Head Tale

A lot of atheists pride themselves on having amazing critical thinking skills as the reason they’re atheists.

Turns out being an atheist might have more to do with what your parents did (or didn’t do) in terms of religious displays than anything you did yourself!

Some research has shown that less displays of faith growing up = better chance of being an atheist as an adult.

For me, there’s definitely some truth to this – our family didn’t go to church regularly, we didn’t have religious symbols in the house, we didn’t say grace at meals (except maybe “big” ones like Christmas or Easter).

So that likely had a subliminal influence about the importance of religion compared to a kid who’s surrounded by it (and threatened by it?) from the moment they’re born.

But personally, I still think one of the biggest influences on my questioning religion and eventually becoming an atheist was one of my best friends who, as a kid, would question what the difference was between the gods the Ancient Greeks believed in and the god that Christians believed in.

Or question his catechism teacher about how Adam & Eve could have created all humanity if they had two sons.  Or what the meat-eating animals on Noah’s ark ate if there were only two of every animal.

Or even getting me reading science-fiction novels that often made you see power structures and mass-control in unique ways.