K

This is a topic I've been curious about. I am a first born. My parents are both devout Roman Catholics. I took Catholicism extremely seriously and was extremely involved in it. It was an extremely painful process for me to come to grips with the fact that the thing I believed to be the foundation of my existence was a farce. I realized I was an atheist when I was about 30 - embarrassingly late if you ask me. I've noticed that my siblings always seemed to pick and choose what parts of the religion they wanted to. They never really seemed to put much thought into it. They are all still Roman Catholics. My wife has an almost identical story.

So my question to theists and atheists is:

What is your birth order, and do you feel that it has had any affect on your religious outlook?

Rusting Car Bumper

I have semi-Catholic parents. That is, my father was involved and my mother was apathetic. I was fourth born (last) and now an outspoken unbeliever.

My girlfriend is fifth born of a fairly devout although somewhat Catholic family. She is fifth born (last) and she is a Buddhist and IMO a non-theist.

DC

[ October 03, 2002: Message edited by: DigitalChicken ]</p>

sakrilege

My family, raised RC ...

<ol type="1">[*]Sister - atheist[*]Sister - psychic[*]Brother - agnostic[*]Me - atheist[*]Brother - agnostic[*]Sister - fundamentalist[/list=a]

K

I guess I would add a question for those of you who no longer believe in the religion in which you were raised. Did you find it easy or difficult when your beliefs started to change and do you think birth order had anything at all to do with the ease or difficulty?

Wyz_sub10

I am the youngest in my family of four kids, all raised RC. I am the only atheist, although my sister (secpnd-youngest) questions far more than the older two.

I'm not sure birth order had much to do with it as opposed to our personalities and "brain wiring". I'm very critical and analytical, much more than any of my sisters.

My wonderful eldest sister is very "black/white, right/wrong" in her thinking. She accepts RC with few questions. At the other end of the spectrum, I began being critical of RC and Prot religions at 12 or so. It took me until age 25 or so before I acknowledged my atheism. (I was probably 19-21 when I first tilted that way).

BTW...only my sister "one up" from me knows I am an atheist. My parents would freak (my mom would absolutely lose it).

Ab_Normal

Raised RC, youngest of five siblings. We all went to Catholic school through junior high.
* Sister - don't know, I'd suspect agnostic
* Brother - non-practicing, considers himself RC
* Sister - practicing, raising her children in the church
* Sister - non-practicing, considers herself RC
* Me - atheist

All except my oldest sister know I'm atheist (she lives across the country and we don't communicate much), and they're cool. My mom is pretty much resigned to it. We just treat it as a non-issue and we're all happy.

This is the case with my siblings as well. I think that's why they've been able to stay with the church, because they are a thoughtful and rational bunch overall.

I was attending Mass with my extremely Catholic grandparents when I "snapped" and had to leave - I just couldn't take the irrationality anymore. I was 19 at the time, and considered myself agnostic afterward. I didn't go to church at college, and during the summers my parents didn't mind if I didn't go to church the few times they attended. (Dad was pretty much incapacitated with emphysema, so they didn't leave the house much.) So my break with the church was pretty easy.

I realized I was an atheist eight years later, while my Dad was in his final illness. That got tough, because he was in a Catholic hospital. I was the first child to respond to the "get your asses here, he's on his way out" call, and got to go through the last rites with Mom. I felt really bad as I mumbled along, because I felt someone who believed what was being said should have been there with her. And I got in deep trouble for not going along with the motions during his funeral. But Mom forgave me and we're all better now.

I think the main affect of birth order was that my folks were pretty tired by the time I hit my teenage years, so I didn't get as much pressure as my older siblings, as long as I stayed out of trouble.

edited to add quote from K

[ October 03, 2002: Message edited by: Ab_Normal ]</p>

sullster

Dear K,
I don't buy into many of the conclusions sometimes thrown around about birth order determinism. The book,"Born to Rebel", used the biographies of many historical persons and concluded that the youngest members of families were more apt to rebel against whatever was orthodox. The book had a lot of evidence, but I just couldn't see a genetic link. That is another story and apart from your question, yet there are some ideas.

The oldest tend to be conformists to the parents' wishes and the youngest tend to not be so. That is generally true and thus supports the idea that the youngest are rebels, but we all know many contradictions.

As for religious belief or not, I think it has more to do with whether someone thinks about such things or not. A thinker can be the oldest or the youngest. Sometimes the oldest are more serious about life at a younger age than the youngest. This may lead to thinking about religion's place, by the oldest, more than the youngest.

What I am concluding is that it seems birth order is a fuzzy concept on this subject. Just not enough there to make sweeping conclusions.

Krieger

I don't have any brothers or sisters (my younger brother died when I was five).

I've been an atheist for a long time now though.

Mageth

I'm the fifth of six from a devout xian (Assembly of God) family. The two eldest (girl-boy) are the most devout (brother is a minister; sister works in Christian Education); the two middle (boy-girl) are religious but not quite as devout (well, the sister may be); the two youngest (boy (me) - girl) are the least. I'm an atheist and my younger sister is at best a bit new-agey "spiritual", but definitely not xian.

[ October 03, 2002: Message edited by: Mageth ]</p>

Perchance

I'm the oldest of three children, atheist. My sister is some kind of confused theist- the kind who believes in God so she doesn't go crazy. I don't know what my brother is, but he doesn't seem to care about religion one way or the other and never mentions God.

I have an atheist/agnostic/pantheist father and a mother who probably comes closest to apatheist.

I think that parents have a lot more to do with it than birth order. Not everything, obviously, but a lot. Non-believing parents might be at least as likely to raise all non-believing children as believing parents are to raise all believing children.

-Perchance.