Just wondering how many of you escaped religion on your own,by study and observation, and if any of you had someone to help guide you. I educated myself, I didn't know any non-believers.
Being raised Assembly of God, mine is both. The only emotions I experienced in that church were fear and disgust. As young teen I drove my sunday school teacher crazy with questions concerning religion. She actually told the preacher that I was possessed by the devil. At 16yrs old, I'd had enough.
Never believed.
Didn't even know religion existed til I started school. When I did hear about it all I could say was "you really believe this shit?"
Nothing since has altered that.
Pretty much escaped on my own. My beliefs had been eroding over the years when I largely decided that even if there was a god, you couldn't really connect to him/her/it through organized religions, which are all about controlling people and taking their money. Then a friend of mine whom I just met a few years ago would post a lot of stuff from an atheist group on Facebook and the more I looked at it, the more it just made sense.
All on my own . I went to Catholic elementary indoctrination. The nuns wanted to host a debate. Did the pope have the right to draw the line of demarcation in South America separating the Spanish and Portuguese interest. I was in 7th grade. I volunteered to take the no side. I think I lost unanimously. And all I remember thinking in 7th grade is who the fuck was the pope to give away other people's land. I never looked back. I was done.