I had the perfect environment for indoctrination with a monoculture conservative town before the internet, a mother who co-founded her own Baptist church attended every sunday, summer bible camps, voluntold extras like feeding homeless via Mustard Seed, or doing bottle drives for youth groups which I also attended on some weekends.
Never believed at any point. Did keep an open mind to Abrahamic faiths until I was 16 years old when I stopped hiding my atheism and had learned enough to reject any lingering fears of being mistaken. I never learned anything that swayed me towards theism at any point. I'm one of those troublemakers who read the bible on my own with a critical eye and took my notes to the libraries and the internet once it was more accessible especially once I had my own computer and early cable internet in 2004 from paper route money.
Key things in my opinion:
Despite their active faith, my parents weren't helicopter generally besides a few hang-ups. Small town I was out and about on my own with my bicycle most days outside of school to roam the town and river valley entirely unsupervised. I loved building (snow)forts in the woods....and going to the library by myself as a child.
I'm naturally reclusive so I didn't feel social pressures to conform as strongly. I hung out and still do hang out with social outcasts who usually made efforts to befriend me first.
Didn't believe adults at face value even single digit years old, not even my parents.
Natural born critical thinking ability that only sharpened over time.
Parents didn't monitor my personal computer once I bought my own.
A fun memory from when I was 8 years old: Public school assembly first of the new school year. Principal leads a Christian prayer and then everyone sings the national anthem. My new class has a girl who doesn't stand up for prayer. Every single other person in the school assembly of hundreds is standing. I decide to sit down next to her and she smiles at me. The adults don't react outwardly (and never snitched to my parents clearly) so I stay seated from then on. The new girl decides to draw on my back with her fingers and we become friends briefly until she moves away next year :(
I had the perfect environment for indoctrination with a monoculture conservative town before the internet, a mother who co-founded her own Baptist church attended every sunday, summer bible camps, voluntold extras like feeding homeless via Mustard Seed, or doing bottle drives for youth groups which I also attended on some weekends.
Never believed at any point. Did keep an open mind to Abrahamic faiths until I was 16 years old when I stopped hiding my atheism and had learned enough to reject any lingering fears of being mistaken. I never learned anything that swayed me towards theism at any point. I'm one of those troublemakers who read the bible on my own with a critical eye and took my notes to the libraries and the internet once it was more accessible especially once I had my own computer and early cable internet in 2004 from paper route money.
Key things in my opinion:
Despite their active faith, my parents weren't helicopter generally besides a few hang-ups. Small town I was out and about on my own with my bicycle most days outside of school to roam the town and river valley entirely unsupervised. I loved building (snow)forts in the woods....and going to the library by myself as a child.
I'm naturally reclusive so I didn't feel social pressures to conform as strongly. I hung out and still do hang out with social outcasts who usually made efforts to befriend me first.
Didn't believe adults at face value even single digit years old, not even my parents.
Natural born critical thinking ability that only sharpened over time.
Parents didn't monitor my personal computer once I bought my own.
A fun memory from when I was 8 years old: Public school assembly first of the new school year. Principal leads a Christian prayer and then everyone sings the national anthem. My new class has a girl who doesn't stand up for prayer. Every single other person in the school assembly of hundreds is standing. I decide to sit down next to her and she smiles at me. The adults don't react outwardly (and never snitched to my parents clearly) so I stay seated from then on. The new girl decides to draw on my back with her fingers and we become friends briefly until she moves away next year :(