Fo nonbelievers of religion.?

Question

Did you come from a religious family? When did you question religion? Was it one thing or a series of events?

I ran from God as a result of a long period of hard times and the experience of a Pentecostal church that disgusted me. God would not let me go though.

I know that Spirituality has nothing to do with religion.

Great answers thank you so much!

Answer 1

My family was a mixture of religious beliefs, although predominantly Christian. I attended catechism, so many Catholics seem to think I am Catholic. My mother grew up in an American Baptist family, but she converted to United Methodism... perhaps because my grandfather was a UM minister. My father, however, was always ambivalent of religion because his father was a UM minister AND an Army chaplain. I guess you don't get more rebellious than that outside of deciding to carry a weapon. Anyhow, he said that he would not reject me no matter what job or what religion I decided to hold and my mother's Christian position was the same. I found that my father's knowledge of the Bible was extensive and his critique scathing, so, as a young Christian, I decided to study the Bible in depth to prove him wrong and better know God. Instead, the more I read the Bible, the more I realize it is ridiculous nonsense. I am gifted - by God or chance - with measurably greater (ACT, SAT, GRE scores) analytical abilities than most humans and I picked the Bible apart to the extent that I determined that the Bible was mostly fiction.

It is fascinating that many Christians think that if I were only the read the Bible *again* that I would return, but instead the contradictions, metaphors, and outright falsehoods become even more highlighted.

I studied many faiths both Chrsitian and non-Christian such as Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Shinto, Judaism, and older religions like that of the Norse, Greeks, Egyptians, Celts, and animistic faiths. I have studied directly with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Wiccans, Catholics, UM's, Baptists, Presbyterians, non-denominational "Christian" mouthpieces of the political right wing, honest non-denominational Christian churches, Lutherans, Native American spiritualist leaders (including a shaman), and even one person that claimed to be a Satanist (which I realize is actually not even a religion at all but a mockery of such). I have attended many Christian churches and weddings, been to a wiccan wedding and been a part of a wiccan rite of passage, attended a passover meal, and played a role in several Native American rituals including a sweat lodge. I went on my own sort of spirit quest into the depths of one of Ohio's more fridgid winters. After these many experiences, I can honestly say that my perception of spirituality is, has always been, and will be in development.

But I *have* come to some conclusions:

In other answers, I say that religious faith is what we hope is truth. To me, Christianity is merciless and cruel, even after you are "forgiven." Islam is no better - and, yes, I have read the Qu'ran too. Go ahead, prove me right and threaten me with death or hell. I will not serve such a vicious excuse of a "god!"

Such religion is malicious and it is no wonder that people so driven by the hate behind it are willing to kill one another over such petty and selfish beliefs.

I have a higher faith that is my own - what I had thought I had believed before is reclaimed, but without the lies and thoughtlessness.

Answer 2

I grew up in a protestant family - my mother is very religious, and very strict. She accepts the bible literally and totally as truth, and thought nothing of abusing me as a child and calling it discipline.

Then our church pastor ran off with another women, leaving his wife and his pregnant daughter behind. The daughter was 17, pregnant and not married.

I was also reading a lot of history during high school and after reading all about the crusades, and then watching religious wars like Northern Ireland still going on, I decided that christians were not actually doing what the bible said they were supposed to. Which meant they were hypocrites.

I stopped believing in the God of the Bible by age 16, and finally stopped going to church when I was 19. It was another 10 years before I finally admitted that the God of the Bible just plain doesnt exist.

Answer 3

Both of my parents believed in God, but we weren't a church going family at any point of my childhood. They both had come from what they described as 'oppressive Catholic upbringings' and let their kids make up our own minds.
I got deeply interested in religion in my teenage years and read all that I could find on the subject. I was surprised that none of the religions of the world really appealed to me, even though the idea of God did. Not to mention many of the religious people I studied with were very opinionated and egotistical.
I came to the conclusion that organized religion was not about results, and therefor wasn't for me. I don't think anyone knows more about God than anyone else, so what's the point?
These days I see all the glossy eyed zealots who push religion and it makes me think that religion is the biggest hurdle to world peace. Anyone who claims to know because of a feeling is delusional at best.

Answer 4

"Did you come from a religious family?" -- Not at all, actually. My family is almost completely nonreligious. We never went to church or anything like that. My father feels exactly the same way about religion as I do, and my mother just doesn't concern herself with the subject. But that's not really the reason why I ended up having the beliefs that I do. I almost wanted to become a Christian at one point -- it was only through research and experiences of my own that I decided I couldn't.

"When did you question religion?" -- I was around 16.

"Was it one thing or a series of events?" -- Combination of a lot of things: Unanswered questions of mine, things in religion that I found illogical or absurd, the sheer number of religions in the world that claim to be the "correct" one... many, many things over an extended period of time. I tried, though; I honestly did. But my problems with organized religion were just too many.

Answer 5

I came from a family who, though they are Christians and sent me to Sunday school, never attended church themselves. For awhile I was actually fairly gung-ho about Christianity, but during the tail end of high school and in college I really started questioning my own beliefs. I found Christianity (and all religions, really) to be lacking. I'm still spiritual, though, and I even think religions can be a useful idea for some people...just not me.

It wasn't one single event, by the way, unless it was the reading of my very first spiritually-oriented book not related to Christianity--The Celestine Prophecy. Not a great book, by the way, but it was exactly what I needed at the time. It got me to start asking the right sort of questions.

Answer 6

Sort of, but we weren't devout. We were more .. agnosticly religious? Not sure. My dad's an aerospace engineer, and I think all his experience with physics made him really question as a young man, the orthodoxy of Christianity. My mom was kind of a religious liberal type, I guess. She believed in God, in Heaven, but not in Hell and she thought everyone who "wanted" to go to Heaven would, regardless of their faith. She was kind of a hippie anyway -- out of college she spent 10 years doing public health on Indian reservations, then in Compton, CA.

Then around the time I was maybe 8, we stopped going to church. Just kinda stopped.

So yes and no. I came from a God-believing household (at least on one side), but not a "devout" household.

QUESTION RELIGION: It happened over years and years. Since I was never raised to believe "everything" the church told me, I guess I had skepticism anyway. By the time I was in my early 20s, I was most certainly an atheist. Probably by the time I was 16. No series of events. I knew I was an atheist when a door to door JH or Mormon (don't remember) asked me what my faith was, and I was like, "Oh, I'm an atheist." (Later I thought, hey, I am, aren't I?)

Answer 7

I have a very particular point of view on religion. I come from a religious family. I have taken communion in a church. I refuse to take it a second time. I have not been baptized. When I discovered that YHWH, God and Allah are the same entity, what man woman or child is there strong enough in conviction to righteousness to witness my baptism. I figure on my judgement day, I'll ask, where on earth have you been lately?

Answer 8

The problem is you are trying to dictate faith. Faith is not a fact, it is a state of mind. You may believe that you are right, and the Bible may even tell you so, but shoving it down someone's throat as the only possible truth is not very effective. I am a converted agnostic, now I am Catholic. I had to find my own faith. I would have found it earlier had I not spent an entire childhood trying to defend myself from overzealous Christians trying to tell me how wrong and wicked I was. I lived my life by the moral code instilled by my parents, and now that I am Catholic I find that I was not acting wickedly without the church to tell me how to be. Spirituality is important to everyone at some point in their lives, let them come to it. Be supportive and answer questions people may have. Don't try to tell people how you are right and they are bad for being wrong. Sugar goes down easier than vinegar.

Answer 9

I was raised in a Methodist family. I just knew at an early age I was different but I didn't say anything. I can remember at age 6 and seeing COSMOS by Carl Sagan. That had a profound effect on me. But I kept things to myself until 9/11. After that dark day I began to see the major problem in society, religion. I never felt better in my beliefs and my views and have embraced them ever since.

Answer 10

My family was Christian and so was I for a good many decades. I questioned religion and my belief in God starting in my 40s. My atheism is a result of education. I read history, mythology, theology, science, Biblical Scholarship, philosophy and psychology with a passion all my adult life. I see no evidence for a God.