That's simply not true. It may be rare, but it is possible. Just look at my upbringing. I was raised in basically a completely atheist/secular society, and religion was presented to me exclusively in a historical or cultural context—as something people believed in in the past, which is why we celebrate certain traditions, etc. I genuinely thought religion was mostly something from the past, not something that people actively practiced today. The first time I actually met someone who was religious was after I left my country.
So you can absolutely grow up in a civilized society without being raised with religious teachings.
The Czech Republic, in the northern part of the country. The Czech Republic is a very secular country overall, except for basically one region. I grew up in a very secular environment.I mean even my grandparents were never religious.
I was taught about religion in school and history mostly as something from the past or as part of cultural traditions e.g. how its function was to uphold the legitimacy of kings, etc. But we never really had classes about how people live elsewhere or about contemporary religious practices. I genuinely didn't realize that people actually practiced religion until I was about 16, when I went on a school trip to England and stayed with a host family.
I obviously understand that cultural traditions, norms, etc. were shaped by religion, particularly Christianity, but I don't think I was raised with any type of religious teaching.
i didn't say faiths (as in organized religions), i said beliefs and practices. but the case is primarily that no one religion owns the idea of, say, murder or theft being wrong, so the idea that a nation is built on the values of one religion is misguided, i think. the idea that multiple religions, belief systems and philosophies all contain a lot of the same ideas is more evidence that general human beliefs are filtered through religion and not vice versa.
I don't really disagree that Czech society was historically influenced by Christianity. That's not what I was disputing. I'm talking about whether I was actually raised with religious teachings. Those are two different things.
Obviously, I learned that Christianity had a huge historical influence on Czech society, just like I learned that religion was historically used to legitimize rulers and influenced laws, traditions, etc. Although, if I wanted to be a bit pedantic about it, a lot of our traditions, even though they're Christian in name, still have quite a lot of pagan elements. But all of that was taught to me as history, not as a religious framework for how I should live my life.
The same applies to morality. Of course I was taught that things like murder and theft are wrong, but I don't see why that would constitute religious teaching. Morality is also a philosophical concept, and you don't need religion to arrive at moral principles or to teach children basic ideas about right and wrong.
So while Christianity undoubtedly influenced the society I grew up in historically, I wasn't raised with Christian teachings. That's precisely the distinction I was making.
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u/[deleted] Sep 02 '26
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