When did you stop believing?

soydios77 · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 12:52 pm Post subject:

I was 12 when I first dropped religion and gods, was agnostic til about 25, more agnostic atheist since, 30 now.

Tornado_Creator · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:16 pm Post subject:

Been atheist since I can remember, which is about 4-5 years old. I don't ever remember believing in God and I remember getting into a lot of trouble at school because of it but my parents either didn't know or didn't care. They did however right "Christian" on my census forms until I had a blazing row with my mum for daring to tell me what I believe or what my brother and sister believed. After 3 hours she finally put "Atheist" for me and "None" for the other two because when I asked them "Do you believe in God and follow the teachings of Jesus" they said "no" and I told my mum that it meant so much to me that she doesn't put some stupid lie on the form that I would report it as willingly lying on a government document (I was 8 years old at the time), she knew I wouldn't but it didn't matter, she realised then how important it was to me.... most of my family don't care, about 1/3 are either too stupid, lazy or both to even think about it and honestly that bothers me just as much as them being devoutly religious.
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Spideynw · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 4:36 pm Post subject:

I was 28 when I gave up religion for good.
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icarusi · Visitor Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 2 Local time: 10:21 PM

I was agnostic for a long time when I saw a TV programme based on a History Encyclopedia summing up all the major world religions in less than 30 minutes. Handily it related them all together so it was fairly obvious if one was faulty then they all were. None can bear close examination and are riddled with basic illogicalities. It was a good metaphor, all world religions = less than 30 minutes.

I'm confident that if there is anything 'over and above us' it's more wierd than *anything* I've seen described so far and just as likely will have no idea of me as an individual, just as I have of the microbes I currently host.

I'm still interested in the books, and what people believe, especially the origins and where the edits, re-writes and exclusions happened and for what reasons. It suprises me, although it shouldn't, that most religious types don't know the origins or history of their own books. I don't know if it's deliberate or accidental but I don't go out of my way to debate the details, just occasionally ask which book 'version' they may be quoting from.

ApostateLois · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject:

I was about 30 when it occurred to me that nothing bad happened if I didn't study the Bible, go to church, etc. And I began to REALLY study the Bible and started noticing things that I hadn't before, things they didn't teach me in church, and it didn't take long after that to just give up on Christianity entirely. I guess it's like believing in Santa--one day, you're convinced he really does eat the cookies and milk that you put out for him, and the next day someone tells you the truth and you put it behind you because that's what big boys and girls do.
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runlikehell · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:06 pm Post subject:

Five years ago- when I was 12. It was weird. Around that time I felt like all of a sudden I was thinking consciously. It was like I had been an automaton up until then. I was still a rather devout Mennonite, but my newfound brains meant that that situation couldn't last long. I read a book, it wasn't about religion at all actually, but it had a chapter about the origins of belief and superstitions. It made me think about how religions through history had evolved, and that even my Christianity had ultimately come from a folk religion of a tribe in the middle east with genocidal tendencies (not to single them out; everyone back then was a little homicidal). If my religion was right, how could I explain that it had changed so much throughout history, and that the changes were all human-caused? Religion doesn't last long under that kind of scrutiny.
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baddogma · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:48 pm Post subject:

I've stopped believing in not believing.
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coloringzebras · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 5:07 am Post subject:

StrawDog · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2008 8:02 am Post subject:

It was a gradual process for me, as my critical thinking skills developed.
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binary_finary · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:33 pm Post subject:

I pretty much never believed in "God".

My parents bought me up Christian in a sense. I was christened (CofE) and went to a primary school (ages 5-11 for all you non-UK people) were every assembly was "religious".

The headmaster was a kind and good man, and used to give assembly's in the most amazing detail, once in floods of laughter telling us about how Jesus made his bed!

However, I knew even then it was all not true and made this clear to my parents. In fact, I remember once getting shouted at by my Mum and Dad (ironic as you'll see), for saying I'd made "a joke about a prayer", albiet a very purile childish one no doubt.

My Dad however is now a staunch atheist as is my sister. My mum still partly believes due to her Nana whom she loved dearly and always taught her about "God" in a good light (as in a forgiving, loving Christian god). She finds my views on atheism and it's blatent correlation with science interesting in a way and hates all fundamentalist Christian groups, saying that beliefs such as Homosexuality being wrong and Young Earth Creationism, are in massive conflict with her views of God. Quite nice in that sense but I still feel a bit bad if ever I talk about my strong anti-religion views to her.

Tormentor · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject:

I didn't say out loud that i didn't believe in god until i was 13, but I never cared about god. The memories i do have of believing were all actually that the only reason i wanted to serve god was so he wouldn't torture me, that later evolved in to "i don't care what god does to me as long as I don't have to listen to idiots teach me about him" this naturally transformed in to the final stage; "Who's god again?"

Hit_me_up024 · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:56 pm Post subject:

after i masturbated
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DarkMassacre · Visitor Joined: 01 Jun 2008 Posts: 18 Local time: 10:21 PM

I wasn't raised in an overly religious household but I did believe in God for a long time. My parents told me a bit about him, I went to church I don't remember how many times with a Kindergarten class and learned about how God created the Earth and such. I didn't go again til many years later because my dad wanted to go. I really don't remember anything about that day besides not liking it. Still, I believed in God though because my parents told me about him and they had to be right... right? The people who didn't believe in God were morons, just like the people who didn't believe in Santa Claus. Well I got older and realized myself that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were all fabrications, but I continued to believe in God, possibly because I was an idiot. I think it was around middle school when I started questioning his existence. Some things just didn't make sense, like God having always been, but not being created by anything. Well in High School I found many many more flaws in the Good Book and my faith started fading. Around 16 or 17 I realized it was all bullshit and became agnostic. It was in the past several months that I really began considering myself an atheist, because I just don't believe in God at all anymore, and I severely lack belief that any omnipotent beings hang around in the sky.

Raskolnikov · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 11:45 pm Post subject:

I was 8 years old. I had just gotten into my first debate about God (with my grandfather no less) He basically owned all my arguments (all of which came from my father's side of the family which spoon-fed me jesus every chance they got) and logic prevailed. To tell you the truth I stopped believing in God about the same time I stopped believing in santa claus Embarassed

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Júpiter Maçã · Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 12:14 am Post subject:

I think I was about 9.

Can't remember why I stop believing. Probably because of a cousin who told me Santa doesn't exist.

After that I developed a critical thinking about creatures with superpowers.
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