I often hear that religion is force fed to young impressionable children and that is the reason why they believe what they believe. Although my mother was Catholic and my father agnostic religion was rarely discussed as a child. I explored and attended a few Catholic and protestant churches when I was young and was not impressed with all the dogma and pomp of the church leaders that eventually drove me to an agnostic position and later to become a hard core atheist.
Between the ages of 20 to 25 I once again became interested in religion however It was my personal goal to destroy others faith with sound reasoning and logic. I arrived at a point were I was unable to argue anymore and said a personal prayer to the supposed God at that time and asked him to prove himself to me. And He met my personal challenge. And now I am eternally thankful. Although I still do not belong to any church or denomination my core belief would be considered fundamental Christian with a leaning toward Quakerism.

Irish

PS In order to be balanced I have started a second poll for the non believers among you, Go Here http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...=110756&hl=

i was brought to sunday school as a child but as i got older into my teens i was given the choice if i wanted to go or not.....so i don't believe i was forced into church at all.

I couldn't vote Irish because as I am not a Christian there was no button to press in the 2nd part of the poll

On the question about force feeding religion itself, I guess if the family concerned is strictly religious they will pass this onto their own children.

In my own case, I was never forced into religion at all, however I do believe in God but have never pushed this onto my own children either. I guess I just preferred that they make up their own minds.

Why is there no option for those of us that have been raised Christian and are NOT Christian?

Because there is only one of you Zion

I think you qualify to vote in both polls anyhow

there isn't a vote for those who were raised christian and who left it.

Irish. how about adding 'raised as' to the second part of the survey.

It is included in the non-Christian poll. However to include other religions I would need the same number of polls.

Your poll is flawed. I was raised a Christian, forced to go to church, but I have never been a Christian.

Then vote in the Non-Christian poll http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum...10756&hl=it cover your circumstances.

Sorry I missed that one, thanks.

Yes, 10 - 20, Sometimes

Father is complete total atheist. So not like it was Totally Christian household. I'd hear him calling the whole religion thing stuipd and have talked with him in depth about evoltuion and blah blah.

Did sinner's prayer oh maybe 20 times or so, just cause a bunch of adults standing around seemed to expect me to. Had realization and did it myself on night alone in bed at an uncle's house in early teens. Went off deep end, everywhere wanderlust, slowly started coming back around in mid-late twenties.

Most of the time I Wanted to go to church, so it's not like I was forced or not... I liked learning, always have, still do. But as a kid, I'd see my dad lounging around/mowing lawn/drinking a beer Sun morning and sometimes I'd want to stay home and mom would have nothing to do with it. meh.

If religion is force fed, then it would definately be through only the children from the parents. If the parents are that religious. Of course, my family was pretty much secular. My father is reported a congregational prostestant, while my mother is a prespaterian prostestant. I keep remember that yeah, we were prostestants, but we never went to church or sunday school or the like. THere was a time, while sleeping over a friend's house, I went to a Sunday school class, but I really do not remember much about it. That was it. My mom told us, we were free to choose, and had the right to choose our own religion, so we really had no encouragement on what to believe, just to believe what we ourselves believe. My sister ended up converting to Catholism after meeting her husband. My husband is also from a secular family, so it's a secular family in my own household. I think my husband is agnostic, while I am pretty much a New Ager. I know my daughter is Atheist, and I am behind on this. So, I think it's a pattern.

Forced to go to church is such a harsh way of putting it. I was brought along with my parents till i was old enough to stay home alone and then i was given the choice.

And i would have to say that yes certainly kids of Christians tend to be Christians. There are a lot of Christians though who came to it on their own. There are a lot more Christians out there than one would think from reading these forums, and a lot of them were not raised Christian. In fact i would hazard to guess that if you come to it later in life you are more devout than if you are raised Christian. If you are raised with it you have no basis for comparison between yourself and someone who is not Christian.

Also it seems that the Christians who were raised going to church by and large are less devout, and tend to end up becoming non believers. Probably because of the stupid junk that goes on in churches. I personally stopped going to church when i was old enough to choose, mostly because i saw it too. It did not affect my faith however and i stayed a Christian. Simply because there are a few bad apples...you don't cut down the tree.

I have to agree kanji I have never felt comfortable in church organizations probably for the same reasons non believer avoid them, lots of hypocrites and charlatans to deal with. I think Jesus discovered the measure when He had 12 disciples whom He trusted but one turned out to be a traitor.
I think the two polls I started today will be an eye opener to a lot of people. In my own experience with other Christians I have noted that the most devoted Christians where from agnostic/atheist families and the most agnostic/atheist people I know come from very religious families. Perhaps it has something to do with our natural tendencies to rebel against convention.

Irish

I voted, and mine are probably the weird votes. haha.

1. No, I definately was not raised in a Christian household. My father is a non-practicing Catholic, my mother, who is the dominating force in the family is a 40+ years long Yoga instructor and practitioner of transendental meditation.

2. I did become a Christian. And I chose between 30-40 because that was when I became "convinced" (it's a Quaker thing

3. No, I was never forced into any kind of belief system, and we were ALWAYS free to choose as we liked. Although mom might have had a cow if we turned Mormon, but that's her issue (one she's mostly over now), and she wouldn't have disowned us if we had.

My parents weren't even really brought up in any religion, although my Catholic (or non-catholic? LOL) father was raised in a Quaker household. I'd say he's primarily agnostic... maybe even apathetic. My mother was raised a So. Methodist. But it was something she left behind early on, without retribution, for her eastern philosophies. There's mostly a bunch of Catholics in my family... including my sister. Sometimes I wonder how Dad ended up catholic, I wonder if it was an accident. haha.

Even if it was force fed nowadays its the parents not the church itself.