I didn't always know atheism was an option

[abaris]

I definitely consider myself fortunate in that my mom is very supportive in my intellectual quests. She calls herself a Christian, but really only believes in a god to the extent that 'this all had to have come from somewhere.' We always say that is is better to teach your children how to think instead of teaching them what to think, and I think I was lucky to have a "Christian" mom who felt the same. I may not have been given all the options from the start, but I was never prevented from taking any course on which my journey led me.

My mom was a churchgoer too. So was may dad, but I never got the feeling, they were deeply into it. They sought the community and their friends, which their church provided.

Truth is, I didn't have any discussions about religion with them. Not that I can remember. My father, being a technician, was very into scientific discovery and my mother was an old fashioned housewife. In her late years, after my father had died, I sometimes talked a little bit about spiritualism and nature with my mom. All I did say though, was that we're basically just animals, relatives of the great apes and she accepted that without any comment.