(Repspectful) question for atheists and agnostics...?

Question

Have you never believed in God, or did you once believe and something happened to sour you?

Answer 1

I was raised a Christian, and I was the most religious member of my family. No one else ever really bothered to attend church or read the Bible, but I made that my life's mission.

When I was 11, my parents divorced, and my father married a woman who sang in a gospel band along with her sons, one of whom is a minister.

Their way of worshiping, and what their church taught, was vastly different from what I had learned. I started to ask questions, none of which were answered to my satisfaction. The more I asked, the more distressed they became, finally telling me to just accept things as the truth and to drop it.

That didn't sit well with me, and led to even more questioning. In a short period of time, all of the contradictions between what I had been learning convinced me that there probably wasn't a god. By doing a little research of my own, I came to the conclusion that no god or gods existed. By the age of 14, I was an atheist.

Answer 2

I'm agnostic.

Never believed. I even went to a Missionary school, read the bible front to back at least a couple times, and attended church growing up. Never could take the leap even when I enjoyed the community and the lessons. I never had a negative experience with religion until I was an adult in the Bible Belt, so I'm not soured or bitter about it. The Christians I knew growing up in SE Asia and in NY were very open-minded and sincere. Open-minded enough not to target me when I expressed my disbelief, and still accepting of me.

I was exposed to a lot of other religions, too, abroad and in NY, so none of them took. It wasn't limited to Christianity.

My overall message from everyone, religious or not, was that it was important to ACT on what I felt was right, not the label.

Answer 3

I was raised catholic. I went to Catholic school, church every Sunday and weekday when school was in. I always has my doubts about the bible. Contradictions, man made rules changing whenever the church decided.I don't believe in the God I was raised to believe in, or shall I say brain-washed to believe, but I do believe their is a God. I do not believe God wanted any denomination religion, I believe he/she just wants you to believe in a higher power. Ever since I was a child and looking at all the beauty that was on this earth, and the heavens,the stars and the planets the trees and animals and how it all works.....nature and timing and birth and the seasons and on and on, and my question was how can this all just be?... Evolution? Yes but their still had to be a creator to begin the process. I do believe there is a force bigger and greater than us. So it is with age and time and experience that I believe in God, but not the god I was taught to believe in. The God I believe in is the God in my heart, my higher power, my source. I do believe we never die.The body, the shell that incases us does, our soul, no. I also believe we return over and over until we perfect to greatness....till we get it, the reason we are here.
To believe in nothing as atheists do is to have no soul. So then to all atheists...why are you here? Obviously this is your first time around. Respectfully... this is just my opinion and I hope no offense is taken.

Answer 4

I always had my doubts. At one time, I put up a front about believing in God because my family and everyone I knew went to church. Then one day I decided to "come out" and be honest, and I was surprised to find out how many non believers there are.

A lot of non believers are just like I was, putting up a front, but some of them will admit privately they have their doubts, do not believe, etc.

These people go to church, pretend to be believers, because there are a lot of advantages to being a believer; or at least, let us say, there are advantages to people thinking you are a believer.

But, I think most of us have been non believers since birth, although it may take a while for us to realize it, just as it often takes gay people a while to realize their homosexuality. Most of us start out believing we are pretty much like everyone one else around us; and for the most part we are, except for one little difference.

In the case of Agnostics and Atheists it seems to have something to do with the way we process information. Where most of you see evidence for the existence of a God, we see none and shake our heads in amazement that you see some kind of proof in the things that you do. (This is all assuming, of course, that you are a Theist, or at least believe in some sort of God.)

Answer 5

I was raised Roman Catholic in a very devout, loving family. Nothing happened to "sour" me, and there was no grand, dramatic realization. I just kind of grew out of it.

As I grew older, I learned more and thought more about religion and philosophy in general. Somewhere in my mid-teens, I came to the conclusion that any concept of G/god(s) that I was familiar with had a very low probability of existence. My beliefs have developed over the course of my life, of course, but I've been some kind of agnostic ever since.

Thanks for asking.

Answer 6

I was raised as a Methodist, but I never believed any of it: the obsession with blood and virginity, the minister damning this and that, and all these people flying around in some invisible place. Uncool. None of it has anything to do with the world I live in. As soon as my parents allowed me, I quit attending.

Later, on my own, I discovered Zen Buddhism, which (at least to my understanding) has more in common with atheism and agnosticism than it does with religion. But I do find it interesting that some recent authors have suggested that Christ might have spent time in India, and that he was trying to explain the basic tenets of Buddhism (or Hinduism) to people who simply didn't grasp what he was saying.

Answer 7

I believe in some type of a creator but the God of the Bible is not it. I have read many Bibles and just do not find it feasable for God to exist. Common sense dictates that the Bible was written by men and for men as an excuse to execute all their desires by creating a ficticious character/scapegoat to validate their actions.

Answer 8

Only in the way I once believed in Santa Claus

I realised that there was no god when I was about 8. Nothing bad happened, I was thinking of joke when I realised that the idea was bullsh!t

I've yet to see anything that suggests otherwise

Answer 9

I did. Most of us did. What got me was they told me in Sunday school that God created plants before the Sun. I knew that was crap even at 10, and it got me thinking.

My decision was entirely based on logic and reason. It had nothing to do with emotion. Heck, I spent a long time wanting to be wrong.

Answer 10

I used to believe. I studied the bible and found that it contradicted reality and itself, hopelessly. As I learned more about science and human history, I disregarded the idea all together.

I wouldn't say I'm "soured" though. (Like a kid isn't "soured" by Santa. They just grow beyond believing)