I gave religion up for Lent.
Damn, that’s pithy!
I suppose my realization was kind of like even sven’s.
I never really believed all the stories about Santa and the Easter Bunny and B.S. like that. I just played along and figured one day people would stop talking about them like I believed them.
But, if I told my parents I was actually atheist, my mom would immediately tell my grandparents who would probably disown me or something.
I love my grandparents, I really do, but they’re some closed-minded bastards sometimes. :rolleyes:
I was five and started reading about religion in our encyclopedia, and realized that religion was basically Santa Claus for grown-ups.
I went to Sunday School weekly, attended church camp, sang in the church choir, etc.
Over the years I went from believing, to beginning to question, to trying to believe, to wanting to believe, to finally, not believing.
The transition probably began in my middle-teen years, and ended somewhere around my mid to late twenties.
What really made me become an atheist was the final realization that everything made much more sense with a scientific explanation, versus a supernatural one.
I never saw a real difference between Santa and God, people tell you they are real in order to make you behave in a certain way. Once I figured out Santa was fake (at about 5) God went out the window too. My parents still drug me off to Sunday school and church, but I was just going through the motions to prevent arguments.
Nothing.
I do not recall a specific period when I became a (soft) athiest or agnostic. I was raised Catholic then when we got to school age my mother switched to Episcopal in order to get my father to go to a church (long story). Anyway I do not remember ever really believing. I always felt out of place and like an odball in the youth groups, social gatherings etc. I also discovered that strongly religious people did not seem to have a sense of humor. We had an event at our house one time and were doing the communion thing when I asked what kind of bread it was (not the usual wafer). The woman said sternly it was the body of christ. I then made some comment about that being cannibalism. Church lady did not like that.
I also do not really remember believing in Santa or the Easter Bunny or any of that. I generally went along with it because everyone else did. I for some reason, when I was able, to put modern religion into the same catagory as the greek myths. Interesting stories but not real.
I was sitting in Sunday school when I was about 8 and we were coloring pictures of Noah and his ark while the teacher was telling us the story. I remember distinctly thinking… wow… what a cool STORY. Some other little girl raised her hand and asked if it was true or not and the teacher went on and on about how it was true. How he and his family built a huge ark and they miraculously got two of all animals <even those from all the way on the other side of the planet>, put them on the boat and set sail because the entire world was flooded with water. I remember thinking what a liar she was… that I was being lied to. That the Bible was a nice set of stories put together to teach morals… not unlike Aesops Fables. Never went back to Sunday school again after that.
I’m with sven as well. I never had to go to church as a child. I did go with a friend when I was 12-13. Unfortunately, it was a “Church of God” type of church.
On a revival night.
Not the best way to introduce someone to your religion. In case you don’t know, “Church of God” church members are into “speaking in tongues” and spouting out such phrarses as “Praise Jesus” in the middle of a sermon.
I didn’t go back.
Overall, my lack of beliefs come from the gross lack of logic (yeah, I know, you gotta have faith :rolleyes: ) in nearly every religion I’ve come in contact with. I do not condemn any religion (unless spaceships are somehow involved 
). I’m a “live and let live” kinda guy. I will respect you and your beliefs in you do the same for me.
Take Muslim Guy for example (I swear, if this guy doesn’t get Doper “Rookie of the Year”, I’m defecting). I don’t know him, but I have a great of respect for him just by what I’ve read in his “Ask the Muslim Guy” thread.
Of course, there’s the old “why do bad things happen to good people when bad people don’t suffer” rant. True believers HATE this question because they can’t give an answer, only what they believe.
I could give more examples (like the Catholic Church taking 400 years to apologize to Copernicus and that whole Crusades thing), but I don’t have the time.
It was a bit of reflective thinking, all the contradictions in the Bible, and the total lack of facts about “God”, the afterlife or other faith issues.
I was raised by a deeply religious Catholic mother and a nonbelieving father. I was very much against religion as a small child and actually had a lot more common sense than I do now - “There can’t be a heaven on top of the clouds, the astronauts would have found it by now!”
Around 9th grade I became really religious, in part because I became good friends with a Baptist and I started to believe the tripe I was defending the Catholic chruch with whenever we had religious debates. At one point I was wearing a cross (Confirmation present), medals of Ss. Jude and Christopher, a long ball chain with a picture of the Sacred Heart, and a scapular all around my neck at the same time.
Then college came around and I started dating an atheist guy AND took a course on church history AND figured that if basic things like the Trinity were true, they’d have been evident since the beginning of time, and not subjected to a vote at the Council of Nicea (“Two-personed or three-personed God? Show of hands, everybody!”) AND I became a eucharistic minister at my church for a while and had to gobble down every last crumb of “body” and drink the nasty water we rinsed out the wine glasses with because we couldn’t spill a drop of “blood”. Things hit rock-bottom after that, and I’ve never looked back. 
My mom was religious in a vague sort of way; she’d never questioned her faith. We prayed before supper and went to a nondenominational church.
I took to religion like a duck to water. As soon as I could read, I studied the Bible daily. I prayed and prayed. I wrote long letters of thanks to god in my diary. I went to church at every chance: besides my own church, I went to my neighbors’ Baptist church and Bible school. A close friend was a Born-Again Christian; I joined her youth group. I was transported with religious fervor. Having the “Holy Spirit” inside me was like a drug rush.
When I was 12 I suddenly fell into major depression, from which I’ve never emerged. It has utterly destroyed my life. I regret that I didn’t have the foresight to know that no matter how hard I tried, I would never overcome it. I still don’t know why (though I’m sure it’s a chemical quirk, possibly the result of a mild head injury or a virus) and no treatment has helped.
High school was a struggle; I tried desperately to find a cure, or at least a reason for it. I became even more involved in my faith, but the depression made it impossible for me to feel joy. Had god abandoned me? Was it a punishment? A test? What could a little girl do to deserve this?
My illness caused me to examine every belief I’d assumed to be true. I even considered that my father or brother may have sexually abused me and I’d repressed it. I wanted answers. I questioned my faith. I began to read everything I could about religion and atheism.
10 years after the depression began, I realized that I was holding on to belief simply because it was a drug that had made me feel good. Since I was unable to feel good anymore, there was no reason to keep the belief.
I grew up in a fairly secular family, but a regular babysitter of mine and her family were fairly religious and I was exposed to Christianity through them. I became a devoted Christian through my teen years(until I was about 16 or 17 actually.) I was never more serene or content than when I was religious.
Then I begun to wonder why I had chosen Christianity over other religions. Why hadn’t I become Buddhist, or Hindu, or Jewish? I figured out that it was just because that was the religion I had been exposed to. If I had been exposed to another religion, I might have become a follower of that religion. This bothered me that I might just pick whatever religion was closest to me and not pick the one that was right or the one “true” relgion.
So I began to look at other religions and that’s when I began to notice the logical flaws, inconsistencies, contradictions, etc. featured in all major religions, including Christianity. I wanted to find the most “valid” or “true” religion and when I couldn’t find it(because of course there isn’t one,) I proclaimed myself as an agnostic. Eventually, I went from agnostic to atheist.
My brother became Christian the same way I did, being exposed to it from our babysitter that we had as children. He never questioned it like I did, or if he did, he didn’t come to the same conclusion. He is majoring in religous studies in college. My dad, who was raised as a devout Catholic, has re-discovered religon in the last 5 years or so and is now a born-again Protestant.
As I mentioned before, relgion gave me a sense of serenity that I haven’t had since. But I can’t be intellectually dishonest with myself for something like religion even if it gives me comfort.
Of all the reasons, this just struck me as the perfect way to put it. thanks Badtz Maru.
Well, I was raised in a very Catholic town, by ex-Catholic parents. They told me about god, and then left it at that. I just always assumed it was true.
Then, in about 2nd grade, I was reading a book about “evolution” or something. Mind you, this was a public school…ok. This book talked all about god creating the earth and Noah and stuff like that. One illustration I remember quite vividly was of the Ark in a big ol’ storm with a T-Rex freaking out, up to his neck in water. I think it was trying to explain why there are no Dinosaurs–'cause Noah forgot them, or something. Even in 2nd grade, I could smell the bullshit.
The real kicker was my dad’s favorite Judeo-Christian koan: Could god create a rock so heavy even he could not lift it? Made me actually start questioning everything. I was a dead-set atheist by junior high. I got called a heathen and a devil-worshiper. Neat, hua?
I have since become a pagan/wiccan/taoist/animist/druid…Idunnowhatelse. I just find bits and pieces of religions I like and throw them all together.
Rhetorical question:
HOW could Noah forget a dinosaur???
What, like, did he forget to check under the sofa cushions and behind the dresser or something? Or did he scour the entire globe except for “dino valley,” where all the dinosaurs lived? Or was Noah actually a hunchback and couldn’t raise his head high enough to see the dinosaurs? Did he think their legs were just really scaly tree trunks?
Geez, the joke possibilites here…
See? That’s my point exactly! Even at the tender age of 8, or whatever, I thought to myself:
[Johnny Chocran]
That does not make sense!
[/Johnny Chocran]
Well, I was raised in the LDS Church, and when I was about 13 I really “got religion”. Church every Sunday, I went to Seminary class as soon as I started high school. I read the scriptures every night, and prayed three times a day, and I really believed. I had so much faith that I was convinced that if I only prayed hard enough, fasted long enough, and read the Scriptures enough, I would actually get a vision of Christ.
I don’t know exactly what happened, but I think I really began to loose interest around the time I turned 16.
For the past year I’ve been questioning God, and right now you could probably call me an Agnostic. I just can’t bring myself to say that “There is no God.” and mean it.
I think I’m going to minor in Religion because no matter what I ultimately believe in, religion is a fascinating topic.
I think I could believe in God if people didn’t take things so literally. When I read that the Greeks created the concept of the Trinity as a paradox to illustrate how ignorant we truly are of God, a lightbulb went off in my head. That makes sense. So, next semester I’m going to take a class on mysticism.
[/quote]
HOW could Noah forget a dinosaur???
[/quote]
Maybe Noah was sailing away from Jurassic Park?
How many people believe today that dinosaurs were alive at the same time as humans? Fred Flintstone is proof, right?