2006-10-23 10:06:30 · 31 answers · asked by Myra G 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I've studied enough religions, and had enough personal experiences, to believe that *something* is there spiritually, but it takes so many different shapes for so many different people I think that characterizing it as a deity is off the mark. In other words, the more we try to define IT, the farther away we get from the truth.
I decided that all deities are metaphors for some aspect of a great spiritual energy we don't quite understand, and can ONLY comprehend in terms of metaphors. BUT I think because symbolism is different for everyone, this has to be a personal understanding.
So I'm a Taoist. A NeoPagan Taoist, because I like to celebrate Pagan holidays. They're fun.
2006-10-23 10:13:05 · answer #1 · answered by KC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Education did it for me, too. I grew up catholic, but gradually drifted away from it. In high school and college I learned more and more about science, as well as mythology in several other cultures. It made me realize that catholicism and christianity was the same as greek and roman and norse religions in that they all try to explain natural phenomenon by invoking a supernatural being. Nobody believes in these gods - why believe in the christian one?
Then I learned what crimes had been committed in the name of religion over the years, or where religion was used to justify it. I decided that I did not want to be a part of any such organization.
2006-10-23 17:16:38 · answer #2 · answered by Ralfcoder 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was born with no belief in God just like everyone. When I saw other people had this belief it intrigued me and I wanted it, too. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince myself that God was real. Since I can't believe in things I don't think of as real, I'm an atheist.
What made you think of God as real? Surely there was a defining moment where at one point you thought of God as a story then somehow came to think of Him as real?
Becoming an atheist is not something you do, everyone is born an atheist and either changes into something else or remains an atheist.
2006-10-23 17:13:53 · answer #3 · answered by catalamity 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I was raised in Christian family. Not a really strict one, by the declaration of faith was clear. And when I was a child, I believed what I was told to believe. But as I got older and my thoughts became more mature and more complex, I just didn't see evidence to support the notion that there was a God, at least not one like Christians describe. My prayers were never answered and I just didn't see the world as a place governed by a just and benevolent supreme being. Looking around, there seems to be little justice in who lives and who dies or who suffers and who doesn't, and I think people are the result of genetics and environmental factors, not some guy sitting on a cloud pushing the buttons that control the entire world.
2006-10-23 17:12:44 · answer #4 · answered by Subconsciousless 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Im agnostic and Im 21. I was raised in a non religious family but I still prayed to god all the time. I thanked him for what I did have and I asked him for things I needed or prayed for others. My prayers were never answered and bad things ALWAYS happened. I mean, terrible things. God RARELY graced my life or my family with anything when we needed it. No blessings here! Most people that Ive met that believe in god do because god has been there when they needed it most. Not for me, so I dont believe. After going my whole life with not even a glipse of God's existence, I dont believe anymore. When someone "listens" but they dont help, I call that abandonment. Why would someone with such power abandon those he loves?.....I dunno, thats just me!
2006-10-23 17:15:07 · answer #5 · answered by katie-bug 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Education, logic, growing awareness that every step of science was one less thing God was used to explain, and the logical conclusion of the process is that eventually, God really isn't needed at all. Already we can formulate multiple non-deistic hypotheses regarding the beginning of the visible universe, the world, life, and the evolution of that life.
In science, there is a concept called "Occam's Razor." In occam's razor, if something is not needed, you remove it, or if you have two hypotheses, you keep the one requiring the fewest assumptions. Deity is an unneeded assumption, so it is dispensed.
2006-10-23 17:14:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
As a devout Baptist, confronted by atheist ideas that I had seen on television, and at my junior high school, I set out to prove that god existed, by studying science, and exploring the history of Christianity.
A year or two of this study made me an atheist, too.
That was about 15 years ago...
2006-10-23 17:16:43 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm more of a deist but intensely dislike Christianity for many reasons.
First and foremost, any religion that believes in an egomaniacal, vindictive, murderous, schizophrenic, spiteful and brutal deity, like the god described in the bible, is insane and spiritually perverted.
It's really sad that there aren't more intelligent souls around who are courageous enough to face the reality that organized religions professing to worship and serve "God" actually insult and profane "God".
2006-10-23 17:21:15 · answer #8 · answered by Sweetchild Danielle 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Years of study, after first becoming disenchanted with Christianity at about the age of 10 or 11.
2006-10-23 17:09:54 · answer #9 · answered by Blackacre 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
After being involved with religion for quite a few years, being agnostic was the smartest choice for me personally. It makes the most sense to me.
2006-10-23 17:16:23 · answer #10 · answered by Not_a_toothless_pirate 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋