A question for Atheists..?

Question

I just simply wanted to know for my curiosity if you belonged to a religion before and had a different Faith? And if so, what made you change your mind? Why do you feel so strongly about it?

Answer 1

I was raised Roman Catholic and still have a great deal of respect for their traditions.
"Why do you feel so strongly about it?"
I don't know that I feel so strongly about it. I just have never seen any proof that a God or gods exist and never really "bought" it even when I was Catholic. I guess I just saw the Bible as a collection of stories, some of which taught a moral lesson.
I do feel strongly about people using faulty logic such as "Pascal's Wager" to try and convert me. It insults my intelligence and doesn't speak too highly of their God's omniscient that He would be fooled by a disingenuous convert.

Answer 2

I was a pretty serious Catholic. Raised Catholic by my parents, went to church, Catholic gradeschool, Catholic highschool.... From as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to make sure I was seeking the truth, whether that truth was pleasant or not. One day when I was in church I got to thinking, "What if this *isn't* for real?" Very hypothetical, but all of a sudden I realized I'd never *truly* considered this question, always simply accepted it blindly. I resolved to take a closer look at my beliefs, and determine for myself if this seemed true. I was a sophomore in highschool.

The whole period of changing my belief system happened very, very gradually. It was like finding out Santa Claus wasn't real, but on a much larger, scarier scale. For a long time it was something I felt considerably sad about, and scared, as there was no one else I knew who agreed with me, and if my family ever found out they would never forgive me. Now I'm much more settled in to the world-- I've found it's not such a scary place. I grew up, and my imaginary friend disappeared.

I feel so strongly because I have grown up being expected to be very "into" a religion I don't even believe in, and to put on an act for my whole family. I suck at acting. I can't let my true feelings or guard down to any one of them, ever. This has shaped me as a person immensely-- I am a hermitlike loner, never getting too close to anyone because I don't really know how. As a result, I've become very bitter about the world and life in general, and this forum is the only one where I can truly speak my mind. So I do. Loudly and colorfully, and it feels wonderful.

Answer 3

I went to school to become a minister; found answers that I couldn't come to terms with in both the historical Jesus and the church's teachings. Nevertheless, I received my MDiv, only to find that, now that I know more, I no longer believe in the man, the message, or the church doctrine. If Jesus was a real man, I am sure he was a great guy.....beyond that, it is all speculative and based on earlier gods with better stories. Furthermore, an omnipotent, all loving god is not found in the bible and is not found in the church and is not found in the real world (or ruling over this world). Free will and other such concepts do nothing to explain the horrors of humanity and environmental disasters.......It just comes down to god not caring that thousands of people die each day from a lack of food and water.....or not being able to do anything about it....in either case, that isn't a god worth worshipping. Instead of focusing on a failed or nonexistant god, I am focused on how to best help the people he has left here to suffer for no reason.

Answer 4

I'm married to a christian wife, and dont want to convert to her religion, by saying I will be come a protestant if the family want to insist applying thing on me.

Actually I'm very much fond of budhism on all aspects of life, because compared to science, it has something scientifically explaining about the whole universe origin. Not a way to grab on all things into your own hand like christinity or muslim does.

That's the way why I would be a human live in equal & educative society rather than live in a world of forcible way like christinity or muslim does.

Science is giving us all the proofs & means to live well & coordinate with each other in equality. But religions deepen a hollow between communities, and sink people into a longtime historic darkness with many forms like holy wars, execusations, slandering, bars to our discovery due to their concept human must accept the being world as gods granted to them, without any discovery or improvement.

How about your idiot when asking us to resign our human cause for fighting equality, freedom, and humanity sociality which is the upmost thing to gain " Truth, Goodness, Beauty"
being understood as the truth of laws on maths, on behaviours, cause & effects, etc. and goodness as humanity, good moral, be a good man, and besides that the manificient scenery, respect nature beauty, and create our art for opening our minds & thinkings, reasonings.

Answer 5

I was raised in a Christian family, so as a kid I believed as I was instructed. But once my age hit double digits and my thinking matured, religion really stopped making sense to me. I realized that there was no proof for the basic beliefs of Christianity or theism in general. I also observed others and saw that religion didn't make people behave in a more decent way. So if a belief can't be proved true and doesn't make you a better person, why believe it?

Answer 6

yes i had for about 27 years. then i saw a movie ...contact...
that in itself didnt change my mind. but after watching it. i saw how religion was used as a tool to manipulate others and thoughts and ideals.
that.... made me have one question. then another one came...and another ...and another...and soon i was overwhelmed with questions. and after three years of really looking at it and fighting what i had been taught for 27 years.... i put it aside
it wasnt an easy process. there was alot of internal conflict.
but in the end i feel that like the movie... religion ...has been a tool to manipulate and control a population for whatever reason humans can think up. whether it be power or money or world domination... it all seems like it boils down to the control that has peppered its history through the ages

Answer 7

I was a born again Christian, a Catholic, a Seventh Day Adventist and an evangelical. I tried many flavors of Christianity before shedding my upbringing indoctrination.

I changed my mind because of a lack of tangible evidence. It started as an intense search for God's will in my life. Once I realized that I couldn't find it, and he wasn't willing to reveal it to me, I started seriously reading the bible, looking for answers.

I found that after reading the bible, I was just as confused, but had a greater sense of the terrible things people had done at God's behest, that I had ignored before.

Finally, I decided to put the responsibility on God's shoulders, and asked him to reveal himself to me in a tangible way.

He didn't, and I am no longer a theist.

Answer 8

ex-Christian here. I began having doubts at the age of 8 or 9. There were just too many questions that went unanswered. Simple questions like, "Why does an all powerful god want or require worship?" None of it made sense, but I tried really hard to believe. I had to face the truth at age 16.

Answer 9

I was raised Jewish, but in my teens, I started doubting and disliking the tenets of religion. I've come to believe that there is no way to know for sure whether or not there is a god. And I believe that organized religion is the cause of a lot of the misery in the world.

Answer 10

I was raised baptist but never believed it. I walked out in the middle of my baptism (to be baptized wasn't my choice but I made my wishes perfectly clear) when I was twelve and walked away entirely at age 15. However, even though deep down I didn't believe I tried to make other religions fit me for a number of years before I decided to stop lying to myself and go with what I've always known deep down for years - that I was an atheist.