(March 13, 2014 at 1:06 pm)Bad Writer Wrote: For those of you who used to believe in a deity or subscribe to some kind of religion, what was it, and what was the very first thing that gave you pause? I'm not asking for you to tell your entire deconversion process, as there is a perfectly awesome corner of the forums for that. Just tell us what that first spark of inspiration was that led you away from faith.
Oh, me? I'm an ex-Mormon, and the first big one for me was finding out just by reading through it a few times (while I was a missionary, no less) that the Book of Mormon was more or less a bastardized plagiarism of the Bible. You can probably surmise where things went from there.
Formerly a fundamentalist Christian. Began reading George H. Smith's book, Atheism: The Case Against God, thinking it would help me better preempt atheists I debated online. When my parents suspected I was beginning to have doubts, they disallowed me from reading any non-Christian material. That was first time I had serious doubts but it took another 7-8 years for my old habits to die completely.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
