Three months after enrolling in an elementary school when I was five years old I was moved from Grade 1 to Grade 2 and this continued every two to three weeks until I was doing elementary mathematics with Grade 6 who were preparing for High School. It was during that time that I realized my thoughts were private because whenever I was given a set of mathmatical questions I wrote down all the correct answers without showing how I arrived at them, this seemed to puzzle the teachers.

Lol I automatically went to thinking you meant our thoughts in general being private where nobody can hear them or read our minds.

Ears were burning that day, let me tell you!

Our thoughts are private?

I've always known im the only one in my body. I hadn't even considered anything else till you just said that

I'm confused. What religion makes people believe that thoughts aren’t private. Rasied as a christian at a young age, I don't recall hearing this or thinking my thoughts weren't..

I'm very open about everything that I think. So much easier.

It has now been a long time since I worried about God listening to my sinful thoughts, but honestly, this was a serious source of anxiety for my entire childhood and youth. And unlike the other commenters, this was an issue for me well into my early adulthood. It just seemed obvious to me that my thoughts were under surveillance if thinking about stealing is as bad as stealing and God can hear my "silent" prayers. This was also the concept that was the hardest for me to shake when I was deconverting, but I'm so glad it's over now. I can think in peace!

I think that I always knew that they were private.

I was way too young to remember.

I only remember cak to age four, but I seemed to alwasy know my thoughts were private.

I realized the difference between thinking and talking as soon as I could speak.

I don't remember, but I can recall my anxiety issues starting in elementary school because I thought Jesus could read my thoughts and was watching my every move. I was paranoid and wracked with guilt all the time.

It's not something most theists really consider or think about. The thought didn't even really occur to me until after my deconversion. I technically knew that god could, but never really focused on it.

Never felt like they weren't.

Not until I was required to take a lie detector test

I always thought my thoughts were private. I don't ever remember thinking there's someone in the sky listening to me. When I was older and understood that's sorta what this whole religion thing was getting at, I thought it was silly AF. This was around the time my mom started trying to force me into going to Catechism.

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My thoughts were never private, beings I was from the Candid Camera generation. Allan Funt was -ALWYS- listening and watching from the closet! Kid you not...I wouldn't even scratch my ass with the lights on for fear of being spied on by his crew!

At first I was, "wait ... whut?" and then I realize you mean -- private from god.

Honestly, it never particularly bothered me. Maybe at some level I didn't believe god listened very closely. I suspect many believers just disassociate from what concerns they have. I didn't hear it much discussed. I suspect it's one of those things, like the terrors of hell, that really torment those who are particularly vulnerable to it, but for most, the idea is an abstraction that doesn't really connect to everyday life. It's compartmentalized away.

But that's just my experience in the midst of one sect's particular emphases. I suppose for example that some holiness church that really flogs how wretched and unworthy you are, and how god is just THAT close to casting you out ... would damage more people mentally in this area.

About 7 or 8, I started to become a skeptic, I couldn't believe there was an all knowing doG. Took me another 20 years to get shed of all the other supernatural BS and become a real skeptic.

My thoughts are often about privates. I don't think that was what you meant.

When I was yet a babe in the basket and I wanted something and no one knew what, I knew right then and there no one could read my mind and that life was going to be an uphill struggle all the way.

My mother was a spiritualist and I was very afraid of meeting spirits on the stairs going up to bed as the first flight had to be negotiated in the dark

I always knew my thoughts were private. or it didn't register that they might not be 'I didnt have a god in my life but I did have ultra wacky intrusive parents - I think I was about six years old when I realised my parents were not the same as those of other kids in the street My mum was manic and my father depressive. Both my brother and i just went out
and stayed out till dusk

I was more concerned that my mother could see or hear my thoughts. That was more of an imminent threat as those repercussions were literally felt. ?