I had never believed in divine intervention... but the moment that opened my eyes to how ridiculous it is to believe that any supernatural being takes a direct hand of any kind in human affairs, was my ex's great-aunt's funeral.

The pastor there (preacher? not sure of the term in their denomination) was explaining how her death was actually a happy occasion, since she had been called up to Heaven... and even though it may have seemed a little early (she was only 89 as I recall), this was all God's doing, since, although she had led a blameless life so far, "sometimes God will call a person up if there's a danger of them falling into sin and losing their redemption."

I just sat there shaking my head. Had he actually just said that God had KILLED an old lady to keep her from becoming a sinner and losing her shot at going to heaven? There were so many objections I wanted to make at this point. What sin can you commit at 89 that you didn't already do when you were in your 20s? If there's a God who picks people out individually for death, so they go to heaven, then why does ANYONE go to Hell? Didn't his God just negate free will? More important, didn't his God just commit FREAKIN' MURDER?

And that's when I began my journey to being a confirmed atheist.

i agree, its all the psychology of people. For me it was the concept of hell. I have heard so much about it and tried my best to avoid it. But after a while it caused me a lot of trauma. So I just researched everything there is to know about it and spirituality in general. What I found is that people who are really spiritual and deeply faithful never even speak about religion and especially hell. In fact they only talk with empathy. Yet religious people seem to be hell bent on the idea of using this concept. After reading about psychology, it hit me that is just brainwashing disguised as religion. And that religion is a pustule of people's psychology.

The specific event that had the biggest impact on my lack of faith was literally my first known religious experience. I was 6 and I just came out of a coma where I lost my memory. I knew weird stuff like Scooby Doo and Tom & Jerry. I could tell time, but only on a clock with hands. I didn't recognize the numbers or letters, but understood the positions. I remembered football and Ronald Reagan, but for me he was just an actor. I remembered division and multiplication. I knew about biology and the solar system. I didn't remember my country or religion. My mother taught me all of those things, but for some reason I forgot the things that were made up and bogus.

I would stay in the hospital a few days to regain my strength. One night I woke up to a women talking to the kid in the bed next to me, but it seemed as though he was sleeping. I didn't pay attention to her until she came over and started talking to me. I interrupted her after a while because what she was saying made no sense to me. She told me she didn't realize that I was awake and asked what brought me there. I told her I didn't really know, that I woke up here and didn't remember much. She then said something about angels watching over me. Now, I'm even more confused. What's an angel? Eventually, some man is watching me too. I tell her I don't understand and just want to go back to sleep, but she keeps talking so I buzz the nurses.

Thankfully, a sane person comes to my rescue. The chances of that, in 1981, had to be astronomical. Although, the more knowledge or forbidden fruit you take in, the less likely it is that you'll be religious. Anyway, she asks what was wrong. I told her this lady was telling me some crazy stuff. She asked what so I started rambling and she chuckled, then put on a straight face, turned around and escorted the crazy one out.

When she comes back, she tells me that I was just introduced to religion. She then assured me that there really wasn't a man watching me. She warned me about how she finished high school and college while living with her aunt and uncle mainly because she wanted to be a doctor. At that time, she still hadn't heard from her parents who also weren't really talking to the also religious, but caring aunt and uncle. The best thing she told me though was that people don't want to hear how others think they're dumb. She said it might've cost her her parents as she was always trying to prove their faith wrong, but her aunt and uncle kept telling her that it was her parents fault.

I would never see her again, but was very glad to have had that single encounter.

It wasn't one single event that did it for me, it was an evolution with lots of reading, observation and discussion. But I understand about there being a turning point. I was brought up in a traditional Christian home and it was a good one. They were (are) all fine, generous people so it was easy to accept the positive aspects of religion. Actually taking that final step to total disbelief was scary for me. The finality of that belief, and accepting the finality of my life after living for a brief time.

Science has made it pretty clear that home sapiens evolved from the apes somehow, but no skeleton of the 'missing link' has ever been found, so there could be a case for a 'creator' who assisted evolution to create us. Then the 'creator' moved on to do his/her magic in other worlds, and he/she is too busy to come back and help us with our petty day-to-day issues. We are therefore on our own and need to find ways to live in harmony with each other and our environment.

This kind of thing happens all the time. After an earthquake that killed 100's of people someone is found alive in the rubble 5 days later. All you hear is that it was a miracle from god. What about the hundreds that died? SMH i agree, not prayer , not magic, no divine intervention.

There was a thread in christian forms entitled: 'where is God when you need him'

There were a lot of responses and in short that's a question Christians also ask. If a single totally unnecessary event ruins your life by giving you a bad case of PTSD, then you have to become a Christian and get born again and go to god for help, but it doesn't work at all. It isn't god's fault but there's a limit to what any god can do when he doesn't exist.

And eventually you realise how easy it would have been to avoid the problem in the first place and that as a Christian the results were actually bringing bad publicity to the faith and you just have to ask 'where is god when you need him?' And then stop wasting time on a faith which just makes things worse.

I'm honestly not sure I ever thought divine intervention was real, In fact I remember thinking that he must not be able to intervene because if he could, and allowed all this horrible shit to happen, then he would have to be a fucking monster, and clearly that 'couldn't be' so he must not be able to.

lol

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