Becoming atheist

[Dumac Dwarfking]

When I was still living at home, I, like my parents, was a devout Christian. For the most part I blame them for this, as it was the lack of any literature other that that approved by my Father and deemed "accetable to the Christian faith" that found its way into his household. However it dawned on me that it was all bullshit before I'd even heard other ideas about how the world came into being. (obviously I was not oblivious to other religions and evolution, but all information came to me skewed from my fathers bias opinion)

I went to church and heard all the stories, for a long time I never questioned it, as doing so would mean an eternity in hell, but in my rebelious teen years, I decided to actually sit down and think about it.

The bible is big, and beliefs that stem from that are diverse. In small chunks and taken out of context the bible can mean anything you want it to, but looking at it as a whole all I could see was a story about a God who sacrifices himself to himself so that he can bypass a law that he created. A law that (despite being created by him) forced him (this omnipitent, undconditionally-loving asshole) to send his very own flawed creations into a hell that he created for all eternity because they acted (I can only assume) exactly as God expected them to.

I did not become an atheist at that point, but it was at that point I started to think indipendantly of an ancient fairytale.

But why did I have to discover this on my own? If someone had told me this while I was a devout Christian I would have yelled, "Blasphemy!" and fled screaming to the church to wash the sin away. It boggles my mind how people are able to run on blind faith their entire lives. Never questioning. Never doubting.

When someone is an addict, telling them they need to quit won't make them. They won't quit until they want to quit. I feel like religion is the same. You can tell them the facts, but it means nothing to them until they're looking for the facts.

To the atheists who were once religious (not necessarily Christian), what made you change your mind? Did someone convince you, or did you come to the conclusion on your own?

To the people of faith, could anything change your mind?

[Kayenneh]

To the atheists who were once religious (not necessarily Christian), what made you change your mind? Did someone convince you, or did you come to the conclusion on your own?

For me it was reading the story when Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge. I was still a child then, but I started to wonder why a god would consider it a sin to have knowledge and understand, especially since I loved to learn myself. I was a christian/pantheist until I turned 19. Slowly I started questioning my beliefs, asserting whether it was sensible to hold such viewpoints that I did, and when I finally came to the conclusion that I couldn't call myself a christian, because I didn't believe in the bible, Jesus, the holy spirit etc, I still prayed and thought a god was looking out for me. Then it hit me, wanting/needing a god was just my imagination and a mental security blanket. I left church and for a day I thought I would be severely punished, but nothing bad happened, my good luck continued and I knew that I had come to the right conclusion.

[Dumac Dwarfking]

I left church and for a day I thought I would be severely punished, but nothing bad happened, my good luck continued and I knew that I had come to the right conclusion.

I feel that's the problem with a lot of people. They're told from a young age that to even question was a terrible sin for which you would suffer greatly. My father used to tell me that God would forgive any sin you've ever committed unless it was the "unforgivable sin", which was denying Him. What kind of God thinks that denial of a story book is the worst thing anyone can do?

[Kayenneh]

What kind of God thinks that denial of a story book is the worst thing anyone can do?

A sick and twisted one.

[TaraJo]

For me, it came from a moment of pain.

It was about ten years ago and everything about me and my life were vastly different from what they are now. In fact, I was married at the time and my then wife had just recently found out she's pregnant. She miscarried shortly thereafter.

From a scientific perspective, I can understand how it happened. Hormone levels, things like that, I get it. However, from a spiritual or religious level, I didn't get it. Christians always go on and on about the sanctity of life and protecting the unborn. Why would God choose to kill this child before it was even born?

I'll be the first to admit, where I started out was one of the straw men I've heard used against atheists a lot: I was angry at god. However, from that initial anger, something happened that has fueled my atheist beliefs (or lack thereof). You see, I had been reaching out to God for years and getting nothing in return so I was done with that. Ever since then, I've had a standing deal with any of the Gods of the world; If you're all knowing, you know what it takes to get me to believe; if you're all powerful, you're obviously capable of fulfilling whatever requirements would be needed to get me to believe. Therefore, I'm going to live my life as if there is no God and I am going to do so until God tells me otherwise.

Even more simple, ever since that initial anger, I have found no real, legitimate reason to believe. The historical records regarding Jesus himself are sketchy, at best. If I were going to choose one of the world's major religions based on evidence on which one is better or healthier for me, I'd have to choose Buddhism because at least meditation and mindfulness are positive aspects of the religion; however, even though I acknowledge the good aspects of Buddhism, I also acknowledge that there isn't any real evidence behind the supernatural claims of the religion.

I've rambled long enough. I need to stop posting first thing in the morning.

[pocaracas]

Well, "origin story" time.
My parents didn't care much for religion... however, they got married in a church, baptized me and my brother before we were one year old and never said anything bad about religion. Bottom line, I rarely went to church. And when I did, it was with my grandmother.
So, there I was thinking that everyone around me was a believer, even if they didn't practice it.
I mean really everyone!
I was 10, circa 1990.
I was listening to the news on the radio and they claimed there were images of some awesome event in some town lost in the midst of China.
I thought: damn, they have cameras everywhere nowadays.
And then came the 'ping', wait a minute: what else is also everywhere? They say god is.
How come god and cameras never met?
Damn, one of them must be wrong and cameras are not the one.
Shit... how come no one ever realized this?!
Keep quiet.

And I kept quiet for about a year, then I told my brother. He didn't think much of it... he was 9.
Then I learned about evolution... and there came about another rift: either evolution or genesis is wrong and it's not evolution!

Eventually, I learned there was a name for people who didn't believe: atheist. Oh, if there's a name for it, there's more people like me! yiipee!
Then, in some tv show, some guy casually said that roughly 20% of the world's population is atheist.
I was like: WOWWW.
Hey everyone, I'm atheist!

[Puddleglum]

If anyone is thinking of becoming an athiest then they must be baptised in my universal Church of Atheism or they aren't real atheists but just heretics.

Then they must tithe 10% of their earnings to me and send me their daughters.

---

Dumac:

Your accursed Talos shall be wiped off the face of Skyrim.

Hail the emprorer

[Tempus]

Then they must tithe 10% of their earnings to me and send me their daughters.

I don't have a daughter, but I jerked off into an envelope and sent it to you. Millions of potential daughters to choose from, but for a limited time only!

[JohnDG]

From what I have observed from all the theatrical theist communities and religious text. Is that Jesus, along with other religious figures were created out of necessity. Any theist community needs an ideal they attempt aspire to. For instance I believe this to be a subconscious motive to the Jesus myth and the reason he is considered god by Christians. When observed, theist attempt to act and behave as if god(Jesus) would, so if one were do what god(Jesus) would enough time's he would become god(Jesus) like in nature. It's what they want, what they desire and in doing so they would become somebody who is wanted and desired and accepted. Because god(Jesus) has power, if one were to become god(Jesus) like they too would have power.

This is really just a mix of mine and others personal opinions. Also with the help of my theist friend who is trying to be a better person for god and not be corrupted by the taint in modern churches this day.

I use to be catholic till about two years ago, I use to pray every night even though I didn't go to church. What made me drop out of the church before I changed my beliefs was basically the two faced nature of most theist. You just can't only be a theist on Sundays and expect to get away with your sins but I noticed people thought just by going to church you get a clean slate every week. Allot of crazy stuff has happened in my life and when I got older and stopped going to church I looked back and realized it was just me being very hope full little kid. God just couldn't possibly be all loving for me to have the life I did, then I thought not just about my self, other people in my family, my friends and then the world. Pretty soon I concluded that he didn't give a shit about us or doesn't exist. Not to mention that he purposely made us the way we are, every murderer, every rapist, every liar, every cheat, even Lucifer himself was created to be what he was against his will.

[KichigaiNeko]

Then they must tithe 10% of their earnings to me and send me their daughters.

---

You do NOT want to be inflicted with my Daughter mate

And since I don't work hows 10% of nothing grab you??