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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?

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Permalink Reply by Rachel Riley on Friday

I have a friend who is pagan, who admits to being irrational. But it makes her feel good, so it's okay for her to believe in it. I love her, but I admit to staring at her for a whole five minutes in silence.

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on Saturday

Rachel, when I define the word rational as economists do, as referring to the benefits and costs that result from a choice, the only rationality I see in religion, especially xianity, is the kind that prevails in a dominant/submissive relationship.

One day about thirty years ago when I was still in transition, after a talk by a retired college professor I remarked that I wasn't comfortable with the superior/inferior aspect of xianity. His reply shocked me; he said "That's what I like about it."

Your pagan friend might be more rational than she knows.

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Permalink Reply by Debra Stevenson on Saturday

Tom,

That professor sounds like a digusting man! He likes the 'superior' and 'inferior' aspects of fundamentalist Christianity. What a demented bastard! He shouldn't be fit to teach in a college. He isn't superior to anyone else and nobody is 'inferior' to him. So it sounds like he needs to pull that stick out of his ass.

Brandi Amari Williams

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Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on September 15, 2009 at 6:53am

Woot! Glad your free of the woo nonsense. I hope you get the best, easiest-to-live-with depression and anxiety treatment imaginable :) (Oh, and I hope it's affordable too!)

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Permalink Reply by Luke on August 1, 2009 at 9:28am

I've never had any serious doubts about religion being absolute bullshit.
God probably got the boot the same day as Santa and the Easter Bunny.

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Permalink Reply by Starscream on August 1, 2009 at 12:14pm

I did believe when i was younger, but yeah, santa and the easter bunny raised the initial question marks on god.

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Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on September 15, 2009 at 6:54am

Maybe that's why my Christian parents never told me about Santa or the bunny...

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Permalink Reply by Rusty Gunn. on September 15, 2009 at 9:13pm

I was introduced to a heavy dose of religion when I was about 12 yrs. old vis-a-vis the American Baptist church. What I got from it mostly was how "unworthy" of "God's love" I was. Oh, I tried my damndest to be a good Christian, rededitcating my life to Christ on several occasions. However, shortly after leaving home and joining the USAF the serious doubts started to creep in (the DEVIL doing his dirty work, no doubt!!). After a few years I became an agnostic and a few decades later it hit home, "Hey, I don't believe ANY of that shit!". So today, I'm an atheist and I'll most likely remain one until they stick my carcass in a box an drop it into the ground!

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Permalink Reply by It's just Matt on August 1, 2009 at 9:53am

I was a skeptic child growing up despite being in Christian schools until I was 16. I barely recall an event my mother tells me every other Christmas. I was around 5 or 6 and asked her how could reindeer fly? No other non birds could fly...She said Santa feed them magic popcorn. I did not ask anything else, but I was not thoroughly convinced.

I never thought heaven and hell were real places, church bored me to no end, and the teachers never answered my questions without the usual "He works in mysterious ways bullshit." So the schools and churches made it quite easy for me since they were dumb as a brick.

It was not until last year though that I became an open, active, concerned atheist. After going through depression off and on for years, I ended up sending e-mails back and forth to a guy in Florida. When he was able to deduce my lack of self esteem just from letters on a screen, I knew I was not as bad off as I thought and started to download any book I could find. The first "atheist" books I read were " The Atheist Bible" and "Letter to a Christian Nation" which set me on my way to happiness. I stumbled upon Daniel Florien's Unreasonablefaith blog and he had a link for AtheistNexus, the rest as they say, is history.

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Permalink Reply by Louis on August 1, 2009 at 10:10am

The suffering of children first made me doubt.

Reading the bible sealed the deal.

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Permalink Reply by Louis on September 17, 2009 at 12:03pm

If could pin point the moment I started to question it was when I first saw that image of a starved African child with a distended belly and a vulture watching it.

I could not stop from asking, 'How could a loving god allow this?'

When I read the bible looking for an answer I found that not only did God allow it, but he even caused it and other horrible things to happen to children. From there it was a long painful spiral to rejecting the whole of religion -- all religion.

I share your contempt of the 'rapture' story. How could a loving god not only allow his creations, whom he supposedly loves, fall victim to a pit of endless suffering -- AND create that pit for them. It just doesn't make any fucking sense. God cannot be both vengeful and benevolent as the Book of Revelation tries to argue.