Sincere question for atheists... did any of you once believe in God and then change your mind?

Question

(When I ask if you once believed in God I don't mean going to church with your family.... I want to know if there was actually a relationship with God that you no longer have) Thanks. I'm just curious and I honestly want to understand your point of view. And if you never did believe in God, without bashing anyone, can you tell me what turns you off about the thought?

Answer 1

For me, not really though I know many who did. I did try really praying a few times, but it didn't do anything. I don't recall specifically believing or not believing when I was young. Surprisingly I did get confirmed, because I couldn't tell my parents I didn't believe at the time.

The main reason I don't believe today is that I don't see the claims jiving with the evidence. All of the holy books are rife with statements that are just plain wrong. I find the excuses just that, excuses. The writings are consistent with ancient views of science (flat earth, geocentric, young earth, etc.). If these books are the statements of a universal designer of some sort I expect much higher accuracy.

For example, a universal designer should know that there is no place on earth to put a mountain where you can see all the populated continents.

Beyond that, simply if there really is a god and this god wants our belief it would be infinitely easy to provide some testable evidence. A god would be intelligent enough to know that 2000 year old stories do not make good evidence. A god would understand the power of repeatable verifiable results. A god would understand that a single event 2000 years ago never to be repeated or verified would have trouble being accepted by some.

Answer 2

I did. I'm not sure I know what you mean by a relationship with God, but after a while with all the inconsistencies and hypocrisy of religion, I just didn't buy it anymore. It seemed like the good people I trusted were not religious, and all the Christians I knew were well, not so good. Over time I just grew up and stopped believing in lies.

Answer 3

I used to believe in god, but I wouldn't say I had a relationship with god. I was never religious and just never thought about actively looking for answers. Once I did start searching, I slowly became atheist, and here I am today....

Answer 4

~~~ reb ,,, Most respectfully and sincerely I did believe as a child and renounced my belief to my parents at age 16. I was not an intellectual or a "bright"student at the time. My intellect made a leap in maturity, like a growth spurt, during my sophomore year in college when my reading ability and comprehension improved dramitically. I gravitated toward Philosophy and Comparitive Mythology/Religion and have never looked back. ~ Namaste`

Answer 5

I was raised Catholic and believed in God. Now I'm starting to understand so much more about the world and the universe. I'm an atheist and I don't believe that there is any god.

Answer 6

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and always knew something didn't feel right. I had to literally force myself to read any biblical literature, and when I spoke spiritually, it just didn't feel natural for me. I was always intregued by darkness and many other things that were "bad".

When I was about 5 and started going to school, I noticed cute boys and girls - naturally attracted to both. But my father told me that there was no way I liked girls too because "the bible says so" and "god would hate me".

So that's what started the doubt for me - I never honestly had a relationship with god because as I said, something didn't feel right. I knew I was faking it whenever I prayed. I didn't understand why anyone told me I didn't like girls either because I didn't choose it.

So in my teenage years, the feeling for both boys and girls stayed, proving to myself that it had to be natural for me. That kinda contradicts the bible in my mind. Then things like sex and cussing and other "bad" things, didn't feel "bad" at all. I enjoyed them.

Then when I became of age to leave my parent's house, I lived my life the way I felt natural, which didn't involve god. I had to attend a church session with my mother and that's when I realized it. I just couldn't sit there - I hated it. I hated being in church around believers. I then saw a documentary of a very Catholic man who felt he wanted to know as much as possible about the one whom he accepted as his savior. Then when looking into the facts of the bible, he became Atheist. The way he was feeling about god when he started to break away was the way I felt. I related to this man so much.

Then I started to think about it, and I realized I always had questions about "loopholes" in the bible - I just didn't look at them the right way.

I have now been an Atheist for 2 years, and I have never felt better about myself. I feel I now truly discovered myself. Everything feels right to me now, not fake, not forced.

I now live my life however feels right, without regrets. And I love it!

A relationship with god is the best thing that never happened to me.

Answer 7

Yes, I was quite pious as a child. I wanted to be a priest. Said my prayers at night without urging, and meant them.

Around 5th grade I started reading mythology, and over the next couple years the distinction faded between what people called mythology and what people called religion.

Answer 8

I started out a good little Methodist girl.... got up to high school and started questioning.... then things happened in my church and in my life that made me see the hypocrisy of it all... I stopped all organized religion and over time realized that the whole deal was just wrong....being free is a vast improvement.....

Answer 9

In truth - I believed in god when I was a kid but as I got older I found out that there is nobody there. Nothing that religion ever told me panned out to anything.

Answer 10

I don't know that I ever truly believed in God wholeheartedly. I used to pray and things like that but doubt has always been there.