Did your decision to BEGIN to be an atheist begin with scientific facts or because of some injustice?

Question

This is an admittedly rare HONEST question (not loaded) from a Christian trying to understand. When you first started doubting (if you ever believed to begin with), what made you first start doubting, something you saw as injustice or something similar, or was it some scientific fact that made you doubt?

Answer 1

A very good question. In fact, as soon as I've answered, you get a star.

I found that the authorities at the churches I went to were rather controlling "in the name of Jesus", and had what I thought was a very irritating tendency to declare anything they didn't understand evil. And they'd tell me that God wanted me to stop wearing certain clothes or listening to certain music, but I could soon see that it wasn't God, it was them.

I don't wear black because I'm a satanist or anything like that, I wear black because I have no fashion sense and don't really give a toss about clothes anyway. And I look good in black, that's all it is.

And they didn't like me listening to Clannad (my favourite band back then...yeah, I know, I was 17, OK?) because they sing in Gaelic, and they didn't like me listening to Tangerine Dream (particularly the early experimental stuff) because they - not God - found it strange. And they were telling me that this stuff they were saying came from God, but it so obviously didn't. It was them, their insecurities, their lack of understanding. They'd tell me that God would accept me as I am, and all I could think was, "so why won't you?"

The pastor told me that Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene" album (still a favourite, I'm listening to it right now) had a "deathly spirit". It's real music played by a real human being, for Christ's sake! I couldn't get why they were so afraid of being honestly human - they had no problem with contemporary Christian music, in which I personally have not detected a scrap of sincerity. it's like the first and only commandment in Christian music was "thou shalt not do anything remotely interesting".

They wanted me to be one of their clones, and I just couldn't do it. I couldn't wear "normal" clothes, and the music they approved of was bland and unchallenging, and there seemed to be no honesty in any of it.

I stopped calling myself a Christian when I realised I was trying to force myself to believe, and found I couldn't imagine God preferring dishonest belief over honest disbelief.

I was 17 then, I'm 33 now. I've called myself an atheist for three months. Until then I was honestly looking for a church that wasn't just a small bunch of control freaks taking charge of a large group of muppets, but I've sadly come to the conclusion that there just aren't any.

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins finally tipped the scales. Now, as far as God's concerned, my door is shut and locked. But he knows where the spare key is. If he really is real, he can come and find me. But I'm not holding my breath.

Yeah, sorry to rant. But I felt your question was worth a real answer. There is a little more to it than what I've said, but I'm sure you also have a life, and don't need me taking up any more of it.

Answer 2

Though I was raised in a Catholic family, I never felt any type of draw to the religion, or to their god. My mother was quite accepting of my lack of belief, telling me that it was best that I find my own beliefs than following hers just because they were what her family had been practicing for generations.

After much thought, conversations with Christians and historical research, I have found more of the religion to be controlled by man with little to no proof of their god. I understand faith does not need proof, but all I can see historically is an organization that was created for societal control. I am not opposed to Christians, many of them are very good people (there are exceptions in every group), I just do not share their faith, and I never have.

It is not a doubt, because I have never believed. But believe me, I really did try to believe. I attended many different churches, and listened to many different religous leaders. Still nothing.

I'm done with theology now, but that doesn't mean that I'm not spiritual. It's kind of hard to explain, which (I'm pretty sure) doesn't exactly define my belief structure as atheism, but.... I don't know. That is what it is. I just don't know.

Answer 3

Well I first starting doubting being a Christian in my teen years. Actually it wasn`t God that I doubted it was the Devil. The whole thing just seemed ridiculous - not only is there a God there is an Anti-God. Kinda seemed like batman and the joker to me. From then I became a deist then eventually an agnostic until I wizened up and became an atheist.

Answer 4

This is a far debated discipline, wherein nobody is ever going to entirely agree. As for the organic data, each intercourse cells, together with all different cells, are alive for the period of notion. When they mix, they invent a little bit ball of cells that grows to be a person. Yes, scientifically, a few might agree that existence was once being handed on from the reside sperm and egg to a reside zygote to develop right into a human. But the query to be spoke back on this submit was once concerning abortions, which a few might like to name homicide. I suppose you must appear on the entire snapshot, no longer only a biology textbook definition to verify whether or not you suppose abortion will have to be authorized or no longer. Anyone might pass on for days approximately the professionals and cons of aborting a little one, and all sides might get heated, however total I suppose the alternative will have to be left to the mummy, no longer congress, no longer devout sects, no longer biologists, whether or not or no longer the approach is essential.

Answer 5

There's no scientific fact that can disprove the existence of a god. I was raised Protestant and even taught Sunday school for a short while as a teen but I found, when adversity started to become really serious, so much so that just sitting around praying about it wasn't going to make it go away ... I tried praying ANYWAY and absolutely NOTHING happened to help me.

I remember crying and begging and doing everything in my power to negotiate with god to turn my life around and make it better, but nothing happened and after a while I just quit praying and started doing things for myself. That's the only thing that worked after MONTHS of useless praying and promising and bargaining with god.

It occurred to me then that I had been hoodwinked, tricked into believing in something that put money in a collection plate every week. And for what? Not for me, that's for sure.

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Answer 6

What made me start doubting was the amount of embracing of God I did, when absolutely nothing embraced me back. It was all one-sided, and it made me ask a lot of questions about the nature of what I believed in. I read a great deal of ancient mythology as a child, as well....it made me wonder if the ancient gods were any less real to the ancient people than my god was to me. Combine that with years upon years of thought, reading, and meditation and *poof* I'm an atheist!

Answer 7

I heard the arguments Christians gave before I heard too much about scientific theory. Even when I was young, it sounded like a children's story to me.

Answer 8

Not so much scientific facts as your inability to PROVE your religion is real.

I know, I know... then you tell me I need to have *faith* in order to understand the holy spirit..... but I can't have faith if I'm a non-believer... but as a non-believer, I can't 'convert' because I don't have faith.....

Just keeps going around and around. Kind of a waste of time, really.

Keep yer religion in yer pants and stop trying to convert people to your myth.

Answer 9

Great question. I pray you all will understand that the sin that goes on in this world has nothing to do with the God of Jesus. I pray you all JUST TAKE TIME to read and study this love letter He has sent us. I pray you all find a teaching church.

Answer 10

Neither. Everything made me doubt. people, churches, prayer, how people who said they were christian acted, Everything I saw in religion and the people in the religion and the bible made me doubt.