Why did YOU start to lose faith?

[Insult to Rocks]

I know some of the people here were raised as atheists, so this obviously isn't directed at them. What I'm interested in is, for the people who were raised religious, was there anything in particular that first made you doubt your religion?  It's a subject I've always found to be interesting when discussing it with atheist friends of mine.
For me, it was studying history, particularly World War 2. Seeing the atrocities committed in the name of religion, by the Japanese in particular, really shook me. What I remember the most is seeing footage of local families flinging themselves off the cliffs on Saipan. Of all the suicide stories from the pacific war, that was the one that stuck with me the most, and it was a pretty huge factor in making me doubt my Catholic upbringing. It wasn't religion specifically that caused them to jump, but that devotion and unthinking obedience to authority that is characteristic of religion that does.
Here's the video: (warning, it's graphic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDUy0uzmaU4

[barbarian]

I started to apply logical thinking in my life during my teenage years and how the religious teaching I had to suffer and endure through wasn't adding up.

[Krisyork2008]

Although I was raised secularly, and religion was never even talked about in my household, I still was exposed to religion as many of my friends growing up came from religious families. It became something that I was so unsure about, I ended classifying myself as an agnostic until I was about 17.

I remember at one point when I was 14 or 15, something was going on with my body and I was freaking out about it, so for the first and only time in my life I prayed. I prayed for this thing to be fixed and that I'd never ask for anything again, yadda yadda. Obviously nothing happened, and upon a doctor's visit it turns out there was never anything wrong with me I was just going through puberty.

After that I kept the term agnostic, never really knowing what it meant, and watching my friends and their lifestyles to see if their belief might be right. Eventually I started to do some research and read the bible, and around that point I was also informed of the true meaning of atheist and agnostic, and finally took on the title atheist.

I look back now and realize, even though I prayed that one time, I never truly believed in god. That was a desperate attempt to get some help without violating my own privacy. I didn't want to tell anyone what was going on, but it turns out the good doctor had an answer ready and waiting.

[GrinningYMIR]

I got curious

I researched, I questioned. I denied and finally found peace.

Because I don't believe, I was brought contentment, odd isn't it?



The long version is that I began to question things, and I began to wonder why God didn't do much considering the sorry state of the world. I looked at religious fanatics and I hated them. I abandoned religion when I was young, as I've always hated someone pushing shit on me. And I stopped believing years ago.

[Krabman]

During my childhood, I had never practiced religion by going to church. My protestant family hadn't pushed a strict religious lifestyle so I wasn't severely "brainwashed". The bible intrigued me, yet it always conflicted with what I was taught in school. However, its structure and mysterious choice of words captivated my full attention. Whenever there was turmoil in my life, I prayed; it was what I was taught to do. Fortunately, there were occasions where I did not pray and situations continued to conclude in my favor. I realized that praying was meaningless, and instead I was in control of my life. I began doubting God and did research. After a month of nonstop research (it took a toll on my grades!) I began claiming atheism. I chose metaphysical naturalism as my philosophy of choice and have been happy ever since.  Definitely, one of the best decisions I have ever made.

[Cocoa Beware]

The irreconcilable ethical problems of Christianity became more and more obvious once I took an interest in learning about them.

Problem of Hell, problem of evil etc. To worship a god who only obeys his own rules when it suits him doesn't make much sense.

Too many unmistakably human characteristics, I imagine that whoever came up with the idea figured god ought to resemble the Pharaohs or Warlords of the time, except one that cannot die or change. (Yahweh)

The whole thing seems like one big mistake. Sometimes the past needs to stay in the past.

Edit: Great subject by the way

[Shiranu]

I was a fundamentalist and went to a private school where we were taught the world was 6000 years old and evolution was a lie. Once I began to explore the internet and went to public school, I realized that was bullshit and started to wonder how much else of Christianity was a lie and found that almost all of it was rubbish.

[barbarian]

Although I was raised secularly, and religion was never even talked about in my household, I still was exposed to religion as many of my friends growing up came from religious families. It became something that I was so unsure about, I ended classifying myself as an agnostic until I was about 17.

I remember at one point when I was 14 or 15, something was going on with my body and I was freaking out about it, so for the first and only time in my life I prayed. I prayed for this thing to be fixed and that I'd never ask for anything again, yadda yadda. Obviously nothing happened, and upon a doctor's visit it turns out there was never anything wrong with me I was just going through puberty.

After that I kept the term agnostic, never really knowing what it meant, and watching my friends and their lifestyles to see if their belief might be right. Eventually I started to do some research and read the bible, and around that point I was also informed of the true meaning of atheist and agnostic, and finally took on the title atheist.

I look back now and realize, even though I prayed that one time, I never truly believed in god. That was a desperate attempt to get some help without violating my own privacy. I didn't want to tell anyone what was going on, but it turns out the good doctor had an answer ready and waiting.

See now, I didn't even know what not believing in a god was called other than devil worshiping according to my dad. I didn't go out and try to find out what something was called either. It was defined by someone that should have known better and actually took the time to explain what exactly my point of view I shared with them was in not believing in a god. Instead it was another tool of his religion to try to strike fear of something into me in getting me to follow the bullshit of his definition of god. It wasn't until my early 20's that I found out it actually wasn't devil worshiping but actually called atheism. To add I never did some weird devil worshiping shit either, ever, as I found that to be as silly as praying to god.

Though I really didn't care to research what it was called at this point in my life, if someone would have said agnostic or atheist to me I would have most likely chalked it up as some type of occult anyways. I really didn't care what people had to say about anything to do with belief, which knowing myself would have just figured it is just another angle to throw bullshit against the wall and when it stuck saying see what you believe in? My dad really had his views that always seemed to trump all.

[stromboli]

Science.

[PickelledEggs]

I was in highschool gym class making fun of scientology because of some tv special. I said something about how scientology wasn't a real religion. and my friend looked at me and said, what makes your religion any more real than scientology?

I thought about that question for days and weeks. Also I always faked sick so I could stay home and watch tv. But after I heard that question, I noticed that I started watching history channel specials on cults. I started to not notice a difference.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I started just by asking questions.  After witnessing the Revolution in Iran, I realized that so much of life is complete happenstance and that there is no guiding hand.

I went through a few years of mysticism, trying to hang onto my magical thinking, but having received a decent education in critical thinking, I eventually applied reason to all the aspects of my life and abandoned any form of magical thinking which made me the center of the world, be it Protestantism or New Age bullshit.

But at root, it was the Problem of Evil which started the erosion of my faith.

[Mister Agenda]

I read the Bible.

[Solitary]

Thanks for the video! A good example of why following blindly authority, or culture and tradition is evil. So sad what mankind inhumanly does to others believing they Know without a doubt when all they have is ignorance from an higher authority not believing in themselves.  :roll:    Solitary

[Poison Tree]

My sophomore year in high school (14/15 years old) I started taking baptismal class and the more I learned the more I kept thinking "When I tell people I'm a Christian I'm saying that I believe that? I need to believe what in order to be an SDA?" I decided that, instead of finishing the class and getting baptized, I better actually read the bible--not just the sermon on the mount and the ten commandments, but the whole damn thing. The more I read the more I doubted--which, I can tell you, I was not very happy about at first. That's how I started to lose faith, but it took something like 7-10 years to finish loosing it.

[SGOS]

There were many reasons, most revolving around the parts of Christianity that make no sense.  There was also no evidence for a god that struck me as credible.  Then there was this bitter hateful Christian fundamentalist woman that lived a life unbecoming to the Christian image.  She cackled over how everyone else would burn in Hell.  She made an odd impression that had a strange effect.  That should not have made a difference in my search for truth.  Actually, it didn't have to since there was so much else about the stuff that didn't make sense.  Then of course, there were other religions, most of them claiming all the other religions were wrong, even Christians claiming other Christians were wrong.  It made my head hurt.  The simplest explanation seemed to be that the whole thing was just made up, and everyone was tweaking it to fit their personal needs and desires.