Why people are religious

[abaris]

True, mine were never particularly strict and that's probably why I've ended up leaving it. But I mean in terms of the particular religion you inherit. I know more about Catholicism than I do Protestantism, despite being raised in a predominantly Protestant country. Family is everything in religion, I guess alongside a personal unwillingness to study alternative faiths.

But nevertheless you grew up in a culture. A culture of catholicism. That's what happened to me too, but it was a little more complicated. My grandfather, whom I adored, was jewish. But the first time he saw a synagogue was when he was burried. At least in a very long time. All he taught me were dirty songs from the trenches of WWI and some jiddish words. My grandmother was mainstream protestant, but never went to any church, other than at Easter and Christmas when the whole family went. My grandmother, too, was great in teaching me dirty variants of turn of the century singalongs. Sadly, I can't post them, since they are German and you wouldn't know them. And in translation they would lose all their charm.

So, there I was, an Easter and Christmas Catholic, never really reflecting on religion.