Another Question for Agnostics/Atheists?

Question

How did you discover your beliefs or non-belief? Where you raised as an Agnostic or Atheist or were you raised Christian (or any other religion) and then did research and found that you did not believe what you had always been taught?

I am asking this out of pure curiousity. Personally, I was raised Catholic, was put in Catholic schools, etc. Around my high school years I found that I just didn't believe what I had always been taught to believe. So lately I have been doing a lot of research to find what I DO believe.

What's your story?

I am not Agnostic after doing research and finding what I don't believe. Now I am focusing on what I do believe.

Answer 1

I'm not agnostic, atheist, christian, or a part of any religion. I'm more of a spiritualist and allow my higher-self to guide me through life. I grew up in a very strict christian family. We'd go to church three times a week. I memorized verses from the bible, sang in the choir, went to church camp, all that jazz. I'd always questions things that never made sense to me, and I'd get answers that still didn't make any sense to me. So, I just nodded my head and agreed. After a NDE, I started questioning life...the meaning, my purpose, the why's. I abandoned the idea of belonging to one religion and started studying other religions. It then led me in other directions. I've learned that you have to question things don't ring true in your soul. I soon found truths that resonated in my soul as true.

I find it quite ignorant to take what someone else tells you as face value. What one person experiences doesn't mean that you will have the same experience. You have to learn on your own. It's amazing how the universe guides you to the answers you seek when you don't limit your beliefs. We are all on our own paths, some just spiritually evolve faster than others.

Answer 2

I was raised a christian, in a very loving home. I became an atheist when I was around thirteen years old - after I read the bible. I was quite disappointed with the stories. I felt they were nice stories, but that's all they were - stories. I couldn't take them seriously. Besides which, I'd had a very tough time at school for years and years, and no matter how much I prayed, my situation didn't change.

I continued going to church for awhile, but the sermons didn't touch me. I started listening to them with an outsiders ear, and realized the entire religion seemed to rest on the words of a book that had been rewritten so many times, it'd actually lost most of it's relevance.

A few years later, though, my interest in religions sparked again, and I read up on a bunch, my favorites being Buddhism and Taoism. I also read a lot about spirituality and the New Age movement.

More recently, I've rejected religions altogether. They're too structured for me. It's almost like they trap you and make you believe what they want you to believe.

But it's been a long time since I considered myself an atheist. I don't believe in the Christian god, but I do believe there's some higher power watching over us.

Answer 3

I am neither Agnostic nor an Atheist, I am a Buddhist. I was raised Presbyterian and became a Buddhist when I was in high school. My friend was a Buddhist and she introduced me to the practice. So I have a familiarity with Christianity, but I haven't actually studied it in depth. I went to a lot of Buddhist meetings and studied some and I found that Buddhist teachings and concepts made sense to me and I was attracted to the religion. I've always found it's worldview fascinating and how it explains the workings of life. I did some looking into New Age philosophies and a little mysticism/occult here and there, but not too much exploration of any other major religions.

Answer 4

I was raised Catholic as well, but when i went to University everything started to change as more studied as more confused I was, Engineering is not an easy program i had to take 8 maths and 8 physics, the 2 chemistry and many other classes they required... but I discover that anything here is the result of an action or reaction and there is a mathematical formula for everything. There is an order for everything. Everything and anything has a reason to be here. How can you explain all these beautiful things on this planet, in the solar system? How? Nature? I took a decision and definitely there is a superior mind who is responsible for this wonderful creation... GOD. Now I believe. how he looks like? where he is from? no matters. Took me some years but i am happy now.

Answer 5

I was raised Baptist not the kind loving Baptist that some can be but the hellfire and brimstone kind. Everything with the most negative outlook. I never believed and left christianity at 15. From there I was an eclectic wiccan for a long while and through much study of many religious texts, talking with believers and non-believers alike and even college professors (both in secular and religious universities) I came to the conclusion that deities don't exist.

Answer 6

Muslim...I gave it all up when I realized I had never really liked the idea of organized religion, plus there were a few things I completely disagreed with. I figured I couldn't pick and choose what I wanted to follow and believe in, I gave up religion before questioning the idea and beliefs about God. I'm an agnostic simply because I don't think God's existence or lack thereof can be proven either way.

Answer 7

I was raised catholic--baptism to confirmation. At which point I was free to do what I felt. I never felt much leading up to confirmation, what I had learned throughout school in the natural sciences either had proof or was far more plausible than anything I ever learned from the church. As soon as I heard the word atheist, I knew that was me. I had long since quit questioning the existence of anything supernatural. There was nothing logical about a master puppeteer.
Catholic by upbringing, Atheist by choice.

Answer 8

I was raised in a somewhat baptist family and when to chruch and sunday school but it never felt right. All the things they were teaching seemed to contradict itself or just didn't make sense to me. When I got to my teenage years I searched for a spirituality that best explained how I felt and percieved the world around me. I started believing my self to be Wiccan but then that too became "not quite right". As I've gotten older and had time to do more searching I've found myslef to be Pagan in the basic meaning of "not of the Christian religion" and simply define myself as naturally spiritual, in that I find my spirituality in nature. The only thing that really still applies from my Wiccan days is the the Rede, "...and it harm none, do as ye will." I have pretty much taken bits and pieces from similar belief systems and made my own spiritual path.

Answer 9

Originally I was like you, a Catholic. In my late teens I busted out of their guilt trips and searched on my own. I took up Religious Studies and minored in Philosophy, graduating from Virginia Commonwealth Univ. That changed my whole life as I then got a better outlook on the world's religions. It was an eye-opener, indeed.

Now, I've mostly formulated my own outlook on Christianity and other dogmas. I believe that Jesus came as the Messiah but don't believe he is God. That's my core stance.

I suggest if you're searching, get the basics by signing up for a religious studies course; maybe a 101 to start with.

Answer 10

Raised Catholic. Went to Catholic school in Ireland. Had religion class daily. Went to church every week. Read the bible cover to cover numerous times.

Realized that religion is taken too seriously. Decided I would take my chances without it once I figured that the bible was only a book of suggestions on how to be a good person.

I have a lot of friends and relitaves who are priests and nuns and I have the upmost respect for them devoting their life to something they really believe in.

Most well educated christians see some middle ground between reality and putting all their faith in religion. It is only the people who dont grasp the true concept of religion who try to "save" others.