Do any of you keep mementos of your old religion? For whatever reason?

[LostOne4Ever]

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]I often feel like a hypocrite posting in here and in religion.

The reason being, as I sit here posting on DU about my skepticism and lack of faith, I am adjusting a crucifix that my late grandmother gave me when I was six years old. I haven't believed in over a decade, but I can't bring myself to take it off.

When she gave it to me, my parents were convinced I would lose it in a week. That I would take it off and forget about it. That she had wasted her money.

They were wrong. I never lost it, and only took it off to get longer chains. Heh, I even swam with it on.

I loved her greatly, and was the closest person to her in the family. I would spend my weekends over at her house, and was one of her caretakers as she got older and more infirmed from her Emphysema. In a way it prepared me to help take care of my mother as her MS got worse.

Sometimes, when a person dies people regret that they did not tell that person how much they loved them. That was not the case between her and me...and I often think of her when I am adjusting it.

Do any of you have something like this? A religious memento that you keep around your house or on your person for whatever reason? Something that might cause a person to give you a double look when they learn you are an atheist/agnostic?[/font]

[Cartoonist]

1. Some old papers

A certificate of my first Communion, and a report card from fifth grade. I thought of framing the certificate as a laugh. Haven't done It.

[trusty elf]

2. I have two of my mother's rosaries...

that were hand made by my great uncle. He was an engraver and die cutter, and had a religious goods business.

One of the rosaries is from my mother's confirmation. I'm a lapsed Catholic agnostic/skeptic, but these rosaries have great sentimental value for me.

[Novara]

3. I still even have a bible

But in my case I think it's more procrastination than sentiment. I still have a couple of rosaries and stuff like that but it's just laziness. I guess I'd feel better giving them to someone who may get something from them rather than putting them in the trash.

[trotsky]

4. The bible I was given at confirmation.

I keep it for a number of reasons. One, the memory. Two, the reference. Three, it was that exact same bible, when I finally read it cover-to-cover, that helped steer me to atheism. And no, it wasn't even a King James Version!

Don't really have any other religious mementos - I grew up Lutheran and we didn't have much in the way of baubles or knick-knacks.

[onager]

5. And another Bible...

One my parents gave me for Xmas when I was a little kid. The standard KJV Bible almost every Baptist kid owned - black leatherette, gold trim, wrap-around zipper, etc.

I keep it exaclly where it belongs - on the same bookshelf as other certified holy books, along with Bullfinch's Mythology, The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology, etc.

[mountain grammy]

6. We kept my mother in law's bibles, and she had a few.

One sits on the end table, it gets pretty dusty, but is used for reference every now and then. My husband is still waiting for his brother to send him the verses where Jesus preached against the gays so he can look them up...

I don't know why we got the bibles, the rest of the family believes that stuff. Maybe they're hoping we'll catch religion. My husband wants to keep one as a memory of his mother, but the rest we'll send to our nephews and niece. Our kids are non believers.

[Ron Obvious]

7. I've never been religious, so no.

But there's nothing hypocritical about treasuring a keepsake that reminds you of a loved one.

[edhopper]

8. As atheists

we know the only meaning is that which we ascribe.
So these objects (and i have a few too) do not have religious meaning, they have significances for our family and our past.
They help us hold to memories of our childhood and l;oved ones.
Nothing wrong with that.

Look at all the ancient buildings and statues that are awe inspiring. they aren't so because of the gods they were built for, they have taken on different meanings.

[LiberalAndProud]

9. I have a dreamcatcher on my wall.

Does that count?

[RebelOne]

12. Only if you are a Native American does it count.

But I have one hanging in my bedroom to catch bad dreams.

[LiberalAndProud]

13. I'm not. But it's beautiful.

Maybe it's the reason that I rarely remember dreaming.

Come to think of it, I do have a cross my mother's cousin carved. It's quite lovely and I have no desire to get rid of it.

[Curmudgeoness]

10. My grandmother gave me a Bible

for my confirmation. I would never get rid of it, but only for that reason. I think that there are five or six Bibles in the house, but that one is the one that means something to me. I lost all my jewelry in a robbery years ago, so I don't have the crosses that my mother and grandmother gave me, or they would also mean something to me.

I am not very sentimental, but when you have so few things given by someone you loved, they do have importance. I suppose that you could say that your cross is a symbol of love for you and not a symbol or any religion.

[Binkie The Clown]

11. I never have been inclined to keep things.

My mother still has dishes that I remember from when I was a little kid in the 1940's. The oldest thing I have (aside from my own old, wrinkled self) is a ten-year-old T-shirt. (Goodwill does a brisk business in my old discards)

My mom still has some first communion pictures of me and my sisters. I'm hoping those will get passed down to my sisters when the time comes. I'm the very last person in the world who should be entrusted with heirlooms. Keepsakes are just more mathoms to dust and clean. Especially religious mathoms.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Yeah, I've still got an Atari 2600 and a TRS-80 in a box somewhere...

[whatthehey]

15. Well I still have my certificate of ordination

I don't use Rev. on my DL any more though.