How did you come to your religion/disbelief?

Question

How many of you were "born in the church" (as in you follow the religion your parents follow)?

How many of you abandoned a previous faith for a new faith? How many faiths? And why?

What about atheists/agnostics, how did you come about?

Personally, I am an Atheist. My family was catholic and sent me to catholic school during my elementary years. My mom is catholic and my dad grew up catholic but has his own "extra" views on religion. As I grew up, we didn't attend church but still had a belief in god. At about the age of 17 my friend and I began attending a non-denominational church because his gf was Christian. At about that age I was "born-again" and recieved Christ into my life. I remained this way until I was 19 when I transfered to college. I grew apart from religion again by not attending church, and studying for my psychology classes I realized that the science world made "more sense" and progressively turned into an Atheist at 21. I am much happier now and feel free.

Answer 1

I was born in a Muslim family... and thank God for everyday that I am a Muslim

Answer 2

I'm an atheist in my mid 40's.

My dad was Catholic but he was also crazy (untreated, ununderstood Schizophrenia). My mom was Lutheran and also an alcoholic. I was the youngest of six kids. My siblings were basically either escaping the situation or escaping reality through drugs, etc.

I realized very early in life that I could not depend on accurate information from any of these sources, so I had to figure things out for myself. I remember making a decision to never believe anything that could not be proven or demonstrated to me. In my situation, this was literally a survival skill.

God was quickly relegated to the same category as the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. In my mind, that’s where he remains today.

I’m content with my beliefs. I think I’d be a happier person if I believed in God and life after death. And while being happy is very important to me, I know I’ll never be able to set aside reality long enough to believe in something not only unproven, but without any (IMHO) credible evidence.

I must admit that I am sometimes jealous of the brotherhood and comfort many people find in religion. And although I agree in fact with almost everything “freethinkers” and “humanists” espouse, at the same time I also believe in most of the life lessons stated in the 10 commandments. I am however turned off by the pervasive attitude of both the religious and non-religious groups who arrogantly try to insist that all other groups are stupid and should change their way of thinking.

I think a kind of physical hard wiring occurs in the brain (of most of us) somewhere between like 5 and 15 years old that seals our basic beliefs, morals, and faith. Unless there is some life changing event powerful enough to re-wire the brain, we’re kind of stuck with that belief system. Possible brain altering events: Trauma, Drug induced brain changes, dream-like “Visions” taken as reality, mental breakdown due to loss or stress…

If I see God materialize and give us all one more chance to repent, I’m there, dude! Until then, He can hang out with Santa and the Tooth Fairy. If it makes you more comfortable to see God on a throne in heaven and that doesn’t cause you to want to bring harm to me and my family (or fly planes into buildings, etc), that’s just fine with me.

Answer 3

I was raised as a Catholic and I still am. I believe that every single day is a blessing from God.

Answer 4

I'm an atheist, and have been one all my life. I was raised without religion. We did have childrens' books on greek, norse, egyptian, sumerian etc. mythology - along with a children's bible, which I read and put in the same category as the other mythologies.

Answer 5

Like most, mans religion made me rebel. But I always had
a thirst for knowlegde. 30 years ago I woke up and saw myself laying in my bed. It's been slowly but surely, uphill ever since.