The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

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?

3 members like this

Attachments:

6a00d83451f25369e200e553b615af8834-800wi.jpg, 148 KB

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Erin Nomey on August 2, 2009 at 8:43am

I saw a show about the big bang theory on the science channel or something when I was in preschool. The next day one of the nuns asked me how the earth was made, and I guess I gave the wrong answer.... That's about when I started thinking they might be wrong.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on September 15, 2009 at 7:04am

Haha, I love that you were watching science shows in preschool :)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by beautifully barren on August 3, 2009 at 8:05am

I dont think I ever believed in jesus or the bible but my disbelief in god came after I read some material in high school that concerned language development and accounts of 'wild children' - including that of 'genie' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child).
I dont know why this did it for me but after studying what happens to children when they are kept isolated from other humans, I realised I no longer believed in god.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jezzy on August 4, 2009 at 11:49pm

I'm not sure what made me start to doubt. Even as religious as Utah is, I have a very special pocket of Atheist influence, and I'm sure that has helped. I just remember that it started as early as about 7th grade, and inconsistencies kept forming in my head...

Where I live, people surprisingly aren't insane about music. But an online buddy of mine got asked if he has ever been possessed by the devil because he was listening to Metallica.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on September 15, 2009 at 7:06am

The best way to get someone out of a cult is to get them physically OUT of the cult. Indoctrination works best when it's all encompassing.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by AcesLucky on August 9, 2009 at 1:39pm

While reading the bible I came across the phrase, "For I am a jealous god.."

And I was, like.... wha_? That was the first crack in the cosmic scat. Back then, even though I still believed in god, it just wasn't that one.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jennifer E. on August 16, 2009 at 12:10am

When I was in first grade my class at school did a big unit on dinosaurs. I remember asking my mother why dinosaurs weren't in the bible. I don't remember the answer she gave me, but it satisfied my six-year-old brain, for a while. However, for the rest of my school career, I had more and more trouble reconciling my knowledge with what the bible said. It didn't bother me too terribly much because my family was never fundamentalist or anything. But, eventually I started questioning why some things in the bible were apparently meant to be taken literally, while others were meant to be taken allegorically. Then, I started thinking about all the other religions in the world, past and present. The thought entered my head that religion was just something early humans invented to help them cope with and understand a world about which they knew very little. I know that many people before me had come to this conclusion, but it was a startling revelation when I finally made it for myself. However, I wasn't ready to completely let go for many years and just pushed the question of religion away and didn't do anything about it. And then I picked up God is Not Great at Barnes and Noble, and now here I am! Happily atheistic!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by OutlawGirl on August 22, 2009 at 1:32am

I think it was the realization that many people in America really, truly believe this shit (the Bible) to be inerrant and a literal reflection of reality, and then acted upon that belief. When I first heard of creationism I thought, "There is no way in hell people really believe this." It was like realizing that half of America believed in a flat earth.

The more I thought about all the bad things people have done in the name of religion and how religion has tried to skew science, the more I realized that I didn't want to be part of this bullshit anymore. I basicly became an atheist because I was sickened by the thought of being lumped in with these sick people. In the beginning it was a simple act of protest. As I learned more about atheism and the Bible (funny how becoming an atheist caused me to become more informed about religion), I found that the atheist perspective made much more sense than the theistic one. Now I have no doubts. There is no god, no heaven, no hell.

Feels good.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Athianarchist on August 22, 2009 at 11:54am

Yes, and I think even if every aspect of my Atheistic beliefs were some how negated, I will still be forever able to hold on to the utter hypocrisy of Christians as THE valid reason for non-belief...

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Louis on August 22, 2009 at 7:30pm

You know what else really helped me along?

Things like this:
Exodus 20:12
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Luke 14:26
If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

How is someone supposed to deal with that?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Angie Jackson on September 15, 2009 at 7:08am

Hah, mine was "Should I take an eye for an eye, or turn the other cheek?"

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carolyn Simpson on August 23, 2009 at 10:48am

I doubted religious teachings since I was a small child in christian Sunday school. I remember the teacher talking about our "soul" and how we go about getting into heaven. I asked her if dogs and cats had souls and went to heaven, she said "No". I also questioned her about natives in Africa and they were a no. I asked her how she knew that and don't remember her reply but it was not convincing. I questioned everything and was very skeptical.

However, it was when I went to the university at age 17 and took a course on philosophy which had a segment on world religions that I went "Aha". I have been an agnostic since then - similar to Carl Sagan. I have trouble with the words - I'm probably an atheist, but I don't know exactly how the world I know was created and until I do, I'm an agnostic.

Carolyn