Neil was a mountain kid. Raised by artists up in the San Luis Valley. There are about 500 artists (according to Wiki) who live up in that valley, and both Neil's parents were artists.
One day, Neil told me this story. When he was growing up, his parents made him attend church every Sunday from about age six on. His parents themselves would never go to church, though. They'd just make Neil get dressed up, then send him off to church.
When he'd come home, they'd ask him how it went, what the sermon was about, and things like that. But Neil could tell they were just checking up on him to make sure he went -- they themselves weren't really interested in it.
By the time Neil was 13, he was fed up with it. So one Sunday, instead of going to church, he approached his parents, who were sitting in their kitchen, having coffee.
"Mom, Dad! I'm fed up with church. I don't believe a thing they say about god and I don't share many of their values. I'm a stranger there." blah, blah, blah. Neil went on for several minutes, all the time on the verge of tears, while his parents just watched and listened to him in silence.
Finally, his mother spoke, "Neil, your father and I are both atheists. But we knew if we just told you church wasn't for you, you'd wouldn't have believed us. So we sent you to church all these years so you could find out for yourself. You've done that, and you no longer have to go to church if you don't want to."
