If you were a Christian or believed in God, and then became an Atheist?

Question

I'm curious, because I'm starting to conclude for myself that there is no God.
Did you go through moments of feeling guilty over abandoning your belief at that time? Was it a process over time that brought you to this conclusion? And why did you come to your conclusion?

To all of you whom I addressed my question to...spamandham,Bramblyspam,J.P.,Black Parade Billie, Nicholas H,Kathryn B, and Varsity Calculus...Thank you for your answers.

Answer 1

Yes, there were moments of guilt, anger, frustration and pain. It was a horrible experience. I spent many hours over many days in the church staring up at the cross alternately demanding and begging for the slightest scrap of evidence to salvage what was left of my faith, some tiny tidbit... "Even the dogs eat the scraps from the master's table..." I recall saying often enough.

As can be assumed, yes, it was a long, long process.

In the end, the fact my prayers were not answered, and the more and more I learned and understood of science, logic, and mathematics, the more and more I realized that the deific hypothesis was not needed -- that in fact, the first cause of the visible universe didn't have to be a deity at all, that quantum physics supported an infinitely existing cosmos/multiverse/whatever. When one has no need for a deity and is a scientist armed with occam's razor... well... any unnecessary a priori assumptions or a priori causal agents simply get shaved off as dead weight.

Answer 2

I was raised in a strong Catholic influenced family. I started losing my faith at a very young age. After a while of proclaiming myself "Faithless" I started to do a lot of research into religion and the many different beliefs. I found an earth-based religion called Paganism [And that does not mean "Satanism" for those who have trouble with the two SEPARATE meanings]. I'm now a Celtic/Kemetic Pagan, and have been for about almost 7 years now and I couldn't be more happy with my life. Sometimes Catholic, Christian, etc isn't for everyone, despite what a book from 2,000 some odd years ago, or what others say. Follow your heart, it'll show you the right path when you find it. In the meantime I suggest doing a lot of research on different religions, and Atheism if that's a path you want to look down. Good luck and I hope you find your own path.

Answer 3

I was raised Christian, went to a Catholic High School, and while there became an athiest. For me, I just one day realized that ALL organized religion is a total bunch of BS created by others to organize societies. As far as guilt goes, I never had any because even though I had previously believed, I had never felt the presence of God. In other words, there was nothing to feel guilty over. When I look at all of the killing and maiming that goes on in his name, I do not doubt my disbelief. If I die and find out there is a God, when I stand before him I will tell him that I lived my life the best way that I knew how, and that because people on Earth have twisted perceptions of him to such an extent that they are killing each other, I thought it would just be better to be a good HUMAN BEING instead of a good Christian, Muslim, or whatever. I bet God would like that.

Answer 4

First of all don't let others do your thinking for you.

It sounds to me that you are still questioning God; however this is not the place to answer your questions and niether is any other site that these people will give you.

Before I tell you a little bit about me; let me explain what you need to do in order to find the answers you seek.

1. look to yourself for the questions you really want answered. For example: Is there any real proof twards the exsistance of God?, Am I being true to my beliefs or being fooled by others?, am I thinking with my heart or my brain?, scriptures, prayers, ect ect.

2. research the questions you have found in yourself, try to narrow it down as much as you can.
For example if you ask the question is there a God, then you won't find any reliable answers. However asking if there is proof you can get better information.

3. don't be narrow minded. In other words look at both sides. If you only look at one side then you can easily be misled and get riddled in you decision later in life.

4. last but not least after you have found all the information you need and made your conclussion redo these steps on a regular basis. Science changes regularly so you should keep up as well as you can with it.

Now my story. I was born and raised a strong Catholic. I was so strong Catholic that I red the Bible constantly. Realizing later that it didn't make sense.

However I still believed in a God. I turned towards Wiccan. Became very strong in the religion, however I still had a strong feeling towards the Christian God. Well all in all I went through about 4 other religions before I realized I was waisting my time changing religions without answering any of the questions I had.

Then I stopped being in any religion to find my true religion. I researched just about every religion, history, science, ect. ect. After all the research I did I finnally got all my answers. I may have gotten new questions, but I found answers to those as well.

Currently I am my own religion which encompasses most religions of the world. It was created by what I found and not by my wants. (very important). So yes I do believe in God. However I am not trying to convert you or tell you what to believe.

All I want you to do is to look for yourself. Because if you believe in God just because somebody tells you to then you truelly don't believe. And if you don't find God then that's o.k. too. I have no problem with athiests. just trust yourself.

I hope this helped.

Answer 5

I am not an atheist but I am definitely an agnostic. religion was what turned me off. It just did not make any sense. It is illogical to believe in a supreme being. I have met so many wonderful and intelligent non believers on Y/A. Three months ago I would have thought that they were all crazy. I had never actually communicated with an atheist before. They make a lot of sense to me. No one influenced me. I had already turned away from religion about a year ago. You will ultimately go with what feels right for you.

Answer 6

Though I wouldn't call myself an atheist...hmm, I don't really fit in any of the atheist/theist/agnostic categories...Maybe an agnostic polytheist most of the time? Anyway...

Yes. Massive guilt. And definitely a lot of time. For me, it was more of a dissatisfaction with Christian teachings and being unable to get any satisfactory answers, and when I went to look for the answers outside of my own religion, I found them--only not the way I'd expected. I went through a period of sort of Christian mysticism (had I discovered the tradition of Jewish mysticism at that time, I would quite likely still be there; finding it later out of religious confines made it no less interesting or useful) and found that I still had trouble logically reconciling that. Further studies allowed me to find my own sort of worldview and I've gone from there...but I'll tell you, it does take a lot of time and a lot of hard work for the guilt to go away--about five-six years for me.

Answer 7

I lost faith in God for awhile - about 4 years I think. I was questioning everything, and I did feel guilty for awhile. Then I forgot for awhile and didn't really care about life. Eventually I realized I did believe in God, and I believed He wanted me to know Him, and wanted me to feel alive again.
I had this sudden realization, then started praying and reading the Bible again, and things started to get better. I was fascinated with the Bible, because everything suddenly seemed new and i felt like I was reading a lot of amazing stuff that I'd never read. Through prayer and Bible reading, I was brought closer to the Lord, and eventually totally turned my life around. I was able to get free from the sins in my life that were making me miserable, and I'm free from depression that I was dealing with for 5 or 6 years.
I could give so many reasons why I came to the conclusion that God is real, but those are all the reasons I'm typing right now.
I just think you have to know for yourself that He's real. Ask Him to help you know the truth.

Answer 8

I was a Christian when I was young and naive. As I got older (into my teen years) the light bulb came on and I realized that this fairy tale had numerous and gigantic flaws through it. I saw the light of truth and common sense and have never looked back. It's a wonderful feeling not having to make excuses for some ludicrous lie. The world needs more atheists. Try it, you'll like it.

Answer 9

i dont know about guilty, but i did feel that maybe i was doing someething bad, and didnt know it
it was definitely a process, and my beliefs havent ever really stopped changing since then
i first came to my conclusion because i felt that the bible couldnt explain things as well as science could.
i now dont believe for a multitude of other reasons, such as the apparent moral flaws of god, etc etc
if ever anyone tells you you should stop questioning and just believe, before you listen to them, think.
Why dont they want you to question? are they afraid of the conclusion you might come to?
throughout history, people have become heartless, and misled when they have been taught not to question, just to obey. Take for example the Germans in the early nineteenth century.
good luck

Answer 10

I don't ever remember believing in God, but I've read that for many people it becoming an atheist was a process over time. You might find this site useful. It was started by Dan Barker, a minister who is now an atheist. Best of luck to you.