Has anyone here stopped believing in god?

Question

I’m really interested to here from anyone who used to be religious. What was it that made you give up your belief?

To start things off my in-laws’ used to be Christians and regularly donated money to the church. But when their daughter (my wife) was very young she got cancer. All their Christian friends felt very awkward and basically abandoned them. My in-laws couldn’t believe this, so they stopped going to church and put their faith in the doctors instead. They didn’t disappoint as the therapy worked and she was cured.

I myself have never been religious. I was lucky as my family never forced ideas on me. I was left to make up my own mind and realised early on that all that stuff didn’t match up with what happens in the real world.

A request to Christians, please no bible quotes. I wouldn’t quote you something out of ‘Lord of the Rings’ and expect you to believe it is true just because it is written in a book. If you wish to comment please keep it constructive. Thanks.

Answer 1

I was raised Southern Baptist. I firmly believed in Bible God up until i was about 18 years old. Some things started to not make sense. So i thought i should look into it deeper and really start studying the Bible. So i read it cover to cover Genesis to Revelations. Pretty much by the time i got done reading it I knew i could not longer be a Christian. For one reason, I am nicer than the God described in the Bible, and so is everyone who has ever lived.

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com

I studied a bit about the history of Christianity and other religions and realized than none of them are based in fact. It became abundantly clear to me that these were simply fairy tales.

My departure from the faith had nothing to do with me looking for a ticket to sin. It also had nothing to do with the acts of Christians or unanswered prayers. It had everything to do with following the truth where it led.

Answer 2

I used to be as a child (largely because of parents)
when I started growing up, and became a sentinent free thinking individual I started challenging the assumptions and beliefs of religion.
I started challenging the 'right' of the priest / preacher to know better and instruct the fellowship.

I decided the solutions offered by the bible inappropriate, the claims that the bible was a true and accurate representation of history farcical. As each claim in the bible fell away under scientific scrutiny it became obvious to ne that to base any belief system on a book that is hundreds / thousands of years old is largely irrelevant today. That applies to the Bible, Torah, New Testament, Koran whatever.

Looking at the conduct of the organised religions over the last thousand years (with crusades, oppression of non believers, enforced conversion, using religon as a pretext to kill the 'others' / non believers a sad statement on mankind.

Whilst religion held the power and the knowledge it was natural for people to believe the religious explantions (eg the world is flat, Everything revolves around the earth). Religion no longer has that level of control over mankind (except perhaps in Iran, and other countries where education standards are low). With the advent of science Religions grip on mankind lessened, in my view nowadays to the extent that it is sidelined and irrelevant.

I still try to lead my life by the principles of the bible, I just dont believe in the detail that is used to justify Christianity by fundamentalists.

I'm just not religous.

Answer 3

I used to go to church regularly when I was younger (pre-teens). When I was 11 my father died and I didn't understand why he was taken away from me. I started to question my faith and stopped going to church because I could not find the answers I was looking for. I believe there is a greater power than us out there somewhere. Whether that is God or an alien culture I don't know. What I do know is that one day I may find my faith in God again but I will not believe in is the church or the bible.

Answer 4

my maternal grandmother was baptist and paternal one Cof E - I was very religious when growing up and went to church on my own from a young age (my dad was athiest) = I even wanted to be an anglican nun till i was 15 or so..

I lost my faith about 10 years ago... It started really when I was first qualified as a social worker, seeing some of the child abuse cases, but for me its the double standards that many organised religions have.. When going through really seriouse domestic violence, some of the people at church "did not want to get involved" and avoided me like the plauge, treated me like I was less worthy, when going to the church for help, the offer was spiritual counselling between my then husband and I (he was catholic) and trying to save the marrage,, I wanted support for my kids and I as we wanted to escape.. In the end we went to a refuge , returning to the house once the court and police got my ex out of the property and no one from the church community came to see us..
Also as a probation officer working with people devastaed by their childhood experiences and now self medicating with drugs, I found that a lot of their early experience was in care homes, many ran by good christain people.? this is way to complex to answer here, but also sex offender i have supervised, were often born again christians, with support, could quote the bible etc, but could see little of that support for many of the victims.. With an interest in theology I soon found that much of the written word and belief had many double standards and the application of it had littel support in reality to those in need.. I could waffle on, but the long and short of it is , that I lost my faith.. yes I do sometimes feel sad about that, with a faith it is easier to say oh its god's will, or well we will be ok when we die... for me simply that is not good enough....

Answer 5

I dont think I ever started to be honest. I remember going to church as a child and (fast forward a few years) arguing with my R.E teacher that there was no god when I was 13. She then told me that I was my own god if I didnt believe in hers but I couldnt get her to understand that I didnt want a god because it's imaginary.

It was a long argument and I dont think I convinced her.

I await the other answers and bet you get at least one bible quote, after all 'Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction, none can escape it.' haha.

Answer 6

Faith is the ability to believe without proof
Reason necessitates fact

Probably the reasons to stop believing are as varied as the individuals..but I would suspect that a goodly number of those with "apostacy" would attribute it to the lack of empirical proof...It's hard when you find out the truth about Santa, the Easter bunny, Tooth Fairy...etc etc etc....it takes a conscientious act to let go of childhood-albeit, nice- images..

For many, though, there seems to be need to satisfy some kind of spiritual aspect of humanity...witness the cult movements, the exploration of so called pagan rites, Buddhist, Taoist, Zen....
secular humanism, Gaia, and the mother earth ...
suffice it to say that there seems to be a need for most people to have an avenue to express their spiritual side...
Even the ancient Greek philosophers...the founders of rational thought in the western world...even they perceived a human need for some kind of spirit/soul/"nous"/shared godhead ...
Theists, Atheists, Agnostics...whatever label you go by...it still boils down to treating each other with respect...whether from a religious point of view or purely secular ....that seems to be one of the few "rules" of being a good person and living a good life

Answer 7

I stopped believing in god when I was about 5 years old, right around the same time I realized there was no easter bunny or santa clause, for most everything in the known universe we have proof of, it would be a lot easier for me to believe in say aliens from another solar systems or galaxy then it would be for me to believe in god, even if someone can say well our existence has to prove that their is a divine creator, even if there was proof of that it still doesn't mean that after we die there is going to be an afterlife, in makes absolutely no sense as to why there would be one, we die and that is it, true I have no proof that there isn't a god. but no one has any real solid proof that there is either

Answer 8

I was forced to go to church by my dad from an early age. I was ok with this originally, as I was a kid and until the teenage years, your parents know best. I also went to an RC school.

When I hit the teen years, I realised that there were more interesting things to do on a saturday night, as opposed to church. I began to not want to go, but my dad forced me to go. I began to think about religion as a way to control the populace, as it seemed to cause wars in the world. I thought that if God was real, wouldn't he be sick of us praying to him the same way every time, like a broken record?

I sought alternate reasons for things, and found many answers in science. The proof in science was more than enough to completely stop believing in God.

My dad forced me to get confirmed at the church, saying that as soon as I was confirmed, I could make my own choice on whether to go to church. (I had already made my mind up about this, but I think it was my dad's final push to make me religious)

When I was confirmed, he changed the deal, saying I had to go for Christmas and Easter, but this was only enforced for a year.

I have not been to church since (apart from parades, I'm in the RAF) and no longer believe in God. I believe in science.

I'm a good person, with morals, but don't believe there is an all-kowing deity that demands our faith and worship. When you die, you die. Make the most of life.

Answer 9

I believe in God and was bought up a Catholic. I don't however follow all Catholic rules in any way shape or form and I don't believe half of what is written in the bible. I just can't get my head around Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark etc etc. Sorry but just don't buy that.

Answer 10

I gave it up when I realized that my kids weren't buying it, and I didn't have the heart to force them. I had to admit to myself that I didn't really believe in God, that I was just going through the motions, like I had been taught to do when I was a child, and I figured that religion should stop at me. I had a lot of cycles to break, I was not carrying abuse or alcoholism through to the next generation, it was stopping with me, and my Catholic upbringing was another thing that just had no place in my plans with my kids. I introduced them to it, but they didn't want anything to do with it. If they ever do, that's fine, but it won't come from me making them do it, and I won't be going back to the Church myself.