this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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I’m atheist and my parents raised me without any religion. The first time I learned anything about religion was at primary school where Christianity was taught as fact. I was really confused as to why I hadn’t heard of this “god” fellow before now, and I asked my parents about it, and they explained the general concept of religious belief to me, and said that I was free to believe whatever I choose, and I remember being frustrated that my mum wouldn’t directly answer me as to whether or not this stuff was real or not real, and kind of just settled on the idea that it was like they read the Chronicles of Narnia and believed Aslan was real, which was like, fine with me, but seemed a little silly. It was kind of funny to learn a bunch of religious stuff in retrospect - it was kind of like, “dang, this Jesus dude really does force himself into everything doesn’t he?” Easter is the funniest one, it’s such a stretch, they clearly had no idea how to make that one about Christianity and just kinda phoned it in.
So, the one “religious” thing I keep, is saying stuff like “oh my god”, “for god’s sake” and stuff like that, but for me, it doesn’t really mean anything to do with god. It’s just like an otherwise meaningless idiom that people say.
Funny that your parents used Chronicles of Narnia as an example since it is literally an Christian allegory and Aslan is Jesus.
I don’t think it’s as clear cut as to call it allegory, it’s definitely inspired though - and Aslan certainly is particularly like the holy trinity for sure.
I also only need "god" and especially "Jesus Christ" to avoid cursing when my kids go bonkers. To consider it an idiom exactly meets my view of it.
"Jesus Christ" is just a fun expression, whether it's yelling it while hitting your finger while hammering in a nail or under your breath watching your friend feed his lane opponent in League of Legends.
I also consider it an idiom. Funnily enough, in Christian mythology, one of the "Commandments", rules to follow, is to not use god's name in vain. And then christians use the phrases like for gods sake, oh my god, etc, more than anyone else. Quite ironic, to be honest, and quite silly from my perspective.
They justify it as "God isn't a name. It's a job title." Christians have pretty much forgotten the name of their god so they don't use it in vain. Judaism and Islam still have the name Jehovah, Yahweh and Allah in use, all references to the same god.
Pretty fucked-up that your parents sent you to a religious school, and then didn't even prepare you! Glad you made it out okay.
I’m from Scotland, and when I was a kid, it was assumed that everyone was Christian. It was extremely uncommon to be raised atheist - all of my friends have Christian parents, pretty much, and every school was a religious school. It wasn’t too hardcore or anything. We had lots of religious lessons in class, the school got together twice a week to pray, read bible stories and sing hymns, and we recited the Lord’s Prayer before lunch each day. I wasn't really interested in any of it but also I didn’t make a scene or ask to sit out or anything, and we were never forced to read from the bible or anything like that. I have read the bible, out of personal interest, but it was never expected from me.
High school was a bit similar but not as much - we had the school chaplain (priest who partnered with the school) show up once a fortnight (every 2 weeks) to deliver a sermon or religious lesson or whatever, and they were always good for a laugh. My favourite lesson of his was about how text speak (this was before smartphones, so we all typed on the 9-digit phone keypads stuff like “hey hru will u b going 2 skl 2mro” meaning “hey, how are you? Will you be going to school tomorrow?” was common) could be used with God as well - we could say “hf” to mean “Heavenly Father” and lol could mean “lots of love”. We got a kick out of that for a few weeks sending eachother ironic texts that we had meant to send to god but got the wrong number.
Wait, what was I talking about again?