Fellow atheists, was there ever a point in your life when you really wanted to believe?

Question

I went through that, a couple of times, during really bad times. and god never showed up. (of course)

Most atheists I know either started out in really staunch christian families and finally "saw the light" or just never did believe. Not many I've met will admit a crisis of non-faith, but then again, I haven't met that many.

Answer 1

When I first figured it out I spent a couple of years wanting to be wrong. I finally sat down and read the whole Bible. The Old Testament got me over that.

Answer 2

Mom's father was a pastor, so I was brainwashed with his religion from birth, but I do not recall ever wanting to believe anything. That is a big mistake! I saw quite young that my parents and my teachers were not omniscient as I had been led to believe. Mom said I read some at age 2. When I began school, I corrected my teachers often. Dad told me when I was age 9 that I knew much more about books than he did, but he could show me something in working around the place. I also saw at age 7 that there were errors in the Bible. At age 11 or 12, I told Dad I did not believe in God and Heaven. He was stunned.

Answer 3

Sure. When my mom was ill and then when she died. I wanted to believe that there might be a benevolent God that would save her and then an afterlife where I would see her again. I still found no reason to believe these things are valid and anything more than wishful thinking. I found other ways of coping with her illness and death that in the end seem much more useful and pragmatic to me. Everyone I think has tough moments where they might wish there was a benevolent all powerful being looking after them, trick is not to confuse wishful thinking with reality. Other point for me is I don't see how you get that from God as depicted in the monotheistic religions, not a benevolent dude for the most part but actually barely tolerates humans to the extent they worship it.

Answer 4

You wanted to believe so that God would fix your problem. Sort of like calling the plumber when the drain is stopped up.

A large percentage of self proclaimed unbelievers seem to have begun at adolescence; just about the same time that they began to gain independence from their parents.

Answer 5

when we leave religions we return to becoming a part of nature... nature is at war with religions... what religions do in the spirit is the equivalent to making you an alcoholic so it can claim to heal you... if you went through a hard time it's because you provided nature with information or observations it required... religions are insidious... always trying to make you believe they are the answer.... it's a very nasty cycle.. always there to assimilate the humans into it somehow or someway... nature depends on our demanding a high standard of proof to be heard for proof is something that religion could never achieve... nature is the force behind evolution and it's as good as the life it's exposed to... the explosion of intellectual information that occurred this past century is a reflection of nature's growth....

Answer 6

When I was in middle school.

I was going through my early Pagan phase and was trying really hard to get a sign from the gods. I meditated and did rituals and wanted to believe.

But in the end, I faced the fact that while I was getting results, it was due to my own efforts. I never expeienced anything to suggest a deity, except for archetypical ones. Thus, I'm a non-theistic Pagan. :-D

Answer 7

Before i turned an atheist, it went like a balloon(expanding) and near the end it just popped(hard), it took a while to pick up the pieces and to create from scratch a new belief system.

Answer 8

I miss the feeling of belonging some, of being part of a group. But I'm a member of other groups, so it makes up for that.

I also miss the music. Some of the christian church music is absolutely wonderful. For example, "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes is haunting to me, and a simple, unadorned version of "Silent Night" is beautiful. But I still can't buy into the underlying premise of a supernatural god,

Answer 9

I used to be a hard core Christian. I almost became a priest, actually. It actually hurt when I first left the church.
But I never had the impulse to return, once I left. However, I know the feeling you're going through, and for me, that feeling is more indicative of a desire for life to really be that simple again, as opposed to a genuine desire to submit to that same level of delusion.

Answer 10

The "best" atheists are those who have once believed and then thought it through and abandoned it on their own, with intelligence and intellectual integrity. Without that kind of a background, most atheists are ill-equipped to argue rationally with fundys and republiConArtists and other christians as well as islamic and jewish fundys.