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Nothing made me atheist. It's more like nothing made me a theist.
Me, too. Like another poster, this is my default setting. I find the practice of faith through worship to be beautiful and intriguing, and I have at different times in my life participated in Christian services; however, it just does not resonate with me as it does with believers.
Last edited by randomparent; 11-24-2013 at 03:06 PM..
I'm curious how your Mom persevered given that she was shunned for the "sin" of divorce. It's ironic that she was the one that tried to hang on and your Dad (who I presume was not shunned) threw in the towel.
My dad mostly went because it was important to my mom. Once she left the picture, he stopped going.
I grew up in various and assundry churches. When I got into my early 20s I began to realize that the Bible story of salvation is essentially preposterous.
Generally Christians believe any belief system besides their own is preposterous. I just threw one more on the pile.
No religious upbringing for me. The idea of god(s) makes no sense to me.
Same here. We did celebrate Christmas and Easter in my house but it was strictly about the meals, gifts and the Easter basket....no religion was involved.
I did try to go to different types of church services as I got older to see what the hype was about. I got offended that it was mandatory to give them my hard earned money. I asked a Pastor one time "how do you believe" he told me I must have faith. Well that settles it I don't have faith in anything I can't prove.
Religion to me seems to be something that is brainwashed, almost cult like, when kids are very young and those children grow up and never question it. For others I think it is a security blanket because they fear what they do not know.
That's how we raised our kids. Our daughter (40) is a believer but never goes to church and our son (35) recently got baptized as an Episcopalian. Our grandaughter (14) worships One Direction but I think she will outgrow that phase of her life.
I'm watching the music awards and just heard "One Direction". They are okay, nothing special for me.
Religion to me seems to be something that is brainwashed, almost cult
like
I've seen faith play that role of where they follow the leader and believe so, so deeply like they are the Supreme Being and can do no wrong. And when wrong has been done, they follow him to the next place where he's in charge of the worship. It's like drinking the Kool-Aid in Jonestown~!
Religion to me seems to be something that is brainwashed, almost cult like, when kids are very young and those children grow up and never question it. For others I think it is a security blanket because they fear what they do not know.
Religion is a cult, only with more members.
A cult is defined as; : a small religious group that is not part of a larger and more accepted religion and that has beliefs regarded by many people as extreme or dangerous.
Not sure what the magic membership number a cult must reach to be a religion is, but that's the only difference. That and the fact religions are tax exempt, at least in this country.
No, I think your interpreting my question wrong as far as race goes. Some families overpower their kids with faith growing up while others don't have any. So you should never presume, but perhaps one's upbringing had something to do with their turn away from faith.
You not liking my answer is not the same as me interpreting your questions wrong.
Your question is about whether anything in our lives turned us away from faith, or belief in god.
My answer is that many of us never had such faith or belief in the FIRST PLACE. Therefore we were never turned away from it.
I never lost my belief in god. I simply never had one, at ANY point in my life, to begin with.
I've seen faith play that role of where they follow the leader and believe so, so deeply like they are the Supreme Being and can do no wrong. And when wrong has been done, they follow him to the next place where he's in charge of the worship. It's like drinking the Kool-Aid in Jonestown~!
That's pretty common in everything. If one signs up to the group then there is the tendency to identify one's own street cred with that of the group, its members, leadership figures, actions, achievements and performance and its aims and objectives. In short, one tends to get into the same PR apologetics as one does for ones'self. It is the same with political parties, sporting teams or one's choice of music.
Mind, when religion comes into it, then the buy - in becomes hugely more delusionary. The leaders can get way with almost anything.
Nozz makes a god point, btw. The atheist view is that we are all born atheist (give or take this religious instinct we all seem to have) and we know nothing of religion or religious icons and idols until we are taught about them.
We may not believe it (I didn't) or we may, for a longer or shorter time - perhaps we never grow out of it but, 'Turn Away' is a rather too 'loaded' term as it implies that there is something of value there on offer which we reject. Well, perhaps there is, but the buy - in price, our critical faculties, is too high to be worth it.
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but, 'Turn Away' is a rather too 'loaded' term as it implies that there is something of value there on offer which we reject. Well, perhaps there is, but the buy - in price, our critical faculties, is too high to be worth it.
