Agnostics and atheists, how and why did you part from organized religion?

Question

From a wondering fellow atheist :)

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that everyone began as part of a religion and "left," or disliked religion and "left," I suppose I simply meant to ask why you are atheistic or agnostic.

Answer 1

I always considered myself a "generic Christian." I went to a Nazarene church and belonged to AWANAS when I was younger. During and after college, I began studying religion not as a way of life, but rather as a subject. The more and more I read and learned about other religions, the harder and harder it got for me to believe that any one of them was the One and True religion. I guess now I am just agnostic. I'm not willing to give up on the idea of God, I just don't know what history and path is correct.

Answer 2

The church I grew up in is a very conservative branch of Lutheranism. In my early teens, I started to realize I had big issues with what I was being told about how the Bible had been interpreted. I felt it was very sexist, racist and actually perpetuated hatred, ignorance and rejection of certain groups of people. Plus all the people in my church were complete hypocrites. I figure, I'd rather live life the way I feel in my heart is right than try to fit this certain mold that just doesn't feel right at all. I think I still believe in God as a higher power, but I have a huge problem with organized religion and what it promotes.

BTW, fellow answerers, atheism is a denial of the existence of a higher power, so while you may not have belonged to some kind of organized religion, you still at some point decided for yourself that you were an atheist. You can still answer the question.

Answer 3

First off, aetheism is a religion, and more so now than ever before it seems to be an organized religion. Complete disconcernation with the existence of a (or the) god is the absence of religion.

With the greater emphasis in modern society of the individual and their accomplishments, I think less people have time to concern themselves with religion.

The religious books have also been a large force in driving people away from religion, as science, which has not yet failed us, has consistently proven many parts of religious texts to be fallacious.

Lastly I think, most people are just fed up with the obviously crooked religious leaders, especially those on tv who preach about humbleness, and good-will then use the donations from members to buy huge homes, and expensive cars. Most people are slowly wising up to the organized religion scam. Now if only most people could see modern scam artists for who they really are.

Answer 4

realized that a big guy in the sky is essentially the same thing that we mock the romans for in high school, but then teach it on sunday. except all of our god's power is rolled into one. But then I got a little older and realized casting the divine in the image of man is a very arrogant thing for us to do, and most likely totally incorrect. How does the "it" or "divinity" or "god" or whatever term you use of the universe think?? Is it a single consciousness limited by one pointed perception like us??? NO!! of course not that's stupid!!! If God is perfect and all powerful how can God want you to do anything? God can't WANT anything, because inherent to the meaning of "wanting" is a sense of dissatisfaction and sense of things not being the way they are. This is exactly what the truth of most spiritual teachings tells us to avoid. These are examples of questions I used to get a sense of what I personally believe. I'm a Buddhist, an agnostic. I believe that a gods existence can't really proven and that there ARE MUCH MORE important things to worry about. Like my own spiritual life and having compassion for others (which i'm not very good at.....dang it!!)
So, the short answer is. I just thought about it. And the widely taught concept of a christian god just seems childish to me. that's not to say I don't believe in something greater, I just don't try to box it in by labeling and describing and pretending like I "know" about it with my tiny little human mind. But dont' get me wrong the divine can be experienced, but not on the level of the mind.

Answer 5

I was never really that keen on organized religion in the first place. As a teenager I started telling people that I believed in God but that I was against organized religion. The big event that prompted my eventual "conversion" to atheism was my best friend's death in January. Thinking about death in general got me on the path to questioning my own religion, and I realized that it was nothing more than a bunch of stuff made up to control people and comfort them in times of loss or fear. I wanted to be a believer very badly, but I feel better now, knowing I'm being honest with myself. It is mentally draining trying to constantly convince yourself God exists.

Answer 6

Youd have to be part of something to break away. My parents were raised Pentecostal (snakes and everything) and decided no child should be scared or forced into believing anything, so I have never attended church aside from funerals and weddings. As i grew older I looked into the whole "god" thing my friends kept harping about and upon reading the bible and other studies realized it was a big crock of poo. Pretty architecture, though.

Answer 7

i'm no longer the two yet I even have had many discussions with them and anybody replaced into mad at God for some reason. Like they did no longer have a million funds so God ought to no longer love them or their father left so God hates them. they decide to apply the best judgment that if there replaced right into a God then why might there be lots poverty and conflict and unhappiness. they don't understand that guy replaced into given the capacity of determination and that no person is proper so undesirable issues ensue. I even have additionally considered my cousin who did no longer have self assurance in God get right into a motor vehicle twist of destiny and alter his ideals after that. anybody is a believer whilst they want some thing from God is sounds like.

Answer 8

I never truly believed, I always questioned it. I'm a realist, I want hardcore proof that something exists. I think people go to religion for answers, because religion claims to have all the answers, but it doesn't. To me religion is foolish, and to have blind faith in something is to blur the eye of explanation. I believe I was created by science and will die by science.

Answer 9

I know that you had set this question out towards the agnostics and atheists, and I am neither, but I did feel, especially after reading many of the answers that these people had the same bad experinces as I did, and still have, with many other "christians."
I think I parted from organized religion mentally at the age of 8 when our preacher screamed at me that I was going to hell because I wanted to vist my friend's church. My decision for doing this was the pastor of that church believed in spirits and that if you could see and talk to ghosts or other spirits that we weren't "damned," as I had been told several times over before.
At 11 I decided I wanted to be bapitized, not knowing really what a bapitism was, other than "everyone else was doing it." As I grew up I read the Bible more and more, naturally I asked questions. Of course the questions were not answered. I was told literally, this is what we say you HAVE to believe, and I realized how people acted during church, and outside of it, and frankly I was disgusted at how two faced and hypocritical they were.
At 14 I had stopped attending, even though my best friend was a minister's daughter. She tried to push me to attend, but eventually her dad told her to lay off. "Some people, are meant for church, and some aren't. Those that are stronger in their faith and understand more than normal people, because they are more spiritually mature, are hindered when they are forced to participate with those that don't understand,"he told us one afternoon after school.
What he knew and she didn't was that I could see and talk to ghosts as could my little brother, and I had the gift of foresight, which I proved time and time again accidently to him. Many times I called him in the middle of the night to let him know something, and later the next day, what I had called him about happened. Her parents and I got really close during her bout with cancer, but rather than encouraging me to attend, he encouraged me more towards the "naturalistic studies" of paganism, wicca, and witta. Even going so far as to buy the books for me to read on the subjects.
One of the greatest things that he told me and my brother was that "Christianity is not the one true religion. There are several out there you just have to find your beliefs to know what fits you, and where you fit in the universe."
So essentially it was with the help of a minister that I found the strength to search out who I really was spiritually, and rather than say "do as we do," he taught me to do as I felt, and that if I followed my beliefs than that was actually the true religion for myself.
There have been a few time I've attended church, about 3 times in the past 12 years. Once on a whim, after my uncle was murdered, and sunrise service easter morning, again on a whim, and one evening just driving by.
I feel no need of seeking spiritual brothership with other people. I actually find what I need by meditation, and seeking solace with nature. That is when I feel closest to what I believe is actually the truth of things.

Answer 10

How? Just moved.... why? Just didn't go back.... i had too many questions, and I felt that it was wrong to just dismiss something that a book told me. I am so curious about the universe, it seems that there are hardly any religions that will accept curiosity!