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I was baptized Catholic as an infant, and attended CCD and religious classes weekly. My grandparents were devout, and I attended mass with them often. At age 10, my parents withdrew my brother and I from Catholic studies without explanation. (we didn't protest...three hours of CCD is not something most children wish to be doing on a Sunday afternoon ).
From age 10 to 20, I followed no religion, and leaned towards a love of science and nature to explain most everything. I became lonely, depressed, and had a period of personal difficulties at age 20 and my best friend took me to her Christian church. I was so relieved to have uplifting and warm people who cared about me that I delved into the religion of Christianity, as much for the company and support, as I was also a natural researcher and curious to learn of all things. I read the Bible, and attended Bible studies, for approximately 2-3 years. I would take to Bible to work and read passages and was pretty enthralled by the New Testament. As a Christian would describe it, I "let Jesus into my heart" and his spirit lit an eternal spark there.
During this time I moved from the west coast to the east. I sought out and attended a few Christian churches that I thought I would fit into and be happy with. It was about this time, that I was getting a lot of devout Christians around me displaying and truly believing a rather judgmental way of life. My friends and acquaintances who were of the Christian faith seemed much more rigid in the dogmatic beliefs of the Bible than I, personally, felt was logical or was comfortable with. When I began to question the contradictions in the Bible, and the harsh judgement in it, I became disillusioned. On one hand, reading of and accepting the unconditional love of Jesus spirit in my life was powerful and grand. Yet I was being told to be a true Christian I had to believe that His path was the only path.
I was also taking college courses, and learned of other major and some not so major world religions. I saw that many of them really had the same message: be good to each other, and have compassion and humility. I began to realize that it is close minded to say Christianity was the only path to god. I also struggled with many the judgmental and dogmatic aspects of the Bible, despite the light and love in it, so I could not swallow it whole. The contradictions, mainly, were what turned me off of being a true "Christian". I sill believe that Jesus was a great man and had a great spirit, and I learned from that. However I believe others who don't, or others who believe in other great teachers, are not wrong.
Since then I realized that I really know nothing, I'm only a human being. Who or whatever created life and this world, be it "god" or science and nature, is much bigger and more complex than I will ever fathom. I've concluded for myself that living as positive and with the best intentions seems to feel right. Live and let live. Whats good for me may not be good for someone else.
I am the same way. I think Christianity is a beautiful religion because it lets people feel much colser to their god, but I never believed it at all.
Like you, I think the KJV bible is very well written. I always like the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said, "If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out."
I love Christian music. Did you see the excellent movie "Bernie"? Jack Black sings "Blassed Assurance" beautifully, but I couldn't find it on youtube, so here is Alan Jackson.
Actually, I was thinking along the lines of Bach's B Minor Mass, Mozart's Requiem, and the Verdi Requiem for music, but I know everyone's tastes differ. For old-timey hymns, I love Willie Nelson's "The Troublemaker."
I was born and raised in a very strict, religious household. My family attended one of the many Churches of Christ in my hometown, and I had to be REALLY sick to miss a service. We went to church three times every week, no matter what. Throughout my teen years my dad would fill in for a lot of preachers at small, country churches, when they couldn't be there for whatever reason. Eventually he became a preacher himself, which is what he does now. All through childhood and my teens I totally believed it all. Not because I had drawn that conclusion myself, mind you, but because everyone I knew believed and that was simply what you did. You either believed and went to church or you were a bad person, period.
But sometime around the age of 17, I started skipping church. I'd tell me parents I was going to one of the other churches with my friends, then I'd just go for drives out in the country. I felt bad about it, but I still did it almost every time. I still believed it all, but for some reason I just HATED going to church. Looking back on it, I realize I never liked going to church, it's just that before I couldn't avoid it. In my early twenties I became more conservative and religious. Or at least, I tried to become more religious, but no matter what I simply could not make myself want to go to church, regardless of how strongly I told myself I believed in it.
Then my brother and I moved out of our parents' house and my interest in church simply lessened more and more, until I no longer even thought about going, and neither did my brother. One day we finally discussed it, learning that neither of us had ever enjoyed church, and he finally said, "I don't think I believe any of it anymore."
He still wasn't 100% certain he could let go, and he was still in the process of examining his beliefs, but hearing him say that motivated me to learn more about the religion I had convinced myself I believed all my life. I finally decided that if it really was true, it could stand up to scrutiny, and that surely God wouldn't really mind if I devoted some effort into examining such an important thing. As you can probably guess, shortly after that I realized I could no longer believe any of it. It's funny, it never did feel quite natural to me and I didn't know why, and as soon as I really began asking questions and learning about other religions the whole thing quickly became unbelievable.
Now my brother and I are both liberal atheists but neither of us plan to ever tell our parents, or 99% of the people we know. It's simply not something you can tell people in a town where everyone you know is super conservative, religious, and utterly non-accepting of anyone who isn't.
I'm just curious to see what different atheist and agnostics backgrounds were. Growing up, did you ever attend church, or did you grow up in a non-religious household? Is your family(grandparents, parents, etc) religious? If so, what do they think of you not believing? And was there an experience that made you atheist/agnostic today? Just wondering.
If you used to be religious, how old were you when you stopped believing?
Yes was forced to attend church of various kinds until I was 14.
all of my family is religious but believe my older brother is the only one that attends church.
No one really knows I am an atheist its not something I scream from the roof tops although I have mentioned it in passing a few times.
Just found for me religion was bogus it was fake a crutch for people and I didn't need it.
I came out as Atheist last year when I was 27,before that I was agnostic for about 2 years and before that I read about different kinds of religions that were not mainstream but nothing ever caught my eye enough to be believed.
right Alacrann, I too didn't ever believe any of it, even before I knew how to really think for myself..it just all didn't make sense. And by the time I was a a teenager, I knew for sure this was all used to control people and instill fear into them. I am currently reading a book about how many things in catholicism are borrowed from old religions from thousands of years ago.
I grew up in a very friendly Methodist church, which was a large part of my social life as a child. I don't think I ever believed in any of those teachings, though. I remember as a kid praying to whatever "god" there might be, to show me that it was true and let me believe. I never got what I was asking for. I quit going to church when I was 13, about a month after I was baptized. I couldn't continue to go there and pretend I believed in it. I spent a lot of time in turmoil over all of this, became self-destructive and angry for this and other reasons, and finally started to find some peace in my early twenties.
It's been ten years now since I first used the word atheist to describe myself, and I'm certainly much less interested in arguing about or even discussing religion than I was then. It just seems very matter-of-fact now, and I don't worry too much about what other people believe. There are good people on all sides, though I do find myself thinking snarky thoughts at times. My grandparents were ardent Southern Baptists, but they're gone now. We didn't discuss the subject. My immediate family isn't generally religious, but my boyfriend's parents are. They say grace before dinner and go to church every Sunday and so forth. They know I'm not religious and haven't ever said a word about us not going to church. My boyfriend does consider himself a Christian, but is very non-religious. He believes in a god of some sort, I guess, but I think it's mostly out of habit or social indoctrination or something.
It seems only natural that ones belief is a personal thing, however it's the way of our Social society that everyone " needs" to be a part of some religion, pigeonholed we must be. I look at it in the way that there is no real need to declare anything. I am not sure why we have to be labeled period . Thinking about it, looking back, the words Atheists and agnostic have never been expressed when and where I lived. If you do not "believe " you must be one or the other as if atheist is a religion also. I have always felt it was the religious people that invented the system of ...belief and not belief.
I was raised Catholic. My mother forced me to go Sunday school all the way through 8th grade. I began questioning religion at a pretty early age (5th or 6th grade). I hated going to church and Sunday school, not just because I thought they were boring, but moreso because even at that young age, I found it impossible to believe the stories they were teaching us. I also didn't agree with the church's views on social issues.
I didn't want to do my confirmation in 8th grade, but again my mother forced me to go through with it. I knew I was lying when I said I believed whatever is you say you believe during confirmation, but I did it just to appease my mother. Also, she told me I'd get money from all my relatives for doing it.
I still had to go to church through high school, but I think my mom was finally accepting the fact that I didn't believe in it. We fought about it almost every Sunday and finally when I was a senior she told me I didn't have to go anymore. I haven't been inside a church since my grandfather died in 2007, and I don't intend on going to one anytime soon.
I research different religions while I was in high school. Doing so and finding major flaws with all of them, cemented the fact that I'm an atheist.
Grew up in a nonreligious household. Not atheist, religion just wasn't a part of our lives much like Olympic wrestling wasn't a part of our lives. It was completely irrelevant. My siblings and I did attend a Christian summer camp and would sometimes be included in church activities when spending the night with a friend, but the spiritual aspects never resonated with any of us.
I first gave the subject real thought when I was 12 and my class was reading King Arthur. I felt some internal conflict over the matter but quickly settled into my atheism and have been happy ever since. I spent some time in college fiercely debating religion online, but now it's been reduced back to "Olympic wrestling" status.
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