If you were ever a theist...

[*Deidre*]

If you were ever a theist/believer, what led you to no longer believe? Not looking to preach, that’s not my thing and it’s against rules anyway, but just curious. I remember my own journey over the past few years with it all, and just thought it’d be interesting to hear your ‘stories’ if you were once believers before identifying as an atheist. 

[robvalue]

I find such stories very interesting, but I'm afraid I don't have one of my own

[Whateverist]

For me I'd call it a growing sense that God was not the way the world worked. It seemed to fit more naturally in the category of comforting fiction with Santa, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy than with space, time and matter. But I was fortunate that my more aggressively religious parent was in the military and not in my face. That and his ineptitude socially spared me from being coerced more effectively. My mother on the other hand would speak of God but only to make the case of what one should or shouldn't do. She never dwelled on God as a being. In fact I pretty much made up my own concept of God given the blessed lack of detail around me. My Guy was pretty cool but no more or less real than anyone else's. Maybe I just naturally had a higher regard for things tangible than things theoretical?

[dyresand]

I've never had a journy it was more or less like oh wait people actually believe this mind
you at this age other kids my age had active imaginations and that's how they get people to believe in god.
So yeah reading the bible at a young age it also helped that i didn't believe in magic i didn't believe any of it
to be true.

[Mystic]

It was all so magical, then the magic went off. That's when I became enlightened that there is no enlightenment.

Cause it went off, faith obviously was delusional. Cause I doubted, obviously there was no magical connection to God in the first place.

And if anyone thinks they are certain of God the fact then I'm not of whether God exists or not, they certainly are delusional

[thool]

For me, a combination of things.

First, I realized that there were no tangible or intangible results from the rituals. Second, as far as evidence, second- and third-hand accounts written 150 years after events and compiled by self-appointed "experts" are inadmissible. Third, it sickens me that people have either knowingly or unknowingly used religion to shield them from criticism, saying things like "god told me" or "this is what god wants." Fourth, I have to chuckle when preachers get up there and say things like "god wants you to be happy" and "god loves you" as if they just got off the phone and are relaying the message for us.

So the whole thing adds up to a fairy tale, carried over from days when science wasn't there to explain why things happened.

[*Deidre*]

For me I'd call it a growing sense that God was not the way the world worked.  It seemed to fit more naturally in the category of comforting fiction with Santa, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy than with space, time and matter.  But I was fortunate that my more aggressively religious parent was in the military and not in my face.  That and his ineptitude socially spared me from being coerced more effectively.  My mother on the other hand would speak of God but only to make the case of what one should or shouldn't do.  She never dwelled on God as a being.  In fact I pretty much made up my own concept of God given the blessed lack of detail around me.  My Guy was pretty cool but no more or less real than anyone else's.  Maybe I just naturally had a higher regard for things tangible than things theoretical?

That last line of yours, that's very interesting. A higher regard for the tangible and not the theoretical. Appreciate you sharing.!!

[abaris]

I was, but never a devout one. It never played any major role in my life, apaert from some childish (as in very little) believes, without caring much about theology or actual scripture.

It was a very long road to not believing. I would say, from the age of 8 to the age of 27, maybe 30. It started with constantly asking questions. As in asking myself questions. The tales the priests told didn't make any sense and were revolting at times. Such as, as I mentioned in different threads, that god would take what's most dearest to us, if we sin. So, still a child, I viewed Jesus and God as two different personallities. God, the evil one, Jesus, the good one.

Especially my father, who was a technician, took great pains in interesting me in the world, it's wonders and it's history. So, at a very young age, we started to visit museums. Technical as well as natural. I loved it and, on a side note, in Vienna, we have a rather large collection of dinosaur remains´at the museum of natural history. My father explained to me, they were millions of years old and although I couldn't wrap my head around millions of years at the time, the lesson stuck.

Later on, at our equivalent of high school, I never questioned what our science and biology teachers told us about the world and I started to question scripture even more. It was more or less out of the windows, when I made my degree. But I wasn't entirely ready to give up yet. It took another decade, and funnily enough, it happened at a catholic site. There's a place in the woods, where I live. I used to go there, when I wanted to reflect and to be alone. It's a crossroads display and I watched the imagery and thought, that's all too simplistic. That was back in 1990 and that was the time when I left christianity for good. But I still wasn't ready to live totallly unguided and so I took to deism. I even meddled with some wiccans. Most of my lady friends consider themselves witches, but my conclusion, based on what I knew about the world and it's history, was that of a totally neutral entity, being behind it all. But a total neutral entity doesn't need worship, since it doesn't care one way or the other.

So, I left that one behind too. To this day, I haven't ruled out that total neutral entity, since I can't prove it's absence. But I'm well aware, that I, as so many others, am just filling the gaps of what I don't understand. But that's also the reason why it still reads agnostic in my sig.

[Bard A Madsen]

If you were ever a theist/believer, what led you to no longer believe? Not looking to preach, that’s not my thing and it’s against rules anyway, but just curious. I remember my own journey over the past few years with it all, and just thought it’d be interesting to hear your ‘stories’ if you were once believers before identifying as an atheist. 

I've been thinking about this more and more lately.  I'm beginning to realize that I never really believed and just kind of went along with the idea of Christianity because I'm having a real hard time understanding how people actually believe in that stuff.  It is almost shock that they REALLY do believe that.  I guess there was always the maybe thing rattling around when say thinking about seeing dead friends once again, but never 'a fact' it will happen as I'm starting to realize that other do.  Also, I've never been one of those types that gets offended unless it is an outright attack on my character so I don't understand why it isn't okay to delve into the religion subject.  To me it is like someone saying the thunder is independent from the lightning, and I have had this argument, I don't see why it should be so offensive to try to explain that is not the case.  It is like someone trying to tell me cold water boils faster than hot water, go ahead but you better explain the BTU part that I'm hung up on.  Or was it hot water freezes faster??? Ether way, I wouldn't be offended if you proved my concept wrong, actually I'd thank you for clearing that up.

[Chad32]

As I grew up I started seriously thinking about whether or not I find the things in the bible acceptable. I was taught that god wanted us to come to him willingly, but there are some pretty big cultural differences between modern day and biblical times. The idea of someone ruling over me, and killing an innocent person or animal to absolve me of wrongdoings is quite foreign.

A lot of the stuff in the bible doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. Either because it's factually wrong, or outdatedly immoral. Since I couldn't keep following it in good conscience, I left. I also found reason to believe that Yahweh and Jesus never existed at all, on top of doing things I find wrong.