When did you stop believing in god?

[SocialNumb]

Damn Christians!

I never really gave it much thought till my teens. My grandmother was loosely Catholic, sunday church, a few prayers, and the fear was about the extent of her religion. My mom got sucked into that of course and the fear was instilled as usually is the case. Luckily, for me, my mom didn't have time for religion and as a kid I just thought I was a Catholic and really didn't comprehend what that meant till my teens. (for lack of giving a shit really) I didn't worshiped "God" and never have. We where just Catholic, just because, in my mind.

Needless to say, I did eventually think about it and read the silly book. I pretty much laughed my way through it, when I wasn't crying from boredom reading about who begat who and or what. How anyone could read that thing and say to themselves "Yeah, that sounds about right. Amen!" is beyond me. Let alone that it came from a superior being when it reads like drunken goat fuckers came up with it.

I guess I was a non-practicing, not giving a shit Catholic because I was a damn infant when my Grandmother decided I was going to be Catholic, who grew up not caring or thinking about a God, who eventually thought about it and laughed at the concept, while teaching my mother how ridiculous it all is and successfully talking her out of the whole religion thing. She still believes in a "God" of some sort but that's alright with me.

 

[DanLights]

I think I finally came to the conclusion it just wasn't logically possible at 11/12 or so, my parents are very religious and they always raised me to pray, to thank god, etc. but I got to a point where I had enough of a brain to realise it's all bullshit, and in that process had quite a few awkward moments with my parents, they would say such ridiculous things that my brother and I would look at each other like saying "these people are hopeless".

I hope this thread is only for non-believers, we've had plenty of religious discussion threads and I don't think this is one of them.

 

[DanLights]

Damn Christians!

I never really gave it much thought till my teens. My grandmother was loosely Catholic, sunday church, a few prayers, and the fear was about the extent of her religion. My mom got sucked into that of course and the fear was instilled as usually is the case. Luckily, for me, my mom didn't have time for religion and as a kid I just thought I was a Catholic and really didn't comprehend what that meant till my teens. (for lack of giving a shit really) I didn't worshiped "God" and never have. We where just Catholic, just because, in my mind.

Needless to say, I did eventually think about it and read the silly book. I pretty much laughed my way through it, when I wasn't crying from boredom reading about who begat who and or what. How anyone could read that thing and say to themselves "Yeah, that sounds about right. Amen!" is beyond me. Let alone that it came from a superior being when it reads like drunken goat fuckers came up with it.

I guess I was a non-practicing, not giving a shit Catholic because I was a damn infant when my Grandmother decided I was going to be Catholic, who grew up not caring or thinking about a God, who eventually thought about it and laughed at the concept, while teaching my mother how ridiculous it all is and successfully talking her out of the whole religion thing. She still believes in a "God" of some sort but that's alright with me.

LOL at the silly book, honestly, who can think that thing is a source of morality and written by an infinitely wisdom being?

I always get frustrated at people who say "the church sucks but I still believe in MY PERSONAL god", like just because YOU believe in YOUR god which coincidentally has the same tastes, morals, and makes the same decisions as you is going to make him real, just because you have a desperate need to make it real in order to not feel the world is a real jungle out there. Because it is, and IMO it's much easier to handle when you acknowledge life for the untamed jungle it really is and try to live a good life based on that (I'm an honest guy who tries to live to my personal morals, don't steal, hard worker, try to be nice most of the time, etc.).

Rant directed at nobody in particular and not meant to hurt any sensitive vaginas

 

[ArthurD]

Well i never stopped..

+1

 

[blue_fAng]

I think I was 12 when I told my parents I don't believe in all that. Thankfully they understood my decision. Actually I can't say I ever believed and I thought this was something that everyone should do, like finish school so I just followed the flock, until I realized that having a religion is not mandatory in life.

It's not common to see a non-believer in where I live, many people think I am weird for not believing in god even some say I am going to hell...seriously? It's okay to believe what you believe, god, godesses, the tomato monster, whatever. I'll respect everyone's beliefs but I don't like brain washing.

 

[JamieK]

I stopped believing when I was around 14-15. I was never super religious (nor is anyone in my family), but a few close friends when I was younger came from families that were quite religious, so I kinda just went along with it, not really thinking too much about it. I was most religious from about 10-13, mostly because there weren't any good places to hang out in my area, and this baptist church had a youth-club thing every Friday (which was actually pretty cool cus the people that ran it were awesome and would let us skateboard on the church grounds), and that was pretty much the only time I could hang out with my friends outside of school (I lived pretty far away from them all). When I stopped going to the youth club and as I grew older, I started to really think about God and religion, my beliefs totally changed. I remember thinking 'Why is everyone praising this God when he's doing such a terrible job? What about all the poverty and suffering in the world?' and then I was like 'Ohhhhh, there is no God, that's why there's poverty and suffering...'. And just like that I was atheist.

I don't think there are many people that can say they never believed in God (unless they were brought up as an atheist). I think when you're really young you believe in God in the same way that you believe in Santa. It's only when you get older that you start thinking 'hang on, Santa couldn't possibly visit every child in the world in one night... WAIT A GODDAMN SECOND!'. I see God as the adult version of Santa, in other words, be good and you'll get rewarded etc. It's just that a lot of people still believe in God and religion, and haven't realised it's nothing more than a way to control behaviour.

 

[John_C]

Mildly interesting:

My mum was raised catholic and then when she was 17 (1972), realised that the church did not see women as equals and actually went to the seafront at Brighton, took of her crucifix and threw it in to the sea.

I swear that's the sort of thing that only movie people do

 

[John_C]

Born and raised Catholic but with what I would describe as socially liberal parents, a fact that eventually led to my mom having a fierce disagreement with my uncle (an ordained Catholic priest) over contraception and her eventual split from Catholicism. While young, I went to church weekly with my mother and siblings (my father was not a practicing Catholic despite the fact that it was his brother that is a priest), went through catechism. had my first communion and all the standard stuff that went along with being raised in a generally extended Catholic family.

As stated however, my parents have always been social liberals and always made clear to my siblings and me that we could choose to be religious or not, they wanted us to experience some of it before deciding, but in the end it was up to us. They also were extremely honest with us where their opinions broke from church doctrine. All three of us were given the option of attending public schools or Catholic School - my older brother attended Catholic schools his entire life and was perfectly happy with it, my sister (also older) tried Catholic schools on and off throughout her education but felt most comfortable in public schools. Me? I went to public schools by choice my entire life. The key point was our parents gave us the choice.

I cannot say that I'm entirely comfortable calling myself an atheist, but also the term agnostic does not really fit - I just don't worry about it. While I'm comfortable in saying I definitely don't believe in some puppet master in the sky with the promise of salvation in the garden of heaven nor the damnation of hell, I'd be lying if I was to say that some of the teachings that came from being involved with a religion in my early years have not impacted the standards I try to hold myself to. Generally I try to live what I'll call a just life - doing as little harm to others and accepting the things that make us different all with the knowledge that free will exists in us all and with free will comes those that make both good and bad choices, and all choices have repercussions both bad and good.

I'm a firm believer that organized religion is a dividing factor in society as a whole and as such I find no use for it. Given all that has formed my feelings on the subject I readily admit that I also believe extremism in any form is probably just as destructive and as such I'm just as critical of anyone trying to force a viewpoint upon others even if I may agree with it - forced belief is just as bad as blind faith.

While most would tell me I'm an atheist, perhaps I am, I just accept that others are not and I will never live to see a world free from the extremism of religions belief.

The last thing I ever want to be is one of those types that tell others to believe as I do - I'll tell them I disagree, I'll tell them why, I'll infer what I feel is the wrongness in their stance, but they need to come to the conclusion on their own as I did - for themselves.

Dude, you just fucking owned it! Great post.

 

[delayshifter]

Well i never stopped..

+1

 

[xFkx]

+1

pardon my question, but isn't atheism in Indonesia somewhat "illegal" ?

 

[UncleBob]

"the church sucks but I still believe in MY PERSONAL god"

This one kind of bothers me, when people say: "well, to me God means xyz"

God is the name given to what's commonly believed to be a man-thing, with a beard, who lives up there in a place called heaven, he made everything and he will rape you if you step out of line.....but he still loves you.

When people start saying to them God means everlasting love, or God is the universe, or god is the life force in everything then it just comes across a bit bizarre, like calling your car a teacup because for you it makes it easier to buy into.

 

[ratsapprentice]

Not really, God is just a term for a deity. The Christian God has many names, Yahweh etc.

 

[SocialNumb]

Ah the personal "God" thing. hahaha.

What kills me is people who hate religion/churches/institutes but claim to KNOW for a FACT that there is a "God". Of course when I ask said people to please define this "God" they're all over the place and can't agree amongst each other who or what this "factual" "God" is. Further more, they can't for the life of them provide any evidence at all. This goes for all supernatural claims as well. Usually the discussion ends in said people calling me a faggot and piece of shit who should take my gun and blow my own head off so I could do everyone a favor. :Spin:

 

[delayshifter]

pardon my question, but isn't atheism in Indonesia somewhat "illegal" ?

no worries buddy

yes, in Indonesia atheism is illegal because our first philosophical foundation is "Belief in the one and only God" (made by goverment)

but that doesnt mean atheism doesnt exist in Indonesia. There several people that believe God doesnt exist but they didnt show it publicly, at least one of my friend state that she's an atheist although in her identity her religion is Christian

 

[meanmrmustad]

Who or what came up with the rules of physics?
I just can't imagine everything being completely random what would be the point?
the whole universe could not exist and I don't adhere to any religion or anything but i can't picture there being nothing above what we see,

Also, how do I know this isn't just a dream and everything/everyone is just an illusion?
I can't physically put myself in anyone else's place so how do I know life doesn't just revolve around me...
am I a deity because i only see my arms and legs? If I die will I awake? Why do I like coke zero more than regular coke?

Life's mysteries...will forever something something deep yadda yadda

 

[botus99]

Wow, this thread confirms my belief that I'm a little slow. Took me til 21 or so.

Went to Catholic school ages 5-18 (yup high school too) quite devout throughout (*shudder* that rhyme just came out of me)
Went to community college and started smoking pot, drinking, fucking, cow tipping, jumping off buildings, blowing up porta-potties, living... the whole shebang

What REALLY made me lose faith, was to actually read the Bible. I've read the Bible 3 times, each in different writing versions. Each time I read it, I feel more disgusted about what I let crawl around in my brain for 21 years

 

[colonel kurtz]

i'm like many other who have posted in this thread...i was raised mormon, and for as long as i can remember - even being 4/5 years old, thought it was a bunch of bullshit

then when i was 7 my little brother was hit by a car and killed, and my mom tried telling me it was god's will/plan/whatever...and i decided then that if god does exist, he's just an asshole

What kills me is people who hate religion/churches/institutes but claim to KNOW for a FACT that there is a "God".

well when you boil it down, even the common scientific/atheistic belief that the universe was created by a super-compressed ball of matter that exploded and spread out beyond eternity, the fact still exists that the previously mentioned ball of matter came from somewhere.

everything came from something...nothing creates it self, so there has to be some form of a "god" that does/did exist somewhere at some point, but i doubt it's some sentient/omniscient/judgmental creature that created everything only to see if we'll pass his litmus test of ass kissing, and condemn us to the hell that he created, overseen by the evil overlord who he also created, if we don't follow every word in his watered-down book of bullshit.

 

[drew_drummer]

i was raised mormon

 

[drew_drummer]

no worries buddy

yes, in Indonesia atheism is illegal because our first philosophical foundation is "Belief in the one and only God" (made by goverment)

This is exactly why atheism needs to be talked about, debated, and spread around the world. Those people who say "why do you always have to talk about religion" to me are missing the point. Because of religion, freedom of expression and the freedom to not believe is not a worldly right, no matter how much the pot-smoking asshole liberals want to believe that everything is fine now.

 

[Jind]

This one kind of bothers me, when people say: "well, to me God means xyz"

God is the name given to what's commonly believed to be a man-thing, with a beard, who lives up there in a place called heaven, he made everything and he will rape you if you step out of line.....but he still loves you.

When people start saying to them God means everlasting love, or God is the universe, or god is the life force in everything then it just comes across a bit bizarre, like calling your car a teacup because for you it makes it easier to buy into.

Perhaps in some religions, but throughout history there have been many deities of which some had beards, some were women, some men, some held tridents, some were animals, some were nature spirits, ... need I continue?

It really is a modern construct that there is a singular god and while that may seem quaint even in this monotheistic world we find ourselves in - those religions of one god still can't really agree on what he looks like, whom its prophets are, or if he had any children

I have absolutely zero problem with those with honest faith (given faith does not become extremism) - just don't ask me to have the same faith simply because I should. I do have faith - it's just in the people I love and those that love me, but even that can be lost just as spiritual faith comes and goes in some.