Question for non-believer's of the Christian dogma...?

Question

I know many of you, as well as myself, used to be Christian. I am no Atheist. Was there a significant event(s) that happened in your life that led you to believe that there was no god, and certainly not one that cared about you?

There was for me. I remember when I was 16, sitting alone in my bedroom, crying my eyes out, begging God to take away all the emotional pain and anguish in my life. I couldn't understand how I could have been "blessed" with all the sadness and depression and I just wanted it to go away. Now, 8 years later, nothing's changed. If there was a god, why was I and still now suffering this torment.

What's your story?

It's a typo. I meant to say now an Atheist. Sorry my brain farted.

Answer 1

I feel the same way you do. If God(s) existed, why all the pain, agony, and suffering in the world? Ultimately I reckon that is a big part of the reason I turned atheist. Over the last few years I have seen way too much death and suffering first hand, there's no way I can believe in gods. It's not that I don't want to, I am a reluctant atheist. I would be tickled pink if someone could prove that the Norse Gods exist. But alas I can find no evidence for the existence of any gods or afterlife.

Answer 2

Not one specific episode, no. It started out when I was five, and was told by the neighbor kid taht I couldn't play with him anymore because they were Episcopalian and I was raised Lutheran. Religious hypocrisy took away my best friend.

Throughout my life, there have been times when I needed help, wanted to believe, and tried to do the "good Christian" thing. In return, I was punished, lied to, hurt, shunned, and told how evil I was by the very people that preached God's love.

So eventually I gave up on Christianity and swung to atheism. No more God, no more unanswered prayers, no more worrying about heaven or hell, and no more stupid rules. I went on my merry atheist way for a time, and when I graduated college I started considering other religious points of view.

I looked into Taoism, Nichiren Buddhism, and Wicca to see what they were about, and though I found some good life philosophies within them, none really fit who I felt I was. But I did consider that although there is no God, that I cannot discount the possibility that there may be something unknown within the unfathomable size of the universe that I might not ever know about. I could no longer simply swallow the oblivion that atheism offered any more than I could stomach the empty promises of Christianity. Thus I came to my present state of agnosticism.

There may be something bigger or more complex than my consciousness can understand right now, though contrary to popular belief I do NOT believe it is some form of supreme deity; more like the "universal energy" that Buddhism offers perhaps?

I'm fine with not knowing it all. I figure I'll see when the time comes, but until then I am FREE of organized religion's choke hold and FREE to live my life to the fullest.

Answer 3

When I was a kid I went to church, and I really liked the sign on the wall that read, "God is Love."

Then I started to read the Bible, and in shock and dismay I read about an angry, murderous, misogynist, spoiled brat of a deity who is in seeeerrrrious need of a time-out. Or a spanking, for preference.

I could not reconcile the two in my head, and I decided that I really believe in Love over anything the Bible had to say. So, when the two clashed, the Bible lost. Later studies of the history of the Bible confirmed my hunch that it was a man-made document and not divine.

Over the years, my study of religions made me start to think that people's religious experiences had some interesting things in common... and perhaps all the personification of deities are mere metaphors for something bigger even than 'God', and are well-meaning but misguided attempts to define something indefinable.

Now I'm a pagan Taoist. Taoism has a lot of interesting wisdoms that I find appealing and actually useful in a practical way in life. I suppose that adopting this spiritual philosophy has something to do with my own need to be loved and valued and healed, to believe that everything will be okay.

I am terribly sorry to hear that you are suffering. I hope you find a way to overcome it. I don't know what other comfort I could offer, but I wish you healing and happiness.

Answer 4

Honestly, there was no seminal event. It's like puberty - for some people it's violent and changes happen quickly. Actually, the two happened at about the same time, now that I think about it. When I was 12 I believed in God and could sing in the same range as Alvin, Simon, and Theodore. By the time I was 15 I was an atheist and a baritone. But there was no big event, just a long string of hints that it wasn't what I believed anymore.

Answer 5

I stopped being Christian, not because "God" didn't listen to my prayers, but because I decided to question Christianity and didn't like what I came up with.

I've always been fascinated by religion (still am) love learning all about them. And at my old work I saw a scientology place, I didn't go in, but was determined to find out about it.

Everyone thinks scientology is stupid and false, but then I thought about it and.........so is Christianity - they both have unbelievable stories. The only reason scientology is so weird to people is simply because Christianity has always been accepted. I bet if we were raised with Scientology as a main religion in the world instead of Christianity - we would believe all that crap!

I was born into a Christian family and am not on more of a spiritual path and loving it.

sa

Answer 6

I've got so many stories it would take a whole web site to list them all so I'll just give basic details of a few.

1) at 8 years old, dragged in front of the congregation and told I was satans child because of a dream that saved my friends life.

2) at 12 was told in front of class in bible school I was going to hell if I didn't change my ways because I had a dream that kept a friends house from burning down.

3) at 14 was confronted with dealing with the preacher getting my best friend (also 14) pregnant.

4) at 15 was told never come back because my dream kept a member from being killed in a car wreck when her brakes failed just like I told her they were going to.

Since then, it has been one instance after another of christians trying to tell me how wrong I am, all the way to having to call the police on many occasions, but they were christians too and even though my land was marked no trespassing and these people have been told many times not to return, the police would not do anything.

Answer 7

I was five. I had some trouble believing all the stuff they were saying at Church but was going along with it. My mom was very sick and we (my 4-yr-old sister and I) were prepared for her death by a lot of different relatives. She became pregnant. We were told that she would die, the baby would die and best case scenario, the baby would be horribly damaged by the medication my mom was on. They were all wrong. My mom made it through and is alive today, my sister was born a little small but perfect. I was so happy! We had a big party before my sister's baptism. I was dressed in a really pretty dress and I was having a great time. I asked the pastor what baptism was. He told me. He told me that my brand new, precious gift of a sister was somehow unworthy because she was born in original sin and had to be cleansed and baptised so she could go to heaven. I was done. That was the biggest load of hogwash I had ever heard and Christianity and I were through. It took a long time of reading, studying and searching and I continue to do it to find spirituality that suits me, but one thing is sure, any religion that can believe a baby needs to be "saved from sin" is right out.

Answer 8

No single event for me.

In spite of getting saved...twice...I never really bought into Christianity all the way. I always saw the contradiction and the absurdity, the non-answers of the hard questions, the problem of evil, and the endless twisted logic of the apologists. (the round peg answers hammered into square peg questions)

I noted the utter randomness of life, the crystal clear scientific explanations of the things I was curious about. I read endlessly about science, I did 2 undergraduate degrees in Biology, and took astronomy, psychology, chemistry and physics at the college level along the way. I have read about different branches of science almost my entire life of reading. It just became obvious that God, and in fact, all gods, were mythology.

I drifted over a few short years from a soft Christian...to more of a Deist...then to agnostic, and finally now an atheist. There was no watershed event, just a maturing of intellect.

Answer 9

Sadly, my story isn't that fascinating. I grew up in a very fundamentalist family and school, never learned about evolution or any of that. I went to college and actually started learning about these things. Then I met a girl who was an atheist, dated her for a long time, and she constantly needled me with tough questions. Finally, after that relationship ended, I picked up Atheism: The Case Against God, by George H. Smith. The universe just made more sense and became a lot more beautiful without a god. I didn't have to ask "why would god do this? what did I do to deserve it?" any more. I didn't have to live with unnecessary guilt any more.

Answer 10

i don't see the place Christians are going decrease backward and forward with one yet another. There are people right here who've asked religious questions right here and that they are getting responded. there have been stupid questions asked i think to make a mockery of what's making an attempt to be achieved right here. The athiest comments have placed some Christians on protection. and multiple the non-religious have placed some Christians on protection with their questions. i did not desire to point out one specific group. i don't desire all people to be indignant. yet different than that i don't see the place Christians are attacking one yet another in right here. i'm truthfully sorry in case you acquire that effect.