Question159

To what degree do 'first generation' atheists manage to discard (where appropriate) the (religious) culture they came from?

• My guess is that it would be dependant on how strict was your original religous ethic. I came from a very strict protestant (Church of England) family and even today some thirty years after ditching the entire mish mash I still think of myself as protestant rather than , say Roman Catholic. Some things are just so damn hard to shake. (Townes de Wombat #1522)

• Understanding "religious culture" as "the bits of the surrounding culture that are properly religious", I think I do quite well.

  As always, there are parts of it harder than others. Religious references in language (when someone sneezes we say "ˇJesús!", and that's almost a reflex) are the hardest, I think. You hear them so often that they become meaningless words.

  Other point is that when someone talks about a wedding I tend to imagine a religious one, but it's not strange, I remember when pure civil marriages were allowed in Spain and I'm only 33. Before that, only canonic (i.e. Catholic) marriages were valid.

  Other than that, I don't see anythng in their babbling as "rational", I don't agree that it's not important which way ethics are taught to children, I don't agree that the State should help the RCC to keep their buildings or pay their wages... well, any of the arguments to use religion in everyday life. (Angel Arnal #1443)

• Since I have been an atheist for 40 yrs. now, I don't think much about religion except in terms of my atheism. (like now when I am writing this.) My family, however, is still religious( RCC) and from time to time I am asked to attend baptisms, weddings, or funerals. At such times, during the service, I just do what everyone else does, stand up, sit down, kneel, etc.

  As far as holidays, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter, I usually take part in celebrations, but they have become so secularized, that I have no need to get involved in the religious aspects. Hey, they're a good excuse to party or get yourself invited to dinner! (John Hachmann #1782)

• To a large degree, but usually not 100%, and not at an instant. (And we second-generation atheists aren't immune either.)

  Observing my first-generation atheist parents, the only 'residue' I recognise is that the tag "Christian" still has some "being moral" connotation to them. That is, their refusal was mostly not because of its moral, and they think amoral (that is, most) Xians aren't "real" Xians(!).

  Such a 'residue' can remain if one is not coming from a fundamentalist church, and lives in a religion-uninterested society, not being forced in confrontations that would highlight the true colors of Xian "morals". But those less lucky, IMO, can retain other 'residues': dogmatism about one's ideas, outright dismissal of NON-LITERARIST religious views, ignorance of fundamental differences between other religions and the one they left - these I see even on aa.

  Finally, a prominent non-Xian example: Salman Rushdie, a Bombay-born British writer and first-generation atheist, declared he is a Muslim after Khomeini imposed his fatwa upon him. Only the angry negative reaction made him recognize that his cultural ties don't suffice as religious ties, and made him reconsider Islam the *religion* in a critical way. (Daneel #323)

• I was lucky in that my family....while believing in God...wasn't very religious. Other than RE classes at school ....and when asking innocent childhood questions about why the way things were, being told "God did it"..... I escaped the brainwashing and indoctrination. When I was "reborn"... so to speak... as an atheist, all I really did was apply common sense to situations I had previously applied God to. However there was always that little voice in the back of my mind that would niggle me with "What if there is a God...what if your disability is God punishing you for not believing in him..." As irrational as my conscious mind found this....it was always there....so I decided to make the ultimate act of rebellion to religion. I took one of my old Bibles out to the yard and burned it. Now I should say that I do not support the burning of any books and will fight against any censorship. I knew burning one Bible would do anything to rid the world of religion, nor was this my intention. I was merely proving to that niggling little part of my primitive instinct, that if I did something my old religion considered terrible blasphemy, nothing bad would happen to me. I wouldn't be struck by lightning or afflicted with leprosy....all that would happen is paper would burn....nothing else. Once I did this simple act...it was like a weight had been lifted....that little voice shut up.....and has remained so. I now actually keep a Bible in my toilet hanging from a string with "Spare Toilet Paper" written on it...to remind me its nothing but a fairy tale....and it makes for a good sight gag and conversation starter. (Clayton Forno)

• I actually had thought that I had. Years ago. Somewhere back in the 70's when I was around 30 odd. Then I started reading on the internet 5 years ago, and then in the middle of last year started to write after 4 years of 'just' reading.

  June last year was the first time I even bothered to check in on what other disbelievers thought in atheist forums and got one heck of a surprise. I was indoctrinated (unsuccessfully) in catholicism as a kid. Went through the rituals to avoid any more beatings than I already got at school, and after leaving home at 18 never confessed to any priest ever again. Never thought anymore about the disgusting idea of 'eating' a jesus in a communion wafer, nor cared less about the pope and his infallibility, nor do I to this day. Well that bit isn't true. I do care, but in the telling of a bit of factual human history. Mine; 'and' expose the liars for their crimes.

  So in answer to the question in part "manage to discard the religious culture I came from" by writing about *it* means that I haven't really discarded it at all. I am in the process of discarding it in a way I wish was available years ago. Not just rejecting it for the lies and brutality that *is* the culture of catholicism, but to do so on the basis of human values of life that is having FAITH in myself, not a pack of lying shit. The experience of fundamentalists was not a thing of my life at all until reading the clowns that troll their way through here, and they make the catholic church look good by comparison. Weird thing is, the catholics started out just like the fundamentalists. Want to take over everything too.

  So, while I am writing and reading about "the culture" it is still part of my life, but this writing bit is something I've only really started doing since I passed 55, and if the process is a bit wobbly, it is 'my' experience, and the sooner I can put down my ideas and memories (this process is improving my overall life too) the better it will be that I can assist another who has the courage to look over the walls, as it were, and find that life has so much more to it than looking forward to an absurd whichever way you look at it 'life after death' and by so doing miss out on 'life' while you've got it. (Kerry #1773)