For atheists?

Question

Were you raised in a theistic religion, and if so, when did you decide not to believe in God?

I forgot, one must be very precise or people get very defensive.
Let me clarify: I used the word "decide' improperly. I meant:
When did you discover, or declare, that you didn't believe in God?

Answer 1

One reason was that religion was too itellectually limiting. You were not supposed to believe what to me seemed obvious because it conflicted with your religion. Whereas science seemed to be progressive, discarding old ideas and accepting new ideas that explained things better, religion would not accept any diviation from dogma.

Answer 2

Hi

I'm an atheist. I was raised in a catholic family. I went to two catholic schools. As a young child I was fascinated by dinosaurs. As a result I could explain the entire evolution (in short) of the animal race and the existence of the earth.

When I was bored listening to the preaches in church, I also realised that some events that occured in the Bible were in contrast with those of common sense or the evolution theory (such as the creation of Earth in 6 days).

Later, at the age of approximately 14-16, I started to wonder if a God existed, and he was omnipotent and omniscient, how could he be moral? How come he could not look after his creation(s)?

I started to think and think how to unbind the claims of religion by logical arguments. As I started discussion with theists on the internet, I soon noticed by the use of rational arguments that either at a certain point they did not respond to the discussion, they evaded my questions or simply kept repeating the same although it had no valuable meaning, although there are rational arguments for both beliefs.

I'm not one who pushes his toughts upon others. I can understand that different socio-economic backgrounds, different personalities and different events could lead to different opinions. After all I don't believe in free will, so neither in choice.

Later, I started to become aware, as I had never prayed, never believed in anything such as ghosts or other supernatural facts, that I was actually becoming a pure naturalist as well.

Answer 3

Q: " Were you raised in a theistic religion...?"

A: Yes.

Q: "... and if so, when did you decide not to believe in God?"

A: When I learned how to think. However, I'm not so sure that 'decide' really has anything to do with it. 'Belief systems' is one of the primary components and filters that make up each person's 'self-description'.

Our senses can perceive only a tiny fraction of a billionth of a billionth of the stimuli that is provided by the universe. Most of what we DO perceive (see, feel, hear, smell, touch) gets filtered out by the subconscious, beneath our level of awareness. The little bit that DOES make it past the subconscious gets processed through the internal filters that make up our 'self-description':

* Misconceptions
* Prejudices
* Beliefs
* Experiential reference
* Knowledge base

It is from THAT process that our 'subjective reality' emerges... our own personal view of the world... an interpretation of the universe, shaped by our self-description.

The only way for a person to evolve spiritually and personally is to clean up those filters... and for the most part, that means ELIMINATING them. Eliminate beliefs... eliminate prejudices... eliminate misconceptions... throw away everything from the knowledge base that is not legitimate, factual knowledge... recapitulate the experiential reference and reinterpret experiences consistent with cleaned-up filters. Rinse and repeat.

So, essentially, 'not believing' was not a matter of decision, such as waking up one morning and declaring "From here on out, I will no longer believe there is a god." No... it is more a matter of mental re-wiring, which included eliminating beliefs entirely. 'Belief' is an insidious mind-killer, since it creates an illusionary 'certainty' that one knows the 'truth' about something.

Belief is delusion.

P.S.: I should clarify my use of the word 'belief' here. It is perfectly acceptable, in everyday discourse, to say things like:

* I believe OJ did it.
* I believe the sun will come up tomorrow.
* I believe in god.

However, in deeper discussion, it is necesary to recognize that there are different nuances of meaning for the word 'belief' in those three statements... subtleties that seem to escape the notice of most Christians.

In the first sentence, 'belief' connotes a strong opinion.

In the second sentence, 'belief' represents a reasonable expectation based upon knowledge and experiential reference.

In the third sentence, 'belief' represents a certainty that one knows the absolute objective 'truth' about some aspect of existence and reality.

It is in the sense of the THIRD meaning that I say that 'belief' is an insidious mind-killer. In that sense, such a belief is essentially a DELUSION, since it is arrived at by non-rational processes... faith... wishful thinking.

Once one is possessed of such delusions, they provide a neat, tidy explanation for everything. Where rational people struggle with sorting out facts and evidence to arrive at a reasonable explanation, 'believers' do not struggle at all... in the epitome of intellectual dishonesty and intellectual laziness, they just declare "God did it." Where the rational person is forced to admit "We don't know... yet", the 'believer' again declares "God did it."

The intellectual toolbox of the rational person contains such items as biology, cosmology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, logic, physics, philosophy, history... (the list goes on), the believer's intellectual toolbox consists of... oops... wait a minute... believers don't HAVE an intellectual toolbox. All they have is the Wholly Babble, and the brilliant assertion "God did it", and the brilliant intellectual position for countering the facts and knowledge uncovered by science... "Ain't SO."

Answer 4

Not especially. My mother is a non-denominational protestant Christian. My father is nominally United Church of Canada, but not really a believer at all.

Our house was non-theistic. God never entered the picture.

But it was generally assumed - not because of my house, but because of my environment. I kinda presumed there was a God, because a lot of big people kept saying there was.

But I don't think I ever took that concept into my heart.

I accepted that truth about myself when I was 12 or 13. I've never looked back.

Answer 5

Its impossible to live in North South America, Australia, Northern Russia, and Europe and to not have theistic morals. Its just the way society has formed around the commen religion of christianity.

Answer 6

I was raised a strict roman catholic.
When it came time to get the communion the nuns told us a story of a "bad boy" who did'nt eat the host (that little bland cookie) but took it back to his seat and broke it. Blood came out! And that little boy became a priest and a bishop!
So what did I do? You guessed it, I took it back and broke it. Whadda ya know? nothing happened.
That's when it started to dawn on me that if god plays favorites, then there isn't a god at all.
Did'nt take long after that for me to completely remove my head from my ar se and leave. And I've never looked back, not even once.

Answer 7

Well, I'm not strictly an atheist in that I don't know if there is a god or not - don't care actually.

That said: I was raised in a Catholic household. I didn't decide not to believe - I decided that there was no way for me to know and that knowing wouldn't change how I lived or what I should do in life so it was wasted energy trying to figure it out.

Answer 8

My parents were agnostics, and I have never been able to comprehend the existence of a god, nor understand what makes people believe in one, so reasonably, I have always been an atheist. I did not decide, it was just a very natural conclusion.

Answer 9

My background is Jewish, I studied all religions and went to a lot of different churches, including various Christian churches, as I was attracted to some of Jesus's teachings. I never decided not to believe in God, but the more I studied the bible and its myriad of religions, the clearer it became that you'll never find God in the bible. The being referred to as "God" in religious texts is a fantasy, designed by corrupt and very ignorant humans who have no concept of the real source of the cosmos.

Answer 10

I was raised Catholic. My parents brought me up to ask questions and seek the truth, and in my late teens my search for answers led me to the understanding that God was not a necessary concept for me. I'm a much happier (and more moral) person now.

I should point out that I never "decided" not to believe in God. My belief in God just went away when I realized it was not necessary.

Answer 11

I was raised a Catholic and became an atheist when I reached the age of reason... stopped believing in Santa Claus, the Easte Bunny and The Invissible man in the Sky... and all fairy tales