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When did you first doubt religion?

Admin 9 June 19
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433 comments (26 - 50)

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3

Probably about 11. It just didn't seem logical. More like Santa or the easter bunny. The older I got the less logical it appeared.

3

When I became politically aware and saw the Church of england putting the holy pound before the poor.

3

Oh yeah, the Noahs Ark and Adam and Eve story REALLY got me thinking....shit don't add up

3

I was 5 years old and asked Jesus to come into my heart just like my grandparents told me too...and nothing. There was no feeling of acceptance or joy or peace or anything. I was very earnest, very sincere and yet nothing. I never thought it made much sense, but I was told you just need to have faith. How do I have faith? Ask Jesus. So I did and felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing, I decided on my own at 5 that religion was just nothing.

3

At 8 or 9 yrs old, loved science. We moved constantly because of military, different pastors different religious focus, nice people, though. I did fine praying, but the teachings about punishment, heaven and hell, all that was just cruel, I felt that if there was a god, it would be benevolent. There was so much terror and tragedy going on in the world, finally, I just stopped believing, in my teens,.

yeah most Christians want to scare you into believing by the word Hellfire

3

Hi, I'm new here. I first remember thinking 'This is bull****' when I was in Junior School, aged about 8. The trouble I had, in my mind was, I had great respect for the people that were spouting rubbish at me, yet I didn't believe them.It made no sense!

if you really want to be gnostic skeptic atheist or whatever, read the Bible thinking outside the box instead of inside the book most of it makes no sense the Old Testament is evil

3

The first time I doubted religion was when my dad beat my mother and I then we went to church the next day where he was an usher. It's hypocrisy and the people I see are a bad walking advertisement for their "religion" product.

yeah, thatvwas hard to stomach. right there with you. Hard to imagine that was the norm as a kid. then dad would say to me as a teen, how can you live without believing? Everything was just so off.

3

I think the seeds of doubt were in me by age 16. It was hypocrisy among the believers that mostly irked me. And self righteousness...having a corner on the truth that no one else had. But I was heavily indoctrinated -- what I call being a catholic Baha'i. You believe leaving will cause your self destruction. It wasn't until computers came and my marriage ended and I realized I was gay that I started seriously questioning the religion. It took me TEN YEARS (all the while celibate and a single parent) to shed the religion. But when I did I was truly reborn. For the first time in my life I saw color, could smell things, could love, could dance, could eat, could enjoy. I was 47 when the process was finally complete. I was completely non-religious. Religion free! Wow -- what a great feeling! I don't even recognize the person I was before the transition.

3

I was raised in a somewhat dis-functional household where religion was never talked about and as I became aware of it I could find no evidence for its claims. We had a nice big globe at school so I didn't for a minute believe in a flat earth with pillars supporting it or that a man could be killed and come back to life or that someone could live for 3 days in a fish and all the other non-sense that religion requires belief in. I absolutely reject 'faith'!!! I have no faith in the sun rising in the east in the morning but I do think the sun will appear to 'rise' in the east tomorrow based on observations of mine and of others.

3

I was 8 years old walking to church with my grandmother and my grandmother told me that being gay was a sin in my mind I thought if they're happy and you're not hurting anybody who cares

2

The day my brain contemplated logic and common sense

2

As a child. I could see the bullshit. In the bible belt the preach fear of God, hell and damnation, obedience....But I watch all kinda immoral behavior going on there. The street people and the church people did the same thing...just that the church people hid behind the hypocrisy of organize religion.

2

When I was about 5 or 6 and in sun day school. I was told God is always with you and knows how you feel. That scared me, the thought of someone always in my head..after that I started doubting more.

2

Sitting on a hard church pew having to be absolutely silent while my mom fed us lifesavers to keep our mouth shut. that was enough for me.

2

As early as I can remember. I am a third generation atheist, so I never had to deal with any religious indoctrination. I did attend church with other family members, mainly to appease them, but I had already made up my mind independent of my family, so it didn't matter, and i just laughed at the religious ones. Even at five years old i knew that religion was the opiate of the masses, and only for the weak minded. Yes, i was a smartass kid.

2

Most of my life. I did the entire prayer book including fasts from the Episcopal church I grew up in when I was 12. (Mom was clueless and that's scary looking back). I tried that because I just didn't "get it" and figured I wasn't doing it right! So after that did not make a real difference in my lack of "getting it" I left our family church and joined the Baptist Church a friend went to. Got baptized and did what THEY said for a year, but when they started locking their outdoor facilities and only letting white kids in (yes, this was in the 1970s in NC and they were very clear that only white kids should use their property) I went into the pastor's office and asked why. The answer was so muddled and self defensive that I just walked out and didn't go back. I joined one church after that, when I was 22 when I saw them doing AWESOME things in the community. I got involved and was able to make serious contributions to the community at large and was pumped, but then... it started to get weird, then they were closed as a cult. Figures. I didn't go back until I had a child in school and the local schools were PITS so the Christian school was the only SAFE place so I had to join for her to go. I regretted it. Again, they started closing some programs because the local Mexican population was using the program mostly as a place their children could get a meal. I asked the pastor about it personally. The next day the pastor literally walked up to the pulpit and said "I am not suited for this congregation" and walked off and that was the Sunday service. The elders asked me to "apologize" for destroying the pastor and his wife. I refused. I was "excommunicated". Cast out. They don't want me. I ask questions.

2

When it got involved into politics. When I saw how it treats LGBT and women. When I saw how it only wants to make a financial profit. Who knows, if there was no religion, war would probably cease to exist. .

Trod Level 5 Apr 23, 2018
2

When god?? told me it was just a joke

2

In 4th grade Sunday school we had to read the bible. And I'm reasonably intelligent. Enough said.

2

When my first grade teacher didn't have a good answer about dinosaurs not being on the ark.

2

When I decided to read the bible from back to front. That will straighten out stupid pretty fast.

2

Deep down I always did so I've always been agnostic.

2

I doubted religion when I was in a Jewish History class. When they said a body of water seperated, the people hurried to the other side and the water poured into the empy void just at the time the enemy arrived when being persued.

2

Don't remember how old but as a child was made to attend church/ Sunday school. Methodist mostly. Always felt it was all so fake...pretending to be so good n righteous...most seemed hypocritical to me...

2

As soon as I was old enough to think. I went to Catholic school and none of it made sense, the Tower of Babel, Noah's Ark, the Exodus blah blah blah, it just never made any sense and I couldn't join up the theist dots.

Esp the Tower of Babel he he.
How would such a god react to Trump Towers, or better yet, NASA??

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