What religion, if any, were you before you became an Atheist / Agnostic ?

Bob Cratchet

Hi, I was always curious about this. I'm an agnostic myself, but I was baptised and confirmed a Catholic.

What religion if any were you brought up in ?

Were your parents religious ?

What were your reasons for becoming an Athiest / Agnostic or were you always one ?

Knasher

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Well most of the members of this forum are Irish, so the answer may be slightly biased towards a singular religion.

Scarinae

I was brought up as an Atheist / Agnostic

One Church of Ireland parent, one Quaker parent, I was baptised C of I although in reality I had a secular upbringing. I'm not sure that I ever believed in god really.

PuddleMooders

I was brought up as an Atheist / Agnostic

I come from a Church of Ireland family. My parents weren't vocally religious. They liked to attend church, but I always just assumed they go out to be seen. They could never answer me when I asked them what they went to church for. I guess they were brought up to go to church every Sunday but they never really had strong religious views. Unless they're just very discreet about it.

I was never really religious. I started to read the Bible out of curiosity when I was in my early teens. I got bored a few chapters in. I usually have to see something to believe it. So obviously I wasn't going to have a good relationship with God.

I don't think there was one day where I just said "Right, I'm an atheist." I just never thought about religion and still don't. It's not something that ever ruled my life. I suppose recently I watched "The Life of Brian" and that somehow seemed a lot more believable than the actual story of Jesus.

Even though I'm an atheist I have full respect for people who are religious. I just like to think of religion as a peaceful addiction. People have a few drinks to unwind, or listen / play music to relax themselves, whereas others pray to God. There should be no pressure to be religious, just like there's no pressure to have a drink or play music.

swiftblade

Was brought up in a Catholic household, but from day one it never really clicked with me. Sure i went to mass and all, but saw no significance in it.

My dad who is still a "Catholic" taught me to question things, pitty he never took an intrest in his own beliefs, but that's a different story.

liamw

Practicing Protestant/Christian

I was baptised and confirmed and was forced to attend mass every Sunday. Even at that age I knew it was a load of bull**** though and used to skip the mass (unknowing to my parents). I managed to get special exemption from religion class in secondary school, I used to study Maths instead; figured it was a better use of my time.

liamw

Practicing Protestant/Christian

PuddleMooders wrote: »

I don't think there was one day where I just said "Right, I'm an atheist." I just never thought about religion and still don't.

My story was almost identical to yours up until this point. At the age of about 17/18 I really started to question whether I could call myself Catholic. When I figured out I wasn't really catholic I wondered why everyone else was still calling themselves catholic. At age 21/22 I realised how inherently dangerous blind faith was and I do not think religious belief is deserving of any respect.

Galvasean

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Somewhere between options 1 and 2, but leaning toward 1. When I was very young it was Mass every Sunday, but as time went by it became less frequent until it was only Christmas, easter and other occasions. I'm not exactly sure why.

Ickle Magoo

I voted other...

I wouldn't say I was brought up as an atheist or agnostic but my family certainly aren't religious. I've never been christened or baptised and there was never a point when I thought religion made any kind of sense or was convinced a god does exist.

Despite protestations I was sent to sunday school as a nipper until I could "come up with a good reason why I shouldn't go" - which given my parents lack of religion, I suspect was more an exercise in affording my parents a lie in than anything to do with my spiritual welfare.

My mother has said she is theistic though I've never seen her in a church and nor is there any kind of religious imagery in our house...my father is a sceptical agnostic, I can't remember the last time we were in a church for any even distant family members wedding/funeral/etc...

rainbow kirby

Baptised and Confirmed Catholic, and went to Mass fairly often

My mum is a weekly massgoer - however her personal religious views would probably place her closer to a liberal Protestant denomination or something like the Quakers than the Catholic church. My dad is an atheist, but rarely admits it to anyone. Grandparents on my mum's side of the family are ex-Mormon.

We did all the usual cultural Catholic baptism/communion/confirmation stuff, my mother stopped dragging us to the church though after confirmation as her view was that once we were confirmed we were adults in the eyes of the Church and we could make our own decisions at that stage. I never really believed in any religion, religion class at school always seemed to me to be the Catholic version of the South Park "This is what Scientologists actually believe" segment. I was able to express this sentiment from about the age of 10 onwards - this made for some interesting arguments in a secondary school which still had some Mercy nuns teaching :pac:

Turtwig

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Devout Catholic actually cried and sweared to God on more than one occasion.
Never missed a Sunday, or first Friday mass. (Still don't when at home.)

Baptised and Confirmed Catholic, and went to Mass fairly often

Somewhere between options 1 and 2. I was baptised and confirmed, but I rarely went to mass. My parents were/are cultural Catholics, though both would better be described as atheists at "worst" and deists at "best."

Bob Cratchet

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Malty_T wrote: »

Devout Catholic actually cried and sweared to God on more than one occasion.

So what changed your mind ?

Malty_T wrote: »

(Still don't when at home.)

Why be a hypocrit ? (my apologies if thats a bit direct, I couldn't figure out a way to put it without beating around the bush)

Knasher

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

Why be a hypocrit ? (my apologies if thats a bit direct, I couldn't figure out a way to put it without beating around the bush)

Until recently I was in the same boat. Both of my parents are extremely devout as are my siblings and my extended family (I have a number of uncles and aunts who are members of the clergy). So to be honest I was a little afraid that they might freak out and disown me. Which to be honest was a little insulting to them as they have always been supportive and understanding towards me; and when I told them they just said that they were disappointed but feel I'm old enough to make my own decisions.

So when I was sitting though church and feeling like a hypocrite (and I did), it was always because the discomfort I felt was worth it to keep the peace.

Elmidena

Was confirmed etc Catholic as didn't realist it was optional, then tried my hand at several others (Jehovah Witness, Buddhism, Paganism, Satanism, Wicca...) before atheism, and eventually, deemed myself agnostic.

Pygmalion

Was baptised and raised Catholic, went to mass every week as a child.

Wouldn't really say I was a Catholic before I became an Atheist though.
Before I was an Atheist I was too young to give it any real thought.

Turtwig

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

So what changed your mind ?

Hard to say exactly, probably was down to a number of factors. I think one catalyst was probably the idea that animal's couldn't have souls which my Parish Priest and Primary School teacher believed. [According to some Christians animals do have souls but I'm unsure what the actual Catholic stance on the matter is. Nevertheless at the time, I was taught that Catholics didn't believe animals had souls.]

The other was probably that I quickly came to realise that the way I understood things best was when I questioned them and probed them until I understood them perfectly. Applying that to religion just led to more and more questions and more and more unsatisfactory, sometimes dismissive, answers. Yet I still persisted in belief. So I delved even further into philosophy and sometimes theology.

Letting go of faith proved incredibly difficult, there were times where I'd have resurgences of faith and I also had a lovely romance with deism for ages. I'd say the catalyst for hardcore materialism and rational skepticism came when reading the poetry of Plath and Bishop for the LC. The lines

"...Miracles occur.
If you care to call those spasmodic
Tricks of radiance
Miracles..."

and [On Her Birthday]

"Click. Click. Goes the dredge,
and brings up a dripping jawful of marl.
All the untidy activity continues,
awful but cheerful. "

Used to almost make me smile. I could identify with the poets and I started to grow confident in my emerging pessimistic (but probably realistic) view of the world. Not only that but I started to grow in optimism. I'd gone from the belief that humans are vile, imperfect malodorous creatures, to our world is amazing and humans have so much potential! We shouldn't be so judgemental of the action of others! I came to understand that even the perceived disgusting actions of mobs have more to them that meet to eye. Something no book of faith would ever explain or elaborate upon. To religion everything was pretty much always black and white or else extremely vague; it was either wrong or it wasn't, or it made no sense at all! As far I became concerned everything was grey but it was an utterly beautiful grey.

I still wasn't a grey atheist though. About the same time, I saw a documentary on Sunday Morning about this new up and coming scientific theory called Intelligent Design. I was appalled to see the theory was being shunned. Either way it sounded lovely. So, that was that. I was a deist and although I knew very little about it, there was, it seemed, good evidence of an intelligent designer. Or so I thought.

It is probably ironic that if it wasn't for the botched job on Intelligent Design performed by creationists I probably would have remained a deist for ever. Scoffing at straw atheists, atheists I had idealised to be the meaning of all atheists. My initial investigations into ID theory were rewarding, the fine tuned universe. Oh! How perfect it all looked! Yet, as I dabbled more and more into ID theory I started to find my world view crumbling into little tiny irreparable pieces. Even all the mathematical elegance and beauty that could so adequately describe the physics of the world wasn't enough to save ID theory. The skeptical materialist was slowly but surely emerging and never before were things looking so beautiful! I doubted everything and I cherished that doubt.

As a last hurrah for deism I joined boards.ie to get to understand ID theory better from those people who apparently understood it best. The rest, is history...
(brief summary goes like this:

Poor understanding of atheism and an unknown ignorance on many other issues.==> Strong understanding of atheism and awareness on the frailties in previous views on topics such as abortion and incest. Utter rejection of ID Theory.)

There are probably other factors involved that I have no awareness of, or have under estimated their significance. I could probably have elaborated even further on the ones above. In any case, on reflection, I think the above charts my route to atheism though it probably doesn't convey accurately enough the various streams of thought involved.

Why be a hypocrit ? (my apologies if thats a bit direct, I couldn't figure out a way to put it without beating around the bush)

My parents, have done so much for me. I see no reason to starting a conflict that I know in advance would never be resolved and likely lead to them to feeling like they failed. I wholly understand that they had their best intentions for me, the goods were more than delivered just probably not in the way that they'd envisaged them arriving.
Last time I was at home I showed my mother a video of what the astronaut sees from a shuttle. She was amazed. So I showed her even more stuff. The Known Universe, the Voyager Probes journery's, Spirits video's on Mars and paint drying. Of course that won't change her homophobic views on gays,scantily dressed women and many other things. I could tell her I am an atheist and spend the rest of her life debating theological nonsense with her or I could just teach her science and get her to appreciate the world a little more. For now, I choose the latter and see no reason to choose the former.

As for my siblings, why would anyone pass up the opportunity to watch your brother's fiancée defend her irreligious views in the cauldron of a religious family? Well, sadly, she doesn't have to. Instead my brother does when she's not present! He's very religious btw so watching him sweat and squirm at the crisis of conscience is an irresistible guilty pleasure. I have another brother who's well, I don't know, spiritual and tolerant? He know's my views on the matter and we have some really intriguing dialectics. One thing we do agree on though is that we should never tell our parents or brother where our true opinions lie.

As for my friends, my closest friends know how irreligious I am. Everyone else probably no longer thinks I'm going to be a priest but they probably still think I'm religious. I'm apathetic about their views all I care is what my family knows, so it's best they think I'm religious.

Oh and finally this may come as a shock but I rather enjoy mass, our PP is a person I have huge respect for. Perhaps, if he was the PP when I was younger I may never even have become an atheist. Although I very much doubt it and I don't like nit picking over if things happened differently how they'd have turned out.
I enjoy going to mass. Yeah, there I said it, I enjoy going to it. Maybe that's some sort of self delusional rationalisation I don't know? I've also attended other religious ceremonies. No I don't feel hypocritical, I know that it may offend some, but I expect and very much hope that the vast majority would like the fact that I'm keeping an open mind and still doing my part in understanding and respecting their rituals.

doriansmith

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Somewhere between 1 and 2 myself. I was brought up Catholic & went to mass every week until I was about 14-15. My attendance started dwindling & eventually I stopped going except for Christmas/Easter.

Stopped believing in Catholicism as I didn't agree with a lot of the church's teachings, but I still believed in God for a long time after that. Eventually became atheist although it wasn't an overnight thing - it started off as doubts & they grew over time.

My parents are still quite religious, especially my dad who still goes to mass every week. They don't know I'm an atheist. I guess they'll find out eventually whenever I get married & tell them I don't want to get married in a church. That'll probably open a can of worms!

Delirium

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Option 2.

My mum died when I was 6 and according to my dad one of her dying wishes was for us to go to mass every Sunday. So we did. Lot of arguments had about this once I started secondary school. Dad got his way until I was 16.

However he has put more effort into going to mass since myself and the siblings have moved out of home.

The thing that used to bug me the most about the mass was the priest lecturing after the reading from the gospel. You just had to sit there and listen, you couldn't call him on some bullsh*t. Best example was one priest in the early 90s saying Ireland was better when the church had more control in the day to day life. And there I was thinking, "my mum was forced to quit her job in the public sector (instruction from the bosses) when she got pregnant because a good Catholic woman stays at home with the kids."

Beruthiel

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

I was baptised and confirmed a Catholic.

Me too. Was made go to mass every Sunday.
Was also educated by a lot of nuns.

Were your parents religious ?

Extremely religious and still are. The kind of stern parents you did not say no to and when I stopped believing, I would still pretend to go to mass because that was easier than facing the wrath.

What were your reasons for becoming an Athiest / Agnostic or were you always one ?

Somewhere along the way, I woke up.

Practicing Protestant/Christian

I was brought up catholic. My mother was not really catholic I think but went along at the insistence of grandparents. Went to a non religious secondary :cool:
Was about 12 or 13 when I figured I might be an atheist; though I moved on from that a few years later.
I don't know what sparked it. Not any one thing. I remember in primary I was confused what the difference between catholic stories and other greek e.g. mythologies were. They'd happily tell us these stories about gods and how it was made up and then tell us stories about the catholic god and it all sounded a bit similar

Penn

In the Catholic Religion I was born and raised
On a pew is where I sat for an hour on Sundays
Chilling out, half asleep, about to drool, while dreaming of football playing for my school
When I realised the priest, who was supposed to be good
Was preaching pure ****e to my neighbourhood
I never believed in God, but I was never scared
I don't need God in my life, so why should I care?

I never went to Mass, except when an occasion was near
Like at Christmas to hear about the Gold, Frankensense and Myhrr
My appearance at Mass was really rare
I don't really believe and I don't really care.

I saw the lies in the church, the fear and the hate
On the Census I said "Yo God, see you later!"
Wake up on Sunday mornings and just lie there
I'm an atheist now. I don't care.

Barrington

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Barrington wrote: »

I saw the lies in the church, the fear and the hate
On the Census I said "Yo God, see you later!"

I was expecting this to turn into the bel-air meme after this line...

thirtythirty

bluewolf wrote: »

I was expecting this to turn into the bel-air meme after this line...

I--nnnn, south atha cliatha, born and raised
Sandycove beach where I spent most of my days
Chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool,
And all talking logic and sayin "freedom rules"
When a couple of priests, they were up to no good
Started spreadin' the word and demand'in we served,
I asked for one shred of evidence and they said "you dare!!"
So I laughed, did my taxes, and accidentally proved god wasn't there.

bnt

Baptised and Confirmed Catholic, and went to Mass fairly often

I was taken to Catholic Church by my mother, but in retrospect I doubt that I was ever an actual Catholic. I said the words, but did I believe them? I was just a kid, how the heck would I know? My mother died just before I turned 13, and after the funeral I think I went back about twice out of habit, but it had no hold on me and I obviously had no real connection with any of it.

Galvasean

Practicing Protestant/Christian

koth wrote: »

My mum died when I was 6 and according to my dad one of her dying wishes was for us to go to mass every Sunday. So we did.

Don't mean to be a dick, but I find such a last wish to be extremely selfish. Emotional blackmail if you will. I certainly couldn't imagine myself on my death bed asking that my family never attend a church or anything like that.

Delirium

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Galvasean wrote: »

Don't mean to be a dick, but I find such a last wish to be extremely selfish. Emotional blackmail if you will. I certainly couldn't imagine myself on my death bed asking that my family never attend a church or anything like that.

you're not being a dick, I had a massive argument with the dad when I was about 14 pretty much saying it was emotional blackmail.

It lasted until I was 16 where he seemed to accept that going to mass was a massive waste of time for me.

It was just frustrating because he wasn't arguing from a place of faith and thus worrying about my soul. It was just something that was done as a promise.

Galvasean

Practicing Protestant/Christian

I'm certain we have more than one raised in an atheist / agnostic household person

Turtwig

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Galvasean wrote: »

I'm certain we have more than one raised in an atheist / agnostic household person

Well I would have lumped Ickle and Improbable in there, but I understand Ickle's reasons for not choosing it and she knows best. Only time will tell what Improbable chooses.

Gordon

Wasn't baptised or christened as my parents left the choice of being religious up to me, luv em for that. Voted other.

mcmoustache

Raised as a typical catholic in a village in Connemara. My father is a regular church goer and my mother isn't too religious. I realised that I couldn't believe a lot of the God stuff shortly after being confirmed. Before then, I didn't ask myself such deep questions and just didn't think much about the whole god thing. I still went to Mass to keep the peace until I moved to Dublin aged 17. I go to church now only for weddings, funerals and Christmas.

My parents didn't make much of an effort to keep me in the church but that's probably because they are catholics in the traditional sense. They don't know why they are catholics, they just are. I haven't introduced them to Dawkins or tried to get them to join my atheist church either and we don't discuss beliefs anymore. They also didn't put me down as a catholic on the census so I think they are used to the idea that their son is a heathen.

My lack of belief in a god became a belief in the lack of a god a few years ago. There was no particular reason for it except that there was no reason to suppose the existence of a god anymore than supposing the existence of Russell's teapot.

mewso

Baptised and Confirmed Catholic, and went to Mass fairly often

Galvasean wrote: »

I'm certain we have more than one raised in an atheist / agnostic household person

How about 50-50? I opted for option 1 but 2 applies to an extent. While I always knew my Dad was an Atheist he played the part of cultural catholic and had us do the same for our Granny's sake up to early teens. He has never been very open about it but I suppose we only recently live in a time where you can say it openly and habits die hard.

Mam went from religious to spiritual and was never bothered forcing us to do anything really except to listen to her astrology prediction for us (Jupiter is in your 5th House and so on). Thankfully the astrology is gone. Now it's pick a couple of bottles of coloured oil and I'll tell you who you are. This is how you learn tolerance.

Bob Cratchet

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Interesting and honest replies folks, makes good reading. Thanks.
(I don't know how the thanks function works yet maybe I don't have enough posts or something)
Common trend seems to have been a combination of half hearted catholic parents, a half heartedly taught/understood catholic education, and a lack of effort in giving explanations.

gimmebroadband

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

Interesting and honest replies folks, makes good reading. Thanks.
(I don't know how the thanks function works yet maybe I don't have enough posts or something)
Common trend seems to have been a combination of half hearted catholic parents, a half heartedly taught/understood catholic education, and a lack of effort in giving explanations.

And certain priests falling asleep on the job!!

Bob Cratchet

Practicing Protestant/Christian

gimmebroadband wrote: »

And certain priests falling asleep on the job!!

Lazy aloof bishops = bad priests

irishh_bob

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

Hi, I was always curious about this. I'm an agnostic myself, but I was baptised and confirmed a Catholic.

What religion if any were you brought up in ?

Were your parents religious ?

What were your reasons for becoming an Athiest / Agnostic or were you always one ?

was raised in a religous household by a devoutly religous mother and a fairly religous father

i went to mass every week untill i was 21 but i was never devout , in rural ireland , going to mass as a 21 year old in the late nineties was nothing unusual , i also grew up in a dysfunctional household , my childhood was not happy , i stayed strong untill was 21 , went overseas but then my life was devastated by something , this crushed me and my reaction was something similar to gary oldmans charecther at the begining of bram stokers dracula , i dont know whether thier is a god or not but even thier is , i never want anything to do with it

MetalDog

Baptised and Confirmed Catholic, and went to Mass fairly often

Somewhere between 1 and 2, although I ticked 1 as I see the inside of a church about twice a year, if nobody dies/marries (although I am not having a church wedding) I reckon like a lot of people I was baptised confirmed etc to keep the grandparents quiet/happy.

Undergod

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Was raised religiously, but my family weren't super strict about Catholic beliefs and are quite free with disagreements they have with the Church. Was quite religious until I was about 15, it slowly trickled away until I was 18 or so, at which point I considered myself agnostic.

Lawrence1895

I was brought up as an Atheist / Agnostic

Baptized in the Lutheran Church in Germany, but I left it with the age of 14. Nobody minded, as you have the choice in Germany

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Brought up in a somewhat Catholic household, but I was never really a believer.

loconnor1001

My mother was Lutheran , my father was not religious. I was not church going but was baptised

Zombrex

I was brought up as an Atheist / Agnostic

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

Interesting and honest replies folks, makes good reading. Thanks.
(I don't know how the thanks function works yet maybe I don't have enough posts or something)
Common trend seems to have been a combination of half hearted catholic parents, a half heartedly taught/understood catholic education, and a lack of effort in giving explanations.

For me lack of ability to give explanations. Mysterious ways, have faith, and all that jazz.

darjeeling

Other (please state in your reply)

Ickle Magoo wrote: »

I voted other...

I wouldn't say I was brought up as an atheist or agnostic but my family certainly aren't religious. I've never been christened or baptised and there was never a point when I thought religion made any kind of sense or was convinced a god does exist.

Despite protestations I was sent to sunday school as a nipper until I could "come up with a good reason why I shouldn't go" - which given my parents lack of religion, I suspect was more an exercise in affording my parents a lie in than anything to do with my spiritual welfare.

My mother has said she is theistic though I've never seen her in a church and nor is there any kind of religious imagery in our house...my father is a sceptical agnostic, I can't remember the last time we were in a church for any even distant family members wedding/funeral/etc...

Perhaps I should have voted 'other' too, as I'm in almost the same boat.

My mother used to call herself agnostic, saying she saw some underlying order to the world and citing spookily fated coincidences as proof. More recently, she's said she's an atheist. I don't think I've ever spoken to my father about religion, though I've the sense that he doesn't approve. Weddings etc aside, neither of them has ever been to church in all the time I've been around.

As for myself, I was baptised in an obscure Calvinist church in murky circumstances, and was later pushed out to Sunday school for a couple of years - apparently so I could make up my own mind on it (I, too, suspect Sunday mornings without the kids at home may have been a factor). Once I was old enough to think about such things, though, I know I didn't have any sort of religious belief - and no-one in the family had any problem with that.

My schools were secular UK state schools with a very mixed intake. If the kids were religious, they mostly didn't talk about it, and so I didn't really meet many out-and-out Christians till college - by which time it was all too late.

AhSureTisGrand

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Fairly devout Catholic until the age of 12. Looking back, my belief was ridiculously circular (if I don't believe in God, I'll go to Hell, therefore I must avoid the risk of losing faith at all costs) and sustained only by fear. Thankfully my mind was poisoned by Philip Pullman and his God-hating novels, which eventually bate me into honestly questioning my beliefs. I lost my faith a few minutes (at most) after making this decision. Thankfully I was wise enough to keep my mouth shut until well after I had received all the "Gifts of the Holy Spirit" (and yes by that I do mean Confirmation money) :cool:

Morbert

I was brought up as an Atheist / Agnostic

Baptised a Congregationalist but that's as far as it went really.

maximoose

Baptized as a Protestant and was made to go to Church until I was confirmed at 13 (I think). Haven't been back since bar a funeral or two.

I hated it as a kid, but more down to the fact I'd much rather be in bed or playing with my friends on a Sunday morning than in boring Sunday school/Church than anything to do with belief in it. Didn't think much about what we were taught other than it all seemed a bit silly. It wasn't until I hit around 15/16 that I really started to think about it and decided it was all nonsense.

Pace2008

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Out of interest, Bob, why did you lie about your religious leanings in the OP? You are no more an agnostic (in the colloquial "I don't know" sense of the term) than I am a Sikh, and I don't see how professing yourself as such would have influenced the course of the discussion.

Bob Cratchet

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Pace2008 wrote: »

Out of interest, Bob, why did you lie about your religious leanings in the OP? You are no more an agnostic (in the colloquial "I don't know" sense of the term) than I am a Sikh, and I don't see how professing yourself as such would have influenced the course of the discussion.

Perhaps you could have bothered to ask what I believe before deciding for me what I believe and then attempting to call me a liar.

Agnosticism can be subdivided into several categories ; Agnostic atheism, Agnostic theism, Apathetic or Pragmatic agnosticism, Ignosticism, Strong agnosticism, Weak agnosticism etc. etc.

That Handsome Devil

Baptised and Confirmed Catholic, and went to Mass fairly often

I was baptised and all that, but I think that all my life I thought it was just a little story, and then after a while it was like... Wait, so everyone _actually_ believes this?

Wow, no idea how to say that without sounding condescending but yeah, I think that I would probably say I was always an atheist. My parents baptised me, and I did the communion and all the rest, but that was really it

Pace2008

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

Perhaps you could have bothered to ask what I believe before deciding for me what I believe and then attempting to call me a liar.

I lurk the Christianity forum, Bob. You seem to be a Catholic and are most certainly a Christian.

Agnostic theism, Apathetic or Pragmatic agnosticism, Ignosticism, Strong agnosticism, Weak agnosticism etc. etc.

Yes, I know, but whilst you could technically be a agnostic theist, it seems intentionally misleading to simply state that you're agnostic when you're a Christian.

It's not that it bothers me or anything, it just seems unusual. I don't think declaring yourself a Catholic would have affected the answers in any way.

AhSureTisGrand

Practicing Protestant/Christian

Bob Cratchet wrote: »

Hi, I was always curious about this. I'm an agnostic myself, but I was baptised and confirmed a Catholic.

Why the "but" when you are at pains to point out that one can be an agnostic theist?

"I was born Chinese, but now I'm a milkman"