7 Weird Realities Of Growing Up Without A Religion

[SusanCalvin]

12. Interesting.

I recognize some but not all of it.

I skipped the terrified stage, except when I was frightened by a glow-in-the-dark Jesus on the cross. Well, and Revelations freaked me out a little, like a ghost story.

It never occurred to me to pick a religion, although I was jealous of a Catholic friend because she got to go to catechism school, and I liked school.

Never had the slightest thought any deity might be real.

This puzzled my parents, especially my dad, but if you give a kid whatever she wants to read, especially mythology and Highlights (which had stories about all different religions), and she's reading practically upon exiting the womb, I don't know what else you'd expect.

Every once in a while Dad would have "the talk" - I would become religious when I was dying, he'd tell me. In retrospect, I think his issue was that I was, in essense, telling him I believed that *he* would not have life after death by my not being religious.