A question for atheists: what made you lose your faith?

Question

A question for atheists: was there one single event or revelation that destroyed your belief in God? Tell us about it.

Answer 1

It was a Homer Simpson line, where he asks if the family chose the "right" religion and if not, were they making God mad every week they went to church. It occured to me that with the plethora of religious choices, it makes very little sense to choose any of them. That is, as long as we're talking about faith as our basis, what is to differentiate between the person who has faith in a Judeo-Christian deity and the person who has faith in the power of voodoo? As far as I can tell, not a whole lot. From here, my religious world came crumbling down, and I am a lot happier for it.

Answer 2

I was raised catholic so I pretty much didnt have a choice. I thought that it was stupid to believe in something only because its what you were taught. Anytime I would ask about other religions no one would ever give me any answer. Around the age of 13 I started looking into other religions just to see what is out there. As more and mroe time passed I found what I wanted in my spirituality. I have very earthly beliefs that could involve a god, I cant really explain why I choose not to believe in one. I also think that its wrong to believe in god out of fear of going to hell. Then yorue just doing it for the wrong reason. I may be atheist, but compared to alot of christians that I know I am a more accepting loving caring person.My belief is that we are intelligent beings and we should use that intelligence to make the world a better place. Alot of religious people are too busy fighting and persecuting and the only way they can have peace is if everyone has the same beliefs as them. So it wasnt one event, but a long search that made me lose my faith.

Answer 3

I am not truly an atheist, but I certainly cannot be put into another category. Should I tell you of the Boys Club director who abused me and then had a reverend in to testify as to his character? The same reverend who dissuaded the parents of witnesses from allowing their teenage kids from testifying? Within 2 months it was found that the director had embezzled more than $250,000 from the club. No charges against him, would have been embarrassing after working so hard to protect him. Director later showed up in Grand Blanc as a Lutheran minister.
Islam is a violent religion, too unforgiving to truly interest me, and is chauvinistic to boot.
The Bible is a good book but there is absolutely no way that anyone will convince me that it is verbatim from God. The catholics have done their best to eliminate Christianity. The Crusades sent into Eastern Europe to "bring the people back to Christ", the Inquisition, the decimation of S. America, and on and on.
I believe in a creator, but anyone that thinks they are capable of understanding and dispersing the desires of that creator is very much fooling themselves. What is worse is someone with good orator skills who can lead others to do so much wrong in the world, all in the name of God.

Answer 4

it wasnt really one single event but it was a whole series of events that went on around that just made me lose it , there were these really whole hearted believers i knew and everything was bad for them , they prayed to 'god' all the time and they always had things so bad , no money , sick all the time , etc. , so i figured if there was a god then these people would be the happiest people around .
also because what ive read in science books seems a lot more logical since there are some creatures that resemble the animals of the past existing today , and the extra body parts we have that we wouldnt have needed if there really was an adam and eve .

Answer 5

I am neither an atheist nor an agnostic. I do believe that some force or being controls the universe and I call that force God. That is my faith. I do not have any faith whatsoever in the ability of mere human beings to correctly divine the words or desires of God. Therefore, I have no faith in any religion. I think I have always felt this way but was unable to express it until I was in my teens. I think atheists simply see no empirical evidence that God exists and therefore dismiss the idea entirely. I think everyone would believe if God suddenly appeared in the sky and told us He/She/It was real...whichever the case may be.

Answer 6

Never lost faith. Instead, I gained an appreciation for life as it is, not as some creation of a bearded guy in the sky keeping score. A scientific understanding of the universe is awe inspiring. For example, some of the complex molecules that we contain can be born nowhere but the nucleus of a sun. We are children of the stars. Literally. Why would you want to put some silly floating man in the picture? That just takes away from the simple, gorgeous truth.

Answer 7

No such event in my life. Some people just never take to religion, I was one of them. Even though I was raised Catholic, and enjoyed the social aspects of it, I can't remember a time when I didn't have doubts. I always knew that going to church was something I did only because my parents did it and that I would never choose to do it of my own volition.

I was in my mid-thirties when I finally thought about it and realized that I held no belief in god of any kind, and probably had not held any such belief since early childhood.

Answer 8

My basic revelation was that all religions believe they are the chosen religion--an absurd belief causing the untold suffering and death of multitudes--and that God is no more than an explanation for the unknowable and random acts of nature, as well as a comfortable way to deal with the fear of dying.

Answer 9

It was a discussion in a religion class in Catholic school that got me started. I questioned the morality of forbidding birth control in overpopulated third world countries, and the teacher responded that war and famine would just hasten the establishment of God's kingdom, and wasn't that a good thing. This got me thinking about whether religion was a positive force in the world, and I concluded it wasn't.

If I ever waver in my lack of faith, I just have to talk to my born-again sister and I'm back on the path.

Answer 10

I was raised Roman Catholic. For some reason I've been asking questions that they never satisfactorily answered. So I guess you can say I never really did have it.

I'm not sure if this question is really for me. I'm more of an agnostic. In case you don't know the difference an atheist would say god does not exist. An agnostic would say "I don't know and I don't care."