I was born and raised in an Eastern Orthodox Christian family. Became a theistic Satanist in the 1980s - more specifically a Luciferian. It even got me a conscription exemption. Still one to this day.
I am a lifelong atheist. I attend a very progressive christian church where I am open about my lack of belief. They seem to accept me, including the minister. I don't try to convert them and they don't try to convert me. I started going because I was lonely and I wanted some opportunities to do good. Their whole theology is about helping people and trying to change the world for the better. The two major precepts are "God is love" and "Jesus has no hands but yours." They don't talk about sin or redemption. We have a huge rainbow sign that says "All are welcome," and we actually mean it. The minister talks about Jesus as a teacher, not as a saviour. We raise money and food for the local food bank, and provide community outreach to people, many of whom have disabilities. We sing. We eat cookies and drink absurd amounts of coffee. I suddenly have so many sweet old lady friends, and even a handful of friends my own age.
If you had asked me 10 years ago, it'd be a firm "atheist". A year ago, "agnostic". Today, I don't identify with a religion, but I think there's a lot of interesting things within them. Given a charitable interpretation of any of them's texts, as well as looking at the parts where a large number of religious systems agree you can arrive at some pretty profound pieces of wisdom.
I don't necessarily think these things tell us much about our origin, or what happens after death, or speak to any kind of deity. What they do speak a lot on is the human condition. What we value, what themes and motifs speak to us.
I don't really like the terms "religion" and "religious". To me, those are the organized, preachy kinds of almost-cults most of us here have problems with. I prefer referring to my own personal beliefs as spirituality. Where the two differ, in my mind, is that religion is found externally. Someone converts you, or you're born into it. Spirituality is found through self-reflection. Some of the self reflection processes involves talking to and learning from others, but it ultimately comes back to a deeply individual assimilation of this new knowledge with the unique lived experiences you've had.
Yeah, I personally think "Atheist" and "Agnostic" to be a loaded term with the general public, more so in mine where the majority is religious.
Many of my friends think I abandoned all my moral code the moment they found out, like "No, I'm still the same person just not doing the ritual like I used to" and they won't even notice if I didn't tell.
Many did not believe me when I said I never drink even once (alcohol is forbidden in Islam). It's so hard to explain that the general messages to aspire to be a decent human being are good guidelines I don't have any problem with that, it's the finer details that made me decide to leave.
Morality and religion are the same in society, broadly speaking. Any of the myriad interviews with a non-religious person being asked how they derive morality without religion is telling enough for that.
So my parents were Catholic and Atheist respectively. I have great respect for religious beliefs but am an atheist myself.
My town is very multi-cultural and due to the work I do, every year I am privileged to be invited to Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish cultural events.
I can happily say that the main thing that always strikes me is the friendliness of ordinary people from all faiths and walks of life.
I'm an atheist. I was agnostic and still technically am, I guess, but I transitioned to the annoying as fuck in your face atheism after watching chucklefucks like Westboro Baptist Church and Evangelicals being asshats. Oh, also, grew up in Boston during the altar boy rape scandals.
Personally, I think that God may or may not exist and it's crucial to live your life now as you want to (and that isn't a license to be an asshat - be kind to others just 'cause). Socially I think that religion is a poison that causes more suffering than it heals.
Christian, Presbyterian.
I was raised an IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) which nearly soured my opinion of organized religion altogether.
Long story short, I actually read the Gospels and came to the conclusion that the version of Christianity I grew up in was essentially the opposite of what Jesus taught.
My religious beliefs are important to me and shape a lot of my thinking. But, I also understand a lot of the anger and distrust that gets directed at the church because I've been there and it's unfortunately well deserved.
Raised by hippies who let me be free range a bit. One grandmother took me to Methodist church from age 6-12ish. Jr high friends got me to go to a Baptist church a little (those cats have no chill). Overall atheist though which drew some social ostracization when I let my views be known.
I was pretty hardline about it in my 20s. 30s were more "let everyone do their own thing, man". Now in my late 40s and I find myself drifting back toward agnostic.
There are unexplained things I've encountered. I'm reasonably sure science will catch up (maybe) and explain them. Until then, they remain "energies" that caused unexpected results, probabbly just weird brain glitches, but what if...?
I consider myself a practicing non-Catholic and a non-practicing Anglican. I haven't attended an Anglican service since childhood but play music with my wife at her Catholic church, so I have to attend a practice for that every week.
Due to the non-conforming way I have thought about it, it's complicated (enough that people have asked for a train of thought chart for it), but primary to me and spirituality is the Mune Shinri, reading which for the first time taught/assured me the world isn't fully without fully pro-equality/pro-marriage-equality groups citing inspiration from God, and I took this as worthiness of looking into and a sign. Adherents, one might say, are known as Aikenites or Aiken Christians, with Aiken being the name for the collection of revelations, but of course you can't expect churches catered to it to pop up in one's local area, so when in doubt, I attend the friendly nearby Mormon church (yes, it's acceptable and even normal to show up and be welcomed at another's church) for divine connection, with "Aiken" and "Mormonism" said to be "incredibly compatible" and with Mormonism technically being in my ethnic life blood due to being racially a Pacific Islander (yeah, fun fact, people jokingly call the Pacific the second Utah), and even though you might not find me using the term "Mormon" or "LDS member" to identify myself, I honor it enough to inspire awe at what many might call a kind of dual faith system, pointedly with the epiphany or train of thought called Hagothism being relevant if one considers it separate from Mormonism in the first place, versus being a switch of emphasis. I am also influenced by the book of Urantia, which runs in my family, but that's as far as it's made to do.
Formerly atheist, then considered myself non denominational Christian for a bit, then agnostic and kind of consider myself a secular Buddhist. I do think there's a possibility of there being a creator, but also a possibility of there not being one. It could be nothing, or God, or we might all be in a giant simulation.
I completely agree but I still think there's an act of faith and belief in science because the vast majority of people will never understand most of what science has proved that they use in their daily lives, let alone the more advanced stuff that most scientists will never fully understand.
Grew up "culturally protestant". Never strictly religious or anything, but I did participate in many activities organized by my village's church. Formally left the church 2 years ago, mostly to avoid paying church tax. Today I'd call myself agnostic with a casual interest in Buddhism. Not certain enough to be atheist, not faithful enough to be religious.
I was raised as a strict Catholic, then stopped believing once I went to college and met people who challenged my worldview. Now I am agnostic. Not sure I want to call myself a definitive atheist, as I believe there COULD be something out there. However, if there is something out there, I don't think it cares enough about this tiny blue dot in the entire universe.
Raised Catholic, left ASAP, and am not 100% on what label fits best now, but most of the non-religious ones work fine enough. Atheism implies that you are an active non-believer in any higher power, agnosticism is a label for those that do not know if there is one, I feel like a label is needed for those who simply dont care. (Insert XKCD: standards comic here)
At this point in life, I view religion as a sort of entertainment for the masses that people identify with (like being a fan of a sports team) and something I really just dont want to deal with in life. But due to family ive set some rules where ill show up to a service/event if asked.
After surviving my Baptist upbringing, I became an atheistic Satanist. It started as an act of pure spiteful rebellion, but over time grew into something more. I am no longer a member of any Satanic organization, but I still walk the left hand path to this day.
Born and raised Catholic, drifted towards atheism as I thought that if the tenets of the religion I was brought up in is true, I should be punished for eternity (and then pondered if suicide is a lighter sin than being who I am), and then questioned why that's necessarily the case.
Later on, I drifted towards agnosticism as I began to question my own beliefs, and more importantly, why I was having those beliefs.
None of that was ever known to a lot of people, though, and I present myself as a non-practicing Catholic.
Had Christian upbringing since I remember, so would consider myself Christian most of my life, was a real firm believer for more than a few years as well. Was in my late 20s when I really starting poking on those believes critically and it just crumbled. I still believed there is something more. Weirdly, I didn't really deny the possible existence of Christian god - I just refused him.
I was in this weird limbo for years - not an antheist, not Christian, not really religious but believing there is something more on spiritual level but didn't do anything with it because I couldn't identify it. Kinda afraid of Hell, but also didn't want to suck it up and return to Christianity just out of fear (realized I had quite enough of it as a kid).
Then I randomly read something on modern paganism and something just clicked for me. Looked into it more and it just felt right.
raised catholic but went agnostic early on. Now athiest but I like tst and buddhist philosophies. Not that other religions don't have some philosophical apsects that are nice but the core ones of those I like.
More Nihilist than anything, if that can be considered a religion. I don't know if there is anything past this life for us, so I can't say for sure, so I just go with no. But obviously, I hope I'm so wrong. One day, the sun is gona expand far enough to engulf the whole earth. Literally, nothing will have ever mattered at that point. Makes my life a little easier every day when I think about pressures and stresses. A lot of people would think the opposite, but it allows me to live more in the moment. I don't need some external pressure of being good or bad to determine how I treat people. I just do it because being nice is the right thing to do in most scenarios in life.
I was raised Anglican, then I attended a Methodist church, and I spent a decade or so in pentecostal and evangelical spaces. Nowadays I'm closer to being agnostic or atheist than anything else.