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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Why I have Never Lost my Faith in God.

Over the past year or so I have been reading and commenting on Blogs by people who, through one reason or another, have lost their faith in God and have become Atheists. I have read of their painful exit from their earlier beliefs and of their struggle to come to terms with their new viewpoints. In many ways it resembled the grieving process when someone close to you dies. Whenever I read of their pain and their bravery I am thankful that I have never lost my faith in God. Because luckily (and I do think that there was a significant amount of luck involved) I have never believed in God and never had any faith in Him to lose.

It probably had a fair bit to do with an accident of birth. I was born in the 1960’s in the North of England. About that time religion was already in decline in the UK as it had been since the end of World War Two. The Sixties were also a time of rebellion when authority was more likely to be questioned than followed. From those facts alone it didn’t look likely that I would have become one of the faithful.

My family are Irish Catholics not long moved to England. Indeed my father liked to mention jokingly that he was at sea during the war – on the ferry over from Southern Ireland in 1939 then aged 10. Settling in Liverpool (where I lived until the early 1970’s) I would probably have been a practicing Catholic except for my Grandmother. As I have related elsewhere in more detail my Gran, bless her, took serious umbrage at the Church when the local priest refused to help her. Holding a grudge like only the female side of my family can she refused to step inside another church for over 35 years. Because of this none of her five children – including my Mother – were brought up in the Catholic faith. Because of that fact my Mother was indifferent to the church – if not actually hostile – and because of that I spent my formative years in Church of England schools rather than Catholic ones.

Now this fact often confuses my American readership in particular. As far as I know (not having researched it to any extent) the majority of schools in England are nominally run under the auspices of our State religion (which is a version of Protestantism called the Church of England) founded, I believe, by Henry VIII because he wanted to get a divorce which the Pope in Rome wouldn’t grant him. If you’re interested in the details I’m sure there are plenty of resources on-line that you can access. Anyway – not having experienced CofE education you might think that there would be a significant dose of religion handed out with the more Secular aspects of State led education. Not a bit of it. This is why my wise parents decided that in order to avoid any religious indoctrination they would send me to Church of England schools until I was sixteen. Sure there was some religion in the schools I attended – after all Religious Education was and still is a compulsory school subject – but at the time such education was considered to be a very low priority. I don’t actually remember being taught religion per se in school and remember most RE lessons as either ‘free study’ periods or half-hearted attempts at getting us to think philosophically. These were normally taught by student or substitute teachers and they were an almost complete waste of time.

Growing up in this kind of environment it is hardly surprising that I had never developed any kind of faith in God. Likewise my peers were as indifferent to religion as was I. The only time it was likely to come up in school was when the local bully used it as an excuse to beat you depending on your answer to the ominous question: “Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?” to which any answer at all usually resulted in being thumped.

So for a whole host of reasons I’ve never had any faith in God to lose. Any yearnings for an understanding of the Cosmos have been more than adequately met by my science education which, at a fairly early age, basically inoculated me against any possibility of religious affiliation – especially given my above stated indifference. So I consider myself one of the lucky ones as I never had to go through the painful process of waking up to reality. Much kudos to those of you who were not so lucky.

10 comments:

wstachour said...

You're the perfect example that people can be healthy and happy without all the hooey implanted at a young age.

I went to church for my first six or seven years, and on holidays for another five or so, and the artifacts of that period still come back--35 years later. And I've actively disbelieved since I was about 15.

So the makeup of the faiths and how they're taught aim to do that very thing: to implant in child's mind the emotional hooks that make it difficult to break away. This is something of what Richard Dawkins talks about when he calls religion child abuse.

For that reason, my kids (if I had any) would be kept at arm's length from religion until they were in their teens, and then they could make up their own minds.

dbackdad said...

I have no understanding of how or why it was so, but I went to a public school in Oregon in 1st grade and they had a bible-study class. It was completely baffling to me and I think the teacher may have gotten irritated by my incessant questions. I remember one of our neighbors pulling their kids out of the class because they were Jehovah's Witness.

So, I don't know if there may have been a time in public schools here where some religious instruction was allowed.

In any event, I'm like you, CK. It was never a "crisis of faith" or loss of faith. There was never a single moment to me where it made any sense that there was a God.

Sleepypete said...

I think I got cured of any leanings towards faith in the "regular" gods by my primary school period in Northern Ireland ... When the people involved in the two sides over there are just using their religion as a stick to beat each other with, a 6 year old mind with religion not being ingrained through family history just doesn't get interested ...

(heh heh heh - I presented a different target - English boy in Irish school!)

I have my own code, mainly based around :
a) Do unto others how you would have them do unto you
(aka Be Nice!)
b) Stay under the radar
(aka don't annoy people unless you have to, avoid hassle by not upsetting lawmakers)

That seems to work for me. I do believe in a couple of "gods" but I doubt anyone else believes in the same ones. Will have to describe what I believe in on my blog sometime - not got the time to do that at the moment though ...

PS I kicked and screamed the first time my mum & dad dragged me off to Sunday school.

CyberKitten said...

wunelle said: You're the perfect example that people can be healthy and happy without all the hooey implanted at a young age.

Well... I'm fairly healthy for my age and life-style and reasonably happy everything considered...

wunelle said: For that reason, my kids (if I had any) would be kept at arm's length from religion until they were in their teens, and then they could make up their own minds.

Ditto. In the unlikely even that I ever produce children they will be brought up to be sceptics.

dbackdad said: I think the teacher may have gotten irritated by my incessant questions.

[laughs] Oh, been there... done that... been told to shut up!

dbackdad said: In any event, I'm like you, CK. It was never a "crisis of faith" or loss of faith. There was never a single moment to me where it made any sense that there was a God.

It's a good feeling isn't it... though I do find myself rather bemused by other people's faith.

Pete said: I think I got cured of any leanings towards faith in the "regular" gods by my primary school period in Northern Ireland.

I think that would do it!

Pete said: I do believe in a couple of "gods" but I doubt anyone else believes in the same ones.

Oh? Do tell. Does this have anything to do with WoW...? [grin]

Sleepypete said...

Muahaha - the "gods" I believe in are Luck and Karma.

We're here due to an extraordinary combination of factors and events that can only have "Luck" as a cause. Karma comes in as a hope that good deeds don't go unpunished.

I'm still in Wow but I'm hoping to push that backwards in the amount of time it grabs from me. I know most of the geography of the WoW world but none of the theology.

Anonymous said...

I like you. Thanks for sharing your insights.

Antimatter said...

I too was fortunate enough to avoid religious indoctrination during my childhood. The only religion I was exposed to was Buddhism, and even that was mild. Plus, I don't find Buddhism to be as... hmm, 'religious' as other religions, though people seem to interpret it that way.

Gotta feel for all those people who are indoctrinated into their religions at a young age though... it's not like they had any choice.

SATheologies said...

I think, for me to wake up to your sort of reality is not painful partly because I was not a believer. Thus turning back to a non-believer is just being back who I was before.. (grin)

Nice day ahead.

SATheologies said...

Hi wunelle,

I am from place where Christianity did not has a deep root in our culture, and there are plenty of perfect examples of people who are happy and healthy without the need of affirming Christianity.

My parents are good examples.

I guess that leads one to ask what then is the reason for one to continue to be a Christian? Perhaps, it is not because of immediate happiness and healthiness (D.Bonhoeffer, J.Sung, W.Wilberforce etc) but of something more significant. I think it is the waking to a different reality. Knowing that one is precisely in the world and experiencing it as it is.

CyberKitten said...

sze zeng said: I think, for me to wake up to your sort of reality is not painful partly because I was not a believer. Thus turning back to a non-believer is just being back who I was before.. (grin)

Welcome.

I wouldn't call it "my sort of reality" I'd just call it "reality" for short [grin]. Well... its probably about as close to reality as we can get - probably. It's not a subject I'm entirely clear on yet. I'm giving it some thought though and will be posting something on my musings soon.

sze zeng said: I guess that leads one to ask what then is the reason for one to continue to be a Christian?

Good question. I think that all religion stems from two things. Firstly that we are self-aware beings conscious of our own mortality and second a mixture of hubris and a pervasive fear of death.

sze zeng said: I think it is the waking to a different reality. Knowing that one is precisely in the world and experiencing it as it is.

Oh, its certainly a different interpretation of reality. Though I would dispute your assertion that its the way it actually *is*.

Thanks for stopping by - I'm sure that we'll have plenty to debate about.