atheists who were religious at one time: at what point did you?

Question

put the religion aside and say "wait a minute, I'm going to right my own wrongs and not wait for some god to swoop down and do it for me". when did you wake up and take control of your own life? there's always a straw that breaks the camel's back.

mine's was when I was and found out that my daughter's baby sitter was locking the children on her back porch to get a break from them. I came earlier than usual and caught her. This lady preached about god and about her being saved every single day. she judged everyone, including myself to the point of hating her. I didn't hold her beliefs against her as long as I thought she was being nice to the kids. long story short, I ended up calling DCFS on her and had her little heavenly angels day care shut down. I never felt so gratified! It felt really good standing up for myself and letting go once and for all the religious hocus pocus that had clouded my life.

so what's your story?

thanks to all of you for sharing your stories!!

All are best answers! sorry I have to pick just one.

Answer 1

It all began when I was seeking a way to kill myself for not being able to reconcile my being gay to God. Fortunately my mother got me some help. Eventually though I felt that since death was permanent I should really give the Bible a good look to see if it was really saying what the church was telling me it was. They were correct, but the more I studied the Bible the more I realized that it made very little sense. It took me many years to eventually get to my atheism which has only been in the last few months. But I've not been Christian for a couple of years now. It was all part of my journey in 'letting go of god', the concept of 'god' that is. I am gay, live and love my life, never consider killing myself any longer, and I've never been happier. Being outside the religious delusion now I see exactly how ignorant and fear based it all is. I see all religions the same way that most Christians see Islam. All religious people are delusional, not just the ones you don't agree with. I now know that the only reality that is is the one being explained by science based on evidence not 'faith'.

Answer 2

Richard Dawkins' speech at Lynchburg, Virginia is what helped a bit. I've always had a strong inclination since college though. I remember in Sunday school as a kid wondering why there are no more miracles anymore. Some of the stories I was told just didn't seem to add up, even at an early age when Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were thought to be true.

I even minored in Theology to try and help me believe but it ended up having the opposite affect on me, ironic huh?

Answer 3

I live in a christian community. All my life I've had christianity pushed onto me, since I was 5. I even considered turning christian. Then when I was 12, someone pushed it too far and started to make up a bunch of crap about my family's religion (Buddhism). I decided then that I didn't want to be in the same religion as him. Then it all sort of rushed at me. I had sudden explanations for things such as life, and how the universe was created. We won't know how universe was created because our science isn't developed enough to understand it. Just like how back 2,000 years ago people didn't understand diseases. Life is simply the mind running the body. When our mind dies, we die. So there's no afterlife. I just needed one little nudge to push me over and turn me satanic. And I found that push through the band Deicide. And now I argue with christians for fun. And most of the time, I win.

Answer 4

I was sitting in sunday school and we were reading the story where moses comes down and the people commited a sin or something... then i kept thinking about it and i was kinda disturbed... then i just decided that i didn't want to believe in the bible... so i became a bible unliteralist... then i realized this still contradicted because that wasn't a lesson. Then when i needed "god" the most when i was going through really tough times with my parents' divorce and my mom being homeless when i was in fifth grade i realized that he cuoldn't have existed. Then towards the end of sixth grade i went totally atheist when i realized what facts existed with there not being a god.

Answer 5

Nothing that radical.

I just re-read the Bible. Really read it, front to back. Repeatedly. I even wrote out all my questions about it. Ended up with a longer list when I was done. How anyone can read that and find more to believe in than a Grimm's Fairy Tale? The whole of the OT is all talking snakes, giants, magic tricks.... the only thing that was missing was Jack and his beanstalk.

Comments from so-called loving Christians who judge others at every chance they get helped drive me away too.

Answer 6

First off I'm christian; what should that matter I know. But I'm proud to hear that you are a free thinker. I really don't care if this converts you or not b/c either way it's a win/win for me. Your wisdom is manifested for me to read or you're condensed into some religious sect to hide your knowledge and I don't read anything again (no strain on my eyes). I just would like to thank you for using your wisdom to help humanity. not to get me wrong, I do go to church but; believe that you still need to take things into your own hands. It's people like you who bring balance to the world. Keep up the good work

Answer 7

I was very religious as a kid, never missed sunday school and church, never missed vacation bible school, went to Wednesday bible study when I got old enough to go out at night by myself, prayed every day (mainly for my parents to get a clue and start taking better care of their family, like spending more money on food than beer and cigarettes) -- then I started paying more attention to the world beyond and outside of church and prayer and the bible (thanks in large part to excellent science teachers).

I found more and better answers in school and in daily observations away from religious constraint than I ever did in church. Add to that the fact that when I reflected on all those years of genuinely sincere praying, I never saw the tiniest hint that a single prayer was ever heard, let alone answered.

By the time I was 20, I was a full-fledged, rational-thinking, unapologetic atheist.

Answer 8

I was raised Catholic, but I had doubts about God, his powers, and the bible when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Even at that age, the bible was nothing but nonsense. I fought my doubts up until I was about 16 years old, when I just couldn't pretend anymore. One day, it felt like my world was crashing around me (it really felt like this). The scene in the Matrix where Neo has problems adjusting to reality, that's almost exactly like what I felt.

There was no specific event that lead me to Atheism, it was just that I couldn't believe in God. I couldn't pretend to be something I wasn't.

Answer 9

I was a Baptist for the first 8 yrs of my life, We moved, and my mother sent us to the Congregational church near us. I always loved Sunday School, but I began questioning a lot of things, including the belief in the Trinity. My minister was not very nice about answering my questions, and would always say that it was a mystery and not for us to know. He said we would find out when we died. Even at 16, I knew that was crap. At that time, my aunt invited me to visit her in Mass. and she was a Mormon. She took me to lots of meetings and activities and asked me if I would like to have the "elders" come teach me more. I was 16, and the thought of 2 handsome young men coming to visit me every week was a pleasant idea, so I said yes. Before long, I was going to church regularly and after about a year, I got baptized. But almost immediately, I began question why we never used the Bible and why there was so much focus on tithing and all the famous Mormons who tithed lots of money. I began reading up on the history of the church and read the Book of Mormon cover to cover...horrified in the attrocious ridiculousness of it. Then my sister died of ovarian cancer and they weren't there for me at all. I stayed away from church in my grief, and all they were concerned about was that I get caught up on my tithing. I finally wiped my hands of them and began taking Bible lessons with the Jehovah's Witnesses. I figured they must know the Bible, and I felt I needed a good education in it to see what was the truth and what was not. But, after many arguments about their interpretation of the Bible and their strange beliefs, I stopped the lessons. Then I went through years of reading and introspection, first becoming a Deist after ascertaining that no religion was the truth...then giving up the last bastion and realizing that there was no God and all religions were not for me.

Answer 10

the quantity of human beings that were theists quicker or later is about an identical because the type of human beings that believed in Santa at one element. i do not extremely bear in mind believing in Santa yet I likely did and, if requested, might want to admit that I likely did. this is totally, very, very a lot an identical with being non secular for a minimum of ninety% of atheists. Yeah.