Christians, I don't care about your dribble...this question doesn't pertain to you.
2007-05-16 18:24:08 · 45 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Between 16 and 17. My darling husband figured it out a lot sooner than me.... about a decade sooner.
I also "figured out" the tooth fairy WAY before my siblings. Surprisingly, I wasn't crushed. My little world didn't crumble all around me. In fact, I felt really proud of myself for "figuring it out", as you put it.
2007-05-16 18:26:42 · answer #1 · answered by ZER0 C00L ••AM••VT•• 7 · 7⤊ 0⤋
About 15
2007-05-17 12:17:13 · answer #2 · answered by Ethernaut 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All throughout my childhood religion was pushed on me by various people (not so much my parents - mostly peers and their parents), but I never felt that great "connection" or the inkling of faith that I expected to gain from believing in God. I called myself a Christian until I was about 8, at which time I realized I had no idea what being a Christian meant - I just thought of it as sort of the default religion, and I thought everyone had to have a religion.
Around 11 or 12 I started declaring myself agnostic after I learned what that meant - and that was a pretty fair label. My attitude was sort of like, Well, I don't REALLY believe but I probably shouldn't dismiss the fact that God might exist because I'll be sent to hell if I do.
At about 13, I gave up forcing myself to believe in God and stopped even thinking about it.
I mentioned I was an atheist to a peer in middle school, and she immediately went to the teacher (which was a catty thing for her to do, looking back) and told him that I'd said that, and he replied, "No she's not. She's just trying to be rebellious."
Well, rebellious or not, I've stuck with my beliefs and I'm 20 now and even more adamantly opposed to Christianity and organized religion than ever before!
2007-05-16 18:40:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
4
2007-05-16 18:26:23 · answer #4 · answered by Tania La Güera 5 · 3⤊ 1⤋
I remember, when I was 6 or 7, asking my Mother if God was real. It frustrates me now that I can't remember her entire response, all I can remember is her saying "..I don't know." I still would go to church with my neighbors, but I wasn't really encouraged to pray or keep going to church. It was all my choice since I was little. I'd say I "figured it out" a couple days ago (being nearly 16 years of age) that the Bible was written by men, and the Christian God is given too many human characteristics to be real and not made up by men (I.E. the need to rest, having a son, ext..) I'm sure after I do more research into other religions, that I'll come to a similar conclusion.
2007-05-16 18:51:33 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
17
2007-05-16 18:27:33 · answer #6 · answered by christine 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
14
2007-05-16 18:27:19 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
It feels like I have always felt that there was something wrong with the whole institution of "Church". Religion is one thing - they provide you with a set of moral guidelines on how to live a good and proper life.
But being forced to go to some building every week just because it says so in some ancient book always seemed a little bizzare - if God is everywhere, then shouldn't you be able to prasie him in your own way?
2007-05-16 18:44:27 · answer #8 · answered by kr_toronto 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
2 months ago, after i started participating in these forums....
that was actually the snap point, I was lead up to that
Age 12: Started to dislike going to mosque, found in repeatative and bland, didn't make me any happier
Age 16: Started seriously studying history/political science/religous studies. Realized that while in teahings some of the morals of religon are great, the concept of organized religon is corrupt and causes soo much problems in the world (war, racism)
I am 17 now, and find I'm much happier in life due to my atheist beliefs....
2007-05-17 20:08:09 · answer #9 · answered by Go Leafs Go 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am not sure, but it was certainly before Grade 2.
I did not understand the indoctrination methods until I was about 19 though. The guilt method is almost as important as the fear method.
(If you want easy access to studies of coercion methods you are best to search for them under business and management techniques. For example advertising companies spend a lot of effort in study and in training their personnel in these methods.
http://changingminds.org/index.htm
http://changingminds.org/techniques/conversion/conversion.htm
Once you get some of the keywords down the methods become search-able and you can start seeking actual psychology studies on these subjects)
2007-05-16 18:38:45 · answer #10 · answered by U-98 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋