Agnostic.com

22 1

Tell us about your first time ...

Tell us about the first time you realized there wasn't a god, and/or the first time you told someone you were an atheist.

OldHippieAtHeart 6 July 15
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

22 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

5

My Mum said 'most people think god is male'. I was maybe about 4 years and thought to my little self, 'what a load of wank'.

Amisja Level 8 July 15, 2019
5

Never had a belief in god...so no first time for me. Being atheist is completely normal to me, never been a secret or a problem for other people, but then I don’t live in the USA.

@Allamanda We weren’t a very religious lot as far as any of my friends or classmates were concerned. Some of them were nominally Church of Scotland, but didn’t seem to go to church...maybe some went to Sunday School, but religion was never talked about. The Church of Scotland is not a bible thumping denomination and school assemblies were pretty anodyne with a minister reading a few passages and some hymn singing....which I always liked because I had a good singing voice. I had Catholic friends and they joked a lot about how stupid they thought having to eat fish on a Friday was but they did go to mass and generally were more religious. When I started working I had no idea about the religion of my colleagues as it was never mentioned at any time, either at work or socialising afterwards. So just generally, I’d say it wasn’t a very religiously aware society. It was only when I got married and went to live in Northern Ireland where religion and religious identity became an issue, but strangely enough not for me...either side accepted that I was atheist and was therefore not a threat, not one from the other side! That is quite a paradox is it not...that an atheist poses no threat, but a Christian of a different hue does?

@Allamanda Yes...probably even less religious, the whole of the U.K. is becoming less so and Scotland is too. They talk about the “Wee Frees” in derisory terms...these are the members of the Free Church of Scotland, who left the C of S because it was becoming too liberal. The Presbyterian Church In Ireland just voted last year at their synod, to sever connections with their sister church, the Church of Scotland because it has accepted gay ministers and supports same sex marriage,

@Allamanda Yes...we have this idea that everyone’s beliefs should have equal status....parity of esteem is the actual term used...regardless of its worth or credibility.

4

I don’t really have a story for this. It’s like asking me the first time I saw a dog.

4

i realized there were no gods when i saw the monkees' tv show. my mom and dad had told me that long-haired boys were dirty and rebellious. these guys clearly were neither. i thought, what else have i believed that maybe i should rethink? god went out the window right away. i told my best friend about it, maybe not right away, because it wasn't on my mind a lot, but the next time the subject came up, and found out she was an atheist too.

g

Nice story, how good of you to remember all that time ago.

@Fernapple my guy always asks me how i can remember stuff that happened what seems to him a long time ago. i remember being in the crib! i don't know why. i can't remember where i'm supposed to be at any given moment but i can remember with whom i was in love with (gene autry and jimmy dodd) when i was three!

g

@Ms_McSteven lol! i liked davy, but when i matured i realized nesmith had the talent. now i am engaged to a guy who is not only tone deaf but actually deaf.

g

3

There was no first time that stands out. Just lots of questions and arguments using common sense. The time I really stood up - 11th grade, before school started, in homeroom. A friend and I were entertaining our classmates with dumb jokes and imitations, like Nixon, when it hit me and I did a drunk Billy Graham "high on Christ, his new elixir" My evangelical English teacher and I had a tiff in which she said things basically threatening me with Hell vengeance. I challenged her with who would inflict such punishment - "her" god. Thrown out for the entire day of no English. She was awful; she censored one of our novels. I refused to read the censored version.

3

In college, I took a Great Books class for four years (I've told this story on the site before, FYI). One of our professors was a major Calvinist. He had been some kind of minor radio personality, and had a deep, commanding voice. Anyway, we eventually got to the bible. We didn't read the whole thing, of course, but a handful of books.

In high school and the beginning of college, I labeled myself an "agnostic". But in discussing the bible, the nature of Satan, evil, and absolutism entered the discussion. I asked the Calvinist professor if evil could be described as destruction, disease, death, etc. He said yes. I asked if that wouldn't mean that an absolutely evil Satan would be absolutely destroyed, diseased, and dead--that is, nonexistent. No, he said. One being could be absolutely evil, and that being was Satan. Well, that didn't make any sense to me, I told myself, but whatever--I would accept it for the sake of argument to keep the conversation going. But then it occurred to me... I asked him, well, if God is absolutely good, and Satan is absolutely evil, then they are just in a stalemate forever (and that wasn't my understanding of Christian belief--ie, Christian belief certainly wasn't that Satan was an equal, if opposite, power to god, and would live/exist forever next to god). To the stalemate idea, the professor said that was right--until the end of time when God throws Satan in the Lake of Fire.

The illogic had gone one step too far, and I really felt a shift or an internal click, that could have been accompanied by the word "bullshit". It was just one irrational step too far, and I couldn't accept any of it, even for the sake of argument. It was "stupid" in the most basic sense of the term--ie, there just wasn't any sense in it at all. It was just people pretending there was sense in it, and trying to get me to pretend also.

Interestingly there were once many Dualist sects who held that good and evil were equal. Many of them believed that it was up to us as humans with free will to tip the balance one way or the other in the end.

3

After being born severely cripple and spending my childhood with surgeries, casts, braces, corrective shoes!
Being ridiculed and harassed for my deformities during my youth!

No god would prevail with such horrid treatment of those who have none nothing wrong in their lives!
I am a adult, I have been anti war, to war, have been shot, stabbed, blown up, shot down, and survive with out any assistance from any mystical being!

By my own will and perseverance I have achieved what many want or possibly dream about, others have gained and achieved so much more!

My faith is my own, I owe no one for my life and being!

I have survive without any person of mystic god(s) or faiths co-opting me!

2

I had hit rock bottom and been there for a long time before I finally let the notion that there might not be a god enter in. It was an earth-shattering change that took me months to fully accept and left me floundering for meaning in my life for years afterward. I am only now barely coming back from that. I know I can't really blame anyone because my parents and society were doing what they believed was right but it is incredibly frustrating at times. I just hope I can turn all that chaos into something good in the remaining few decades of my life.

2

I can never remember nto hvign doubts about the existence of god.

I came out as an theist at the same time I came out as beign gay. My goal was to take away all the ammunition my religious relatives would throw at me for beign gay, by letting them know that I also did tno believe in god or the bible. It worked otu better than I expected. Without religion they had no ammo left.

Please take note I was already a grown adult who had moved out of my parents house by then, so there ws nto much they could do. I would not recommend my strategy for someone who was still living with their religious parents.

2

Was never a believer. Always viewed church with amused skepticism.

At 13, I became an atheist when I realized the Bible is just a book written by men.

Michigan had a hard winter. Bored and restless, my brother Lee, 10, and I read the World Book Encyclopedias. Lee started with A; I started with Z.

Rational philosophers Descartes and Spinoza inspired me. In the 1600s, they were anti-theist and anti-cleric, at a time when heretics were burned at the stake. They bravely defied the Church.

2

It came a little late, at 18 to me because I grew up in a very conservative, oppressive, religious environment filled with extended family, teachers, close friends and colleagues. I had doubts and was itching to stop doing anything about religion but had no courage for the fear of retribution, being a social outcast and being called a smart ass at a young age.

2

Do you have the time? 😊😊😁😁😂😂

2

I was not indoctrinated into any religion so I’ll tell my Santa story 😀

I was 5 and I got a remote control car from Santa. On the box it said “8&^”. With the ^ being an arrow pointing up. I asked my mom what that meant and she told me it was for kids 8 and up. NO WAY!!! There’s no way Santa would give me a present that wasn’t appropriate for me! Santa wasn’t like that. It made me think. Then I thought about elves making the toys and in all the Xmas specials on tv they used hammers saws and nails to make wood toys....no elf made THIS electric car! I new then that it was all made up. I told my mom I knew and she said “well I guess Santa won’t be bringing you presents anymore”. Hmmm. So I pretended to believe for 3 or 4 more years. Kinda like when people loose their faith but still go to church.

I did an investigation of mom's closet, and found all the presents from "Santa" in her handwriting. For some reason I had never noticed the handwriting in previous years.

@greyeyed123 how’d that feel? I remember feeling a little disappointed but there was no anger or resentment. I found my presents one year and was sad that I wouldn’t be surprised on Xmas morning. Luckily I forgot I had found them so I was still surprised.

@JacobMeyers I cried and cried, and was pretty angry. Mom tried to console me, but dad told her to tell me they were presents for my cousins, but dad must have thought I was extremely stupid or something because as I was wailing, he said right in front of me, "Tell him they're for his cousins."

Dad never knew what was going on. Mom and I both knew we already gave my cousins their presents. So I wailed even louder, lol. I loved Santa.

@greyeyed123 oh man I feel bad for child you.

1

I was 5.2 when I realised that all the religious stuff was just a hoax. About 6 months prior I had decided to have a go at praying. I thought it was a good idea to hide from my brothers and so I made my attempts to connect to the divine authorities under my parents bed. There was probably crap reception. The steel frame, the wire mesh and the coils probably acted as a faraday cage and the heavy mattresses muffled my murmured prayers. I explicitly prayed for a red bicycle without trainer wheels. It was early autumn. Ok … perhaps I didn't pray hard enough and probably not often enough; only prayed a couple of times for the add-ons: the bell, the handles etc.
Christmas came: the bike was blue and had trainer wheels. I never regained my flimsy faith.
I must say that I grew up amongst a bunch of religious non-believers. Nobody in my family ever mentioned god, but we were all baptised.

When I was 19 I had to go to a magistrates' court of have my name erased from the church register. When I got the court verdict it solemnly declared that on behalf of the people it was judged that I was no longer a member of the church.

1

There was no "first time"...it's been a gradual - dare I say evolutionary - thing?

1

"The night was.....moist".........

1

Was never very religious to begin with but felt like jobe with the plague of boils(yes remember Sunday school) that and a heavy scientific background one son already atheist other not religious so a general progression for years

bobwjr Level 10 July 15, 2019
1

I really can't remember a particular moment, event or experience. I just know that I lost my belief somewhere in my mid to late 20s.

1

No.

@Allamanda All of the above.

0

When I found out Santa was a myth. I told/tell anyone who brings up the god myth. Kindergarden.

0

When I first started, aged about 8 years old, to question what the Priest/Minister was saying and got myself EXPELLED for doing so.
One of the BEST things that ever happened to me I'd reckon.

0

One fine Sunday morning my parents and we children arrived at church that my very religious grandparents made sure we attended to find that it wasn't open for services. Found out that the reverend took off with the money and had headed south to become a tent evangelist. Everything else in life was just protocol to avoid being ostracized.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:374183
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.