I still act respectful in churches and other "sacred" places, not out of any fear of the Magic Sky Wizard, but simply because other people respect them and it seems like a useful thing to encourage, even if I don't agree with the underlying reasoning. Having a place which most of society agrees should be a quiet, comforting sanctuary is not the worst thing at all, even if the comfort is derived from extreme wishful thinking.

Also, Christmas. Christmas music is great. A Charlie Brown Christmas is one of the best holiday albums ever, though we always skip "Hark the Herald Angel Sings" 'cause it's such a tonal shift compared to the rest of the album.

I went to Catholic catechism as a child and one of the few things I remember was Jesus washing other people's feet. I like the humility of that and it inspires me to want to do acts of service

I still celebrate Christmas - though in more of a yule way than anything resembling christianity. What I think of as the spirit of christmas is...friends/family getting together in winter and sharing what they have.

And, of course, my circumcision...still got that.

In a way, I try to live my life so that if some kind of higher power existed, they'd think I am a good person. Not as a gambit to get into heaven or whatever, I don't believe in that. But trying to imagine an objective arbiter of morality makes it easier to take myself out of the equation, which means I'm more likely to treat others as I want to be treated.

I enjoy blaspheming. (God dammit, Jesus fucking Christ, etc)

I try to pry it out of my lexicon but can't do it, especially when I'm mad which of course is most likely when I blaspheme.

I was going to say nothing, but based on other answers here, it seems Christmas is being held as religious. I personally feel all religious connotations have been thoroughly washed away from xmas over the years, and it's simply a holiday like any other now. I still love the lights and decorations it brings out, the whole family coming together, and the food.

I was a Satanist for a bit. I still use Magick to think about leadership and social manipulation. Its pretty useful for me, and it's also funny as hell to think of a boardroom meeting as a ritual circle around an altar of PowerPoint.

Christmas because I have good memories of it and I like the idea of a holiday that by and large, brings my extended family together. And I like buying or creating personalized gifts for those close to me and vice versa.

My ex's family was ethnically but not religiously jewish and they still did hannukah which was interesting and being included in that meant a lot to me.

I wasn't raised very religious.

I do think some of the stuff from the Christian Bible would be great if people followed it.

• pray in private, not where people can see you
• help other people. Like, go read the good Samaritan again. It's not long. That dude goes way the fuck out of his way to help someone he's never met. And some people do some fucking intense mental backflips to justify "no it's a metaphor man you don't have to like actually go near a poor person
• you'll be judged by how you treat the least among you. Yeah, anyone can be nice to their friends, or suck up to wealthy. But how you treat the poor and vulnerable? That's telling.

Part of what makes the religious right in the US so infuriating is they spend so much time being mad about gay people and comparably no time on poverty.

Every mega church should be condemned as heretical and repurposed as housing or something for the needy.

I still say "Oh my God"

I recognize that Churches are often community centers and do a lot of good work

Yes that my local, now long deceased Priest didn't want my father to be buried at his graveyard, because he committed suicide and that is a sin. Made me a staunch atheist.

Feeling guilty for existing.

I really like churches, they are a good way to find a strong community. It can be really hard as an adult in a new area to meet people, and a church can basically solve that for you. I'm in a very religious area too where they desperately want me to go to one.

Also I've kind of understood "praying" now. I meditate a lot, and the goal to focus on your inner breath and be one with the present moment. Praying is kind of the opposite, instead of focusing on your inner self, you're focusing on something greater outside of you, like trying to connect your body to the universe. It's like trying to imagine you're part of something greater and it's kind of comforting.

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.

I think there is a lot of beautiful wisdom in the bible that sticks with me, but usually it only comes out when I (way more often that I'd like) hear someone who claims to be Christian acting in a way that is completely antithetical to what is in the bible.

Hundreds of years ago, Christianity inspired some truly incredible music. Bach's BWV 63 (especially the Gardiner recording) is a miracle.

Contemporary Christian music, though, is probably the falling domino that ultimately led to the realization that my Christianity was just tribalism. Modern American Christian "culture" has no redeeming value, other than its lucrative redemption for fiat currency.

I do love visiting cathedrals, though.

I'd say monogamy, but that isn't strictly religious. Sex outside of relationships ig (ik it's not marriage but still).

I'd say I'm agnostic, but my parents also didn't force religion on me, my dad is Catholic, and my mom is Thai Buddhist, and I view the Buddhist ideology to strive for being satisfied without material as an honorable goal. I feel as if I believe that attaining that mindset really is nirvana, and I don't think you need to be particularly religious to think that's possible.

This is probably slightly tangential, but after leaving a very dogmatic, Christian upbringing, I dabbled in the New Atheist Thing but have since come to realize religion and belief is on a two dimensional axes.

On the first axis, you have dogma, or a core set of beliefs or religious doctrine. High or low dogma. Your classic fundamentalists of any stripe are over here. Evangelical Christians, fundamentalist Islam. And yes even some strains of atheism can be relatively high dogma. On the lower end of the dogma scale you have agnostics, many atheists, some types of new age spirituality, and even some types of organized religion like Unitarianism or Buddhism.

On the second axis is humanism, or the relishing and participation in people, culture and acceptance of people or ideas that do not conform to the doctrine. High on the humanism scale would be literal secular humanists, and other faiths that prioritize people more than dogma.

Eventually, someone raised in a high dogma/low humanism religion might eventually learn there are some faiths that are relatively high humanism, even with a low or relatively high dogma score.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Sup, Ganesh! I’m HandOfDumb :) This is a neat question you’ve asked and I’m stoked to see more answers.

I was raised in Catholicism, though my family has, largely, stopped following that specific religion so closely (though many are still religious). I don’t follow any specific religion and am unsure what I consider myself - atheist fits well enough!

Somethings that stick for me are many of the kindnesses that live within bible stories. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, of course! And most of (what I consider to be) the good stuff is along the lines of being a good person. But some of it is kinda off-beat.

Like, there’s a bit in there about a proclamation that people should forgive debts after some seemingly arbitrary amount of time (seven years?) and that really jibed with me. Not the time part, but just forgiving pals/family you might have loaned money to. If I spot a friend $5 for something, I’m not going to hold it against them and ask them to repay. If they do repay? Great! But I will never expect it and I will not be offended if they do not.

Similarly with larger sums. If I’m okay to loan it to someone, I’m okay to lose it.

Anyhoo, I think it’s awesome that you like cows :) they remind me of big ol’ dogs and I like them very much. They can teach us more than they can fill our bellies, I think!

I celebrate Christmas for my children so they don't miss out. Does that count? I'm also very routine. I do the same thing the same way, every day. That might tie in to rituals? Hell if I know.

Catholic guilt. My parents were atheists when they had me, but still instilled guilt in me so hard it hurts to this day.

Exmormon here, going on 20 years now. Don't miss pretty much anything from it except some of the music. Ignore the Republican-looking motherfuckers here and enjoy this: https://youtu.be/WwYm_mKQ3Gs

Christmas for sure because it's fun and there's good food and smells and all kinds of stuff. Beyond that, no not really.

Not really. I try very hard not to let myself fall prey to so-called "cultural religion." I don't celebrate any religious holidays like Christmas. I try to be as aware as possible of the religious influences in my daily life and avoid them. It's not easy, though! Religion has infested so many facets of every culture, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate.

@Subject6051

My family put us to the church as kids as little as needed to prove that they exposed us to it. I thank them for that minimal exposure because I've always felt agnostic (of course, that was verbalized as atheism as a kid). My mom was raised German christian, my dad was raised Quaker.

I think that the most meaningful lessons I learned about religion were from my father (who never once mentioned god, Jesus or the church).

My father's religion was one of acceptance of all others, refusal of indoctrination to any structured religion and an absolute knowledge that men (and women) make their faith and their covenant to each other, not to a church. Thanks, dad!

Sometimes I listen to Gregorian chants.

About cows - there was a YTer who sucessfully connected atheism to veganism (but then didn't). I think veganism and atheism have a lot in common structurally.

Biblical wisdom mostly. Certain parts definitely don't hold up to modern morality, but there is a lot well-thought-out advice buried in it that has helped people in Judeo-Christian areas for thousands of years.

One of the Proverbs in particular comes to mind: "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Hard to argue against the inherent wisdom in such a statement.

Also, like you, I have an appreciation for old churches and some religious art.

I went to old school, pre second Vatican council Latin masses. On our knees on other days in dusty, stone walled rooms, heads down, everyone quietly counting rosary beads. Had to wear veil over head to enter church because women's bare heads weren't fit for the eyes of god. Large cathedrals, Latin chanting bouncing echoes off walls. Hunky jesus nailed to cross behind gaudy altar, his loincloth sculpted so teasingly low.

No longer believe in god, but damn, the theatrical pomp was next class, probably influenced work I do as an artist, and why I like bdsm so much.

Music, especially singing in groups. Once I shrugged off the religious trappings associated with music, it turns out there are very many wonderful songs that have nothing to do with God. The feeling of oneness transcends religion, and is a human experience that we all need to feel once in a while.

Ex-muslim here. I am not practicing most of its rituals other than zakat, as I feel like its one of those act that transcends any beliefs.

I am a non-theist Norse pagan and have been a Norse pagan since I was single digits in age. I was raised by a Catholic mother (her mother was Irish Catholic and her father was Roman Catholic), my father's mother was a Mennonite. I was not raised religiously, but i still have Catholic guilt, and use religious curses.