7 Weird Realities Of Growing Up Without A Religion
muriel_volestrangler posted this gem in the other room, so I thought I'd share it with the smart people who trashed that group:
Mathias Östlund
Growing up in Sweden is awesome in a lot of ways, but something we don’t have much of is religion. Most of us grow up surrounded by atheism, and a lot of the times we’re not even introduced to the concept of God until we learn about it in school.
Honestly, I wasn’t even entirely sure what a “God” was until I was about 8 years old. And as it turns out, not being indoctrinated into a religion until you’re somewhat capable of critical thinking can have some pretty weird side-effects.
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3. You start questioning people’s sanity
At first, I kind of just shrugged religion off as some sort of ridiculous stories, meant to entertain the generations that didn’t have video games or the internet. So imagine my surprise when this kid in school told me he actually believed in God, and prayed to him every day. At first, I thought he was joking, and when I realized that he wasn’t, I reacted in about the same way as I would if someone told me he actually believed in Super man.
Needless to say, I got sent to the principal’s office.
4. You can’t tell if religion is real or not
After getting in trouble for making fun of that kid’s religion, I was more confused than ever – if religion wasn’t real, then why was it such a big deal to make fun of it? So I asked my teacher about it, and she gave some halfhearted explanation about how it was sort of real, but still wasn’t.
So on one hand, religion was a real thing, and on the other hand it was just make-believe. For a kid who was still struggling with basic math, this wasn’t exactly the easiest concept to grasp.
More: http://thoughtcatalog.com/mathias-ostlund/2015/05/7-weird-realities-of-growing-up-without-a-religion/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Not being brought up religious I spent most of my childhood going 
And it's only gotten worse.
I thought maybe there was something wrong with my family and I because we didn't believe.
Why do people tend to become more religious as they get older? And I don't mean demographically, but change within a particular demographic as they age.
I've known people like that. They are almost always terrified of the world, and have very low self-confidence. I always feel kinda bad for them. I wouldn't want to live in their world...
I think self-confidence is a particularly large factor in how likely you are to be religious, by the way, and also why so many atheists are considered arrogant.
As for me, no way in heck am I aging gracefully. I'll betcha anything I'll hit a certain point, and then become a fat, wrinkled old man almost overnight. Looking forward to it 
My friends tell me the only people who go to mass anymore are little old ladies. They don't force their kids to go to church or catechism like their parents did.
I think you're right about the self-confidence thing, the churches really have the guilt/fear of dying thing down to a science - they pray on the weak.
People who've stopped obsessing over wrinkles and expanding waist lines do seem to be happier. It must be like letting go of religion.
You're free!!! Now go play!
My SO is quite religious, and there are many youth at her church. Than again, it's near a university, so I guess that would make sense. My main other experience with religion is with mormonism, and that's definitely an all ages thing.
I don't know if it was intended, but I'm laughing
Ha--SO just texted me encouraging me to eat "all the food". I think I may take her up on the suggestion
"I was frightened by a glow-in-the-dark Jesus on the cross"
I get that. Seeing a dying guy on a cross over my friend's bed was bad enough, having it glow in the dark would have been doubly awful. 
Interesting observation about your dad, you're probably right.
They start to doubt what they've believed all their lives.
And I always wondered why none of the kids dressed up like crucifix Christ for Halloween.
Still do. I mean zombies are really in right now.
I so wish I could do that for Halloween. Get a bunch of friends together and go as a group of zombie gods
The children probably wouldn't care, but we could scare the crap out of the adults
Also, let's be clear on this: Jesus was never a zombie!
He was a lich:
Except!!! He might not actually be, according to recent scholarly analysis rooted in D&D manuals (which I think are just as valid as the original source for Jesus).
https://rolltodisbelieve.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/hes-not-a-zombie-or-a-lich/
Their touch is so cold as to cause 1-10 points of damage and paralyze opponents who fail to make their saving throw. The mere sight of a lich will cause any creature below 5th level (or 5 hit dice) to flee in panic from fear. . . A lich appears very much as does a wight or mummy, being of skeletal form, eyesockets mere black holes with glowing points of light, and garments most often rotting (but most rich).
Next I considered some of the other usual suspects, but the story of Jesus just didn’t fit any of those either. He can’t be an illithid (mind flayer) because illithids are allergic to sunlight (along with a number of other potential candidates, like vampires), and the Gospels often mention Jesus being out in the sunlight and not at all scary-looking. It’s doubtful he’s a shapechanged dragon because he just doesn’t seem smart enough or wise enough for that, though admittedly this Monster Manual is AD&D so the newer versions may have allowed for some different kinds of shape-changing dragons (sorry, Christians; looked at from the outside, nothing he said or did really seems very original and he didn’t do a single thing to definitively amend or fix the atrocious Old Testament’s slavery-advocating, rape-apologizing, woman-marginalizing, tribalism-enforcing, ignorance-celebrating stances, like tell people “don’t keep slaves” or “stop worrying about what other people do in private” or even tell humans about Germ Theory or anything really useful).
I pored over the manual but found only one entry that really fit the bill.
Folks, we are going to have to entertain the serious idea that Jesus is actually a D&D-style Rakshasa (which, I’m sure I don’t need to mention, bears little relation to the “real” East Indian concept of them). The D&D-style Rakshasa fits him a lot better. Check this description out:
Known first in India, these evil spirits encased in flesh are spreading. They are fond of a diet of human meat, and as masters of illusion they can easily gain this end. Rakshasas are able to employ ESP and then create the illusion of what those who have encountered them deem friendly. They can then withhold attack until their prey can be taken off-guard. Although capable of using both magic users’ spells (up to 3rd level) and cleric’s spells (1st level), they are not affected by spells under the 8th level. Rakshasas cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons. . .
I just want to say: WOW. That seems to work better. A Rakshasa may have either been acting like Jesus the whole time, pretending to “die” during the Crucifixion and then “resurrecting” to get closer to his prey, or else took the place of him afterward and ate the body–which would make his followers even more convinced that he’d resurrected!
A cursory search isn't turning anything up. I read it at least 4 or 5 years ago, though... But I'll keep looking.
Ha! You asked that question in a Bible school in east Texas? I'm shocked you're still around
That happens to of people who grew up with religion too.
Now, that I think about it, all of those can apply to former believers too. 
Come to the dark side, we have cookies...
