare to really go all out in the architecture lol

oh.... every vacation, every single one, we'd drive around some region of the country. Every small village has a church and my dad would insist on going to see it.
I must say, I've seen quite a few and can easily admire the architecture and sculptures and paintings and stuff. In Portugal, I can say if they were built in the 17th, 18th, 19th or 20th centuries. Older are a bit trickier to place exactly, but they tend to have a date written down somewhere.
20th century church architecture sucks!
18th century is where the good stuff is... and when many got rebuilt/renovated.
Come to Portugal, visit the hundreds of churches we have! They're all different (but similar).

I was sent to church until I reached the age of reason (about 12 I think) then I said "this is silly" and never went back. Never caused any big upsets