question for aetheists and agnostics?

Question

what was the reason for your current views about God?

a. that is the way you were taught- that is the way you have always believed.

b. you used to believe a different way, but you observed something on TV or elsewhere, and changed your mind

c. you used to believe differently, but you had bad personal experiences which made you turn away from believing to the way you believe now.

d- other reason

if it was c or d, what happened?

thank you

Answer 1

I figured out that EWTN and Nickelodeon were primarily fictional at about the same time. Praying didn't seem to work, and there was no kingdom of heaven above the clouds when I went for my first plane ride. No Care Bears either, much to my disappointment. I also remembered thinking that the idea of hell seemed a little bit mean; did anybody really deserve eternal punishment? God must be a big meanie, I thought. Or maybe he doesn't exist and the stuff on EWTN is made up?

My grandmother brought me to church a few times, and the priest said some nice things about not hurting each other but I already knew that stuff. Besides, Star Wars and Greek mythology was cooler make-believe.

As a teen, I started to develop religion again. My parents were supportive, so they got me several different editions of the Bible as part of my Christmas gifts. I started to read it, and became an atheist again.

I tried again after I went off to college. I set out to find proof that God existed, and staged debates on other websites. I did not lose, and observed denial symptoms in all the people I beat in debate. A creationist with a Ph.D. in biology tried to convert me. He had a nervous breakdown when I defeated every proof he could think of and made him look stupid before this random 18 year old. I felt sorry, and have avoided that sort of debate since then.

I still search and I still debate, but its winding down and I do it less and less. You need a "made an effort" category on that survey of yours.

Answer 2

well i'm agnostic and the reason why was because i had some bad personal experiences with the churches and i saw way too many things that i didn't like such as hypocrisy and intolerance and judgement being passed around and rudeness and it was all about the money plus it just seemed outrageous that the god of christianity is that cruel i feel that if there is a god that this individual higher power wouldn't care about religion as much as he would care about people doing the right thing by each other anyway there was always a part of me who found it unknowable about whether or not god exists or doesn't exist besides i was both catholic and protestant christian and i studied islam and read the qu'ran 3 times and the bible and whatnot and these religions just don't feel right to me at all

Answer 3

I would say B. The thing I observed was indeed on the TV. It was a movie about the life of Gandhi. I watched it, and I, of course, found that Gandhi was a wonderful person, but I realized that, by the Christian belief I had then, Gandhi was suffering in hell as I watched the movie. I decided that it was wrong and, from that point on, I was an Agnostic. Agnostic, btw, because I believe no one can be 100% certain.

Answer 4

This a well thought out question. I finally came to the conclusion that for me it was a combination of b, c, and d. I was raised in the church and school of a major religion. During this time I began wondering why there are so many religions which are intolerant of one another? Later in life, I experienced a death in my family of a seven month old baby. That began a search for reason. As I aged and began a quest for knowledge, answers seemed to come from science. I returned to church for a short time (a different faith) to accommodate the wishes of another person. I continued to find hypocrisy of action from some of the congregation. To this day I withhold the fact I am a non-believer. People seem to think it entirely acceptable to lecture their beliefs in religion and I should silently accept them. If I mentioned my lack of belief it becomes quite disconcerting to them, to the point they seem to feel I am attacking them personally. I have never and will never argue religion. People's beliefs are their own and deserving of respect. I seek the same.

Answer 5

d. I remember asking my parents whether they believed in god and they said they did, but they never went to church or read the bible or forced their weak beliefs on me. Even as a child, I never took it seriously. I could read always read most religious people and saw the true motive for religion at an early age. I've never prayed in my entire life. I would annoy the other kids in class during scripture by arguing with the teacher. She would usually get angry and finish lamely by saying, "Because that's the way God wanted!" I would sit back with a smug look on my face and I could tell she hated me for it.

Answer 6

by the time people started trying to teach me, i had already made up my mind. i never for a moment, in my entire life, believed that gods were real. my parents did trick me with the santa claus tale for a while. i probably had stopped believing that by the time i was 3 or 4 years old.

Answer 7

I was raised Christian. I never really bought it. I figured out that I didn't believe about ten years old. I became comfortable with it after watching Carl Sagan on Cosmos a few years later.

Answer 8

c- too many people asked me real questions about what is true, what made sense and how the bible contradicted itself, let alone the current christians contradicted thier faith

current view - a non - believer in a deity but a believer in my self and others...very humanist...but yet loving of self/others and wanting this place to be a better one, but need action and plans to do it, without religion dividing us

Answer 9

I had it forced onto me and never felt good about it-then I was lucky enough to be educated in a well rounded way (no people lived with dinosaurs and that crap) to be able to discern that I didn't want to believe in magical thinking

Answer 10

D. As I learned to think for myself and developed my critical thinking skills, I drifted away from magical thinking and supernatural answers. I'm a lot better now.