what is it that caused you to become an atheist?
25 posts in this topic.
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So the question is in the title. Usually people start out born into religion, and then they become atheists at some point later in life. what was that point for you? when did you know you weren't into religion?
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When I was twelve I took biology.
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I was born into Baptist Christianity, baptised and all. When I was 8, I was a bit sceptical as my prayers were not being answered and I was starting to understand science. At 9, I started looking for another religion. At ages 10 and 11, I tried different religions such as Catholic, Buddhism, and Wiccan. When I was 12, I officially became atheist after finally decoding the science. This year, I have had a bit of a revelation involving the idea of Chaos this year, but I am still an atheist.
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Well, technically I consider myself spiritually agnostic, and Wiccan, but here is the story of how I lost my faith in Christianity. It is a little long, and stolen from one of my older blog entries lol.
Don't feel like you must read all of this, it's rather long.Spoiler
I was raised Christian. I went to church twice a week, and was raised with certain beliefs for sure. Later in life, though, I chose to navigate away from that.
Around the age of 14, I was starting to really question Christianity and how it fit into my life. I was uncomfortable in Church, I was questioning the Bible, and I was really in a state of confusion. Around this time, I also took a trip with my then best friend A. She was a very sweet girl, but also very religious. At this time, I was not Wiccan, I wasn't really anything but confused. I felt a lot of pressure from her to find God again, and I knew that to not would probably mean the end of our friendship. So anyways, we went on a trip to Western Washington to see her grand parents. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. We went by plane, and stayed for a week. The first question I was asked as I got into their car was if I had accepted Jesus as my one and only savior. I hadn't even buckled my seatbelt yet. I answered awkwardly, scared into saying "yes" because I didn't want them to get angry. I remember this so vividly, I remember the knot in my stomach and the fear I had when I said yes, and I remember the awful conversations that took place that week.
I realized about half way into it, that this was my friend A's way of convincing me to finally come back to God. I spent a week there with these people, hearing them in their completely extremist views on religion, and at one point was forced into an 8 foot by 8 foot "chapel" they had on their grounds to "pray and speak to God". When I say forced into it, I mean they told me I should go pray before breakfast one morning, and I said I would just to get them to leave me alone about it. When I tried to leave I realized that someone had locked the door from the outside. I spent probably three hours in there, alone, no windows, no air, feeling more claustrophobic than I had in my entire life... and this was supposed to help me find God.
Needless to say, I left that place feeling more desperate than ever to stay as far away from God and his followers as I could. And I did. For a very long time, I considered myself Atheist because religion of all kinds made me feel so unbelievably uncomfortable. And after my time in the "chapel" church became nearly unbearable. It took a long time for me to open my heart to religion at all, and when I did, I stayed away from Christianity. It did not fit me, my life, and I felt that I couldn't be myself in it. Even not wanting to get married has something to do with this time in my life, and what the religion stands for to me.
Decided to stick it into a spoiler as to not clog up the thread for others lol. -
"This year, I have had a bit of a revelation involving the idea of Chaos this year, but I am still an atheist." Care to share? (Different discussion thread...)
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inkwell, maybe soon as I have had my computer confiscated due to the cleanliness of my room (I am going incognito on the family computer).
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My parents forced me into following religion when I was little (well you know, just follow the tradition thing) and I never understood the mechanisms of it. Therefore, I never cared, and labeled myself an agnostic.
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I realized that, after all my prayers, maybe no one was listening.
In any case, I wasn't exactly 'raised' in a religious family. I went to Catholic schools of my own choice and fell in love with the religion because it was so new to me. The documents and texts were all so interesting. Of course, the initial hype fades and I'm left being the same me as I was before, with or without a looming deity. I feel no different than when I was Christian. -
I've never been the religious type, but what I love is that my parents gave me a choice.
For example, I wasn't baptised as a child because doing that was a decision my parents wanted me to make when I was old enough to do so. They're not religious themselves, but since I can remember, they've always encouraged me to explore religions and see what works for me. It turns out that atheism works best for me, and they're totally fine with it.
It's like I've chosen to be an atheist rather than been born into it without a say in the matter, and it's a really nice feeling. -
My mother's religious, my father leans towards atheism. They pretty much let me make up my own mind, which usually means atheism, considering God doesn't tend to contact people who don't know about Him.
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One of my friends, when I was twelve, simply yelled to the sky's "Be there a god, may he show himself to me, or strike me dead!" others deemed it blasphemy. My twelve year old mind deemed it "proof" that god wasn't there. Then came the christian who argued "God need not show himself to make us know that he's there" to which I argued "yes, he does."
Years later, as I learned more in science, my beliefs solidified, and the Christian religion became nothing more than a mythology to me. However, I'm of the stern belief that Atheists who bash Christianity simply because it is wrong in a malicious and demeaning manner, those Atheists who not only disbelieve, but passionately hate religion, make us reasonable Atheists look bad to society. -
I was simply born into atheism. My parents had no religion, so I never felt any reason to go and find one. Why fix what isn't broken?
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I'm a bit late. But I was born an atheist agnostic. I don't believe there is a god, but I am not entirely sure that there isn't one I highly doubt there us one though.
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I'm a bit late. But I was born an atheist agnostic. I don't believe there is a god, but I am not entirely sure that there isn't one I highly doubt there us one though.
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I wasn't born into a religion but at school we did some little bits of Christian stories is assemblies. The thing is, I didn't realise until I was embarrassingly old that these stories were supposed to be true. I guess I didn't believe them simply because they sounded so ridiculous. I started to look into science and decided that while the Big Bang is equally confusing, it seems at least possible. The problem is that I don't think God can ever be disproven. There will always be some circular argument (eg God created himself because he is omnipotent) to defy any argument an Atheist makes.
But what does it even matter? I just wish religion would quieten down and people wouldn't even ask what religion other people were. It just isn't worth it.
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