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When did you first doubt religion?

Admin 9 June 19
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433 comments (101 - 125)

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1

I don't think one can really doubt about religions their manifestations are ubiquitous. Have you ever met anyone who hasn't heared names such as Jesus or Mohammed. Most people in "western" are branded with biblical given names. There is absolutely no doubt that religions exist.
As to the veracity of their underlying principles, e.g. eistence of divine manipulators and magicians, I developed my doubts when I was about 4.6. I even tried praying, but I did it under my parents bed. Perhaps the mattress was too thick and contained too many metal coils perhaps my prayers never reached their destination or they were poorly translated. Whatever the reason after Christmas 1959 I gave up; I was 5.2. I never really thought about it again until about 50 years later my daughter asked me permission to become a Christian. My first response was: "Holy Shit".
Then her mother, whom I had known for about 25 years at the time, said "I believe in god too." ... "No kidding" I said

1

I was about 10 and I just finished reading the Bible, first test1ment. I had all these questions that the priest can answer during bible study. But event couple with watching Fight Club.

1

When I was 11 and my father commited suicide.

1

When I was a kid, I was about 4 and someone dies and my grandma told me they went to heaven (which I hadnt heard of until then) I asked her about it and she explained the usual...I asked her if you can have macaroni and cheese there and she said that you didnt need to eat there. well I told her that I didnt want to go. and from then on, I questioned everything! and SO MUCH of it made no sense at all! Its easy to see if you open your eyes!

1

Slightly since ever, strongly since 16.

1

I owe my atheism to the Jesuits. While I was attending St. Joseph's in Philadelphia, they made a fatal mistake. They let it slip that we were allowed to THINK about the religious education we had received, and decide for ourselves what to believe. Well, once a dozen years of institutional Catechism was exposed to the light of reason, God vanished in a puff of logic.

Ludo Level 7 Apr 4, 2018
1

When I was seven years old, they send me to course to learn Quran and religion, from the day one I realised it was a fantasie story made for men by men. There are no fact or proof, it is all according to legend story, control freaks in my humble opinion. Love you all. izzy. x

1

I think serous doubt arrived when I encountered scientific methods and historical research in high school - probably at age 15 or so. I grew up in a small village of 500 people with enough churches that they could have shared eavestroughs. The local clergy, good people who were very good at helping people through life's crises, were definitely not on the A team of theology, so they weren't even good sounding boards. I didn't really become agnostic until university where there was a real library, serious theologians (demonstrating the absurdity of belief), and other non-believers to discuss things with.

1

I began doubting religion after I became a nurse and worked in a hospital

KUHNS Level 1 Apr 1, 2018
1

I was about 12. My dad had quit going to church, but I was interested in a girl that was the pastor's daughter, so I kept attending. I had been raised going to church, but I hadn't really given it much thought; I had just accepted it, because it was all around me in my small town. But then I went forward to be "saved"--it was a Baptist church--just to see what it was all about. But I didn't feel any different, and though I was hoping to be inititiated into some "mystery," it was just more of the same prosaic stuff. I quit after that, and started the long philosophical road to where I am now.

1

From a very early age, 11-12 years old.

1

Must have happened before i was born to irreligious parents I don't think I ever doubted I just never believed and no one was making me believe I still find it quite 'funny peculiar' the contortions people put themselves through in order to believe in these stories

1

When I was old enough to start asking questions that nobody could give a straight answer to. It's the will of god didn't cut it for me.

1

Probably when I was a kid and being raised baptist being told I'm going to hell for everything. It made me doubt the morality of god and the sincerity of religion then the questions just kept coming.

1

I have never doubt religion. I just have my own belief system - yours. I believe in nature. That's it. Religion however, I find, has many global problems simply because it is a here-say, really. "Here I say this or that." They have no core ideology other than what their elders stole from the Sumerian tablets to construct the first verses of the Bible and the Quran. Thus two separate and oppose religions were born that have forever tried to kill each other based on the idea that "No my religion is from God, yours is from the devil." When in fact none of the two entities exist! But why is that? Because the words in the Book of Genesis are of extraterrestrial origin! That is to say, they were written by aliens here on Earth long time ago (six thousand years or so) but their idea was to tell us how the solar system works. The word 'God' is supposed to mean 'the sun.' "heaven and earth," are to mean 'planet Heaven AND planet Earth.' It is all very clear at mannunaki.com

I'd like to see more proof of Aliens. The only Aliens I know of is Humans reaching the Moon. I do believe ET is out there, but I do not think he has been an Alien on our planet. It's a big galaxy, and a bigger Universe. ET can be everywhere in the Milky Way, but there is no proof of Aliens visiting Earth.

1

From a very early age, I would say about 4. My parents were never religious but it was my encounter with an old venomous harpy who stank of booze that really put the kibosh on any belief I had. She looked like a wizened up old prune that was very scary. She used to put her face close to mine, stinking of Whiskey and Gin. I was a 4-year-old child, and so were the rest of my class in Sunday School, she used to frighten the bejeezus out of us when she used to say what awaited us if we didn't believe. Burn in Hellfire, fire, and Brimstone that kind of thing. I had one day at that Sunday School and never went back. There is a lot of other things that's made me NOT believe, personal things with my family

1

I think I always doubted religion. Even when I was brainwashed during childhood to pray,.. I still would do the act with the constant thought of, "this is so pointless, there is no one listening". But as I grew into adulthood and went to seminary school, things began to become more clear to me. As I studied what the bible really did say, how it really is just another book, I could no longer believe the fairy tales that forced upon me.

religion is put forth as a controll mechanism, esp when they say king james version, "version" being very key.

@Moondrop oh absolutely. I think as I got older and was attending church, they could sense that I wasn't much for being controlled. When in the bible based college, and I had to respond to assignments, if they weren't "biblical" enough, I had a lower grade.... so yea, talk about control.

@srahsmile77 I spent the first 2 grades in a catholic school in my home town of Richmond, st Benedicts in fact, and I got the ruler across the hands for eating glue and black crayons, my Mom immediately pulled me out and i went to public school soon after, but those nuns were the meanest of mean, and were always doing the same things of the same doctrine as they did to you, everything was soo damm bibblical that you couldn't count to 10 without referencing the bibble in some way like it was the 12 days of christmas.. I can't believe this shit still happens.

@Moondrop
Catholic School is an oxymoron at best.

1

I believe the first time I felt real doubt was when I was taking a Sociology class in the late 80s. The professor explained something to the effect of a group think when religious people were experiencing "worship" together.
I don't remember exactly what he said, but it had a big impact on me. Add to that, I was pretty active in the assemblies of god and a devout follower of jimmy swaggart. That was around the time he was fooling around with prostitutes. Threw me for a loop.

1

In seminary when I discovered the Catholic church assembled the cannon. The list of books to be included in the Bible. I thought this really couldn't be the word of god. It was down hill from there, or should I say up hill as independently studied, and concluded that I was agnostic.

1

After my 1st communion..

1

I became skeptical without a known reason in high school. I suppressed those doubts through college but oddly enough my time in my theology school brought them back to mind. I hid them away again until my 30s before further investigation into the nonsense encouraged me to open my eyes for good.

1

I remember distinctly the first doubt that popped into my mind—I think I was in the fifth grade. It came in church, during a prayer by the pastor who asked God for the healing of a hospitalized older member of the congregation. But he gave God an ‘out’ by conceding, “If it be thy will, oh Lord, to call him home…” and so on. It didn’t seem logical (or fair) for the pastor to give God the credit for both outcomes. That started me thinking, even at the age of 10, if God had his hands at the controls at all times, why was there so much suffering, and where was our freedom to choose?

1

When i was a child and it was off and on with me. I fully give up religion in 2017. Im just a baby at it right now.

1

When I was maturing at the age of 13.

1

Transubstantiation. It was when the RCC priest insisted that the Eucharist was not a metaphor but an actual, physical change in the host such that it became, literally, the Body of Christ.

That little wafer of stale, tasteless bread was quite obviously not meat of any sort, much less meat harvested from a human being who had been tortured to death.

I said so out loud, got taken out of class for a (not unfriendly) talk with the principal (also a priest) and sent home to think things over. My mother asked what I was doing home early and I told her. She said "Huh. For me it was the Virgin Birth."

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