Christian guilt is reportedly the main reason behind popular actor and former Baptist Brad Pitt’s atheist stand. The 51-year-old actor has turned his back on religion even after being raised as a strict Baptist in America’s Deep South by his father, Bill Pitt.

Sky News reports that Pitt’s dad instilled in him since childhood “all the Christian guilt about what you can and cannot, should and shouldn't do.” Pitt grew up in a Southern Baptist household in Springfield, Missouri where dad Bill ran a trucking company and his mother was a family counsellor.

In 2012, Pitt said that he “oscillates between agnosticism and atheism,” reports Mirror.

Although Pitt’s Christian upbringing may have backfired completely, the husband of Angelina Jolie still respects his father’s lessons on life and acknowledges the fact that they have helped him in maintaining a family and in bringing up his six kids.

“One thing my folks always stressed was being capable, doing things for yourself. He was really big on integrity — and that informed a lot of what [we] try to do now,” said Pitt in a Saturday interview in The Telegraph UK.

However, Jolie has other beliefs and accepts the existence of a higher power. She credits late Louis Zamperini for her spiritual beliefs. Zamperini was a World War II hero who survived after being imprisoned in a POW camp. He was also an Olympic athlete. He is the inspiration behind Jolie’s movie “Unbroken.” They worked on the film together.

“We’re not alone in the world. I don’t know if there’s a name for that — religion or faith — just that there’s something greater than all of us, and it’s uniting and beautiful,” she told People magazine.

Meanwhile, Pitt believes he is doing a great job as a dad and even pointed out that his relationship with his six children and wife Jolie have made him a better actor. He said he was a good actor before but had his hits and misses. However, he is now a more confident actor. He added that his family, a stable relationship and his kids are bigger than himself.

Pitt admitted that as children need constant attention and care, it has made him less stressed and clear about what his steps would be and how he would do everything that would make their kids respect him more and be proud of. Pitt says he is more efficient at work as he can’t wait to get back home to see his kids.

However, Pitt does play the part of a disciplinarian dad. According to him, he is a disciplinarian with the boys. His daughters don’t do any wrong. He feels his job as a dad is to show them around, help them find what they want with their lives, put as many things in front of them as possible and pull them back when they go out of line.

Pitt describes his family as “a lot of love, a lot of fighting, a lot of refereeing; a lot of teeth-brushing and spilling. Chaos, total chaos. But so much fun.”

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