Question for my fellow atheists?

Question

hello fellow atheists!

I'm just wondering if you ever believed in God. If you did, when did you stop believing? What made you stop believing?

I stopped believing when I went to a poor country and saw all the happy hungry unneducated people. I knew then that it was not possible for a God to exist. And even if he did, I would choose not to worship him. I am an ex Catholic, and frankly I wonder if Christians really are delusional.

I will continue to give money to send people in poor countries to secondary education. Education really is the answer not praying. The best thing about it is when they finish and get jobs, they have to give someone else the money to go. It's a web, so everyone can gets the chance to go. Some people and I raised enough money for one student to go. I would like to think I helped make a positive difference in their life.

It's better then thinking I'm doing something for these people by praying for them.

i don't understand why some people who think atheists are bad people. I think atheists are the most caring and loving people imaginable.

Answer 1

I grew up in a religious family, but started having serious doubts probably at age 8 or 9. By age 12, I knew I was an atheist.

Since then, I have lived and worked in India, China and Thailand (all in the past decade). Everythng I have seen since has reinforced my belief that religion does considerably more damage in the world than good.

Answer 2

I stopped believing in my early 20s. Being away from all the Christian influences I grew up with gave me a chance to really sit and evaluate things. I decided that there are a lot of really good people out in the world.. smart, kind people, and that it shouldn't matter to me what they believe. But the Christianity I grew up with had my family casting a negative light on entire groups of people, people they'd never know or get to talk to, simply for what they believed.

It didn't make sense to me. If we'd been born somewhere else in the world, they might believe in a completely different god and still feel the same. At first I just kept onto the beliefs and decided to be more tolerant, but the more time I spent thinking and talking to people, the more I realized that the bible just didn't add up for me. That, and I had inherent problem with religion basically saying "you're filthy, sinful creatures, but there's a being that loves you despite what you are".. it was like wait, why am I supposedly sinful?

Research into other religions became a fascinating topic for me, and after a while, I came to my non-theistic conclusions. I feel better about myself than I ever did when exposed to religion, but it's not the easiest thing to do, when just saying you're a Christian in my area would get you immediate respect (and saying you're atheist could make them cringe). Though I won't change who I am for anyone, I can still perhaps help to show them that atheists can be great people too.

Answer 3

I grew up in a christian family and did not receive acceptable answers to any intelligent questions. I loved them dearly but their blind faith was not reasonable to me, after reading the bible as they advised - I quickly realised
If god was real, I despised him
OR
more likely god did not exist, which would be a relief.
Thankfully, everything I read after this made so much more sense than the book that would turn any thinking person into an atheist.

The most compassionate, caring people I know, who care about social justice, the environment and human rights are all atheists. They do it without any thought of reward or acknowledgement and their sense of ethics is far higher than any christian I know.

My family are wonderful people also, but their charity is based on their internal compass not their religion. It in fact, is their denial of much of their book eg hell, gay rights etc that has made them such wonderful people, not their acceptance. They have cherry picked the best parts like all nice christians have had to do.

I agree totally that prayer is a waste of time, when someone said they were praying for me when I was ill, I asked them not to waste their time, as I felt their time was too valuable to waste on such an indulgent practice. With so many people in the world that are hungry and thirsty, praying to me, is an offensive and indulgent practice.

All the best.

Answer 4

I went to two faith schools and was brainwashed from the age of 5 but I gradually realised that the lives of the people who were teaching me did not correspond to the teachings of Christ. I've never yet met a christian who gave up all his worldly goods and his family to follow christ unless they were in something like a convent or monastery where everything is found for them.
That was the start of my doubt and it has grown steadily to the point where I can stand outside religion and pity those believers who cling on to it like a comfort blanket.
I thnk the religious education of children is a form of child abuse and can cause serious psychological problems in life..

Answer 5

I believed in God because I was told to when I was young. God had always just been a hindrance to my enjoyment of life though. He was like a voyeur, always watching me and disapproving of everything. Then I realized that it was other people disapproving of me and they just said that it was God who disapproved of me. I realized what hypocrites the people were who tried to enforce all these moral laws. I am a pantheist now which is pretty much equivalent to atheism. I stopped believing in God once I gained the courage to think outside the box. It always seemed like God was unquestionable, but then I questioned it. I went to a Catholic highschool and that cemented my atheism. I came in with extreme doubt and confusion about it and went through a molting period from 9th to 10th grade and then I came out of the atheist closet in 12th grade. Almost everyone thought I was evil.

Answer 6

I never believed in God but I sometimes wonder if it has anything to do with your IQ. I use my family as an example. I have a mom, dad and 3 sisters. Half the family believes in God and half do not. My father is very, very intelligent and grew up in a religious family. My sister and I are very smart. She went to college and is successful. I went to college for six years and I am also very successful. All three of us are atheists. I love my mom but she is not that intellectual and is very simple minded. One of my sisters is "slow" and has not worked beyond a job at wal-mart. My other sister is literally diagnosed as "borderline retarded" All three of them believe if God. I find it interesting that my families belief is God is divided by an intelectual line.

Answer 7

I wasn't raised religious at all, so I naturally never believed in god or any of that other mumbo jumbo. It's a little hard to be a thirteen-year old atheist though, especially when three fourths of my peers can't hold op a decent conversation on serious topics like religion.

Answer 8

I, as a fellow atheist, agree with much that you have said, however, did you know that by helping them, you are actually exacerbating the problem (if you don't know what i am talking about, read Thomas Malthus's Essay on Population)
There is a reason to the nature's principle "only the strong survive", if we would just let nature take its course we wouldn't have to worry about shortage of resources and famine due to over-population.

Answer 9

"Whenever I see an atheist asking a troll query, posing as a Christian (continually a bigoted one), " Or you simply desire to feel that. Because there are a few very bigoted very idiotic contributors at the Christian part. But I bet it's simpler to simply name them atheist trolls. "and now not the Christians." Uh huh. "his query does not even sound like what a Christian might say." I've obvious Christians spout essentially the most hateful drivel possible. People like NCWJ.

Answer 10

Good for you. I stopped believing in God when I reached the age of reason. I think I'm a good person. I love my lady, adore my children, care for both of our parents and support six youngsters in Africa, Someone once told me that I was doing God's work and I got angry, because what I'm doing is man's work, as are you. I certainly wish you well.