Former Christians- why'd you change your mind??

Question

I'll tell you my story if you tell me yours.

Oh, and do you ever get told you weren't a "real" Christian because of the fact that you changed your mind? Lol, I get that all the time.

Oh- please be specific, instead of just "I realized the truth, that there is no God" or something like that. What led to your decision to put Christianity behind you?

Are you happier now? Are you an Atheist, Agnostic, or have you found a new belief?

Answer 1

I got an education. I never heard god "talk" to me. Stories in the bible didnt sound believable. Coudlnt understand following a man who would burn people in hell. Felt like I was being threatened if I didnt believe, too many religions in the world and who knows? cant understand heaven being all pearly gates and streets of gold, all monetary. Dont want to spend eternity singing praises or listening to only that for eternity. want to go to the happy hunting ground with my dog.

Answer 2

I was raised in a Christian house and attended church with my parents (my mom is a music director for a huge church), did the choir and sunday school thing, VBS even. I was baptized and confirmed. But no one in any of the churches I attended could answer my questions. As I read the bible, things just didn't make sense or didn't always add up. Facts seems fishy to me, even then. But all I was ever told was "have faith." And that just never worked for me. It seemed dodgy and false, like they were trying to hide things.

I clung to agnosticism for years, continuing to question, read the bible, read other religious texts, talk to people of all faiths. It just all never rang true. And what I learned by reading about science, evolution, big bang and the like ALL made sense to me. It was logical and provided answers where religion couldn't.

When I turned 35, I was finally able to say outloud that I don't believe there is a god (not that I don't believe IN a god, but that there IS NO god) and that I am an agnostic atheist. I do believe no one can know for ABSOLUTELY sure that there is not god, but from all of the available information we currently have, I'm comfortable saying there is no god.

When I said that outloud... boy, did I feel at peace. A calm washed over me and all of the doubt and questions settled.

I don't care what anyone wants to believe... it's a personal choice. But I DO care when people pimp their religious beliefs to sell products or gain political office. And I DO care when people try to enforce their religious beliefs on others by passing laws (or adding their deity to our pledge, but that's another answer altogether).

Answer 3

Studying the bible.

Eventually I got to thinking about eternity, what the afterlife would be like, why did Lucifer rebel, omnipotence, etc.. And that's when I realize that any God would would burn his creation in a place of torment that he himself created was no worthy of my worship because he would be evil and malevolent. Being omnipotent, he would have already known which people he would send to hell, so what's the point of life? Are we simply characters in a movie that he is watching? We would not have any free will. That also got me to thinking that if I had to choose sides, I would have had to choose Satan over God because I'm a rebel, I could not stand supporting a tyrant and that is how I view the Christian deity.

Am I happier now? You bet. I'm a happy Heathen. I like having a religion were the two main attributes are a love of freedom and knowledge. I can be a skeptic and not have to dismiss science or try and twist it to fit my religion like I did back in my Christian days.

Answer 4

I am Christian/Catholic on paper but honestly when I see some of the drivel that comes out the mouth of my "bretheren" I am embarassed to associate myself with this faith...you know I answered a question posted by some fanatic regarding the existence of ghosts (her argument was that the soul can only go to heaven or hell and she tried to pass that off as a logical argument for the non-existence of ghosts). I suggested that there can be no logic in religion and that not everyone believes in a heaven or a hell (Buddhism, Judaism, etc.) and I was accused of being too "open-minded"....ha!
I think I would say that I have more agnostic leanings but have not completely discounted the possibility of some higher force at play...I just can't commit to calling this God or anything else as I'm still exploring...there's so much out there that it is likely that I will never get to finding a satisfactory answer...but I'm okay with that...sometimes I get this pang that I need to belong to something but that is usually assuaged when some crackpot, like the one I mentioned earlier in my post, goes on a ridiculous diatribe...anyway...is that good enough to hear your experience?

Answer 5

I never really saw an example of anything to believe in. My parents didn't go to church very often, and even though they still call themselves Christians, I probably know more about their religion than they do. They were bad examples, of just about everything they did. I lost my faith as a child because of my parents, and my distaste for common Christians only grew as I got older. I hate how hypocritical and judgmental they are. So much of what so many Christians do contradicts their holy books. It's sickening. As Gandhi said "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Not all Christians are bad though. Some of my best friends are Christian, and my husband is Christian. I have seen some very good Christians out there. I just cannot reconcile myself with their contradictory and oppressive beliefs.

I am a pagan animist/spiritual agnostic. My beliefs haven't really changed, but I just recently found the words for it.

And yes, I'm far happier now than I've ever been in my life.
(Though that honestly has more to do with being married rather than defining myself.)

Answer 6

I was stupid enough to take my religious teachers seriously and study the Bible and Christianity very seriously. I studied intensely for years growing up by reading the Bible, theology books, even learning ancient Greek and starting with Hebrew. That led to further study of religion and other subjects. Wider study led to increased doubts because of the wider perspective learning gives you. Etc., etc.

If I would have remained as lazy and passively accepting of my religion as most of my classmates, I would probably still believe it all. The thing I noticed, most people who really embrace their religion know very little about it.

Now I consider myself an agnostic. Really, I don't think anyone can know for certain whether or not there is some sort of higher being or something like that out there. I'm more certain that official religious institutions and religious authorities have no special knowledge than I am that there is no God or some like being or beings.

Answer 7

I felt there was much more to matter of the spirit than Christian expression could teach me, or even allowed. I had felt the presence of God several times when, as a fanatical Christian youth, I was a part of or at several worship services. Other times, I would feel nothing. Why would it be at one service, not another, and how could I feel that whenever I wanted? My youth pastor couldn't answer any of these obviously spiritual questions, and even told me that what I sought was dangerously close to the occult. I became dissillusioned that they could not offer any way for me to find deeper knowledge of the spirit and I was even told at one point to 'just read the Bible'. I had experienced a deep, personal, and real phenomena and I was told to just put my head into dogma. I'm a pagan now, and I am much happier. I can feel my connection to reality around me, have relationships with several divine archetypes (gods), and I have a good idea about what human spirituality is about, for me at least. My current path is about the human spirit and how we relate to the universe. Looking back, I can see my Christian faith was more about a social movement and dogmatic doctrine as opposed to personal experience.

Answer 8

Contrary to what many Christians want to believe about those who left the faith... In my case at least... there wasn't some big event that caused me to lose faith or become angry with god.

I took a class in college (a Christian University) about biblical doctrine. Up until then I swallowed it all, but when it was actually explained by this class, so much of it sounded like rationalization and picking & choosing. This led me to question more and more about it... which ultimately led me to realize that I could believe none of it.

No real drama.
Now I'm, technically, agnostic. Though I have definate atheist leanings.

Answer 9

because I'm to dam curios and the answer because its god will, god made it that way, etc raises suspicion even to 8 year old especially coming from a priest so i just started researching and thinking about these things so by the the time i was 14 i had already studied different religions but still the only realistic answer and prof came from science

oh and yes i fell a lot better not whoring that I'm going to burn in hell if i don't go to church
I'm an atheist now

Answer 10

This has been told several times, but I realize that so many questions get asked, it is difficult to go over all of them.

I started doubting when I realized that the Bible wasn't the inerrant document I was always taught that it was. After this, I decided to see if there was compelling evidence for the existence of God. There wasn't.

That is my story in a very small nutshell.
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