A few of the nuns and teachers at my elementary parochial school. We weren't beaten, but they were awfully strict and belittling and didn't make life any easier on kids who already had a difficult time fitting in.

Inability to speak honestly. Fear of ostricization from cultish family.

My mother, a southern baptist christian, stealing and destroying my hard back copy of god is not Great when I was 46 years old. And pretty much disowned me over my choice not to believe in dogmatic false belief systems.

Having to listen to their hatred and violent outburst and not being able to do something about it

By the way, don't ever ask a nun about the Virgin Mary and artificial insemination. That really pisses them off. That happened in high school the year my mother forced me to go. Had to see the Mother Superior and the priest in charge of the boys was even bought in. Didn't go back to that school again.

Oh boy, that is so easy, going to a Spiritual event in Spokane, we were accosted by some religious fanatics, telling all the people attending they were evil and all going tobe burning forever in Hell, I merely quoted their very own Bible to them all the passages that got ME kicked out of Parochial college, NO answers to what I asked them, filthy so and so's them fantaics of ANY kind

Most of the experiences I've had with religious people have been just fine. And that goes for all religions. The ones who grate on my nerves are the fanatics. And to be perfectly honest, most of those idiots can be found in christianity and islam. The sand religions. Never had a problem with people who practice asiatic based religious belief systems.

A trip to Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1839 Mormons bought the small town of Commerce and it was renamed Nauvoo by Joseph Smith, who led the Latter Day Saints to Nauvoo to escape violence and conflict with the state government in Missouri.

It was like something from "Stepford Wives" or "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Very creepy people wearing period clothes and giving tours of the restored settlement.

My first son was stillborn at 33 weeks. Literally everything said to me was that he was waiting for me in heaven, and god had bigger plans for him, and people would pray for me, and just on and on. He's dead. I have his ashes. Thats all there is to it.

Being bored to tears.

I did not. Raised them as atheists.

I was fourteen or fifteen. One of those "emo" cutter kids who had scars running up and down my arm. I started going to and afterschool youth group held by a local Evangelical church at my school and enjoyed what they were teaching... Until one day they sat us in front of a video and halfway through the video it said that I was going to hell for cutting. That was when I realized that everything my parents (who are Asatru) taught me about the Abrahamic religions was right. I continued to go, but my mind was racing and eventually I left and never looked back.

Baptism through confirmation. Sunday school. Asking questions and seeing the horrified looks on the nun's faces. Seeing the priest red with rage that I should ask such things.

the church begging us small kids for our money for the movies and candys all the while the three prieststhat told us it is a sin toto have possesions the drove a benz a caddy and a lincoln

I get so tired of people saying that Heaven and Earth was formed in six days. In response, I wrote this. Feel free to cut and paste it into a saved text document for your own use if you want to.

The witness of Genesis
Hi, I'm the kind of person who sees what is missing in arguments. Here's a few observations if anyone is interested. Feel free to use these observations as your own if you like them.
I'm quoting from here: [en.wikipedia.org]
1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Ok, who is narrating this story, God? If so, does he normally refer to himself in the third person?
What was God doing before the beginning? When was time created? Where did God come from? Why did God create heaven and earth, was he bored?
1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Ok, God has a voice that he uses to command whatever to make stuff for him, and eyes for some reason since he apparently needs light to see in the dark even though he is God and doesn't need them.
And again, who is watching all this, his wife?
It goes on and on, God said, did, made, saw, etc., until...
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Now, who is this "us" he is talking to? So God looks like a man? Great, God has a penis. Is it a big one? Why did God only have one son when he could have as many as he wants?
1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Yeah, yeah, God created a woman to be Adam's friend, cuz God's not a queer, right?
1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Basically, God says, "Adam and Eve, if you want more people, make them yourself". I guess God's getting tired of creating, so he gave his people genitalia so he could watch them make more people for him.
Let's see, Adam and Eve had three kids, and two of them had kids. Where did those kids mothers come from if there were only four people on earth?
Ok, I'm tired of this fairy tale. Now just because some well intended story made it down through the ages to King James I doesn't mean we have to discard the good things about the Bible. I think things like "Honor thy father and thy mother" and "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" are good things that we should keep and pass along. Do I believe in God? Yes, but I don't think he is some old guy with white hair and a beard looking down from the sky at us. He's more than that and I kinda dislike using the word He. For me, the laws of physics that describe nature have an elegance and simplicity that just couldn't exist by chance. Do I believe in science? For the most part, but things like the idea that genetics will one day allow us to have designer children and make organisms from scratch using synthetic DNA scares the hell out of me, so Bible thumpers, keep thumping, but don't just blindly follow what is written in any book. Ask questions, lots of questions. Btw, it's okay to have a question that we don't have an answer to, like the origin of the universe. Is the Big Bang correct? Shrug. I still have questions, like what was before the Big Bang and what was existence like before Time existed or did Time always exist? Does all of Time exist already or is the universe still forming and changing? Does the past still exist? How long is "Now"? Why do we remember the past and not the future? If we don't know something, we simply don't know, so let's not pretend we do.

Being considered as an outsider, strange, beyond the pale.

It was also my final straw in leaving the church. I had been going to an "all faiths" christian church back in 2003, and it was the realization when that the preacher had a prayer, every day, that was talking about how god will send checks in the mail, lottery winnings, cash, and the like if you believe in only him. I looked around me, and saw people with their arms up in the air trying to hug nothing, a lady in the back was yelling in babble (speaking in tongues), and at least 4 people were on the ground in what could only be described as a seizure. The word cult formed in my head, and I just couldn't get rid of it. I tried to talk to the preacher after everyone had left, and he only chastized me for not having faith, and giving everything I had, which really wasn't much. My wallet was already empty, so I threw it at him, and told him to stop preaching to my wallet, and I walked out.

Meeting and talking to them.

My first husband was very religious. We went to a church in a new town where we moved and they were standing all around me wanting me to talk in tongues. From across the room my husband began yelling in tongues and that shut them up LOL

Breach of trust, justified by their beliefs. Many experiences...

Actually, I laugh to myself when people tell me I am going to hell, because their view of heaven must include gated communities.

Being stalked and persecuted having idiots trying to cause you trouble and trying to harm you physically and mentally.

Birth. I was born i a catholic hospital, then put in a catholic orphanage, on to catholic school, catholic on and on, once they died? party down.

I've worked at several women's clinics, as a medically-trained assistant, and as an escort.
The people who would come out regularly to protest were some of the worst examples of religious fanatics I've had the displeasure to witness. The attacks were unrelenting and surprisingly personal in their nature. Some of these people even brought their children with them, and had their kids holding signs and shouting vile slogans. These people all professed their belief in their god.

They instill insanity in individuals that cause horrendous statistics of domestic violence, which the family courts ignore. As a group they cause endless wars over territory and the control of nations. The struggle between religion and government is a cold war that takes no prisoners.