Athiests: What's your "Why I gave up the Ghost" story?

Question

In other words, what caused you to liberate yourself from the shackles of religion?
Here's mine(although you can probably piece it together from my other posts): Born into a lower-class, African-American, non-practicing Christian family. Mother went insane, converted to Judaism soon after(put two and two together:).
Dragged to services every saturday, no say in the matter. Crappy Hanukkah presents:)
Mercilessly mocked by my peers because of my "faith".
Eventually REALIZED my mother was insane, but said nothing.
In other words, my spiritual life thus far has been a lie. Coming to a Jewish college, I finally "got" how I just didn't belong, and how this wasn't for me--religion, I mean. I'd been forced to say I believed in something, just because I'd been living with a crazy person for 10 years.

Again, I get answers from people who I REALLY don't want to answer this question. If you believe in God and the Easter Bunny, that's great for you. I'm asking people why they stopped believing. I'm curious about THEIR life experience. I honestly don't care if you believe that Jesus Saves. So please go away.

Answer 1

I was raised catholic and went to catholic school for twelve years. As some people may not know when you are catholic and attending catholic school you have to attend mass on the first Friday of each month. In anycase for me, I've never had a feeling that there was a god but because of catholic school and having to attend mass on Sunday it was drilled into my head that there was a god and all the things that are associated with him.. As i got older, I started to realized that the concpet of god did not make any sense, when I questioned my teacher during religion class, she spoke to me in a demeaning manner. poking fun of me for asking a serious question that she thought was not right..
She told us that god was everywhere and that he is not confinded to being in the church only.. I raised my hand and asked if god is everywhere, then why do I have to goto church and pray to god, couldn't I do that at home? This is what angered her.. But also the start of me questioning religion even more...
During high school I stopped attending mass on Sunday but could not get out of school mass. Anyway in my junior year, I prayed for the well being of a loved one and found out that he passed away, just as I walked in from attending mass.
After the death of this loved one, I kept hearing how prayers are answered and since I was angry that my grandfther died I asked.
If god answers prayers then why did he not listen to my request to make my grandfather better or at least live a little longer so that I could have gone overseas to see him one last time?
AHole priest replied back with "god works in mysteries ways and added it is not our place to question gods actions."

This just caused me to snap and year by year belief in god and religion decreased. I gathered my thougths about what was taught to me about god and then looked at it from a logical point and concluded that god is not real and that the concept of god being all-loving; all-knowing and all-powerful does not add up.

The more I heard about how people were killed in the name of god or how people's rights are hindered or how science is hinder due to religion the more I realized that the claim of religion being peaceful is full of crap..

9/11 came and that further added resentment in religion.

Most people hold onto the belief in god and religion because they feel lost without. Little do they realize or want to realize is that religion has in fact been the cause of 99% of the problems in the world. A majority of wars have been started due to religion, people killed for not converting was due to religion..
In short religion is a blight onto society.. The sooner people realize that god and religion is nothing more than myths and fairtales the better society can be..

I finally renounced religion and god and even sent a letter to my local catholic church declaring my formal delcaration of defection from the catholic church as well as became a member of Freedom From Religion Foundation and American Atheists..

I think you should look at their websites and see what religion for what it truly is..

Answer 2

I realized that the world was not created in seven days. I looked at religion in general and knew that religion was created for control. People need to be policed and what better way to police someone than having a supreme being watching your eevry move. In that aspect, religion is like Santa Claus for adults: there's someone watching you all the time and knows if you've been bad or good.
I never believed that religion was a bad thing. There are some good life lessons in the bible. Faith can be a good thing. I have faith in my kids, my wife, and my family. I do not have faith in something that has an answer like "do not put the lord your god to the test" when I question the validity.
I also realized that when people were going to church, they had to say a predetermined verse. They didn't believe in what they were saying, just going through the motions. What individual churches teach and what the Christian bible tells you conflict. How many prayers are recited in a Catholic mass? The bible tells you to say the "Our Father" prayer when you want to speak to God.
I could go on forever on religion, but this kinda says what I believe.

Answer 3

Very interesting question and story.

I was brought up in a family that never even mentioned religion. I didn't even know it existed. In college, I started to get some spiritual yearnings. I joined the Catholic church and almost joined a seminary to become a priest! But I decided to check out what where the differences between different "Christian" denominations. And what I found was that they all basically think they are "right" and everyone else is "wrong". I realized, as did the Mormon Joseph Smith, that either all were wrong or else one was right and everyone else was wrong. But I decided that without a doubt, all were wrong. Since "god" doesn't make himself or his will be known and certainly doesn't answer prayer, the fact is that he doesn't exist, and there is zero evidence to the contrary. It is so liberating to be free of religion.

Which doesn't mean we should be free of spirituality. One can totally dismiss silly religious doctrines and still have a personal spiritual life. That life is about pursuing truth and the oneness of everything.

Answer 4

I used to be forced to go when I was little by my grandmother. While in church, I never felt a connection with this spirit/deity/ghost/person named "God"; I just sat there. In my old private school, people sang Christian songs and so did I but, I never "felt" anything from it; I sang because everyone else was singing. When I became older, I would ask someone a question and they would simply answer "because it is the will of God." When I would ask why or what God's plan was, no one could tell me. I also started getting deeper into science. I found it very hard to believe that some spiritual Deity "created the universe in 6 days and on the 7th he rested", to me that was a bunch of crock. I found it much easier to rely on the Big Bang theory and the theory of evolution than to believe the theory of "God did it." So far, no one has been able to shake me from my disbelief in God. I'm happy being atheist and my mother (a non-practicing Catholic) doesn't mind. There's also a lot more things that turned me off from Christianity but, I'm too tired to list them. One of them involves the much loved song "Jesus Loves Me" and the "sins" in the bible.

I would never tell my relatives, though. They're all Roman Catholics with sprinkles Baptists here and there. I don't want oppression from them.

Answer 5

...began spiraling into fundamentalism, which led me to actually read the Bible all the way through for the first time. It disturbed me, so I did it again to see if I had simply misunderstood. That planted the seed of doubt.

Then I began trying to prove that - god must exist from a philosophical perspective, and that Jesus must have actually risen from the dead. When I discovered that philosophically, god was not only not necessary, but actually impossible, and further discovered there was no evidence for the resurrection at all outside the Bible, I began to have serious doubts.

At that point I simply wanted to prove Jesus existed, only to discover that all the usual 'proofs' amounted to abject crap I would not even consider in any other argument.

I called myself an agnostic for a while until I began to look into the anture of knowledge and faith and realized that you can't legitimately make claims about the nature of god - including his unknowability - unless you first know something about him.

At that point I realized that the case for god is no different than the case for Santa (assuming you didn't know the history of the myth). I also realized I DID know the history of the Santa myth, and set out to understand the history of the god myth.

I feel I have obtained a reasonable understanding of that history, and can seal the lid on any doubt about gods. I now have knowledge of how the myths formed, which pretty much makes it impossible to believe they might even possibly be true.

Answer 6

I don't believe in being religious so to speak but rather spiritual. I am a Christian of the Pentecostal faith. When I was growing up the church was my refuge. It was a safe place to go where people actually cared about me. While there, I realized how much God himself cared about me. As I grew up. and through some difficulties in the church I was attending, I realized that all people, especially preachers, are human and that it is important that we make sure we are pleasing God. Religion in itself is not the answer to anything but as long as I know my heart and life are right before God then I am at peace.

Answer 7

I was an Atheist but If you don't mind Id like to say why I chose not to be an Atheist... I thought that if I were wrong and Christianity was right then I'm in trouble... what if Christianity is right as horrible as that may seem... I think I'd rather error on the side of caution... What difference does it make in the end... life is over and either I'm annihilated or I'm in heaven... either way as a Christian I win in the end...

Answer 8

I have never really believed. My mom took me to church when I was young. There is enough evidence of evolution for me to realize that this makes sense. It also just seems rather egotistical to think that there is this great god out there and that he would be that worried over what to him would be less then an ant. Plus who would want to worry what a god who worries first about whether or not you believe in him then about if you are a good person thought of you.

Answer 9

I dont believe in "God" because he just sounds like a fairy tale/myth. I'm not going to believe in someone that I don't think is real. I dont believe that he's up in the sky watching over us. I dont believe Jesus rose from the dead. I don't believe any of that crap they try and teach you. I mean how can you really trust what the bible says? The Ten Commandments arent even the ten commandments. They were rewritten and edited by "man". Who's to say that "man" didnt write the whole damn bible?

Answer 10

Thanks For Your Story
I just like to comment on 2 parts
1. Why do you count on your mother ? she is free to go to whatever religion she likes and if she is crazy like you said God wont judge her at all ....so why you connect your spiritual life with someone you say is crazy ???

2. Your Story contained Christianity and Judaism but it seems that you never knew Islam the world fastest Growing religion now . before you judge on Islam from what you here..please see this site http://islameveryday.blogspot.com http://thequraan.blogspot.com

:) have a nice day