My family was never very religious. Attended church from time to time, but not on a regular basis. I don't recall much discussion of religion around the house while growing up. Work ethic was instilled at a young age by both parents. If we wanted our allowance, we had to work for it. No work, no money, no questions. Once I was old enough to drive, I could borrow a car, but I paid for gas and insurance and if I got it dirty, I cleaned it. Parents also took an active role in our lives. That is where we learned morals. If I screwed up at school, I knew I would get double the punishment at home. Myself, pretty much agnostic by 18, aethesist soon after. Haven't seen or experienced anything in the last 30 years that would change that.

A few things to ponder. I know a lot of folks point to religion (not just Christian) as the basis for morals. I don't buy it. Yes, I see plenty of good things that religious people have done. Likewise, I see a lot of evil done in the name of religion. It seems to me that morals are part of humans and have been with us for a long time before religion was invented. Humans are social animals. To live in groups, you need certain "morals". I.e., if you are stealing from your neighbors, killing others in the group, mating with other's spouses, it does not bode well for group cohesion. You pretty much have to have a set of rules that are known and respected by all to insure group cooperation. Since proto-humans (australopithecines and such) arose some 4 million + years ago, humans have lived in small groups. Same for our closest relatives, chimps. Religion basically just codified those ideas (or morals) that allowed for people to live in peace together. This became more important as people started living in larger, more permanent, settlements. Until such time, humans lived in small hunter-gatherer groups, and spent much of the year traveling in groups of mostly related people. Religion becomes a little more important to group cohesion once you start having larger numbers of unrelated people residing together. Basically, behave or god will punish you. Well, thats the cliff-note version of my 2 cents worth.

Andrew