Were you ever a believer? Do you know what it's like to believe? (priest, scientific)
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FWIW I was raised religious and as a child naturally believed what I'd been told. I know from the inside looking out what it is like to believe through most of childhood into teen years. I looked back and could tell I had psyched myself out into believing things that are not so. I know that religious people do that but suspect many can't or don't want to admit it to themselves.
I was raised Greek orthodox, but stopped believing before I was a teenager.
I did too but then tried to make it work for a few years until I was a teen. But the question isn't really about when did you stop believing bragging rights.
FWIW I was raised religious and as a child naturally believed what I'd been told. I know from the inside looking out what it is like to believe through most of childhood into teen years. I looked back and could tell I had psyched myself out into believing things that are not so. I know that religious people do that but suspect many can't or don't want to admit it to themselves.
Pretty much the same here.
I think the defining moment of doubt began for me when I began traveling internationally.
When I was in Thailand, almost everyone was Buddhist because that's how they were raised.
When I was in Malaysia, almost everyone was Muslim because that's how they were raised.
Or Hindu because that's how they were raised.
Or Buddhist because that's how they were raised.
It had nothing to do with truth. It had everything to do with who raised them.
I did too but then tried to make it work for a few years until I was a teen. But the question isn't really about when did you stop believing bragging rights.
Your power to read motive through the internet is amusing.
I think the defining moment of doubt began for me when I began traveling internationally.
When I was in Thailand, almost everyone was Buddhist because that's how they were raised.
When I was in Malaysia, almost everyone was Muslim because that's how they were raised.
Or Hindu because that's how they were raised.
Or Buddhist because that's how they were raised.
It had nothing to do with truth. It had everything to do with who raised them.
Yes, an accident of geography.
I remember as a child instinctively knowing the whole died-for-your-sins idea was illogical but was too young to articulate the reasons why.
Yes. I was devoutly RCC until I was 18 or 19. Believed the entire thing. Eventually the conflicts between faith claims and scientific evidence became too much for me to reconcile.
For me it wasn’t really about evolution vs creationism, or Noah’s flood. It had more to do with geology and other sciences making sense without a god, transubstantiation not making any sense at all, the religious fables sounded silly to my newly adult mind, and when I questioned it all, no religious priest or pastor was able to address my questions without ultimately reverting to ‘just have faith’.
FWIW I was raised religious and as a child naturally believed what I'd been told. I know from the inside looking out what it is like to believe through most of childhood into teen years. I looked back and could tell I had psyched myself out into believing things that are not so. I know that religious people do that but suspect many can't or don't want to admit it to themselves.
Raised Missouri Synod Lutheran.
Noticed that OT stories were pretty much equivalent to other mythologies from around the world at about 12, and stopped believing in their literal truth.
Moved in stages to atheism.
Plenty of people here will tell you the their main impetus for moving to atheism was their strictly religious upbringing.
I was raised in the Church of Christ and believed what I was taught without question, until...I'm not sure exactly when. I was in my 20s when I articulated in thought that the whole thing was a bunch of nonsense. But it wasn't a eureka moment; I don't know that I even had a eureka moment. It was merely the first time I had acknowledged even to myself that I no longer believed. I do know that the source of my first skeptical thoughts were Bible verses dripping with racism and misogyny.
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