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What started me on the path toward agnosticism was when I decided that if I was going to be a christian (the religion in which I was raised), I wanted to thoroughly understand what I believed and why. I started questioning everything I believe and am told to believe. Somewhere along the way, I learned the concept of asking questions with purity of intent or without preconception and bias. What I discovered were a great many unanswerable questions for which an answer was given that I was supposed to accept on faith. If I had not started questioning my religion, I might not be who I am today. It was a stepping stone to new understanding and it has taught me that questioning without bias is where we start on the path to truth in every aspect of our lives. What are some of the choices, influences or actions that led you to the beliefs you hold today?

beenthere 7 July 13
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8

I wanted to PROVE to my friends that my religion was true. When I set out to find proof that it was true, I discovered that there was no proof, and the evidence pointed toward it being mostly mythology. Therefore, I discarded religion and became an atheist. Hooray! 🙂

6

The whole idea of religion is to not ask questions about your religion. The preachers yell a lot about Faith. They want you to beelieve without asking questions.

mischl Level 8 July 13, 2020
6

Realizing a big sky daddy that allowed Biafra Babies couldn't possibly be reconciled in my head.

5

"Somewhere along the way, I learned the concept of asking questions with purity of intent or without preconception and bias."

A wonderful description of a critical fork in the road on a journey reminiscent of my own. The decision to interrogate one's preconceptions marks the commencement of intellectual freedom. Peace.

5

It’s going to sound dumb, but the show The Tudors. I know historical accuracy regarding Henry VIII was off the mark, but some of the general historical information regarding religion is commonly accepted. The Catholics and Protestants murdered each other, depending on who held power at any given time, and in such unspeakable ways, simply for being the other religion. But of course it was about really power & control which equals wealth. The Catholic hierarchy were adultering hypocrites. Did you know Catholic priests used to be allowed to be married until the church got tired of the widows asking for financial support? But now of course, their celibacy is a holy sacrifice. I guess the horror depicted on the show finally made me completely accept that religion is the foundation for most of the wars and oppression throughout history. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Reformation, Salem witch trials, Slavery (the children of Ham) & its repercussions we live with to this very day, white Christian supremacists killing Jews and other “less-thans,” Jews vs Muslims, Northern Ireland. Even factions of the same religion pitted against each other. The war over Israel will never be resolved until god itself comes down, fists on hips, and says who he really gave that land to and tells them to knock it off.
So this fluff of a show finally allowed me to embrace that religion is bullshit and nobody should be dying over it.
I also think a good comedy show can be made about how all the pomp, circumstance & serious rituals were decided on.

Salem witch trials, we're also a land grab situation.

'til this day nobody was ever punished for all the crimes and atrocities against humanity committed by the church. In the Inquisition millions were tortured and burnt at the stake. I remember reading a Catholic cardinal saying at the turn of the last century: "It was a sad episode of church history." referring to the Inquisition.

All right, so give all the money you stole from unfortunate widows all across Europe.

@Aristippus My sister goes to a PA coal mining town every year for her husband’s family reunion. One year she mused about how this town despite their own financial struggles still managed to build a beautiful church with expensive iconography. I thought, really?? They’re poor, but waste money on an expensive church? And are proud of themselves?? They voluntarily let churches rob them blind.

The inquisition should have been the end of Catholicism, exposing its own hypocrisy. But, it gaslighted the congregants into believing it didn’t count.

So well put! My thoughts exactly. You compose your thoughts very well. Kudos..

@Pjsmylz Church, bank and government buildings. Money is generally no object. Though government frequently tries to convince us of their frugality.

5

The greatest enemy of truth, it turns out, is not indoctrination, but identity needs.

skado Level 9 July 13, 2020

Do you mean our social need to identify or fit in with a group?

@beenthere
Yes, that’s a big part of it - the relationship between self and group. In our ancestral environment, rejection from group spelled certain death. So we are evolved to identify with a tribe, at the expense of all reason.

There is another component of identity need that is harder to talk about, because words just fail at some point, but it is the relationship between self and self. Our natural state is an identification with ego, at the individual level. Identification with tribe at the group level, and identification with ego at the individual level.

These two identity needs are so powerful in H.sapiens that they overpower just about every other impulse, especially reason. We live for them, kill for them, and are willing to die for them, because that’s how we are made. To overcome these instincts requires extensive training.

When we leave the “religion tribe” we think we are finally free, but we are not. We’ve just relocated to the “non-religion tribe”. Tribelessness and egolessness are extremely unnatural states, that are not only painful and terrifying to pursue, but would simply never occur to the natural self to attempt.

@skado Well said. The self frequently gets overlooked. I would add that there are various levels of investment and attachment to the tribe and 'I am'.

5

test everything, and keep what is good so whomever was telling you that you had to accept any answer on faith was lying i guess

5

The way I started my departure from religion was more or less like yours, and then an avid thirst for reading books to find the truth.

4

I went into agnosticism at age 20, and came out the other side as an atheist at age 30. My own position is that the Scientific Method produces far more useful models of the natural world than does religion: a vaccine against tetanus is far more effective than "trying to pray away the disease".

I do not, and cannot, understand the mentality of those who cling to religion like a drowning man.

Me spending the rest of eternity in Heaven singing the praises of the genocidal maniac known as the God of the Bible? No, as that would be pure Hell.

I also have an aversion to those who use religion as a way of fleecing other people of their hard-earned cash.

My thoughts exactly!!

4

I too allowed myself to question what I had been taught, with the mindset that what I had been taught might be wrong. My angst-filled journey from believer to atheist took a little over a decade. Learning more about the origins of the bible (actually reading it, from start to finish, with an open mind) enabled me to see that it is a human creation and I was able to let go of the belief in the very contradictory god described within its pages.

Free from the chains of religion, I was able to learn more of the sciences that I was taught to fear, dismiss, and ignore. In doing this I realized that there is no need for a god in order to explain the universe; and inserting one actually complicates things as one has to ask the questions: which god? And, how did a creator being (or beings) come into existence?

I strongly identify as atheist as I hold no belief, whatsoever, that any type of god exists. However, I am also agnostic as I make no claims of knowledge about the non-existence of any gods.

Joanne Level 7 July 13, 2020
4

I think for me it was when my age groups was supposed to read the old testament, at the saem time as we were lookign at greek mythology in high school. Not really too much difference.

Not much difference at all. Both are myths.

@freeofgod Exactly..

3

When I started reasonably thinking, I decided not to believe in hype or bullshit. As simple as that.

3

A comment below mentions "Jesus Camp", Take a look at the video and see what these people are doing to children.

That's so fucking SAD

Jesus Camp is FUCKED. Anyone who hasn't seen it should.

abuse, barbaric!!

2

I grew up rather passive, but solidly in the Roman Catholic culture(Irish/Italian focus)...Catholic High school in the 70's was "hep", taught us to question authority, demand answers...I did...my questions could not be answered...
You're right though..."accept on faith" seems the only way a devotedly rational person may glom onto the culture...

2

I always think there is always some bias, no matter what. We just cannot help it but we try.

Truth. Bias is a natural proclivity we always have to contend with.

2

I finally looked straight at the myths, nonsense and POWER and I asked myself: Tom, are you a fucking idiot or not? I decided that I wasn't.

twill Level 7 July 13, 2020

I can go with that. See also Hitchen's razor: "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.".

2

Questions - yes.
At about 15 , I had a bunch of them. And they were usually greeted with less than enthusiasm.

Questions, an open mind, and a tendency for independent thinking. None of this jives with the "faithful".

2

I read all the bible. Not just the KJV.

2

We who become emancipated get free in many ways but what they share in common is questioning. It is entirely human to satisfy curiosity. That is why the indoctrinators, political and 'religious' start as soon as possible to confine and control curiosities and developing minds before the ability to reason emerges.

Some indoctrination programs last until adulthood and are more or less permanent in their damage to intellect and psyche. Celebrate! You've escaped at least one master. Watch out for the political cult masters lying in wait!

1

I suggest applying the questioning to everything in our existence and learn to follow your inner knowing. Its not just religion that doesn't make sense, there is so much more, including education, capitalism, the concept of kingdoms, the acceptance of rich and poor, why people lie so much, why are women told how to raise their children instead of using their natural instincts, why do men run the world if women are smarter, etc., etc.

From the first time I heard a lie come out of my mothers mouth I have questioned everything around me, and I was 3 years old.

1

The mother of my daughters would tell you that I drifted from "true religion" when I started reading those books about the Dead Sea scrolls. People that think like she does will ask you why the gospel writers are not the ones who's names appear as the writer. The gullible cannot figure out what the writer would have to gain. Imagine for a minute that the book is a counterfeit famous painting. Is it taking shape now? Why do people want to believe that a god requires the shedding of blood over a rule that the god himself made? Then there is the burning of meat and the sweet savor of it to this god who needs all the praise forever and ever.

1

To me there's no science to backup a religion of any sort and or gods I have to live in the here and now. I learnt that and Catholicism. 🤮

Excellent point. Religion has many living for a future as opposed to the here and now. If more lived in and for the here and now it might resolve a great many problems.

0

Here's a thought....

Why would a god have "riches" (gold and such) in heaven?

Why would a god be a prince with a "kingdom"?

Why would a god "offer you" riches in heaven? Because you're poor on earth.

It seems like a mind game of some sort.

metaphor

0

When I was 14, a friend's arguments moved me from literalism to nothing. In recent years, I have moved myself from nothing to figuratism.

skado Level 9 July 13, 2020
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