Most of us define ourselves as left or right or somewhere in-between. Some people start out as one thing and eventually become the other. Many things can influence our political identity such as our parents, our education and our life experiences.
In my case my mother is an conservative and my father a liberal. I took after my father and my sister took after our mother. I was raised Catholic and became an Atheist. My sister remains a Catholic. Needless to say there are some pretty interesting and heated discussions that take place when we are all together.
My education played a part as well. I became a liberal when I was quite young but remained a believer until I was in college. I feel higher education freed me from the chains of religion and I consider my atheism as part of my political identity as many theists consider their religion as part of their political being.
My life experiences have taught me that conservative politics and religion [especially when they are mixed] are harmful to humanity in general and deadly in cases such as religious wars. For me at least liberalism offers a much more humane and decent world than conservatism offers. Others of course have different views. What are yours on the subject? What was the largest influence on your political/religious views? Care to discuss it?
I'll answer this question in two parts - the religious and the political - but I think the two will be drawn together.
First, political. I grew up in a liberal home, but in a very conservative town and area. I was exposed to both sides from a young age, and even as early as High School, I made my own choices as to where I would stand on issues. My father rarely discussed politics. He voted in every election, but I don't ever recall him telling me for whom he voted. My mother was a different story - she was as liberal as the day is long, and a devoted Democrat. And it would be foolish to try and say that she didn't have an influence on me. I had a history teacher in High School who was as conservative as my mother was liberal. And we had some wonderful - and even occasionally heated - discussions. I had him for American History 1 in my Freshman year, and then I actually sought out his electives over the next couple of years, because despite our differences, I had a great deal of respect for him, and his teaching method. I learned a lot in his classes, and I also learned other perspectives, and he too influenced me. My first major election was the 1980 Presidential election, between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. I backed Carter. I didn't like Reagan, and more importantly, I didn't trust Reagan. I wasn't crazy about the progress Carter made (or didn't make), but I felt he got something of a raw deal, and respected him. My second major election was the 1982 gubernatorial election between Tom Kean and Jim Florio. Much to my mother's chagrin, I backed Kean, and still to this day believe that he was our best governor in my lifetime. So, even back then, in my early twenties, I was independent and not absolutely tied to one party. And that continued, as I grew older. My mother was 100% anti-gun. I never was. I earned an expert rating in the service with a pistol (I qualified with the rifle, but was never close to as good or as natural as I was with the pistol), and my enjoyment of shooting continued from there. At one point I competed on an amateur level, and like most serious competitors, I loaded my own ammunition. Also in my 20's, I discovered a talk show host in Philadelphia named Irv Homer. Irv was libertarian, and even (before I knew who he was) had run for Vice President of the United States on an independent ticket. I listened to that station - WWBD - until suddenly one day, the talk show hosts were canned and they switched to a hip hop music format. The three major daytime hosts were a staunch conservative on morning drive, a staunch liberal mid day and then Irv in the afternoon. It was a good balance, and gave me exposure to various viewpoints. I went libertarian myself for a number of years - even joined the party - and still hold to many of the ideals from those days, but two things drove me away. First there was the realization that my ideology, as good as it really was, really only worked in a world in which there was no such thing as greed, either for power or wealth. The second was in recent years how the party started to shift to the right and embrace right wing extremism instead of classic liberalism. I make no bones about it - I am definitely to the left of center. But I am not extreme in that, and am a genuine moderate who leans left, and a genuine free thinking independent. The only campaign I ever worked for was actually a Republican who ran for governor (he lost). I'm no partisan.