atheists/agnostics...lend me your ears!?

Question

i have been a proud atheist for about 6 years. it took a couple serious events in my life to change my already wavering opinion on religion. was there a single (or a few) things that happened to you that changed your opionion? also, my entire family (once jewish) is now comprised entirely of atheists. does your family share your (non) beliefs? if not, do they support you?

and please, don't waste posts on my typos. that's just a little petty, eh?

sorry bohemian, thought it sounded familiar :-), but you didn't answer my question!

i come from a small (and almost entirely atheist) family. i am 100% jewish, and i plan on passing down my jewish traditions whether i believe in the big guy or not, just as my parents did for me, and theirs did for them. the culture part of religion is great, i love the music, art, food, and holidays. so that is why i will continue to call myself an "atheist jew"

Answer 1

Meh, my whole family is Catholic. They stopped bothering me years ago with it, now we spend our Christmas in mutual apathy. And a Happy New Year!

Answer 2

There wasn't really any major events. I had a hard time believing in the first place. A lot of my friends called the church I attended a cult, so I went to theirs....turns out they are all pretty much the same. I decided I was done with church all together...and eventually I finally admitted I just don't believe.

I had a tough time with some members of my family. No one shares the same lack of belief as I. Although my mom and her sister are probably the closest...my aunt is into spiritualism (no religion) and my mom refuses to participate in any churches. Almost everyone else is very devout.

Answer 3

I'm from Britain where the primary religion is: "I suppose I believe in something but I don't really know". This is basically true of my family, they're very lax. The exception is my brother who is an atheist like me.

I arrived at atheism because God just didn't make sense to me. Praying felt like talking to the wall. So for a while I didn't really believe, but it wasn't until I was about ten before I completely let go. What held me back was thinking "how can all these people believe it? Perhaps it's correct, silly as it sounds to me." But I then realised how credulous people are.

Answer 4

no single events. I've always thought, growing up in an xtian fam, that the stuff everyone was spewing in sunday school and church service on a weekly basis was worthless rhetoric. It wasn't until I was older that I realized how silly and delusional it all was. Education was the key. My xtian fam knows, and they probably aren't happy with it, but they don't treat me any different than before. I guess as far as xtians go, they are some of the few that actually try to follow the teachings of Jesus. Sometimes, however, they turn the other cheek to reality, which is frustrating.

Answer 5

1) It was a bunch of stuff that changed my "opinion". Possibly, if anything, it was when I really started looking at scripture and thinking about the ramifications of the stories. Then some shopping around at a couple dozen different churches of various denominations, then giving up. I have a standing offer to any god/gods: if they want to show up and ask me to worship them in exchange for answering a question or two, I'll devote my life to them. But if they want to continue being evasive, I'm done looking for them and will assume they don't exist until they say otherwise.

2) My family is split. Mother and grandmother are still relgious, one sister is not, the other is, but in more of a politicized megachurch manner than any sort of in depth theology. The older generations are more hopeful I'll return than antagonistic towards me for leaving. I like to think we are a common trend, with younger generations getting away from religion, (just as I like to think the younger generations have less racism and homophobia) but not sure that it will actually hold out over their lifetimes.

Answer 6

I went from being a Pentecostal to an Atheist for a couple of reasons. First I wanted to become a minister and I began taking biblical history courses and I realized I had been lied to about the origins of the bible. I then began to develop a picture of what the time period was like for Judeo-Christians and It became more and more clear as to why they wrote the new testament. Then I just began to question everything I had once learned. Now I am going to school for Paleontology and Religious history and I can safely say God in any way shape of form has never existed.

Answer 7

I've never had much patience for ignorance, oppressiveness, or superstition. I just finally took a careful evaluation of the probability that anything the world's religions teach is true and, after careful analysis, concluded that the probability was so extremely low that there was no reasonable point in pretending that any of it was true, when clearly it's all irrational beliefs, arbitrary dogmas, and ridiculously primitive superstitions.

Answer 8

Several things in my life happened, but mainly my non-belief came from educating myself. I studied the Bible, and found fallacies that I couldn't get ANYONE to address/explain. I was annoyed with that, and then I got into a BAD relationship with a guy who used religion to belittle and abuse me. A Culmination of events led me to where I am now, which is the happiest I have EVER been.

My family are ALL Christians, and they abhor my beliefs. They all worry about my soul, etc.

Answer 9

Born and raised in London where peeps just don't have much time for religion. The worst thing that can happen is you get dragged to a church fete and have to drink horrible tea with the vicar. I have never had the slightest inclination to change my realistic view of the Universe.

I now live in the US, which is far, far scarier.

Answer 10

i don't force my belief on my parent.

i was here to research with intention of converting into christianity.

not only does it doesnt work , due to the numbers of insensitve reply i get from asking genuine questions , i was drawn to the atheist side.

atheist provide much sensitive , logical answer and show more love as compared . although there are some jerks.

Answer 11

I've had a long and varied spiritual path. I can remember certain steps on the way but a lot of it was gradual.

My Mother has similar beliefs as me but not quite... she tends to get caught up in a lot of hoopla I have no interest in. But she's supportive of my beliefs and like me is highly interested in the concept of the Tao.