~*~*Attention All ATHEISTS~*~*?

Question

Just out of curiosity, what religion did you follow before you became atheist? Why did you decide to do this? Serious answers please!

Answer 1

http://www.truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=Topics

Answer 2

What: Roman Catholic

Why did i decide...which? Your question is ambiguous.
To follow: I was raised and indoctrinated so.
To defect: the Holy Spirit stood me up.

Specifically:

- I saw no evidence that Christians are better behaved than anyone else.

- Every "miracle" could be explained w/o resorting to the supernatural. As a hypothesis, God was unnecessary.

- The heaven and hell thing just wasn't making any sense.
1. The resurrection of the body, as taught in the Apostle's creed, is at odds with the findings of modern physics. (Not a big problem.)
2. I could not reconcile the idea of an infinite hell with a loving God--or with the picayune "sins" that the Church considered mortal. (Somewhat of a problem.)
3. I could not be happy if any of my friends and family were in hell. Thus, *by definition*, heaven is impossible. (Oops!)

- Massive tragedies such as the 2004 tsunami and Hurricane Katrina were better accounted for without a god than with one. Conlclusion was that if God exists, then He has *precisely* the properties of a god who doesn't exist.

BTW, this wasn't so much a decision to leave the faith as a decision to admit to myself that i no longer believed. I cannot fake belief.

P.S. Not all atheists have followed a religion. Some never did believe.

Answer 3

Raised Baptist. Baptist for several of my adult years. After much thought became interested in Sabbath keeping and attented a church that believed this way but never joined. I had god "issues" for many years. There was a time in my life when I was not working and did a lot of reading. I read about the horrific events of the holocaust, slavery, war, child abuse, the conditions that people of the world live in, philosophy, religious origins and beliefs and history. It is absolutely impossible for the idea of a loving caring powerful god and all of the attrocities in this world to coexist. Not to mention natural evils such as tornadoes, hurricanes, bacteria, viruses and diseases. If there is a god and he she or it created these things then that god cannot love mankind. If I were a god and I created a world I would not have created things that would harm the innocent. Why would there have to be these things.
So either there is no god ( this gets my vote) or there is but it is a sadistic nonloving god so why worry or think about it.

Answer 4

I have run the gamut, from Lutheran to Jehovah's Witness to born-again Pentecostal to Buddhism.
I searched, researched, and studied thoroughly every sect and their versions of the Bible.
I finally made the educated decision to turn to Paganism/Wicca. It closely follows my own ideas, does not clash with science, and seems to have more free thinking, open-minded people involved within it. There is no one "truth" or dogma attached to Paganism, but an encouragement to study and find your own comfortable path. For the most part, and most of the people I know, Paganism/Wicca works towards positive goals and respect for Mother Earth and its inhabitants. There is no "devil worship" or using blood in any ceremonies. The only thing I have ever found to be used during rituals and ceremonies are herbs, bread, and wine.
Paganism has given me answers, feelings of being responsible for myself and my happiness, not being weighed down with trying for an unreachable perfection, and being guilt free through remembering and practicing the Law of Three: "Whatever you do, be it good or bane, will come back to you times three." In other words, do only what you feel will not hurt others, for it will come back and bite you on the a@@.
There are many people in all walks of life who have made the same educated decision I made over 9 years ago, from doctors to the girl at the counter at McDonald's. Most are very intelligent people who are non-materialistic earth lovers.
It takes much study and practice to understand the freedoms of Paganism.
Thank you for taking the time to ask a serious, searching question. Education and trying to understand all paths will certainly rid the world from misinformation and hatred.

Answer 5

There was no religion for me, my mother taught us to choose for ourselves, that included religion. She wanted for us to chose what was right for us and not make us suffer in something we wouldn't like. I'm not really atheist, but I'm ABSOLUTELY NOT religious either, I feel that all the people that go to a church function or meeting, are judgmental. If i were ta walk in in my normal clothes (ICP shirt, black ripped up pants, torn sneakers, and my face painted up like a wicked clown.) I'd get stares, judged as a satanist, or even a mislead soul. I'd either get shunned from the church or have people talk crap behind my back about me. It's not a matter if I want to believe, it's a matter that the people within that religion won't accept me for who I am just because of how i look.

Answer 6

I was Catholic, and had a very strong faith growing up. It just, over the years, started to seem more and more ridiculous to me to think that there's some sort of "being" out there. It's like the way most people think now when they're taught about Greek Myths in school. You hear about Zeus, and Aphrodite, and Athena. We know that these gods were invented because humans started to look for ways to explain things that they couldn't understand--like the sun rising and setting, the weather, life, disease, etc. They thought that something--some "being" had to be making things happen, because they didn't understand WHAT the sun was, or WHERE the rain came from. Now we know and understand these things, but we haven't really been able to let go of the idea of gods. (Or A God.) I started to feel that we were stuck in a sort of primitive mind-set, and I started wondering why their beliefs were considered silly and ours weren't. They believed in gods, we believed in “a” God. We had no more proof that ours was correct then they had that theirs was correct.
When I tried to reaffirm my old Christian beliefs by reading the Bible, I was horrified by what I read. It made no sense, contradicted itself on every other page, and certainly did not portray a "God" who gave me the impression that he cared a whit about anything but destroying everyone and everything in His path. I certainly didn't feel "loved". What capped it off, though, is the story of the crucifixion. Since God can do whatever He wants, if He loves us and wants to forgive our sins...why not just say, "I love you and I want to forgive your sins, so I will." What's with the torture and execution? And what on Earth is the average person doing that's so horrible that it takes THAT MUCH drama in order to forgive us? "I'm going to torture and execute my son/myself because you played 'Hide the sugar cube' with your girlfriend/boyfriend." ??? It just dawned on me that none of these stories made any more sense than the old Greek myths

Answer 7

I had been originally Catholic. Decided to turn agnostic around 14. Sometime around 21 I became a Buddhist for a little while. Now, at 23, I have finally found Islam, my true path to Allah.

As-salaamu alaykum - Peace be upon you

Answer 8

I have never followed any religion.. I was left to decide for myself and I decided not to believe in god/s or follow any religion.
I am technically a spiritual agnostic though not atheist. I base my life values and views on Nature and knowledge.

Answer 9

Christianity until about the age of 21 or 22. Been wavering between agnosticism and atheism ever since. I'm 36 now.

Answer 10

I have never followed any religion, I grew up with Christianity in school but i never fell for it . I dismissed it as true at around 8 years of age

Answer 11

I followed Christianity until i was 14 and my parents stopped forcing me to go to church! I decided to stop going to church because i was tired of questioning what Christianity meant when everyone was not giving me the answers i really needed: proof.
It would be like me telling you that unicorns and ferries existed, what is your proof? well there are a lot of books out there about ferries and unicorns, "you just have to have faith and believe". To me and probably for you that is hard to do. It is just easier to be a naturalist than a christian!