Please answer if you are an Atheist.?

Question

This is a serious question and I truly want to listen to what you have to say. I have noticed that a LOT of Atheists in this forum claim to be former Christians.

#1) If you WERE a Christian what happened to change your beliefs?
#2} If you are an Atheist, did you grow up in an Atheist home?
#3) I understand that people are passionate about their beliefs, and no one wants to have religion shoved in their face, but why do so many people in this forum seems to HATE Christians???

Thanks for all of your honest answers. It helped me to understand why I see so much venom and hostility on here. Actually, I got many more KIND responses than I expected and only a couple that were negative. While your beliefs won't change mine, just as mine would never change yours, I truly appreciate the insight you all have given me. I only directed the question to athiests (SORRY, I used the capital A earlier out of respect, or so I thought) because people of other religions don't necessarily believe there IS no God. Anyway...thanks again, sincerely!

P.S....Although I consider myself to be a Christian because I'm a believer in God and The Bible, I don't go to church because of some of the same reasons you gave here. I don't like "organized" religion because of what I have experienced in the church buildings! Not to mention the articles I've read in the local paper exposing people I grew up in church with for their crimes of CHILD ABUSE, tax fraud, etc!!!!

Answer 1

#1. I was a Christian, I majored in Religion in College, and I attended seminary for a year. I began to see that there is nothing special about Christianity, and for a brief while I thought that God was simply revealing himself to all the religions. After that transition, it became obvious that any information about God is created out of our own fantasy, wishful thinking that helps us deal with anxiety provoking issues of life.

#2. My dad, grandfather, uncle and cousins are all Methodist ministers, so no, I grew up among Christian surroundings and attended church 2-4 times weekly.

#3. I don't hate Christians, I'm simply scared beyond measure that they will attempt further to install some sort of theocratic government. Until 2003, sexual activity between gay men was prosecutable as a felony in several states, thanks to the Christian pressure. Had it not been for the Supreme Court overturning the Texas law (and thus laws from all states), I could have been sent to jail for up to 20 years for simply being with the man that I love. The current push among Christians is to keep people like me from marrying one another. I have no concern about what people do within their own churches, but when they attempt to restrict my freedom because being gay is against their religion, then that's worth fighting against. I would do the same if women were required to wear a burka.

^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ ^v^

Answer 2

Respectfully, this atheist has been an atheist since birth, despite being raised by fine parents who happened to be Christian. Since we had good harmony in our family, I just kept my mouth shut to keep the peace and continue learning from my mother and father about other topics.

The Methodist church was friendly and I liked the people, but once they crossed into the paranormal, I shut it out. My mother is still alive and has no problems with my lack of beliefs (in fact, four of her six children are atheists and all of us are good, law-abiding citizens involved in our communities).

I only take issue with in-you-face Christians or anyone who asserts something without evidence. Scripture is not evidence.

In a book I read many years ago by Phillip Wylie, one of the characters was a pastor, and a decent man. His best friend was an atheist. At the end of the book, the pastor said he realized he'd had it wrong all along, and that he was starting a new church where people would seek their god instead of asserting their god.

That's my line in the sand: is the person seeking or asserting their god? If they're seeking, I leave them in peace. If they are asserting to me or about others, then they have a fight on their hands.

Funny edit: I grew up in the heavily Catholic city of New Orleans, so even being a Methodist made us a tiny minority in the 1960s. Everyone at school assumed everyone else was Roman Catholic. It goes in a lot of directions, doesn't it? Now that I live in Mississippi, where people have no manners about the topic, I'm often asked where I go to church. I simply say "I don't" though they assume I must have been raised Southern Baptist. It's interesting here, so I'm staying around for a while.

Answer 3

I'm not an atheist. I'm more of an agnostic. I'm not sure that there aren't any 'gods' or spiritual things out there, I'm just of the opinion that I don't know which ones if any do, and whether I want to have faith in them if they do exist. I have a very low opinion of all organized religions, really. Most of the really horrible wars that have ever happened on this world have been because someone has decided that their god is the 'right' one and everyone else has to be stopped.

1) I was raised xtian (Episcopalian to be precise). My faith went away due to a number of things. a) the people in the church I grew up in turning their backs on our minister when he got old and sick and they didn't want to pay for his nursing home, b) questions that could not be answered to my satisfaction and c) actually reading the Bible.

2) Skipped, as answered in 1

3) I don't hate all Christians. I think a lot of people of faith (of all religions) do truly good things for the people around them out of their faith. Jimmy Carter and Mr. Rogers were both strong Christian men and are two of my biggest heroes.

What I do hate are the rabid sort of fundies who picket people's funerals, apply their religious laws to people who don't believe as they do, try to tell me what I can or cannot do with my own body, tell me that I'm warring on them because I don't wish them Merry Christmas, or say that because I question, I'm being influenced by Satan.

I also get frustrated when it becomes clear while conversing with such a person that they have not even read their own holy book, but simply spout back whatever it is that someone else has told them is in there.

Answer 4

I went to a school that was mainly Christian, and I was one too, of a sort. But I accepted science, and when my friends found that I believed evolution to be true, they stopped talking to me. Basically, everyone I knew rejected me for my beliefs. This led me to read the bible to see where they got this from, and I realized what kind of stuff was in that book. Later on, I researched other religions, and discovered that none of them were much better (with the possible exception of Buddhism). So I became an atheist.

And actually, I don't dislike all Christians, ot even most of them. I know that the ones in my school weren't the best example of what a Christian should be. But some of them are very biased and hateful people. Of course, the majority are very nice people. But the bad ones make the most noise, and get noticed the most. It's them I can't stand.

Thanks for asking politely, by the way. That's fairly rare on R&S, and I appreciate it.

Answer 5

#1) It would be a real grand scale change, that would truly not have any logical explanation, such as all TV´s suddenly changing into snails.

#2) No - my home was a mix of different religions. I was the first buddhist in the family.

#3) I don´t hate Christians. I dislike extremist Christians due to their ignorance and blindness to everything else but themselves. When I see a serious peaceful christian, I defend that kind of Christianity.

Answer 6

I was raised a christian. When I was 8 it just became too hard for me to believe all the stories I was told at church. I can even remember the exact moment that I thought "this is not real".
Luckily my parents were pretty open about religion. They still made me go to church (because they went) but as I got older they just accepted me for who I was and were OK with the fact that I did not believe.
It's not that I HATE Christians...OK, maybe a little. I just don't like when people try to force feed me religion. If I wanted to believe in their god, I would. But I don't so they should back off and leave me alone.

I am not totally against the idea of gods, I just don't have any.
I have a wonderful bumper sticker that everyone needs....
"It's Your Hell, You Burn In It."
I think that pretty much says it all.

Answer 7

I grew up in a catholic home. Lot's of factors. Some bad some good. I learned how to rely on myself and look for answers about what's right and wrong within myself. And I don't think mast atheist hate Christians. I think we just get frustrated at so many people judging us all the time. I have a firm set of morals I live by. And I am a full out optimist. I respect people and I do good deeds as ofter as I can. I volunteer at my daughter's school everyday ing her special ed class. I even bow my head when I at at peoples houses when they say grace out of respect. We aren't bad crazy people. We just don't have a religion. And it's OK.

Answer 8

1) I was a born again Christian until I was 20. Then I started questioning why I believed the way I did. I realized that it was only because I was told to. And as a child, that stuff sticks. So I took the journey to find the truth, and I found it. Now I'm an atheist.

2) Nope. I grew up in a Christian home.

3) We don't hate anything but ignorance and intolerance.

Answer 9

1) Indeed I was a Christian. I slowly moved in to agnostic in my late teens and early 20's as I started to become more aware of the world and learning more about science. In just the last year I came across the works of Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens and it cemented me over in the atheist category.

3) I don't hate Christians, I hate Christianity. Mostly because once you peel back the benign surface, you start to see it for the cancer that it is. And not just Christianity, but all religions. Islam is much more dangerous and destructive than Christianity at this point. However, I live in the U.S. and am confronted by all the aspects of our society that Christianity has managed to get control of. It makes me angry.

-S-

Answer 10

1) Grew up in Christian home, attended Sunday school as child almost every Sunday, went to a religious summer camp a couple of times, and then entered weekly Bible study class. Had good times along the way and friends. Had many questions though and things that didn't make sense to me. Started doing some study on the historical background, cultural contexts, and authorship of the Bible. Was unable to reconcile the Bible with what we see in the historical record and in nature as reality. Decided no just God would condemn people to hell for rejecting beliefs that ran counter to the reality it presented in their daily lives coupled with obvious inaccuracies and far out claims in an ancient book written by tribal societies. Studied other religions found their claims just as unfounded, unprovable, and unrealistic. Majored in biology and found many good natural explanations for things people seem to credit a supernatural being for out of lack of evidence or ignorance.

2. I'm an atheist now at least in terms of a personal, anthromorphic God. Maybe somewhat more agnostic about an impersonal deistic type God but still see no proof of this. Grew up in loving religious home. Still is a loving family of mixed and no beliefs in regards to supernatural entities.

3. I don't hate Christians. In fact, I love some Christians. Have family who are Christian. I hate the way some Christians act. To me it really seems like they can't be secure in themselves unless they think everyone else accepts their unprovable and far out beliefs. If they are content to live their own lives by their personal beliefs its fine with me. When they need to legislate them on others or push them out where they aren't wanted onto others who don't share them I find it offensive. Think about how you would feel if Muslims or Pagans or whatever faith based belief felt the need to lecture you, try to convert you, push their belief on you in public places, etc... It would get old wouldn't it? How about when you were dying and they wanted to come and convert you? How would you feel about that? It might be offensive to you since you don't share their beliefs and would ask them to come if you were interested. That is how I feel about Christianity when people go around pushing it.