For atheists - A couple questions?

Question

Just out of curiousity, I have a couple questions. No disrespect whatsoever...
-Growing up, were you raised with religion in your life, did you at any point in your life believe in God or a God, or were you raised as an atheist?

-What exactly was the turning point for you? What was it/is it that made/makes you believe in what you do?

-Honestly, do you ever quietly question to yourself "Is there a God?", do YOU ever have doubts in your beliefs? I know I do from time to time.

I guess I need to rephrase something I said. I said I question God, but that wouldn't be the entire truth. It seems like I question my particular religion more than anything. Thanks for all your replies.

Answer 1

1. I was raised in an almost "very religious" family..
2. turning point, nothing special, but i started thinking on my own and found out i believed in a lot of nonsense.
3. yes, actually i am only recenlty experiencing this change, and i haven't yet came out with a solid conclusion, so i still question god and the after life.. i would feel much better if their non existance can be proved..

Answer 2

- I wasn't exactly raised as an atheist, but my parents are not religious. I believed in God as a small child, but was not really raised in a religion, although I was baptized as a child. I mean God and religion were simply not important for my parents and weren't mentioned much, and I never felt what people call a "relation to God" or a strong faith.

- No clear turning point, it was a gradual process and had different reasons. I was agnostic for a long time, and still a bit agnostic.

- I can't be 100 % sure of anything, so I might be wrong and there might be some kind of God, but I feel 99.9999999 % sure that there is no personal God.

Answer 3

I was raised by Christians. My dad was in the army so we moved around a lot and my mom liked going to many different types of Churches.

I've never believed in a God. I remember being 4 years old sitting in a church next to my parents and thinking that I don't believe any of this story the preacher is preaching and that I better not tell anyone.

I've always been a skeptic. It's in my nature.

Sure, I used to question myself all the time. It was lonely. back before the internet I never knew another person like myself. It lead to a lot of pain and questioning. Noone wants to be different.

These days I'm settled into my skepticism, and, I believe if there is a God then He/She/It probably isn't what any of the religions of this planet think It is.

Answer 4

I did grow up in a nominally "christian" household, but religion has never made sense to me. I did all the searching, (soul, religion, etc..) talking, reading, and all that.
When I was younger, I was very susceptible to people saying that I was wrong. I questioned myself constantly.
The best way I've ever found to describe how I feel is using the old atheist adage that, I just believe in one less god than you do.
You, probably, never even think about worshipping zeus, ahura mazda, or baal. Why not? Probably because it's so obviously silly, no matter how many peope have (or do) worship them.
Well, that's exactly how I feel...about all gods.
It's not that I don't want there to be a god, but that really has nothing to do with reality. I'd like for there to be all sorts of things that don't exist.
Does that help?

Answer 5

I am not an Atheist, I do believe that there is a higher power. I just don't believe anything any organized religion has to tell me or that God is who every one claims him to be. To think that a God is all loving and has our best interest at hand when he lets us all suffer is unimaginable to me. I know how much I care for all the things around me I as an imperfect human cant imagine allowing a creation that I am supposed to love suffer for centuries to prove a point. I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness, My turning point was when they wouldn't let my 75 year old Grandmother get baptized after she had been studying for years, Their reason was because she had a boyfriend, Her and my Grandfather had been dating and living separately for over 40 years. They said that it didn't look right that she went over to his house unchaperoned. She was very sad, That was my turning point against all organized religion. Then I looked around the world at the suffering and thought that there is no excuse or challenge that would make it right to look on and see so much sadness and suffering and let it continue for this long. I am thankful to the higher powers that have created this earth....and I hope that as humans we can stop looking to a God to save us and realize that we are going to have to pull together if this human race is to survive all the things that we have done to this earth and ourselves.

Answer 6

I'm not an athiest right now, but I use to be. I'm currently working towards strengthening my faith and believing in God as much as I can, but I'm still a bit of an agnostic.

Growing up, I was raised as a Catholic. I came to not like the church (no disrespect towards those of you that are Catholic), so I left. I believed fully in God a few years ago, even after I had left the Catholic religion. I'm not really sure what caused the turning point for me, but I began questioning if there really was a God. I would think to myself how we could even prove if he existed and why he would make us worship him. I wondered if religion was just a crutch for some people. But then again, I've had things happen in my life that I can't explain (I won't mention them on here), so I started thinking how these things could be possible without a higher being. So, I began to question if there is a god once again. Now, I'm to the point where I realize I will never know for sure - all I can do is try to improve my faith, as I really do want to believe in God. And, it helps explain those "miracles" that I wouldn't know how to explain otherwise. I like to say this to current athiests and skeptics: You can believe that there is no God, but other things can't be explained if you say so. There are always going to be doubts in your mind about the topic, but stick to one side (athiest or religious) and then try to prove your side. I don't participate in organized religion anymore. Instead, I try to find my belief through myself and within me - I think of it as a personal life journey.

Answer 7

I was raised Catholic, but I did not have the kind of mind that accepted religious doctrine. Even as young as the age of six, I was in trouble constantly in Catholic school for asking questions and laughing at statements that were "not funny". I tried very hard to believe, but I think that I was mostly faking it to avoid angering my relatives. The more educated I became, the worse it got until I finally had to admit to myself and others that I don't believe that God exists, and probably never did.

I never question this. I was born the way I am, and no amount of conditioning was able to change it. I would never go back to religion, all the answers became much clearer once I took the possibility of everything supernatural out of the questions.

Answer 8

answer 1
yes i used to go to church all the time as i was growing up. I believed in it 100%.
answer 2
the turning point for me was when i had questions which started around 6th grade, about different contradictions, i was told that i would go to hell for asking those questions, so i would prey and ask god these questions anyway, no answer, so i asked for a sign, no answer, so i then went to the preacher again with all my questions and he kicked me out of church and i was never to go back. so i then tried several different churches and religions pretty much the same consequences. so in 11th grade i came to a realization. I am human and religion only exists in the idea of man.
answer 3
I do not ever ask my self if there is a god anymore.

i hope this helps you understand the other paths as far as religion go.
good luck with your beliefs

Answer 9

I was a Christian/catholic My mother forced me to go. I was a guitarist and doing well with it. learning music and enjoying it. until a Nun tried to cut my fingers off with a ruler. I never could run a fret board after that and my entire dream of being a classical guitarist was wiped out"for the sake of god" I became a christian and even walked around stupidly witnessing.. One day I walked into the church and saw the pastor "taking the demon" out of an autistic friend of mine with a riding crop. what was worse was the pastor had a visible erection.
Any god that allows people to destroy children in ANY MANNER is evil!
I grew up! I asked questions and hunted for answers and found out that all of my childhood was wasted in lies and hypocrisy.
It was not a battle with faith. I gained faith in myself. I saw the dark side of religion and I don't want to hear any lie believer tell me" well, they're not all that way" All religion is evil. it kills the search for knowledge. Religion gives easy bullshit answers to complex questions.
I went to work on oil rigs because I couldn't play guitar I know how to play one but am not capable. Thanks to mind controlled droids that follow faith blindly.
Working on offshore rigs bought me an old farm. But I was never home. So in a real moment of stupidity I joined the Military. at 25 no less. I was not in Iraq a week before I was blown up. I came home a leg hand and penis short. I have kids and a farm and one arm and one leg. and the puke that parked the roadside bomb that took my living and my sexuality away was a Satanic Muslim.
I know the truth now. I have no doubt what and who Muslims Christians and Catholics are. They are mind controlled robots that do evil things to good loving people, in the name of religion.

Answer 10

I was raised Christian

I turned non-Christian after I read the Bible

After reading other religious texts and philosophies attempting to prove God I became agnostic

After being agnostic for a while I became atheist.

Everyone has doubts. When climbing a ladder or flying in a plane you have doubts.

It doesn't make sense to be scared though.