Childhood/teenage Christians (Poll)

[Guest]

I guess in a way I could say I never was a xtian then. I detailed my story earlier, and I definitely believed it, but the same way you believe your parents when they say don't talk to strangers or look both ways before crossing the street. I didn't have the knowledge or life experience yet to question anything my parents told me, let alone religion. As soon as I was old enough to start to understand what the religion was teaching I started having problems believing. I said, and thought, I believed in god, but I also always thought church was silly and boring. My dad would have to literally drag me out of bed on Sundays kicking and screaming, but at the time I just wanted to sleep, and have more than one day away from that place.

 

So when does the logic and reasoning ability kick in with kids? I was in 6th grade when I first started questioning religion. I was done with church for good about 4 years later, sooner if I didn't have to appease my mother.

[dichotomy]

So when does the logic and reasoning ability kick in with kids? I was in 6th grade when I first started questioning religion. I was done with church for good about 4 years later, sooner if I didn't have to appease my mother.

 

What age is 6th grade? (I'm from UK so don't know these things!) I think you can start to reason and logic from quite young but obviously will depend on the child. In a general sense (i.e. not just regarding religion) I only started to be aware of choices, *right from wrong* - on an individual and larger scale - the fact that there was more to life than my insular world from the age of about 8 or 9. Logic and reasoning, my ability to ask challenging questions came about a bit later but sadly not so much regarding religion, or rather I believed the answers Iw as given my Christians so my own *internal logic* was formed and reconfirmed constantly to think as a xian believer not as I do now.

[Guest]

Yea, I think you are around 12 or so, I honestly can't remember. I never believed the xtian answers I was given, or I should say they never really answered my questions, and only begat more questions from me, which many times would get me into trouble with my teachers cause they thought I was trying to corrupt the class or something. I genuinely wanted to understand and believe like everyone else around me, but I couldn't get past the silliness of so much.

 

At around the same time I had a teacher for a few classes who could best be described as a "Ned Flanders" (and in fact, this teacher's name was Mr. Glander, had a mustache and glasses!!!) and he took it upon himself to save me from satanic rock and roll (mid 80's at this time and I was discovering Metal and glam rock). Everything I liked was evil, I was even sent to the office one day to get a change of clothes because I wore all black to school. Nothing written on them or offensive, just black pants, shirt, and shoes. He told me black was the color of satan, but sent me back to my seat what I asked why pastors wear all black when not in their robes...

 

Anyway, sorry to derail this thread somewhat...back to the regularly scheduled discussion!

[TheSecretAtheist]

6th grade is age 11-12 in the U.S.

 

I would be interested in seeing how young children (older than 6 or 7 but younger than 12) in non-religious countries think. The problem with the US (especially in the Bible Belt where I live) is that you are so utterly surrounded by religion. In the south it isn't unusual to have four churches on four street corners across from each other, each a different denomination. It isn't unusual to have 20 evangelical churches in a square mile. It isn't unusual to have three churches of the same denomination within two miles of each other.

 

While you can't officially teach religion in the school so many of the teachers are Christians that they end up spreading their Christian message regardless (some as actively as possible and others just by the way that they think and talk). So while a very young child can reason pretty well, they have been fed a LOT of bad information and, as I and others mentioned, not only are they given bad information but they are told that to question or doubt is outright wrong.

 

As to the comment from Marty on being born into Christianity: Sounds like your religion was similar (if not) to the covenant theology of the Presbyterian church. (That being that if you raise a child in a Christian home they will become Christians.) Catholics, Presbyterians, and Methodists I know for sure have slightly similar practices as for as infant baptism and then a confirmation process later in life. In the more evangelical denominations (Baptists, and all the holiness and charismatic groups) the focus is more on the individual decision. A child is safe from hell initially because they are innocent, but when they "reach the age of accountability" (an age which isn't a number but a maturity level, sort of) they must make a decision (this generally happens for children around the age that the other denominations children are going through confirmation).

 

So a child from these latter backgrounds is able to say, "I became a Christian on July 18, 1985," while a child from the former backgrounds would say, "I was born a Christian, I was confirmed on July 18, 1985." In fact, often if a child comes from one of the backgrounds with more of a covenant or confirmation type belief they will be required to make a "profession of faith" and be baptized into the "alter call" denominations even if they were baptized as a child and went through confirmation. (In other words: this can be a HUGE bone of contention between denominations.)

 

The story I got from most of the posts here is that the majority of us were born into Christian homes and then around the age or 8-10 we made some sort of conscious decision in claiming the faith as our own, be it some sort of "alter call" or something related with confirmation, or just a moment you can say to yourself that you believed at that point rather than just accepting what you had been taught. (and then many of us started questioning right after that )

[★ Citsonga ★]

My indoctrination started when I was still in diapers, so from my earliest memories I believed christianity. I also went to the altar as a child and "asked jesus into my heart." However, it was when I was 15 that I had what I then considered to be my "true conversion experience," and from then on I took it all seriously.

 

I never really questioned christianity until I was 29 (except for a day or two as a preteen when I wondered if there wasn't a physical world and everything's just in my mind, which would be different from the christian worldview, but it seemed too absurd and I dropped it).

[Vomit Comet]

6th grade is age 11-12 in the U.S.

 

I would be interested in seeing how young children (older than 6 or 7 but younger than 12) in non-religious countries think. The problem with the US (especially in the Bible Belt where I live) is that you are so utterly surrounded by religion. In the south it isn't unusual to have four churches on four street corners across from each other, each a different denomination. It isn't unusual to have 20 evangelical churches in a square mile. It isn't unusual to have three churches of the same denomination within two miles of each other.

 

I grew up in Los Angeles County and was blissfully ignorant of Christianity (as we understand it) until was 15 and got roped into an Assemblies of God youth group. Seriously, I remember being in junior high and thinking that Jesus was just some cool mystical hippie dude (long hair, sandals, etc.) who probably smoked weed. In my mind he was in the same category as Buddha: cool mystical hippie dude who'd probably been smokin' something. Although I was aware of crazy shouting preachers on TBN and whatnot, but didn't grasp what it all meant. Also, there were a fair number of Christian kids I went to school with but almost all of them kept a tight lid on it. They were definitely a beleaguered minority.

 

Most the "Christianities" around me were, in the following order: Latin-American Catholicism (superstitious old grandmothers), Mormonism (wholesome and white bread, yet weird and mysterious), and inconsequentially liberal Protestantism. I wasn't really confronted with evangelicism/fundyism to any kind of serious or tangible degree until my mid-teens.

[Vomit Comet]

(except for a day or two as a preteen when I wondered if there wasn't a physical world and everything's just in my mind,

 

Solipsism!

[dichotomy]

6th grade is age 11-12 in the U.S.

 

I would be interested in seeing how young children (older than 6 or 7 but younger than 12) in non-religious countries think. The problem with the US (especially in the Bible Belt where I live) is that you are so utterly surrounded by religion. In the south it isn't unusual to have four churches on four street corners across from each other, each a different denomination. It isn't unusual to have 20 evangelical churches in a square mile. It isn't unusual to have three churches of the same denomination within two miles of each other.

 

 

I know that the UK isn't a totally *non-religious* country but it is certainly nothing like the Bible belt. I distinctly remember being at school aged around5/6 and realising that myself and one or two others were the only kids who went to church. Most of my friends knew about church and god and their parents may have got married in a church and their children christened but they never actually attended or really believed - i.e. nominal christians. In my last year of primary school (aged 10), our teacher asked us who believed the "Adam and Eve story" and no one put their hand up except me. When I asked a friend about the "humans came from monkeys'" thing she clearly knew all about evolution and science as a 10 year old and I felt really confused as it had never been mentioned to me at home and this was the first time it was raised at school....

[the_evil_that_men_do]

I was told it was the way or I'm on my way to hell. So I was very christian. When I got superserious about Christianity, that's when things got interesting.

 

 

Ha ha that is what did it for me, I actually started reading the book of lies in my 20's. I hate what I did to people in the name of fiction.