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So What Made You First Start To Doubt?
As weird as it is, I think it was the attitude of my former "fellow" Christians that started me on the road to doubt. Even though I've got a bachelors in Physics and have generally held a belief in evolution and big bang cosmology for most of the believing stage of my life, it really wasn't science that brought up questions(cognitive dissonance at its best). I think I've always generally never had a connection with anyone in any church I had ever attended. Mainly since most Christians, especially in the south, are non-intellectuals. But I think it really started when I began listening to extreme metal. I couldn't understand how anyone could look down on something that I loved so much and felt so natural to listen to. I can't tell you how many people have told me that its "the devils music"(even though most of the lyrics are socio-political).
Of course later on I did my research and discovered how ridiculous my former beliefs were. So who or what started you on your path to disbelief?
Of course later on I did my research and discovered how ridiculous my former beliefs were. So who or what started you on your path to disbelief?
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Permalink Reply by LesYpersound on -
never really believed but i actively started to disbelieve when i was subjected to the cruelty of adults in catholic gradeschool and the idiotic catechism teacher told me to just shut up in religion class and she was the most irrationally mean and two-faced person i had met at that stupid school.
i still went through the rites of communion and even got confirmed when i was younger ans still "in the closet" just so i could be a godparent to future cousins (whose parents still believe in the church)
oh and i distinctly remember asking my mother and later the catechism teacher about how weak minded people are if they need the threat of hell to do good. lmao... i honestly was around 7 and the parables and bible stories and adults' convoluted threats of hell to get me to behave already didn't seem right?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Cotter on -
Science half way, the other half would be the contradicting nature of the Bible. As well, as complete fanaticism from many people in the world.
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Permalink Reply by Max Gardner on -
I was Christian and when my pasteur stated talking about when his people started worshiping other idols or just not worshiping anything he got angry.So i replied with Who and he said god and i asked who is god and he said its what is in our hearts and its who helps us along when we are going through a rough time,So i read the bible and saw how ridiculous it was and how intolerant Religion is so i tried bhuddhism and i tried Hinduism and it wasn't for me so now i am a Non believer,
So keep it up Christians you are driving away your own followers one sermon at a time
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Permalink Reply by Marvin Jackson on
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When I was a Christian, I was never really into the bible, but I still blindly believed. About 10 months ago, I seriously began doubting and started calling myself agnostic and sort of deist for a few months. After logically thinking about the concept of god and breaking it down, I came to realize the existence of gods or goddesses are very unlikely. I been officially atheist for about 4 months now or since September.
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Permalink Reply by Laners on -
i was at least 5 years old at church one day when i knew i wasn't a believer and in the youth group or whatever it is where the kids all play and learn about 'god' together, we were handed coloring books and told to color jesus and his halo around him. i don't remember what i was thinking, but i knew it felt wrong, so i refused to color.
aside from this, i've been very happy with my agnostic/atheist life, am very grateful my parents have been open and basically had the same views as mine (my dad is a bit more religious than anyone in my immediate family, which basically isn't religious at all). my mom has been wonderful in saying that she'd take us to different churches, get us different books (us i mean my siblings and i), have us go to whatever youth groups to explore what religion would be right for us (as long as it wasn't catholicism, haha), but she said it is ultimately up to us to choose what we want to believe in. funny enough, my brother, sister, and i are all intelligent people and are all agnostic/atheist (hopefully that won't change either, seeing as that i'm the oldest and am set in my nonbeliever status, my brother is too involved with sports to care, and my sister is just like me except she's very serious about her catholic boyfriend and that concerns me). my family is who i turn to when ignorant people talk about god and piss me off, and i'm so lucky and grateful i have them.
but life hasn't been easy growing up this way, especially in a small town. i was chastised not only for NOT going to church (and when we would go it was a form of punishment followed by a reward for eating out for breakfast/lunch if we behaved well, haha), but not believing (i never stated my beliefs to anyone so they had automatically assumed i was a nonbeliever (albeit correctly)). for some reason all this being tied into the fact that my parents mainly voted democrat (how the hell did people find that out?!?! oh yea, small town with small minded, judgmental people) and i was judged on my political beliefs as well.
i remember the first time getting criticized for something was in 5th grade when the word evolution was first mentioned and i asked a scientifically based question (at a 5th grade level of course) and was yelled at by another child, IN CLASS, saying i was going to hell b/c god created everything and there was no such thing as evolution (i think the boy was punished at least for yelling at me).
and there were other instances growing up where this happened, 2 of which i remember more clearly b/c i was in HS and had a cognitive thought process. one was that my best friend became a born again christian (baptist) and was always nagging me to go to AWANAs (whatever the hell that was) and youth group and church with her b/c she wanted to save my soul. unfortunately i ended that friendship (i couldn't stand the religious crap and it made me sad b/c aside from that she was an amazing friend and person).
another was my senior year of HS when two of my friends cornered me in biology class and said "we heard you don't go to church" and i said "yea, but we're in school so we shouldn't discuss this" and i was in the middle of doing a cell culture! and they proceeded to push me further by saying "and we heard you hate our president (bush jr @ the time)" and i was like, "i have my own political beliefs, and hate is a strong word". i left it at that, and from then on, those two boys took every opportunity they had to harass me and put me down. i never once criticized them for being so close minded and other things i could've torn into them for. and they were 'loving, god obeying christians'. makes SO much sense to me for the way i was treated.
i'm so glad for college and that most 'christians' who attend are at least some what sane, or keep their mouths shut on their religious beliefs (and hell, they disobey so many of their rules in college, maybe that's why they don't say anything!). i've met some great friends who are also agnostic, but i can deal with the religious ones i have b/c they're not fanatics. i am very concerned i will lose one relationship, one of my best friends from HS who i've known for almost 10 years now is becoming a 'born again', and i can't stand her daily religious postings on facebook and i don't know how to deal with it b/c she's an important person in my life (and i'm supposed to be in her wedding!!). serenity now, serenity now!!!!!
so yea, just a post about my life and when i knew about my nonbeliever status. i've never really gone into detail about it or given it much thought so it was nice to spill the marbles. i hope that anyone who struggles with being in the minority in this country can find solace in the website and know that there are more people who share your non-beliefs than one would think.
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Permalink Reply by mrs kelligurl on -
When I was about 8 years old god answered my prayer for a Rainbow Brite, it got me thinking why he wouldn't answer my nightly prayer to keep my father out of my bedroom at night. I was raised by an Assembly of God preacher family and went to a private Baptist school for 4 yrs. There were too many questions that the adults wouldn't answer, so I questioned from early on. Even though I questioned, and looking back secretly didn't believe, I was so indoctrinated that I wasn't a good person unless I went through the motions of a believer. When I was 19 I got pregnant and had my 1st daughter. About the time she started talking I hit a self inflicted emotional crisis, not for years of sexual torture by my father or the assault that resulted in me having my daughter; it was over religion! I cannot possibly recount how many sleepless nights I had looking at my new born thinking I was good enough for her, she didn't deserve a mother who couldn't even believe in god. Then it was a struggle of what do I teach her? I could not believe in god, but if I was wrong did I have a right to deprive my daughter of being saved? Nothing I've been through has ever caused more grief than having my daughter's 'soul' in my hands and being afraid of making the wrong decision. I'm angry at the time I wasted when I could have been resting up to play games with her, all because of the indoctrination of guilt for those going by the wayside.
I'm much older now and more confident and comfortable with my belief that the god business is a huge marketing ploy of nothing more than horsesh*t! In the end I chose to be open and honest with her about everything (age appropriate of course). I'm very anti religion, but I don't harp on that with her. If she asks my feelings, I tell her. When she asks a question or wants to talk about what an xtian friend told her, we get out a bible look it up and discuss it. I pose questions back to her designed to make her feel comfortable thinking for herself, and confident to hold to commonsense when others are not. Now she says she feels sorry for her xtian friends for not having the opportunity to be able to think for themselves.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Brice on -
Your first sentence says it all. And, you sound like a great Mom. I wish you and success and happiness.
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Permalink Reply by James on -
PIT BULLS!
I had always had my doubts. I think that for most of my teenage, and adult life I been the agnostic(even during conformation) with the mentality "Christianity was incorrect, but good" I think that when I ended up getting a pit bull that needed a home. Realizing how wrong the rumors were, and then hearing people believe outrages rumors about the breed of dog, as a snake owner I was used to misconceptions.
Walking around Philly with her you find out why there are mean dog. People were not shy about how they made their dog mean. Of course the dog is blamed not the person.
Then when your see county's go around and take people dogs and kill them(PG county MD took every Pit Bull and put them to sleep) you see how misconceptions can be dangerous.
I think it made me aware. One thing led to another and as I researched more and more, now I am a atheist.
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Permalink Reply by Brittany A. Cox on -
I was never "devout" as many say they were. I merely was a kid who went to church with her aunt every Sunday like a good girl. I remember telling my great aunt that when I got my license I would drive us both to church. She was very old and sick. She eventually died, a few months before I got my drivers license. I was very angry at "God" and did not understand why he would do something so cruel. It was not too long after that I met a friend in high school, his name was Josh. He was an atheist. We talked about religion and he told me all of his beliefs. I began to see what I had been thinking was the truth was merely a way to get me to be a "moral person who, if followed the bible, would be rewarded in the after life" Obviously at this point I knew Santa was not real, but the similarities with this fairy tale was too closely related to God.
It was then I knew that the bible was shite. It was all shite.
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Permalink Reply by Donald B. ZEPP on -
Even as a very young kid, I was a biologist (by the time I was 8, I had decided to get my Ph.D. in entomology). The whole "Noah's Arc" thing was far beyond my willing suspension of disbelief, and the older I got the less plausible any of the pat stories seemed.
My parents were quite active in various Protestant churches, so I kept quiet while I lived with them, but I can really say I lost faith at the age of reason.
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Permalink Reply by Robert Fleming on -
When I was 7 or 8 it occurred to me that Santa Clause could not possibly visit all the houses in the world in one night. I said to my grandmother, “Santa Clause is not real is he?” She replied that he is not. I asked, “The Easter Bunny is not real either is he?” She said no he is not. I asked, “God is not real either is he?” She said he was real, but the claims for God were even sillier than those for Santa and the Easter Bunny so I never believed in God again. I was openly atheistic in school with friends and teachers as well as my family from at least grade 6 onward.
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Permalink Reply by Scott Muri on -
Maynard James Keenan.
The song "Judith" by A Perfect Circle came out at a particularly rough time in my life. I considered myself a Christian at the time, but really knew nothing about "my faith" having never read the bible. While the song is about Keenan's mother, a fundamentalist who was paralyzed by a stroke, the lyrics resonated with me:
F*ck your God
Your Lord and your Christ
He did this
Took all you had and
Left you this way
Still you pray, you never stray
Never taste of the fruit
You never thought to question why
It's not like you killed someone
It's not like you drove a hateful spear into his side
Praise the one who left you
Broken down and paralyzed
He did it all for you
It was like he was singing to me. I can't say I became an Atheist that day, but after a few sitting with that song, I began to "pursue other avenues".
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