For those of us raised in a religious environment, did you believe what you were told while growing up?

Kind of sort of. I grew up in the somewhat unusual circumstances of having a mom and dad who were very conservative Christians, and having maternal grandparents who were basically atheist/agnostic and wouldn't set foot in a church. When you're a kid, especially a sheltered kid like I was, you tend to believe what your parents say is the truth. At least when you're too young to have really developed more advanced critical thinking skills. But there was also a lot of cognitive dissonance for me. I broke away from Christianity in my late-mid teens, and I think part of the reason why might have been that early exposure to non-religious people like my grandparents who were good and kind and moral.

I do remember having a lot of questions and thinking about how some things didn't make sense or seemed super shitty. Like the whole idea that earthly deeds don't matter, as long as someone prays for salvation at the very last minute that's enough to get them into Heaven, even if they're Osama bin Laden - meanwhile, guess grandma is going to hell, oops. I think where it really fell apart for me later on was when I thought about how quickly and casually so many Christian groups will accuse other factions/denominations/the church across of the street of heresy. Our protestant church didn't even believe catholics were real Christians.

/r/atheism Thread