What are your earliest memories of Religion?

[Bthoth]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

Learning the commandments.

The foundation of right and wrong. No lie, no steal, no murder.

I do remember watching the writing of the base rules on the chalk board and the conversations-questions with both parents later on the drive home.

At that time, the clarification was given, that 'god' made the rules.

 

[libre]

My grandmother's funeral when I was about 16
It was my first time I actually sat through a sermon in a catholic church.
It totally freaked me out. It was a very cult-ish experience and in a way even a bit traumatizing if I'm being honest.
I remember little of the actual funeral. I remember the stinking incense and the freaky zombified cultish atmosphere very vividly.

I visited churches previously but it was more like a cultural tourist to go and see the architecture and the paintings.

It didn't dawn on me until I was a teenager how cannibalistic Christian ritual sounds, I was so normalized to it when I was young.

 

[libre]

The feelings were variously extreme boredom (as expected of forcing a kid with ADD to go to mass where they mostly just sit there and do nothing) and elated (as expected during the few moments where we got to do something interesting like sing or move around)

This comment sparked a memory of how much I used to enjoy singing in Church that I had forgotten.
Not because I liked singing but that I hated sitting still.

 

[metis]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

Going to Lutheran services as a child, then vacation Bible school, and later joining the Luther League in my early teens. Fond memories even though I left the church after high school.

 

[Quintessence]

This comment sparked a memory of how much I used to enjoy singing in Church that I had forgotten.
Not because I liked singing but that I hated sitting still.

Haha, yeah, that is basically how my church mass experiences felt. The only two parts I liked were: (1) singing, and (2) standing up to eat those styrofoam crackers. Both of which involved not needing to sit still.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

It didn't dawn on my until I was a teenager how cannibalistic Christian ritual sounds, I was so normalized to it when I was young.

That wasn't even the part that freaked me out.

It was really the cult-isch factor. The sudden standing up all at once without warning, the mumbling of the same words without prior warning,...
I felt surrounded by hypnotized zombies.

When people read this they will no doubt feel insulted again. It's just honestly how I experienced it.
I guess that if you didn't grow up in such surroundings, doing such every sunday and experience it for the first time at 16 or older, it's very much different.

I haven't gone back for any sermon since then. Don't care what the occasion is.
I transferred to a catholic school for my final 2 years (logistic purposes). There were "mandatory" church sermons twice a year there. I categorically refused and made a whole scene lol. They gave me detention the first time. They didn't bother me anymore afterwards.

 

[metis]

About age 5, sitting in a group of other children with a grey haired old lady reading a story of some guy walking on water.

After arriving home i went to the river and tried, it didn't work.

Aw, that's too bad as I was walking on water about 20 minutes ago.

It's raining and I had to take out the garbage and get the mail.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

My grandmother's funeral when I was about 16
It was my first time I actually sat through a sermon in a catholic church.
It totally freaked me out. It was a very cult-ish experience and in a way even a bit traumatizing if I'm being honest.
I remember little of the actual funeral. I remember the stinking incense and the freaky zombified cultish atmosphere very vividly.
I visited churches previously but it was more like a cultural tourist to go and see the architecture and the paintings.

My earliest is at age 3 1/2.
My father was dying (but I did Not know that) and he took me aside as said No matter what happens if I love God I would have nothing to worry about and He would take care of me.
At the funeral I remembered what he said and and the more I thought about it overwhelming peace came over me.
I don't think I shed any tears after that.

Around age 7/8 when the priest read to be in fear of Him who can kill both body and soul.....
To my confusion I wondered why the church says the soul can't be killed when Jesus believed the soul can be killed?

My grandmother's funeral when I was 10 what freaked me out was the priest saying to pray for the purgatory dead.
At that point I began praying , " Get me out of here " .

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Aw, that's too bad as I was walking on water about 20 minutes ago.
It's raining and I had to take out the garbage and get the mail.

Someone told me he could walk on water as Jesus did, but just as long as the water stays frozen !

 

[Sand Dancer]

Going to Lutheran services as a child, then vacation Bible school, and later joining the Luther League in my early teens. Fond memories even though I left the church after high school.

Luther League. Sounds like a new action movie.

 

[bobhikes]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

Bad would be the nuns in kindergarten slapping my knuckles with a ruler for getting the wrong answer and being put in the corner of class for punishment

Good attending folk music masses on Sunday's about the same age.

 

[InChrist]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

I was raised a Catholic, so my earliest memories of religion were associated with going to mass; the priest wearing robes, candles, statues of Mary and saints, keeping holy days of obligation, certain rules. As a little kid, I just assumed everyone was Catholic. In elementary school I had a crush on this boy and friends said he’s Jewish. I didn’t even know what that meant and liked him just the same.
In spite of all the Catholic religious distractions I always sensed there was something special about Jesus. I think the Catholic Church and its claim of being the true church set me up with this idea that there was “one true church”. I became disillusioned with Catholicism and stopped going in my late teens. Later, I tried various religious groups or churches which claimed to be “the true church” only to see discrepancies and become further disillusioned. My mom used to say to me, “ once a Catholic, always a Catholic “.
Then I was saved by a Person and trusted Him as my living Savior. I finally realized just Who and how special Jesus is… incomparable to any religion.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Earliest memories. Listening to my grandpa chanting his mantras and performing his fire-sacrifice while waking up.
I remain a staunch Hindu but have turned to being a strong atheist a well.

 

[shunyadragon]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

The foul smell of incense, and dust, and dark hard benches and stained glass, in an old Episcopalian Church. I was wearing an uncomfortable suit.

 

[prayingwife]

I remember going to church as a child.

 

[PureX]

Sadly, my earliest memory of a religious nature was with a pedophile priest when I was about 7 years old. Fortunately another priest caught him before the encounter got to a point of any real damage and I was too young to be much more than just confused and frightened by it. I grew up in Catholicism so to me it was something that was just always around, like the weather. I never really gave it much thought until I became a teenager and fortunately, our parents allowed us to make our own decisions about it at that age. So I took some time away from it to think on it and eventually decided to take away from it what I though made sense to me, and to forget the rest.

 

[Colt]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

Going to Sunday school, stuff about Noah's ark and other stories I thought were stupid! Blood, lots of blood talk, darkness and death!

 

[Yerda]

The first real memory I have of religion was learning about St Christopher, in school, when I was about 5.

 

[Ame23B]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

I grew up in a high demand religion (Mormonism) and so from the moment I was born I was deep in it. I remember Sundays were for going to church, we always prayed for every meal and at night before bed, we had to study and read the scriptures, and we had rules we needed to follow. I am the 4th out of 5 kids and so I would see my older siblings do all these things and I knew I was expected to follow that same path. As I got older I just assumed this was real life and so I went along with it for a long time, maybe too long.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

Title.

What is the earliest memory you have relating to Religion? Was it yours or others?

I remember being around 3 or 4 years old and attending church with my parents, and hearing the pastor saying that people who believe in Jesus go to Heaven and those who don't believe in Jesus go to Hell. I remember this caused me some distress even as a toddler, and I remember asking myself if I believed in Jesus or not. I wasn't sure but I tried to convince myself that I did. Throughout the rest of my childhood I took religion very seriously and suffered from an intense fear of Hell. I was never convinced that God existed, but I would pray to him more than 10 times a day, either confessing my "sins" or thanking him for the "blessings" that he supposedly gave me. I remember my grandpa and my parents acted concerned about me when I was around 10 or 11 years old because they noticed that I would literally jump out of my chair and start whispering words at the ceiling. Apparently they didn't realize that I was just being a good Christian and taking their religion seriously and praying to the god that they taught me to believe in and fear. I would continue this behavior throughout my teen years and often lie face down on the floor and pray to this "god" that supposedly existed, with "fear and trembling" since that was how the biblical authors taught people to pray. Of course I never heard a damn thing in response to any of these prayers, which were just a waste of life that could have been spent on productive and enjoyable things. I now realize that this behavior was irrational, destructive to my quality of life, and arguably mentally ill, as is all religious behavior in my opinion. I am open minded and agnostic (I don't claim to know anything with absolute certainty), but I currently believe that all religions and gods are manmade constructs.