This ? is for atheists?

Question

I am doing some research for a bible study class. I want to find out (honestly) from some atheists 1) were you raise in an atheist family? and if so, are you remaining with those thoughts because your parents have inforced it or have you read about and thought about religions and figured out that there isn't a God? 2) were you raised in an atheist family and have become a follower of God now? and what made you change your mind? 3) were you raised in a religious family, Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Islamic, etc. and as you grew up you figured out there really isn't a God? and if so, how did you come to that change?

I know this topic can be touchy for some but I am really interested in learning about it. I'd appreciate it if people would only answer honestly and not cut down others because of their faith. Thanks!

Answer 1

My parents were raised Mormon. My father said that once he left home, he realized that everything he had been taught was wrong and misguided. He did not push or prevent religion to me. My mother has an open mind and allowed us the choice to believe in whatever we chose. I myself do not believe as I have a hard time believing in something as screwed up as every religion seems to be. I have looked at the histories of the religions, how kings, dictators, popes and people of the faith (ministers, preachers, cardinals...) have used the beliefs to control and manipulate poeple. Some have even broken their faith in order to pleasure themselves at the expense of others (sexual misconduct, stealing money from church funds, murder in the past) The majority of people believe because they were raised to. People started believing because someone in power told them to believe or they would die, literally. So of course people converted. Different countries (England, France, Ireland, Italy, Greece) have all created divisions of the same religion in order to control different portions of populations. These divisions create hate and discontent between the populations and thus many wars have been fought and continue to be fought over religious beliefs. And this is all on Christianaity, not even bringing up other religions. The Crusades were wars on other faiths in god's name. How do you kill in the name of god? The Muslim faith can be traced to the individual who created it. It happened hundreds of years ago and people believe. If I were to tell you god spoke to me and told me to start a religion, I would get run out of town, but back then people were willing to follow anything, or were forced to. Now there are Muslims that fight war in the name of god, probably revenge for the crusades. Westerners call them fanatics, they drum up support religiously and go to fight a war in the name of thier god. Just because a majority believe in something doesn't make it right or the truth. Is the Bible the greatest story ever told or the greatest story ever sold? Just because you tell the same story over and over doesn't make it the truth. It is a book written by man. The Pope is a man, or at least he was the day before he was the Pope. Why is he so much better or a person now that he was elected by other men? Not chosen by god.

The true test of your belief would be that if Jesus were to arrive tomorrow, would your religion accept him at his word or would they cast him away and call him a liar. My guess is it would be the second one. The return of Jesus would signal an end of the church as it is run now, and there is too much power to relinquish. Other religions would call him a fake as well since their power base would disappear. Same situation if the Prophet was to return. The Vatican would say it was a fake. Religious leaders throught the Muslim world would call him a fake because they would lose their power base.

Religions in all forms play on the simple mindset that the human race is weak and needs to believe in a higher form and to believe that there is something more. That this is not all there is.

If this is all there is, I'm ready for it. If there is more, and god does exist, as his child he will love me no matter what I choose to believe, whether I believed from the start, started believeing at my dying breath, or didn't believe at all.

As man expanded from Europe and discovered other settlements of man, each group of people were found to believe in something different, but the same. Some other form of god or gods. Some way to explain what they could not. How nature worked, why the sun rose and fell, the cycle of life. Why is it that now they do not? Why is it that they did?

More people have died in the name of religion that for any other reason or disease in all of human history.

Good luck on your class, hope this wasn't too long!

Answer 2

These are the kind of honest questions I appreciate.


Number 1 for me... I was raised in a non-believer family, although there was and is no enforcement of it, there was nothing to enforce. We just lived our lives as any normal family, only without the religion part. My mother doesn't really believe in evolution either, so there was no particular thing or way of thinking encouraged.

My mother actually thought it best that they left it open to allow us to decide for ourselves. She thought it was a good idea I got to see the other side of it, I went to church and Sunday school for a time with two neighbor kids when they went with their aunt and cousin. (Although they were no more religious then I am and stopped going not long after I did.) I was in vacation bible school two different summers, and I did enjoy it. But I was not a believer. It was not even until I was older that I realized that the other people believed all those stories to be true. I was just not ever a believer and never have had the desire or need to believe in it, it's just who I am.

Answer 3

1. No, i was raised in a christian family.

My parents are sort of on and off religious

2. no
3. Yes, i started to do some thinking a few years ago when i was fourteen, i'm seventeen now, and i came to the conclusion that god wasn't real. I looked into a few other religions as well, but none had real evidence. I was on and off about religion for about a year, but then i started to relly notice things such as the god hates fags people, and religious wars and thought that if there was a god, then why would he allow these things. I also did some experimenting with prayer, and found it to be false, which was a big step toward me becoming an atheist.

Answer 4

What a relief to have a sensible question on this topic!

To be honest, I don't think I quite fitted into any of these categories. I think I would describe my parents as being agnostic but as soon as I went to school, (about 50 years ago) Christianity was thrust upon me. I have to say that, even at that tender age I found it difficult to accept many of the concepts that were taught.

As I grew older, it became apparent to me that anything in the Bible that COULD be disproved, WAS disproved. This made me even more sceptical and so I suppose these days,I would be described as an atheist.

Please don't be offended by my last remark. I note the comments in the last paragraph of your question and the last thing I want to do is to be offensive.

I also hope that opening up a 4th category will help more than hinder your research!

Many thanks.

Answer 5

I'm not an atheist but my father-in-law is. He is from China. At around 18 years of age, he swam to Hong Kong using a basketball to help him float. He eventually made it to the states and has been working hourly wage jobs his whole life to support his family of six. My mother-in-law is Buddhist and also Chinese. However, all four children are strong Christians. My father-in-law does not believe in God because he believes he has had to work for everything he has. He wasn't raised on any religion and sees religion as a crutch for the week. He believes hard work is the way to success. I hope to learn more Chinese so that I can discuss these things with him and share the Gospel. I believe one major reason people will argue that there is no God is because they do not want to be subject to anything higher than themselves. Hope this helps out.

Answer 6

I’m agnostic, myself. I don’t believe it is possible to know that God exists, nor that he does not. I was raised in a christian family. We went to church occasionally, so it wasn’t hardcore christian. My reason for reaching my current belief, is that I started thinking for myself. Honestly. I don’t mean to offend, but the way I see it, if you really take an objective look at it…a TRULY objective look at it, without favoring one outcome or the other beforehand, you will discover that there is no solid evidence of God’s existence, but that the concept of an all-powerful being is by no means impossible. And that actually, neither case is more likely than the other, as far as we are currently able to discern.

Where some people see God, I see the desperation, the desire for God to be real, manifesting itself as a willingness to see something that isn’t really there, and an ignorance overwhelmed by the complexity of reality, so much so that one can fathom only that God must exist, because one can understand no other explanation.

Where some people see the impossibility of God’s existence, I see a narrow mind, making blunt interpretations. “God can’t exist, because pain and suffering exist!”, that kind of thing. Failing to acknowledge just as many possibilities as the believers, and equally ignorant.

All we have to go on, are our feeble human minds, which cannot begin to comprehend the vast majority of possibile truths, and stories written by people who lived thousands of years ago, and believed the Earth was flat. We simply cannot know. Not yet, anyway.

Answer 7

I was baptised at birth by my father, but my mother was Jewish. I grew up without religion until the seventh grade, when I was sent to a Christian private school and also a Christian summer camp. I was scared into accepting Jesus, because I did not want to burn in hell.

When I hit 13, I chose to pursue my Bar Mitzvah in the Jewish faith, as I felt that their current mindset showed much more openness to change, and little condemnation. I became a Bar Mitzvah at 15.

I continued to go to a Catholic high school, as it was one of the most academically rigorous in the area, and I had a scholarship.

As I progressed through high school, I spent more and more time studying comparative religions and seeking what I could. I took several courses and read much literature, in addition to attending many different services.

I eventually came to the conclusion that none of the concepts of God made sense, and all of them came with too much 'baggage'. Lacking any evidence or experience of God, I forgot about it, and became a-religous.

I prefer to study with science; yes, we don't have all the answers, but we're working on it. Check out quantum theory, entanglement, and unification. :D

Answer 8

My personal experience runs along these lines. My father was Baptist, and took us (my 2 siblings and I) to church and Sunday school while we were on weekend visitation. Over time, as I grew interested in history and archeology, I started to have questions about the culture in biblical times (Exodus era Egypt, Roman Arabia, etc). I though careful reading of the bible would grant me references from which I could better understand things.

I also asked questions in my Sunday school. That was not very welcome. The obvious questions arose (Genesis, Daniel, Matthew), and were quickly dismissed. Shortly after, I started finding ways to weasel out of Sunday school and church.

From there, I have taken a more clinical approach to religion. I consider myself to be well read with regard to the bible, and to other writings concerning the bible.

What truly turned me away from religion, however, was not so much the discrepancies in the writings (for they are, after all, the writings of men) but in the attitudes of religious teachers and leaders. I have made reference in previous answers to the fact that while I believe everyone has the right to believe what they want, those beliefs are not a license to commit anti-social or even criminal acts. Passing judgements on others for their beliefs, just because they are different, is wrong.

As far as criminal acts, televangelists who steal money from their worshipers, cult leaders who lead their followers to suicide pacts, and the like do not speak to me of productive devotion.

Answer 9

My mother believes in God, but she doesn't go to church at all. My father is an atheist. But both of them gave me and my brother and sister complete freedom to do as we wanted. We didn't get any religious education, we weren't baptised, we weren't dragged to church. But if we ever wanted to go, we were entirely free to do so, and nobody at home was going to oppose to that. The result was that both my brother and I are unbelievers, but my sister does believe in God.

Why did I follow my father's example, and not my mother's? Well, I guess that's because I cannot take anything without proof. And then, because I don't really see the point in believing in a god.

Answer 10

My family wasn't real religious but we did go to church occasionally. But I just don't see any evidence of gods existence, but there's plenty out there that says the bibles a big book of fables. I guess I just need more proof that god really exists and as of right now there isn't any.