What was your religious background before you became an atheist?

Question

And what made you leave your religion?

If Christian, what was your denomination?

Answer 1

I like to refer to myself as a recovering catholic. (ha) I went to private catholic schools 1st grade through high school but never bought into religious dogma. It wasn't until entered my 30's until I had the courage to really examine and openly declare my thinking as there is such a stigma in this in this country associated with secular thinking. I do think there are a lot of "religious" people out there, who in truth are atheist but would never declare themselves as such, because they don't want the bad press that goes with it.

Answer 2

Presbyterian.

I had been dragged to church all my life. I sang the hymns and read the prayers because my mom woke me up and made me. Then one day I decided that if I was going to be a part of the church then I should really start participating. I arranged my own baptism and I started paying attention to the sermons rather than just sitting through them.

The first Sunday I went with this new vigor was the also the last. Like I said, this time I was paying attention to the sermon and the prayers that were coming out of my mouth. I recognized immediately the sheer self-depreciation of it all. "Oh God, what a wretched and sinful creature I am. I am so full of flaw and sin and you are so perfect, made even moreso by the fact that you can still love and forgive me despite the fact that I suck so bad."

To heck with that. I was a good boy and I wasn't going to apologize for being sinful. I had done nothing wrong, nothing deserving of a life of eternal apology anyway. It was that day that I told my mom I wasn't going to church anymore. Not as before for the childish reason that I didn't want to wake up early on the weekend, but for the mature reason that I just didn't believe it. To her credit, she never made me go again.

I wasn't quite an Atheist yet. I spent a good chunk of my life in Agnostic wonderings. Only in the last few years have I really come to understand the flaws that make the God hypothesis a completely inviable one.

Answer 3

I'm not an Atheist, I'm a Pagan. But what made me leave (read "run from") my childhood religion, fundamentalist Lutheranism, was probably the same thing that makes many Atheists leave - emotionally abusive, mentally numbing endless preaching that told me I was nothing, I was sh** just for being born female, that if the church wasn't meeting my needs then I had the wrong needs, so forth and so on till I was nearly mad with it. They tried to turn me into a zombie to whom independent thinking caused actual pain, and when that didn't work, they really poured on the grinding pressure. I was a special case, you see.

So when I was about 16 I put my foot down, left the church, and except for the occasional funeral or wedding I've never been back. And oh boy, do I love dancing around bonfires now. :-D

Hey, you asked!

Answer 4

I was a Mormon, (a cult) it was a cult, the women were harrassed sexual, barefoot and pregnant, the relgion has brainwashing and indoctrination and mind control, the religion caused myself and my family to have mental problem, I am OCD. Then I became Wicca, probably because of the Mormanism, wicca is closely related to Mormanism in its pagan beliefs, I found out that the magic was not really in nature and that stunned me, so I left and became wicca/atheist because I really couldn't put the wicca down, With Atheistism, I thought I was really open minded, but then I almost died and could not hela myself like I thought all the Christians could do...so now I am Christian.

Answer 5

I was very lucky that my parents did not force one ounce of religion on me. My father is a non-denominational christian and my mom is an agnostic. Both taught me to use logic and rational thought to my life. I explored a lot of religions before i found out what science has to offer but obviously none of it worked out in the end. I've always felt, in my life, even when i was little that when i would go to Church there was something wrong with what they were saying. Always been at the very least an agnostic atheist but recently I've become a very decided atheist.

Answer 6

I've been exposed to many religious -- from actually going to church, living with people who are religious, studying different religions, etc. I was actually interested enough at a scholarly level to investigate religion for myself....theodocies, problem of evil, world religions, etc...even thought about joining a monestary. Most people blindly adopt the religion (and political leanings, etc.) of their parents, which is a big problem and how superstition and prejudices get perpetuated.

But in the final analysis, no one has the market cornered on what is true (though the Buddhists seem to offer a sensible path towards internal peace, even if their entire philosophy is wrong). Sure, religion may serve as a useful purpose as "an opiate for the masses", but that's not evidence for its veracity.

That said, I'm not an atheist, since while I can't prove a god exists, I also can't eliminate that possibility. There IS a chance that god exists (nothing logically inconsistent with that fact and the world as we know it), but it's unlikely that it exists like we think it does (e.g., omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent...or wanting us to kill infidels for 70 virgins in return, waiting for us in heaven).

So I'm an agnostic, which keeps an open mind about the existence of god, but doesn't fall for the existing, mindless doctrine that's internally and externally inconsistent in many fatal ways.

Answer 7

Yes, I grew up Christian (protestant-charismatic taste), deliberate to be a minister however fell in love with pc technological know-how. When I had youngsters I desired to be ready to naturally and actually provide an explanation for the proof aiding creationism and the Bible to them, but if I objectively researched it, I determined creationism to be intellectually cheating and all different claims for proof aiding Christianity and the Bible to be subjective stretches or wishful pondering. I'm really convinced being "faith" and god much less. Edit: By the best way, for the man or woman that recommended Islam as an choice, be truly! Islam even from a cursory, purpose seem is a utterly and blatantly made up faith.

Answer 8

I'm not an atheist. I'm a reluctant agnostic.

I dissociated from my religion, christian, because it became a political tool instead of a spiritual guide.

When I was a Lutheran, we went to Sunday school and they shared the bible stories with us. We went to church and they offered words of encouragement to live good golden rule lives.

Then, the Moral Majority, the Christian Coalition, the Born Agains, started telling us we had to live their way, believe what they believe, and vote their way. They started screwing with the schools and starting to force biology to teach creationism instead of science. And the list goes on.

This is where I found religion to be a distasteful, disgusting, disappointing tool for mind control of the masses instead of a guiding light. And that's when I stopped speaking well of religion.

Don't even get me started on the Islamic BS!

So, that's where I'm at on this subject.

Answer 9

I guess christian, cause that's what my parents are, but none of us really go to church. I think we used to, but we stopped probably when i was 3 or 4. I don't really remember ever being very religious. It always seemed silly to me as a child. I decided to be atheist just because it seemed the right choice for me.

Answer 10

I would not exactly call myself an atheist. I do not practice or believe in any reliigon for myself anymore. I was raised Catholic. I do believe there is a place for religon in a persons life however. The following statement sums up my belief very well.
The purpose of religon is to protect a man, until he can think for himself.