A friend of mine asked this a long time ago, and I found the answers very interesting, so I am asking again with the hope of getting answers from different people.
Were you raised in any particular religion? What point in your life did you realize it was all a lie? How did it make you feel?
I was raised LDS, and from the get-go I would ask questions in Sunday school about where dinosaurs came from, who made God, and other similar questions that were never answered to my satisfaction. I was skeptical for my entire childhood. Once I got into college, I started to research my faith, and found areas that were completely false and even disturbing. As I researched other religions, I found that they contained vast contradictions, and hateful behaviors. The day I realzed God did not exist, I felt sick inside. I clung to the idea that God might be real, and this was completely lost. I feel liberated now, and I love seeing things for what they really are.
How about you?
2007-08-27 04:52:00 · 37 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I do not doubt for a moment that some will try to prove to me God is real by quoting some weird Biblical verse. Save your time and energy. This question was NOT for you, nor does quoting a false book change the mind any Atheist.
2007-08-27 04:53:24 · update #1
My feeling about the teachings of the church came gradually. I was raised Catholic. The priest would give a sermon that I believed as a little kid. About the time I was about seven, I started to question what was being preached.
What does he mean - - - one man is three people ? And why does he say "persons" when the plural of person is people, what is he hiding ?
How can some guy wave his magic wand, and hokus-pokus the entire universe ? What exactly is a "soul" ? And just as importantly, How do you know ?
About the time I was thirteen or fourteen I told Mom that I wasn't going to church with the family any more. Her answer was, that she knows that I gave it a lot of thought, I've heard the sermons over and over, if it all made no sense to me it is useless to hear it a few more times. I never went to another church service except funerals and weddings, out of respect.
My belief is that all living things here on earth have the same destiny . We're born ( or sprout from seed ), we mature, we reproduce, we die. It's all very natural, believable, understandable, and to me, desireable .
2007-08-27 05:16:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well I was in my mid-teens before everything fell into place. I grew up in a Roman-Catholic Ireland.
I had already researched into the Catholic Church conspiracies, etc etc and was wary at the time.
The day I realized I did not believe in God, I was at a school mass (I was 16) and I spent the whole hour with tears in my eyes, looking around at everyone I knew deep with their heads in prayer, like they were hypnotized in a religious cult. I wanted to scream, shout but I could bear to upset them.
Maybe there is a God, I don't think so but again I am grateful for being an Atheist because I appriciate life so much more and respect ever other species and marvel at the beauty of the world that has not been destroyed yet.
I also respect peoples beliefs too no matter if they believe in God or not.
2007-08-27 05:09:39 · answer #2 · answered by Black Star Deceiver 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I did not have a specific moment of reality...It was slow coming on, and, like you, I was skeptic from childhood. I also asked questions that could not be answered. When I got older, I began reading things and studying on my own. I realized for sure that God was not real when I was in high school. I was worried at first that I could be wrong, but now I know without a doubt.
I was raised a Quaker, and I went to a Baptist school from the time I was in kindergarten until the day I graduated high school. I had to keep the fact that I am an atheist hidden from everyone around me so that I did not get in trouble at school and home. My mother still does not know...
2007-08-27 05:04:03 · answer #3 · answered by country_girl 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I went to a Church of England primiary school but I never paid much attention to what I was taught. I sang the pretty hymns and said the prayers that were really somewhat tedious because they delayed having dinner and going home, but I didn't really think about whether it was true or not.
I don't really know when I decided it wasn't - I don't think there was any set moment, just that I was away from any big religious influence for a while, and then I started using a message board with a really great beliefs board. I just felt myself leaning more towards the idea of no God. It didn't bother me too much, really, because I don't think I'd ever really truly believed in God. Some of the arguments posted on that board inspired me to think about it in more detail, and now I can see so many contradictions and problems with the concept that I don't think I will ever believe in the God I was taught so much about throughout my childhood.
2007-08-27 10:05:37 · answer #4 · answered by LifeIsAFreeTripRoundTheSun 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I felt a sense of clarity that I'd never felt before. I was so confused about a lot of things, but finally the wall of cognitive dissonance just collapsed, and I realized what I think I'd known all along: God didn't need to exist in order to explain anything.
People didn't die because of some abstract "plan" that god had, people died because they got sick and their bodies were unable to fight off the illness, or maybe they simply forgot to look both ways before crossing the street and got blindsided by a bus. These things didn't need supernatural explanations, it was just the way things were.
It struck me very suddenly that life was not always going to be fair, and it was going to be tough, but also that you are much better facing the difficult truth of this, than relying on "god" to take care of things for you.
My life has never been the same since that day, and I'm only sorry I didn't see it sooner.
2007-08-27 05:13:34 · answer #5 · answered by rbc_commish 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
When I realized it was OK for me to admit I did not believe in God, it was like a burden lifted off my shoulders, and at the same time, a rush of fresh air blowing by.
When I was 12 years old, I got into an argument with my Sunday school teacher, who insisted that creation was literally true. I made a convincing case for evolution, which I learned about on my own. He conceded that maybe God could have created us through evolution.
Plus, my faith was never strong. Perhaps I never truly believed. I've always been curious about the universe and science has been a life long "avocation".
.
2007-08-27 05:06:36 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
At the time, I was enraged because I had prayed and prayed for help with a horrendously difficult problem and my life was just getting worse. I was angry that there seemed to be no relief for me with my mounting stresses and finally I blew, and called god out and said he didn't exist. Still nothing happened. I realized then that there never was a real answer, and never would be. I felt a bit guilty at first, as though I had made him disappear but at the same time it seemed like missing pieces of a big puzzle had finally fit. There just wasn't anyone around to intervene for me and even tho they say, "Ask and you will recieve," I had asked so many times without results that I was convinced of the reality that there was not a supreme being keeping me safe. .
2016-05-19 01:42:43 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was raised in an atheistic family, so I never really had a transition from believing in God to not believing in God. While I'm a bit sad that this gives me less credibility when arguing over religion, at the same time I think the regret of having once believed in a giant imaginary friend would be the greater of two evils.
2007-08-27 05:07:26 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I didn't came to me as a sudden thing, but that might be because of my upbringing.
My dad is an atheist, although we never spoke about that and I just asked him a few days ago. I tihnk my mum is agnostic, but I haven't asked her ... she certainly doesn't go to church and never did, as far as I know.
As a child I'd hope there was a god, if something I wished for happened I figured there might be one, but at around 14 I completely once and for all let go of the idea. So for me it was a thing of growing up and leaving Santa, the tooth fairy, magicians and gods behind. It wasn't a specific moment.
Now I feel liberated. I know I have this life and I should make the best of it, and I know what compassion, respect and tolerance is. My life is filled with so much that I don't think I could be any happier (or more free).
2007-08-27 05:02:25 · answer #9 · answered by Maria - Godmother II of the AM 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I lost my faith in God the same day I realized Santa doesn't exist (I know, sounds stupid, but that's how it actually happened). And I was five, believe it or not. I was a little autistic so that probably made me think more rationally/logically, for some reason. But I thank God (lol) that it did happen. I am glad that I can make my own decisions and think for myself and have all the trust and confidence in myself (which is important in life). So yeah, I guess I was too young to realize OR remember for that matter how I felt, but I think I have never believed in God. And I probably never will. End of story.
2007-08-27 05:13:23 · answer #10 · answered by Angel Of Darkness 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋