What caused you to take the religious or non religious path you are on?

Question

I want only personal experience, not digs, not slams, not intorerant retoric, not preaching. What was you presonal motivation?

Wow allot of good answers. I thank you all for sharing your experience. Picking the "Best" Answer will not be easy, too bad I can't pick more than one

Answer 1

Everyone assumes that most Atheists had a bad experience with Christianity, and that's why they stopped believing. That's really not the case for most people.

I stopped believing when I grew up. I became an adult, and was able to make my own independent decisions, away from family and friends. Logic and common sense lead me to become an Atheist.

On top of that, I don't agree with any of the beliefs I would have to take on as a Christian or any other religion, really. I'm a gay rights supporter, I believe in pro-choice, I believe in evolution, I have no problem with pre-marital sex or living with someone before marriage, I smoke, drink, and have done drugs.

I basically wanted to be an individual. I don't believe there is a God, and I didn't fall into any of the religions I have discovered. While I respect that everyone has a right to believe what they want, I expect the same in return.

Answer 2

Well, I grew up with a very Christian mother (I'm not saying anything against my mother - I love my mom very much), a very Christian set of grandparents (my grandfather used to read the passage about the donkey being beaten that's in the Old Testament and it actually made him cry), and an uncle who is a minister, so of course now that I'm old enough to think about what I believe I'm Wiccan. ;-) Honestly, what turned me away from Christianity was simply coming to the realization that I don't believe it. I really don't. Those people that do, more power to them, but it's just not something that resonates with me.

As for how I arrived at Wicca I can't really say. I've always believed in magick, witches, god and goddess systems, the power of thought, divination, faeries - it's something I just didn't grow out of. When I discovered that there was actually a belief system that said, "Yes, there actually are those things out there" it was a very natural fit. The fact that Wicca is largely about nature (something I spent a lot of time around as a child) and maintaining balance (something I always strive for), just made it seem more like an "AHA!" I can't say as I decided to become a witch so much as I realized that I was a witch, and that there's nothing wrong with it.

Answer 3

The more I reason the more my reason says there is no G/god/s.
This first happened when I was 7 years old and has continued since then. My current weapon of choice is a book by Richard Dawkins called 'The God Delusion'This book argues against agnosticism by basically saying though we cannot be 100% sure there is no God by reason we can work out the likelihood namely the chances of God existing or not are not equal. That has been my attitude.
Heres a web site for you http://www.venganza.org/

Lastly a bit of advice when asking questions dont tell people how to answer them, if you want an honest answer. If people want to kick off let them. Much of my frustration with Yahoo Answers is the level of censorship all done in the name of sparing peoples feelings. Well sometimes feelings should not be spared, but slaughtered like mad dogs.Now that's a metaphor!

Answer 4

Great question! (And even better to see that there are no flames on here!...yet)

I grew up in a Catholic family, went to Episcopalian schools, and ended up an atheist. It wasn't because of any bad religious experience, and if anything, I saw the good that religion can do for a lot of people sometimes. However to me, even as a kid, none of it made sense. It was nice that people felt like they belonged to something larger than themselves and were happy about it, but I never understood (and still don't kinda) how or why people needed a part of their life to be a kind of subservient relationship with an omnipotent being. It always seemed like a lot of Freudian stuff to me. So combine that with my analytical way of thinking, and nothing that I've seen or experienced (even with other people) leads to any kind of a belief in a god. Maybe its because I make an effort to not "believe" in anything without somekind of rationale or proof, but that is how I got here.

How about you?

Answer 5

My mom was catholic, and my dad was lutherain. In the Catholic church if you don't mary inside the religion, then it is not a "real" marridge. So in the eyes of the church, me and my brother are bastards, the church would not baptize us, unless my dad converted, and they got re-married. Well my dad is like me, and doesn't conform. So my parents baptized us episcipalian. I was about 6, and by the time I was twelve I started questioning things. Like, if God is against insest, then how did Adam and Eve populate the world. And how could moses live to be 900, when monder medical science has bairly gotten some people too 100 yrs.
Not to mention throughout history the church has murdered countless innocents in the name of God, but God says thou shalt not judge, and vengance is his. When I started ansking these questions, my church made me feel like I committed the deadliest sin, so I went on my own path, and studied other religions, I felt a connection with wicca, and studied it more closely, ( God I'm going to have many people argu, but this is MY opinion) I found it is not much differant from the church. Treat others well. Love and follow God, We jusrt call him the divine spirit instead of God. It was more open. I could keep the belifs I was raised with, but still follow the path I wanted.

Hey Halffling Pirate, you and I had similar experiences, GooD Luck in your studies.

Answer 6

My path came to me in this fashion... When I was a child, my mother took me to church, just for the fact that she could say she went and was taking me as well. The services we went to (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, and so on. She wanted to try different things.) meant nothing to me, because a) I was too young to understand the meaning of going to church and b) I saw it more as a chore than rewarding.

As I got older, I got a little curious and started reading the Bible a little bit, and got quite familiar with some of those passages. When I was in the military, I even studied the Cathecism, so that I could understand it better. I amazed a pastor even with how fast I learned it.

However, I saw what many people were doing the message, and how hypocritical people were, so I decided to learn on my own, and experience every religion. Right now, I'm studying Buddhism. It's quite fascinating really.

Answer 7

I was raised a mormon. Through education and my study of science, I started to doubt the existence of god (and how it's taught in the mormon religion) in high school, but because of family and peer pressure went on a mormon mission anyway, and was miserable. Not to mention the weirdness of the mormon temple rituals, which are just nuts! When I got back, I really started studying, and came to the conclusion through logic and reason that there is no evidence for any god, that even if one exists it doesn't make any difference in my life, and that there was no reason for me to "worship" something that probably didn't exist and that gave me no benefit for that worship -- so I bailed on the church and on all religion, and I've been a much happier person ever since. Every bit more I learn about science and the world/universe around me convinces me even more that there is no god, that it's all made up by men out of fear and a desire to control others.

Answer 8

My personality requires that I judge what is known differently from what is suspected, implied, unverified, or unverifiable.

After all this time - nothing proves religion. Although some people make unsubstantiated efforts to 'prove' religion, it is a matter of faith.

Because the Christian religion as taught by MAINSTREAM protestant churches has directives which are good for society, I have elected to count myself among them and suspend judgement on the unverifiable claims. They do good works, with love. ( Note that my particular church has a LONG history of liberal causes) That is the best that I can do.

Answer 9

Going thru a terrible time in my life. Tried to commit suicide and almost succeeded. Felt I had nothing in the world to live for after I found out my husband of 16 years was cheating and at the same time was physically and mentally abusing me. Just simply wanted to die. Heard a small still voice in my head (thought i was really crazy) tell me to talk to a preacher I had known all my life. He and I prayed together and Jesus found me that night. He didn't take all my problems away but He gave me strength to carry on. Today I know who I am and I can stand(only with His help) on my own. I now know my worth in life and enjoy and look forward to a new day. Wish i had time to share my whole story but believing in Jesus and crying out to Him changed my entire life. I know today that without Him I would be nothing.

Answer 10

with changing a few basic Christian concepts adding non - Christian belief systems along with THE PEOPLE Spirituality and Ancient Ways to complete the mixture has developed a Religious Belief System which works for me. there was no one Religious Belief System to fit the way I believe so I " customized " until I formed a Belief System that suited my personal thought processes.