For Atheist/Agnostics what is your first memory where you began to question the existance of God?

Question

I was roughly 5 years old when I began to try to wrap my brain around the idea of God.

I was roughly 7 when I began to question religion.

I was roughly 10 when I began to not believe in religion.

I was much older when I could say I did not believe Jesus was divine but I do believe he existed and was a great philosopher.

If you are religious, when did you stop just accepting what you were told but actually attempted to question things so you could choose you belief? Did you ever question what you were told?

Mauron ... I mean Maurice I left enough room in the question so that even those who are Religious could participate.

You gonna answer the question or just add your negative 2cent for the 2 points?

For the record, I am Agnostic.

I believe in the possibility of God.

I can not find a way to prove or disprove the existence of God.

WDJD for someone who appears to be religious, were you not taught etiquette and respect and/or basic read comprehension skills?

I did not ask you to try to convince me of your belief. I asked more how did you come about to DECIDING what you believe if you did indeed actually decide.

Keep your sermon to your followers.

WDJD and also try not to twist others' words as an intro into your sermon.

I said I tried to wrap my brain around the "IDEA" of God. Not I tried to read Gods mind. And Albert Einstein did not believe in a personal God as in the religious way of thinking so be clear when trying to use him to sway opinions.

Answer 1

I guess I was probably about 8 yrs old. I was one of those( why children) for every explanation there was usually a why? I slowly began to realize the adults did not know the answers also, and were merely repeating what they were also told as children.

Answer 2

I don't remember how old I was, but I did ask my father what happens to people when they die. He told me nobody really knows, but some people believe Heaven, Hell, and judgment (not exact words, paraphrasing). Ever since then I've been searching for reasonable answers, and I think I've even found a few. I think this also led me to be very open and accepting of other people's faiths. Of course, that was not always the case. For a while I was an atheist that was very judgmental of religion, but that was during a time in my life when I was still building my identity. It was also before I understood what religion was all about. All in all, I think it's worked out quite well.

Answer 3

I was pretty young too. I would say I really figured it out for sure around ten. I had my doubts about the same time as Santa and that was first grade.

I had a really tough time with the fact that I didn't even know a word for it, and didn't know anyone else who thought there wasn't a god. About 13 I started to watch Cosmos (Carl Sagan) on PBS and was so happy to see that intelligent people thought the same way. I read several of his books right after and have been happily an atheist ever since.

Answer 4

Sorry but I couldn't stay away! (I'm Christian)

I would say the thought cossed my mind when I was about 7, but I never doubted God's existence since then. I'm satisfied with looking round at the world and realisng everything is too pretty to have been made by random chance.

A lot of atheists say they don't believe in God because of past experience. For example they say things like "God wouldn't allow this" or "I prayed to God for this and he didn't answer me". God is kind yes, but He is also wise, all the things he allows work out for the greater good. I think it was Darwin who observed a butterfly struggling to break loose from its cocoon. The creature looked to be in so much anguish that he freed it, now newly transformed butterflies are supposed to be hale and hearty within an hour but this one, once free struggled for another two hours before eventually dying. It is God's plan that everyone has to struggle at some point to grow stronger, but He would never allow them to go through a task they wouldn't be able to handle. It is what we do with these tasks that decides if we make it into heaven or not

Answer 5

When I was 15 I went to a church and I realized that I didn't agree with what was going on in there and I didn't understand why. By the time I was 18 I realized it was because it didn't make sense to behave that way for a god. By the time I was 24 I had finished reading the Bible. After I finished reading Paul's letters I realized that Christianity was a farce but Jesus was a decent teacher. Shortly after that I realized that God doesn't exist and if it does it is unnecessary.

Answer 6

In my whole life I never went to church except for school occasions (my school wasn't especially religious but we had a little chapel where a hymn was sung and that was it) and I never ever followed religion and I never worshipped a god and I never believed that an amazing omnipotent being existed as written in the bible or any other book.

My parents never forced religion on me at all. My dad is not religious at all and my mom is Anglican but never goes to church or prays or anything. So I was lucky to be able to make up my own mind even as a little kid.

Answer 7

I was seriously questioning the existence of god by age 12. By 15 I was a full blown atheist and have remained so for the past 40 years.

Answer 8

well, my family is Hindu and they've been very lenient with us (my sibs and me), they're very religious themself, but when it came to us, they just automatically assumed we would believe in god, which is not the case for either of us (there's 3 of us), All three of us find the religion of hinduism really pleasant and interesting, but when it comes to god, it's just too hard to accept that there is one

in our house we never go to any religious institution on a weekly basis, so when we were young, we would occasionally go to temple for holidays, and I would get really irritated at the person who would sit at a pedestal and preach as if he knew the world inside and out and he would point at me and my sibs because we didn't really know anything about the religion, and I would just get really angry, My dad doesn't like it when people preach either

hmmmm, the youngest memory I have, well when I was around 5, I believed whatever my mom would tell me, she told me there's a god and that you shouldn't do bad things, about karma, reincarnation, praying and she'd tell me stories about Krishna or Ganesh

I used to believe it all until I moved from the urban environment to this suburban environment, where there was no other hindu, it was all christians and jews and I was about 12 when I started to doubt it all and question it, yeah I was slow to realize, but I don't know, that's how it is with my brother and sister too, it doesn't make sense to us, because the god that everyone seems to believe in sounds so hypocriticial and shallow

but i do like to read up on hindu philosophy, it's interesting, but religion is definitely not for me

but I do get irritated when people are narrow-minded and insult religions they don't know about like hinduism

i'm sorry for the long answer!

Answer 9

When they told me that all of the judgmental hypocrites I went to church with were going to heaven and all of the good people in the world who did not believe in my religion were going to hell.

This was about the third grade. I remember walking home from school that day.

I told God that I did not really believe that he was a big enough idiot to do something that stupid, but if he was I had no interest in spending eternity with a judgmental jerk.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 10

I grew up in a very religous family, I don't believe the way they do and I am still trying to figure out what I really believe. It's hard to find your own way when everyone else is so opinionated.

Now, on your answer on US culture, I was wondering where did you get your sources?