atheist?................?

Question

where you once a christain
why did you stop beliving
I will respect all answers

Answer 1

Yes, I was once Christian. I think I questioned it starting around age nine. I went to Sunday school from age 5-13 though and attended a weekly Bible study class in high school. I had friends in the religion and wanted to fit in so I tried to push my doubts back for a long time for that reason. In the end though I just found a lot of the claims pretty far out, too far out and out of sync with reality and lacking proof for the claims. Eventually the "just believe and be saved" stuff started to sound like a cop out. I also didn't like the attitudes towards certain things just based on because the Bible says so. I started to do some research and reading on my own and learned a lot about the doubts about the accuracy of the Bible, the politics involved in Church history and the development of Christianity, the fact that much of what is written about Jesus comes from Paul who never knew him but had "visions". It just all got to unbelievable.

The more I studied the more I came to the conclusion it was created by humans to teach ideas but wasn't actually a literal tale that necessarily represented God if it existed. The authors of the Bible widely employed what is known as midrash in writing the stories. This was taking existing stories and myths and inserting your own heros and deities and maybe adding a twist to get your particular idea across. This is particularly striking when you look at the story of the flood (probably based on Epic of Giglamesh) or even the story of Jesus. It bears striking resemblence to many preexisting pagan deities from virgin births, to ressurection, performance of miracles, etc...

So what I find wrong is it doesn't jibe with any sense of reality. I don't think God would give us a day to day reality so different from that depicted in the Bible and no evidence of itself and yet expect us to blindly believe or it will burn us in hell. I don't believe that a deity of perfect knowledge would be so wrathful and cruel and arbitrary as it is represented in the Old Testament. I don't believe people who are otherwise good people but are Hindu, Buddhist, Pagan, Jewish, atheist, etc... go to a place called hell just because they don't accept Jesus as their savior. I don't think you could call that a God of love if they did. If God can't accept people without them worshiping him then its not a God of love or not actually omnipotent. I don't we would have failed prophecy, or that had to be "reinterpreted" in order to get it to not have failed if it were the handed down word of God that God expected to make sense to most people. I don't believe Christianity is representative of reality but I don't think Islam or Judaism or any other single faith system is either. I have yet to find a religion's supernatural claims to have any reasonable evidence to back them up. People just believe what they want to when it comes to religion.

Answer 2

I was raised a Catholic. My parents were both relatively nonreligious, but they were pressured into sending me to a Catholic private school by my very religious grandparents. I was part of the whole indoctrination deal, but it didn't work so well on me. I had begun reading at a very early age, and I read everything I could get my hands on (and still do). This introduced me to views contrary to those that I was being officially taught. The way religion works is that they drill the ideas into kids' heads when they're young and still believe that everything their parents/teachers say is autoomatically true. The Bible does command that you teach your children your religion when they are very young so that they will not turn from it when they are older. This is, by very definition, a form of brainwashing. After all, indoctrination only works if you don't know you're being indoctrinated. I, however, grew to the point where I understood that because the "Bible says so" answer doesn't make something true. I read the Bible straight through in first grade and asked my teacher why it was so violent if God is so loving. She told me to stop asking stupid questions. My mother was a science teacher, so with her help and extensive reading, I also developed a knowledge science far greater than that of my classmates. This developed scientific literacy proved to me that many of the beliefs of Christianity were far from true. By the time I was nine years old, I had decided for myself that God did not exist.

Answer 3

I was raised into a Baptist household, my family isn't extremely religious but they do buy into the eternal life and things like that. They are very superstitious as well, they believed in ghosts and spirits and stuff like that. When I was younger I was very interested in the paranormal, but as I got older I found out it wasn't real. Then I began to realize that Christianity was fake too. As I learned about Islam and the other various religions. I even tried Buddhism and Taoism (which I do not practice) but I am very fond of the teachings. I am a Secular Humanist now, which is basically a regular human being. I have many beliefs, which are all based on evidence.

I continue to read the bible and other holy books and philosphical books. Just for wisdom and inspiration.

Answer 4

I was Christian as a child. I have always seen religion as a cult. You go to church on Sunday and Believe whatever your preacher tells you to so you don't go to hell. I began questioning the existence of god when I started thinking about Religion logically. It did not make sense to me that god had the power to do anything and yet there is still evil in the world. Does he not care to fix things like world hunger or AIDS? Did he not care to stop Hitler from killing millions of Jews? Some of my christian friends have told me that evil exists because of man's free will; man chooses to do bad things. Even if this is true god should still be able to fix it, unless man has more power than god.

He can create the universe but had no power to stop one man -Hitler.

Answer 5

I was raised by catholic parents, but round my 14th I started to realize the big gaps in biblical stories and the immorality in that book. The more I read the more I thought the more I started to see the all gods are imaginary.
Now as an mature adult I realize I made the right choice as a young boy. Now with the internet is even more simpler to see the falsehood of religions and its gods

Answer 6

I was brought up with no religion by parent who were brought up with no religion.

From about 7 or 8 years old I was interested in THE (?) Invisible Sky Critter (ISC) concept and learned all I could about this 'thing'.

These days I'm more interested in the psychology of believers.
What is it y'all are afraid of that you have to believe in an imaginary being?
Is it Life or is it Death?
Why can't you see there is absolutely NO Logic or Reason to justify the existence of ISCs?
Why can't you realise the ISC concept was invented by Scammers so Preachers could grow rich and powerful peddling their delusions whilst keeping the Peasants poor and under their control.?

I find religion fascinating.
.

Answer 7

I was a fundie who always had questions everyone elided over. No answers. Went under for back surgery a xian and came out an Atheist. I know something fantastic had to have happened while I was out. Just wish I could remember. lol My life since becoming an Atheist has gotten better and better. The prison is gone, the brainwashing is gone. I'm free. Thanks for asking. The fear is gone, too. I understand and appreciate life so much more now than I did before.

Answer 8

Can a heathen answer as well?

I was raised a Christian but never felt part of the religion. I tried for over 15 years, prayer, studying the Bible, talking with others - nothing felt right or made sense.

Rereading the Bible just increased my doubts and questions and sense of outrage at the violence and non-just behavior of the deity. I drifted away in alcoholism, then A.A., then paganism.

After years of researching and exploring various traditions, I discovered heathenism and it was like the light went on and I knew where I belonged. The religion and deities made sense to me and my character. I've continued to grow in the religion and in my life.

Answer 9

I am an atheist, I think most people's beliefs are what they grew up around, things they have been told from a small child...for example if from the age of 2 you are told that god is true, then god is true in your mind, although i grew up in a household where god wasn't true....

hence I am an atheist, although I dont think parents should make their children believe in anything, their own choice...but Im pretty sure I was never going to be one...

Answer 10

I was raised by a mother and father who were Christian and agnostic respectively. To be honest, even though I attended church with my mother until I was about 14, I never really believed in any of it. Even as a child it seemed silly and nonsensical.