Your faith timeline.

[satsuma]

Southern Baptist mother, Catholic father, they never joined the same church but agreed that the kids could be Baptist. I've attended Mass plenty of times and stayed in the pew during Communion as non-Catholics do.

3-4: I remember believing in God in early childhood. Mom said I once claimed that everyone had their own God. Not even sure what heresy that is, probably just childhood solipsism.

6-7: Around this age, I believed my prayers were being answered, but in retrospect just an active imagination. Big contrast to my teens, when I was getting silence on the other end of the line. Baptized age 7 when I could express to Mom I was serious about being saved and not just trying to be a big kid.

10-12: Reading through the Bible a chapter or 2 nightly, this was kind of the peak of my taking religion seriously, kicked off by reading The Purpose-Driven Life. Due to biblical literalist sermons, I was satisfied to calculate that the Creation story was around 4000 BC. At 12, a classmate came out as gay, which didn't really challenge my faith... We weren't close and though I thought it was sinful, it was clear that other boys' teasing of him wasn't a Christian thing.

15: A growing interest in science caused by reading some books on the natural sciences... and I have to admit, some r/atheism-type memes on Facebook, really shook my beliefs. If I couldn't be Young-Earth Creationist, might as well be completely materialist, believe Jesus was just a man, no afterlife, the whole deal. Mentally I became an atheist, and I shut up about religious topics because my beliefs would be unacceptable to my parents.

It caused some anxiety around religious topics for several years since I still attended church services when I was living at home. But no one pays much attention to the bored young dude in church with his mom so whatever. I learned to enjoy the music and the sermon even if I thought it was malarkey. Mom switched to a "community church" with my aunt and cousins, but they're still Baptists in all but name.

I'm 26 now and haven't attended church all year due to COVID, work, and other stuff going on. Also as my political views evolved, I've been a closed book on that too... I kinda hate talking and especially hate getting into debates and sensitive subjects offline.