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If you were once religious, why are you not now?

Admin 9 June 19
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122 comments (101 - 122)

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I was raised Catholic but by non-traditional parents who instilled in me the freedom to choose. I spent most of my free time reading about Buddhism, Mythology, and History. I was also raised in an area of New York where I was invited to attend services that were Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and so on. There was no distinction or prejudice when it came to religion. As a result, education and exposure led me to question and questions led me to science.

Quote: " The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge." ~ Thomas Berger

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I was raised in Zimbabwe, Africa. We were colonized by the British and as a result almost all Zimbabweans are Christians. Zimbabwean children are never given a choice on whether or not to choose to be religious, it is something you don't question, but even at a very early age I had so many questions about religion that no one could answer. I continued to be religious until about 4 years ago when I was with an atheist and she just really pushed my thinking and helped me break free. Walking away from religion has been one of the most freeing things I've ever done for myself, next to coming out as a lesbian. Life is so much better when we can break the bondage of societal expectations and just become ourselves.

Ruetres--- I lived in Zimbabwe from 1979-1983 -- worked at ZTV in news! My son was born there! Quite familiar withe the whole Christian thing in many parts of Africa and always wondered why so many people continue to be fanatical about a religion foisted on them by colonialists. Anyway I am also gay and out of religion. Glad to meet you!

So sad that white Christians went around colonizing the world with their fairy tale. Some of the strongest faith “Christians” are the worst racists and bigots. White Evangelicals in the US. So backward and moronic

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I may had been indoctrinated but not religious.

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Being raised Roman catholic... religion was forced on me, fortunately faith never took root on me, often wondered why... “prayed” for faith... never arrived.
... and I lived happily ever after... sorta.

Tomas Level 7 Dec 18, 2017
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I've always been an academic, so I treated my religion the same way I treat everything else - something I needed to study in depth. I was interested in pursuing truth. That pursuit eventually led me out of religion.

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It was only once I found out there was another option. My whole life I was told there was a god and we went to church a lot. It never occurred to me that it might not be true even though I hated it all. Then once I moved to college and no one was forcing me to go to church it was real easy to get away, intellectually speaking. We're all born atheist; it is our natural state.

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I was once a fundamentalist Jesus freak but very gradually the light dawned. Religion cannot handle the knotty stuff, particularly sexuality. After intense private bible study, I also found that the originals are not as black and white as English would make out. There are actually so many shades of grey, the rest is opinion. While a bible might have some good ideas, I do not need to consult ancient texts to decide on what is important to me. Even if those texts were true, why should anyone follow customs of 2000 years ago made for people of a different country and upbringing to mine? Maybe those ideas were okay for the time but I think that humanity has evolved considerably since then and in the light of modern scientific knowledge it brings into question many of the events and particularly the supposed 'miracles' of another age. I often think that if I could take a microwave oven back to the people of 2000 years ago that its uses would also be considered amongst the miraculous.

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Lots of constant research and reading, a lot of where my conclusion came rom was simply from reading the Bible. I realized that I disagreed with many, many points the Bible includes and all of the supernatural stories. I also attended many church services to get the Christian point fi view. A lot of services with the topic along the lines of 'Why We Believe What We Believe." Once I did all of these things for a long period of time I just rationalized with myself that believing that there is an invisible man in the sky who can create miracles and has a list of things you're not allowed to do that you will go to an after life known as hell, and suffer for eternal life was absolutely ridiculous. It is difficult to come to the end conclusion of Atheism in some ways but in others all it requires is logic and rational thinking, but you have to have an open mind. You can't just shut out everything else that you believe to be incorrect.

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The more into science I became, the more questions I had about christian teachings. They didn't make sense. And, it was clear that they taught lots of things they didn't actually follow. I got tired of it.

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Exposed to the truth

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I reconsidered when I was in college and learned more about the moral theology of Catholicism. Once I started questioning whether I agreed with the reasoning behind those ethics, I started to question other things, like the divinity of Jesus, and knowing some church history came in handy in terms of all of the human-guided things that led to official church doctrine, which books of the Bible were selected, etc. And slowly that doubt rippled outward until I was questioning why I believed in God, or what arguments existed for and against, and a 109-level philosophy course actually helped me significantly in that regard. For a while I stuck with the notion that I was agnostic, but that wasn't fully accurate, and eventually I realized that I'm an atheist and that I don't need outright proof to not believe in faith claims and that I'm clearly anti-theistic regarding some specific claims.

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Was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school. I don't recall ever believing, it was just something that was. Parents sent me but I never had any feeling of faith that I can remember.

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I was raised in the Methodist Church and spent years searching for my 'place' in it all. Prayers seemed to be a waste of time as I never saw the 'answer' others raved over. I never felt as though I belonged there even though I did everything from teach Sunday School to actually filling the pulpit. Finally, I had something of an awakening. I saw an article on Shamanic Journeys. I researched and went on my own bit of a 'journey'. The result was that I cherish nature..plain and simple. I believe that all creatures, whether animal, plant or human, deserve respect and care. That is the basis for my spiritualism. It is completely personal for me and it works perfectly for me. I am, at last, at peace. IF there is a god or gods out there, I am comfortable that I am living a good life and respecting what shares this space with me.

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I developed critical thinking skills.

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The short version is as an alter boy, a strong believer, and a nightly prayer person at the age of 16 I was struck by a pickup truck whilst driving a scooter without a helmet and my mind opened! I was in a 7-day coma and awoke during brain surgery (surprising the doctor and making a nurse faint). Answers to all my doubting of scripture and every sermon Father Kevin gave (we'd sometimes argue in his chambers about meaning versus interpretation) were somehow answered in that week. But also, more questions arose. Living in Argentina at the time, and learning Italian at school, I delved into the oldest texts the castle-like local library stocked (and found notes from Italian explorers 1000's of years old exposing the lies), in many languages, including German. I filled my mind with so much fact, the Fiction of Religion no longer affected me. And yet, I can still see the function it plays in our society.
Okay, so I gave you the semi-long version, but in my defense, I have so much stored information upstairs it's bursting to come out! Thanks for reading!

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I was fortunate in that I found reason before religion took a hold, so I can happily say that I was never really religious.

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I was born into a Mormon family. Hald my siblings are still Mormon.

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I was raised a Catholic. Then I attended Christopher Columbus High School for boys. It's a religious school. The school is run by brothers. As part of my attending not only was I required to attend church they had on the premises but my parents wanted my to get confirmed and also students were required to take religion class. I was 14 and had always been a freethinker so I started asking questions about what I was hearing but only to myself. That's what started my understanding that I can only rely on myself, that there is no higher power controlling my destiny.

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I could no longer accept the shite apologetics used to justify slavery and the mistreatment of women as any sense of "moral" or "ethical". I found a concordance bible and Strong's Dictionary and went looking into the claims of "mistranslation" and "context" for myself and there was nothing to support that it didn't say the horrible things it did. Once omnibenevolence was removed, the acceptance of creationism and other bullshit claims became more apparent in their fallacies. I started looking into the rest of it and was irritated with myself that it had all been a five minute google search away the whole time.

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you have been raised with a religous belief....and... one day you start thinking with your head.

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Because of the internet, I allowed myself to ponder the possibility of no god.

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Because I haven't seen other option, the family and other people made me religious

Vin Level 1 Sep 29, 2017
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