Was there someone in your life from an early age that really just drove you away from Christianity? Like a parent or an Aunt that were so extreme that you began questioning? And how old were you when you came to the conclusion(for yourself) that there was no God? Also, honestly has there ever been a time when you wanted to believe, or maybe you thought that you could actually believe?
2007-09-21 08:45:39 · 36 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
cant you address everyone since this is religion?
MY PARENTS helped me out and then i was called...
2007-09-21 08:51:23 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 7⤋
Will Christians finally wake up to the fact that this religion now causes as much pain as it alleviates (and I admit it has the power to do both). It has veered off course from those early days when it was an underground movement, it's secret followers referred to as "Followers of the Way."
Like many, I do not accept that Jesus is our sole-savior-one-way-ticket-to- heaven. Herein lies the damage.
I think the apostle Paul had good intentions attempting to codify Jesus' teachings in his various letters. But Christians in a post-medieval period have to open up to the possibility there is NO hell (flat out - it is a destructive ILLUSION) and that Jesus message was designed for that era. Today, a different message is needed. God may be the "same yesterday, today, and forever" (and by his I mean the All that Is, that is, God is within and throughout everything visible & invisible - my nonprovable belief. moreover, one-dimensional time is an illusion) but God's conversation with & through us CHANGES in time to fit the context.
It's so obvious, we are, collectively, a portion of God. God is conscious above, below, and through our own awareness and evolves as a result. Why else are we here?
2007-09-21 08:59:37 · answer #2 · answered by Goldmind 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No one drove me away from Christianity. I used to attend a Southern Baptist Church with my aunt till I was 11 yrs old. Even then I was very inquisitive and drove many of the adults crazy with my constant questions. Then someone told me a verse from the Bible "study to show thyself approved" and that's exactly what I did.... and I left Christianity by the time I was 14 and turned to Wicca, from there I became just the dirty ol' Pagan you see now. =)
I have studied the Bible and Christianity for over 15 yrs... No, Not since I was around 16 did I think I wanted to believe or thought I could believe. The basic principles contradict themselves.
2007-09-21 09:02:45 · answer #3 · answered by River 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well, my family is moderate Christian/Catholic. Actually, (besides Christmas and Easter, etc.) religion never came up until I was seven and my family moved to the U.S. Then we started going to a church that was full of dust and it made me physically sick because I had horrible allergies. So often times I left the church and waited outside. When I WAS inside I was sneezing and sleepy and just plain miserable and sometimes I listened to the Bible being read and it all sounded ridiculous and boring. And I hated the idea of EATING some guy named Jesus and DRINKING his BLOOD in the form of wine (and I hated and still hate wine). I saw theists as deranged back then and that opinion has not changed.
I used to question the idea of God being male. I found it sexist and figured this God-thing must either be male and female, an it, or female for having a son. (Why would a male god have a MORTAL 'wife'?) And, because the thought was comforting, I figured that Heaven (not Hell) may or certainly must exist. I also did believe in souls.
Eventually I decided questioning an imaginary being's sex was irrelevant. I figured that being conscious for eternity AFTER death was beyond ridiculous. And that the soul was made up so we humans could feel superior to other animals and feel justified in being speciesist.
Sometime as a teen I found out that the word to describe me was "atheist" - and perhaps "anti-religion" also. :)
I have never in my life considered being capable of believing in a god when there's no amount of evidence in favor of that claim.
2007-09-21 09:01:00 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm not a "non-believer" insofar as believing in God, but I definitely do not believe that Jesus was divine.
What drove me away from Christianity is that none of it made any sense. Yes, I believed all those threats as a youngster that those who don't "believe" will spend eternity in hell's fire, but as a young adult I could never understand why God would put us on this earth simply to determine whether we would "believe" that He would send His one and only "son" to die an excrutiatingly painful death on the cross. Why not dispense with the whole "earth" business instead?
I remained agnostic for many years, raising our children without religion. It was only later in life that I discovered the Jewish version of Judaism where everything makes sense for a change and life is about making this world a better place for all mankind.
L'Shalom
.
2007-09-21 09:59:08 · answer #5 · answered by Hatikvah 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There was no one person who drove me away. I do not remember when I started not believing, but I do remember that I always questioned it. I would feel scared after I questioned it in my mind, thinking God knew I was questioning him. Then, I would pray and hope to not go to hell for it. I think I was about 30 when i finally stayed a non believer. Before that, I went through fazes, where I would not believe, than start believing again because I was raised to believe. Old habits are hard o break, but I don't regret sticking to my conscience. I am a non - believer in a monotheistic God who brought down religion. I am a believer in Atheistic Existentialism. Education helped me come to that belief.
2007-09-21 08:56:23 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I was raised roman-catholic so I only went to to catholic schools, they drove me away from the myths, teachers priests... later on I acquired a better common sense and while reading the bible (the book of apocalypse exactly) I found out it was all fiction, it didn't make sense. That was when I was about 13 - 15, I actually believed, but I noticed allot of errors (allot were literary).
I wanted to believe but I knew it was false, fake, like thinking that I had superpowers or something. Then I came to my senses and lived happily as I can.
2007-09-21 09:08:36 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I was raise catholic. Went to catholic grade school, Sunday school classes, CCD classes, was an alter boy and the whole bit. There was never any one person who drove me away from religion. It was more a series of unanswered questions that I was told I shouldn't ask. Most of the bible never made sense and we were never allowed to question it, or if we did we were never answered. Then freshman year in college I took several philosophy classes, one in particular taught by a catholic priest was a bible study class. After my own experiences in religion and after very close study of the bible, the con that is religion became very clear. I have been a atheist for almost 25 years, happy, healthy, and have never looked back.
2007-09-21 08:58:40 · answer #8 · answered by ndmagicman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There was no individual that drove me AWAY from Christianity. On the contrary, it's more like there is nothing out there to drive me TO Christianity.
When my brother was in a car accident, I kinda wanted there to be a God to pray to so that maybe he wouldn't die, but it's funny how critical injuries will kill you no matter how much you pray.
I could never have believed all that silliness. Heck, I never believed in Santa Claus.
2007-09-21 09:01:04 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
The one Person who helped me along my path of learning was the Pastor of the Church i grew up in. He turned out to be a pretty rotten scumbag. He is not the REASON why i do not believe though. I still believed for years and years after that Church was closed by the Authorities. I tried to force myself to believe. I would look for ANY sign that God was there. I would ask him "God if you are really there and you do not want to answer my big prayers, would you send me SOME sign?" I was looking for anything at all to reaffirm my beliefs. I believed and prayed through my Aunts horrible death from Cancer. I believed and prayed through my Grandmothers slow and painful death from Cancer. I tried so very hard to keep believing. I wanted to believe so badly that i read the Bible from front to back, i found nothing in it. I wanted to believe in a God so bad that i started studying other branches of Christianity, i studied Islam. I found nothing in them. When i started studying ancient Religions is when it all fell apart for good. When i found out that indeed the Religion that i was brought up to believe was GODS Word, was actually a compilation of stolen beliefs from earlier peoples. I had a very very hard time justifying belief. i was about 25 when i decided that i was tired of fearing an invisible Punisher. He never answered even the smallest of my Prayers, so what were the chances that he would take the time to punish me for not believing. It takes a very long time to get the ingrained fear of Christianity out of your system, if you ever do.
2007-09-21 08:57:08 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I had never met an atheist, or at least anyone that talked about it until after I realized it was crazy. I thought I was going crazy. It takes a little time to get over the indoctrination. I felt really bad until I started to seriously think about it.
The only reason I believed in the first place is that I was told to by parents and grandparents
2007-09-21 08:53:47 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋