Religion
In reply to the discussion: Question for atheists. [View all]SwissTony
(2,560 posts)I'm being a little facetious, but not entirely.
I was raised as a Catholic in Glasgow, Scotland and attended a Catholic Church and went to a catholic school. The priest at my church was an old-fashioned "you're all going to die in hell" Irish priest whose face (I now realise) probably indicated a fondness for a good deal of alcohol. But his idea of Catholicism scared me and made doubt its veracity.
My family was taking steps to emigrate to Australia. Not long before we left, a much younger, much more reasonable priest was appointed to our parish. But I didn't have much experience of him.
Once in Australia, I went to church but somewhat reluctantly. My cousin was much more religious than I was and he and his brothers had been altar boys for some years. One day, I went to church and my cousin emerged from the vestry(?) and told me the priest wanted to talk to me. Why? I couldn't have told you. But when i walked in, the priest said "Ah, our new altar boy has arrived". The other altar boy had rung in sick. Being just 13, I wasn't going to argue with him. So, I received a crash course in being an altar boy from my cousin. The mass went fairly well, except for one bit where we were supposed to bow down three times and on the last bow, stay down. I started to come up and my cousin shot his hand out to pull me back down. We were both giggling. Afterwards, the priest thanked me and said I had done well.
I won't say that experience drove me out of the church. It may have accelerated the process. I didn't want to be an altar boy again.
I think it was the Irish priest who started me heading for the door. The younger priest in Scotland and the priest in Australia were both wonderful. My wife and I raised our kids without reference to religion. We've never said anything like "God doesn't exist". My eldest daughter was invited (as a young child) to attend church with a school friend. She asked if she could, and we said yes. She went twice and then stopped.
Thanks for asking.