A question to those that have lost there faith?

Question

Ok, please answer honestly, try to keep the smart aleck stuff to a minimum. This is mostly aimed at atheist and or agnostic.
Were you raised in a religious house hold? If so what religion was it? And what made you decide to stop?Were your parents upset with you? And did this, even in a little way make your happy? (be honest!)

Now I know many of you do your own research, and while I do think that is great, and I don't know any of you, so don't take this as me bashing your IQ or whatever. But what makes you think that your opions and research outweights the opinions of those that have made it there lifes work to study say the bible? I mean there are many very smart ppl that have disproven the bible, but I personaly don't know of any, I guess I just assume they exist.

Like I said before, please be honest. And don't just cop out and say something sarcastic or rude. I am trying to understand some things. And if you want others to even consider your views, you have to actualy give them

DTB-- you would be alot more convincing if you expanded your explanation.

Please, if you don't mind discussing this further please e-mail, IM, or PM me. I'm really curious about this.

Answer 1

Raised Southern Bapatist. I stoped because I saw mono-theism to be very violent. Everyone was trying to make others belive in their god. I tried other religions, but I found them to be equally absurd.

Happy? I don't think I am less or more happier. I still like the same things. I just do it with out fear of hell or any dogma to tell me what to do.

Parents? They say they are still christian but they havn't been in a church in 10 years. They have little room to tell me about faith.

My opinion? Well, it is based off of those people that have spent their lives in study. I read what they have to say and weigh it against reason. The things that pan out I trust. The things that do not I discard. At least until better information is presented by a credible source.

I am a Freethinker. I have weighed both sides and found that theism is not rational. If you can deal with your faith not being rational more power to you. I would rather remained grounded to reality than wishful thinking.

Answer 2

I was not raised in any religion. Seeking out a faith was my own doing, as was leaving it. And no, I'm not happier now that I'm without a religion. But such is the way it is when your happy (but false) illusions are taken away. Not unlike finding out the truth about Santa.

The opinions and research you're talking about is science.

Why does science outweigh the bible? Because science is basically the collected works of countless people saying, "This is what I saw, and these are the facts surrounding what I saw." As well as a bunch of other people that have looked at the same things and confirmed the reports. The facts reported are from the vast expanses of the universe, down to the smallest quark, and everything in between. Most of these people didn't report these facts to "disprove the bible". In fact, until recently, most all scientists were also religious and were just looking for truth.

As far as I'm concerned, the pursuit of scientific knowledge IS the study of God. But rather than doing so by looking at one book of dubious origination, it is done by looking at what God has given us.

What makes more sense to you?

If you do look at what science shows us, there are profound truths within. Too grand a subject for this forum, but I take a little jab at it in my 360.

Answer 3

I grew up in a baptist home. So i grew up with scripture and philosophies from the bible. My parents were never upset with me, but my grandparents were when i told them i didn't feel the same way they did. I wouldn't say living that way made me happy, but it could have been better without the pressure of religion and acceptance in my face. A lot of people who make it their lives quest to study the bible do not have an open mind. Along with those who try to disprove it. The bible will never be disproved as along as people have faith in it. That applies to any religion. There have been very few events in the bible that have been proved. And there have been a few that have been disproved. I think this whole question you are asking is, "Why don't you believe in Jesus?". It is a lot of things. I can't say that it is just one thing. I feel in my heart that it is a lie. There is some good advice in the bible, but most of it is completely unrealistic. Ive seen what christianity has done to some people, It has turned some people into judgemental, intolerant, extreemists. No one can interpret the bible in the same way. There are few universal interpreted truths between denominations. To most christians, anything disproven by non-christians is said to be a "metaphor".(Noah, Moses...other things i can't think of because its 4am).. The top answers ive head for why people belive in god are, Faith, Being brought up a Christian, and the Fear of Hell. Which non seem to be a valid reason for me. If youve ever seen a mentally unstable person, they either claim they are god or claim you are a demon. Many Christian have the "Holier than thou" mentality from what they interpreted from the bible. Many Christians believe that every aspect of your life can be solved through Jesus. I've heard some say people have mental disease because their faith in Jesus is not strong. I can go on and on. But i am getting tired. What is mainly comes down to is, ive seen good christian and bad christians. But mostly, Christianity is a religion where no one can really agree on anything, and it has turned too many people into those i cannot tolerate. So if i were to decide how to become a christian, there is no way to distinguish the true meaning of anything in the bible. That is only a matter of personal interpretation. And we all have seen in the past how grossly many have misinterpreted the bible. Without being able to do that interpret it correctly, there is no point in believing in it. There is the possibility that your entire belief system is nothing but a lie. A Christian would say "It is better to believe and be wrong when i die, than to not believe and face the possibility of eternal damnation." If you are wrong, think about the way you live your life because of your religion, and think about how you treated other people because of it.

Answer 4

I was raised by an atheist father, who then became agnostic, who then became a Christian once again (he was raised as a Christian). My grandparents, however, took me to a Southern Baptist Church and my Dad didn't try to influence me either way - other than to tell me about science. I was saved at age 6. I also went to a Catholic school for a year, and my older brother is a Mormon. I went to church with him a few times, and discussed his beliefs with him in depth.

What made me decide to stop... honey, I can't do that justice in this forum. It was a lot of things. Hell is a major problem for me. The evil of God in the Bible is a problem for me, as are the contradictions. The fact that there are billions of other people that believe in another God... who's to say they aren't right? I think all the religions are wrong, and all have a bit of truth.

My father is dead, and I only recently deconverted. I doubt he would have cared. He would have instead been the only one in my family to completely understand, like he was with every other difficult or controversial issue in my life. My mother believes similarly to the way I do, but was not around to influence me in childhood.

As far as my opinions, I don't let my faith be decided any more by other people. That's why I do my own research... I listen to other people, but I don't follow. My research and my opinions about the Bible and religion outweigh the opinions of others only for me. I can share them, and I can try to get others to understand what I think and why, but other than that, I don't claim to have all the answers.

I do find that no matter how long someone has been devoted to the study and practice of a religion, there are always arguments against that person's research. The arguments they give to defend their religion - called apologetics - are likewise often easy to attack and break down logically. You can imagine that in reading things like this, I was very scared and actually pretty much heartbroken... I read A LOT, trying to make myself hold on to the beliefs I had for 20 years. But, I will not force myself to believe something based on the fact that I want to believe it. That's just silly.

Interestingly enough, Pascal's Wager *in reverse* came into play as well... If I continue to live life as if there's a God, then if I am wrong, I have wasted much of the precious little time I had on earth in fear and in fantasy... and all while never being sure of my beliefs.

Life is too precious to waste. I think it's likely there's a Higher Power, or God, or Force, something like that. But I don't think we should be so arrogant as to assume - "I have it right, and you don't!" Life is too short, and the world is in far too much turmoil to have that kind of attitude.

Answer 5

I was raised in a nominally Christian household, but realized at a very early age that the biblical accounts of many things did not agree with known facts. This sent me on a quest to determine a system for learning what we can -- and cannot -- know. The basic approach is the scientific method, with particular emphasis on the work of the late Karl Popper [Conjectures and Refutations, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, and other works], and I am writing a textbook on the results. The most important result is the following theorem, for which I have a proof:
The usefulness (i.e., predictive power) of any theory obtains exclusively from the refutability of that theory.
Since no religious theory is refutable, no such theory can predict anything: all are useless, and can thus be ignored.
It is trivial to refute the bible: it contains scores of internal contradictions, and hundreds of errors of fact. It is not trivial (but it is possible) to refute the Qur'an, and I have done so. I have not bothered to look at other religious texts.
Persons interesed in private discussions are welcome to write to [e-mail].

Answer 6

I was baptised when I was in 5th grade at a Russian Orthodox Church because the church my mother went to growing up wouldn't do it since we were not members, this was in Alaska while we were living in Texas. It was little things like this and the many inconsistencies in the bible that made me start questioning religion. I'm an apathetic agnostic, I don't know if God exsists, and I don't care. I don't think any one religion has everything down pat because they get too tied up in details. I feel that if you try to be a decent human being then if there are any rewards in the end, any deity worth anything will reward you, regardless of your religious beliefs. Committing oneself to a religion that says all non-believers are going to be punished is cruel because you're justifying sending millions if not billions of people to a horrible fate whether or not they were good people.

Answer 7

I am a Gnostic Christian. My mother was a Methodist and my father was an agnostic. My grandmothers were both very devout Christian mountain women that still practice ideas from the old religions. (Setting out milk for fairies, telling the weather, telling the future, etc.) My one grandfather died before I got to know him very well, but my other grandfather was a student of religions. He is were i got my lust of knowledge of peoples beliefs and beliefs systems. In my teenage and college years i was a trying to be a devout born again Christian. Yes, I think this both my grandfather and father were upset at this choice and my mother was busy telling me that I wasn't good enough. I still read and learned about other religions because I never felt quite right with what i was told in church. There was too much you have to believe this and that with no proof or real reason. I was a history major with a concentration in the middle ages. As I learned more about the history of modern Christianity I became more and more disillusioned with what i was studying. I also found that it was more and more difficult for me to give up the feminine face of the divine. After getting fed up with Christianity i tried pagan religions for a while looking to find a balance between the male and the female. This did not work for me because to many people that I found did not worship a male and female as much as they wished the goddess and oh yeah, her consort. Also to many people in the pagan community at the time were more worried about magic and not about religion. { I know from pagan friends of mine that that has changed since i studied that, but that was the way i felt 15 years ago.} When I was pregnant I again went back to devout Christianity, but still it did not feel right to me. Finally within the last year i have found Gnosticism and it feels more right for me.

Answer 8

Well, being as how my parents are Catholic, I was raised to be one. Things started to change when going to church became a chore and not a place where I wanted to go out of my own will. So I then started to go when I felt like going, when It came out of my own self to go. It wasn't that I was lazy or anything its just I would go when I wanted to go, when I felt the need to go. That made me feel good. It would anger my parents but oh well.

I also started to question things, like for example, why should people fear God? I see God as a Father/Mother figure that is supposed to guide us but let us be free to make our own choices, but still love us and forgive us if we make bad choices. Yes, I did just imply that God could be a she or even just an entity without gender.

Another thing that annoyed me was the constant begging for money to upgrade the church. Had it been for homeless people or for an orphanage by all means, but if you make a PowerPoint to show the people how the money will be spent and how it its to remodel a church to make it look nice and to build a parking structure... You know... It doesn't make sense.

The last straw came around the last elections when the priest blatantly told the people not to vote for someone and then followed by saying that if they did they would go to hell for it. WTF is that all about! That did it for me and while I do believe in God I just don't like the idea or religion and how some people can easily control the masses by saying that they will be damned for eternity. I still get urges to go to church and I do go, but not to that particular one.

That's my short version. If you want to know more contact me.

Answer 9

Well all i ve to say is that all this while, the religious community has been saying that the so called 'scientists' are just coming up with explanations for themseles, to satisfy their minds (gravity, etc) and that all this is non-sense

but isn't this actualy true for the so called believers I mean i downloaed this lecture ( i dunno wats it called in christanity),,,,and that man's point was simply,,,,,,,,,,that now tht we are on this planet,,,,,so there has to be a purpose for it,,,,,,,,and only if we believe in God,,,,can we understand that purpose

Wat he dint realize and was unwilling to accept,,,,is that no matter how sad/ mundane this sounds,,,,there really is no purpose,,,,its just that our cerebellum/brain evelope in a way that we can now actually "think" for our purpose!!,,,,nothin more than that!

Answer 10

I not in any respect lost faith - i became not in any respect confident there became a god in the first position. i'm nevertheless waiting for some type of data. i became advised there became a teeth fairy even as i became a smooth boy - i'm certain i presumed it until eventually i became previous sufficient to attain it became in simple terms nonsense because there not in any respect became any data of this is existance. similar is going for the Boogie guy, Santa Clause, the Easter bunny, Leprachauns, Godzilla, the Sandman, Draculla, the Wolfman, witches, ghosts, angels, etc. Why do you imagine god is diverse than any of those? there is not any data - why do you nevertheless believe there quite is a god yet no unicorns? what's the version?