Has your religious or cultural upbringing affect the rest of your life ?

It’s simply indoctrination and happens in a lot of religions..

Y family was religious and I went to a convent school,I left religion behind when I was about 15 WhenI got married my FIL insisted we get married in a church of Scotland theoldyou take his name you have to take his religion attitude My parents said as long as it’s a man of god marries you that’s fine so I brought my kids up in that faith ,have several friends who were ministers even a couple who were Moderator of the church of Scotland but they knew and respected my lack of faith.
My politics emanated from my gran who was one of the first woman members of the Labour Party when they were left wing socialists I have been a member of the SNP since my early teens and I believe they are the most left leaning party in the UK.I'm not a Christian but a humanist. And I see those values which to me are the same in my party of choice .

My mother was a devout Catholic - daily Mass at 6.30 a.m. I don’t remember her ever asking us to join her. But I think Sunday Mass was obligatory. We never complained. I also went to a Catholic Convent School. I was not indoctrinated but was taught right from wrong and given a moral compass, to guide me through life. For that I am grateful.

My mother was a devout Catholic my father Church of Scotland. No ifs or buts, I went to church with my mother when at home and not at Catholic boarding school. She was shocked at 17 I was not going to church. She could hardly drag me there and I have rarely been in any church since, only weddings and funerals. I did not get married in a church as I did not want to be a hypocrite.

Yes, my cultural and religious upbringing was positive. My grandmother was a Methodist and I was brought up to go to church and Sunday School on Sundays at our local Methodist church. When I was twelve years old I started to go to the Congregational church because more young people went there and they had a youth club. However I went to normal, non religious schools, although I took RE O Level at sixteen and passed it.
My grandmother influenced me deeply when I was a child. She was a firm believer and she believed we will all meet again in heaven. I don’t know about that, but her simple, but sincere faith influenced me in a way I can’t really explain. I go to church only sometimes now, but I retain a simple faith in God, and the way of life taught to us by Jesus.

Same here maddyfour I was brought up in a Methodist family. Chapel three times a day on Sunday. The Sunday School trip was one of the highlights of the year.
I still love all the rousing hymns we used to sing. One of the downsides though was the strict teetotal rules, my first wedding was a soft drinks only affair.

I was brought up Catholic, it’s given me a good sense or morals, empathy and responsibility but I do overthink things and feel guilty when I shouldn’t.

crazyH

My mother was a devout Catholic - daily Mass at 6.30 a.m. I don’t remember her ever asking us to join her. But I think Sunday Mass was obligatory. We never complained. I also went to a Catholic Convent School. I was not indoctrinated but was taught right from wrong and given a moral compass, to guide me through life. For that I am grateful.

Same here. Brought up in a Catholic family who are still close and know the value of a moral yet loving upbringing.
Yes, I still value my faith and so do most of my siblings. It gave us a grounding for life and my family is strong and close as ever.
It becomes more important especially now we live in a morally bankrupt world.

I'm life-long Atheist, I can't stand organized religion! Being told I'll go to hell simply for reading or watching a horror/psycho book or film or being friends with the LGBTQ+/Trans community or a woman with my own brain who refuses point blank to be controlled by men!

No thanks! I'll carry on being Atheist!

Neither of my parents were church goers but I am . My Dad was an atheist and my Mum was brought up as a Methodist but never went to church when I was young. We never talked about it. I have moved from the Uniting church to Independent Baptist and am now in the Presbyterian church. We all have our own paths to follow, do what feels right for you I think.

I’m a Humanist. I truly believe this is all there is. Which focuses my mind hugely to be kind, considerate and to tell my family and friends how much I love them and am proud of them because I don’t have any faith in meeting up of souls after death. I think we are like leaves on a tree and when we fall to the ground that’s it, our cycle of life is complete.

I was raised in a devout Catholic household but rejected my faith when I was a teenager in the 70s. It is only now when I’m in my 60s, that I can fully appreciate what my parents tried to do for me. They were good people with strong morals and really believed that they were passing on something precious to their children.
I don’t agree with some of the teachings of Catholicism but I can still embrace the wider philosophy and for me believing in something spiritual enhances my life. I have nothing but gratitude for what my parents tried to do for me.

I agree with -FGT2 - my thoughts exactly.

Although my Gran was CofE and I accompanied her to evensong (?) it was to keep her safe and it was all rubbish to me.
Not married in Church, DDs not Christened. They were both married in Hotels and their boys aren’t Christened either. We have no interest in religion or its ‘teachings’.

I was brought up methodist, went up to 18, when I started nursing I stopped going to church- Ive come to realise I think the another O is missing in the word God, I think it means to be good, put others before yourself

Must say I am so glad my father was CAtholic and my mother a divorced Protestant. Even more mixed in OHs family. From a very young age we both came to the conclusion it was all nonsense and it freed us both from those ties, prejudices, and indoctrination.

My parents were both raised as Christians in the Church of England. They raised their children in the same way. Sunday school, prayers at bed time. Never oppressive and we were encouraged to learn about and respect all faiths and none.
Indoctrination, unmovable belief that your faith is the only one , or dismissing the spiritual beliefs of others as nonsense are equally challenging for me

Just read your post FGT2- and yes, I would call myself a Humanist, and am fully paid up member.

I had a very catholic upbringing, well as Richard Dawkins was later to proclaim such rigidity in religion such as mine is tantamount to indoctrination and a child abuse of sorts. .He may well be right in many ways but I also think his rationale can be as evangelical and as tunnel visioned as the people he seeks to criticise in some ways. Anyway, I had too much of it growing up both at home, masses galore, Sundays, saints days and Benediction as well sometimes if we were really unlucky. . It was very present at school too, so it was a two pronged assault and whilst we had lay teachers the nuns who taught us, with one or two exceptions, were vile and really shouldn't have been around children, but at least we got to go home at night we weren't stuck with them 24/7 as some hapless institutionalised children were.

I kind of threw it off in my teens, the impetus for that was reading about The Spanish Inquisition, I was deeply disturbed by a so called faith that could persecute people for holding different beliefs, but that was the church and the church imo is not a representation of Christ who was a beacon of tolerance. Vestiges of my religion still linger, I think it's hard to be a catholic now knowing what we do, but I remember my mother telling me, there are still many good people within the church even though it's been thoroughly besmirched. I do believe in a greater power, I'm just not sure I need the vanguard of a structured hierarchy of what is a corrupt organisation to facilitate those beliefs, although I like going into churches there is still a draw for me, nostalgia perhaps, at times I find myself longing for something I didn't particularly enjoy.

When my maternal grandfather was dying, we always thought he was a protestant, my parents and my grandmother took it upon themselves to have him converted on his deathbed,and got my grandmother's priest to administer the last rites, I'm not sure they did the right thing, they thought they did. I've since found out he was half Jewish, although he didn't have any religious affiliations. My other grandfather was of Maltese, Sicilian extraction and really only paid lip service to it all as people from those deeply catholic countries often do, my grandmother on the other hand was far more of a catholic zealot. I remember she has photos of all her grandchildren making their first communion in their living room, my French male cousins were garbed up in something that looked like a monk's habit in white she was also prone to give any of us a major dressing down if she found out we had missed mass.

I sent my children to a CofE junior school which had a more relaxed approach to the teaching of religion. One of my sons is prone to tell me now "thank God you didn't raise me catholic I wouldn't have thanked you for it"

I meant to add, as a female it usually dawns on many of us somewhere down the line how deeply patriarchal most religions are, which is another turn off.

TerriBull

I meant to add, as a female it usually dawns on many of us somewhere down the line how deeply patriarchal most religions are, which is another turn off.

Yes most religions are very sexist. I am not religious but if I was one of the first questions I would be asking is does God have a gender?

My parents were Catholic from Southern Ireland. We went to a Catholic school - confession on a Thursday, Holy Communion on a Friday, mass twice a week. I made my First Holy Communion, Confirmation. I don't remember my parents ever going to mass. My father was a violent drunk, therefore a hypocrite.
We were terrorised by priests and nuns at school and in church. I no longer believe in any of this religious nonsense although I realise it may help some people.

My religious upbringing taught me the 10 commandments in those days TV and other media didnt influence children much, my own children were protected from “unsuitable” influences. In turn they seem to protect their children as far as I can tell my grandchildren have very similar values to mine

Coming back to this, religion played such a large part in my life it kind of appalls and enthralls me. Watching the series on Elizabeth Taylor's life I hated the way the Pope of the time publicly pilloried her for her affair with Richard Burton. In the great scheme of things she wasn't a bad person, ultimately she did a lot of good raising awareness and money for AIDS, she made her mistakes but she's a fallable human being like the rest of us and certainly wasn't monster, given how many the church harboured.

My Irish catholic mother was disowned by her family for marrying my English nominally Protestant father and never set foot in a church again apart from my C of E christening and confirmation. I was free to decide for myself what I believed and wanted to be part of and have been a member of the Church of England since I was thirteen. My children had a fairly light touch C of E upbringing as have their children. DS is a fairly regular attender, DD an occasional one. Faith is the most personal of all attributes.