What Age Were You?

[disEnchanted]

Hi all!

 

Just got through reading the thread that asks "how long have you been out of christianity" but I'm wondering how old were you when you finally knew, without a doubt that christianity was not for you?

 

Also, another question: How old were you when you were first taught about god?

 

My own answers:

1) I knew without a doubt that christianity was not for me at the age of 38.

2) I was first taught about god as a very young child, before age 5.

[Lapdog]

I was 33. I grew up in the church. I left not because of how stupid it is. I left because I accidentally found out that it was a product of invented history. Realising how stupid it is came later.

[מה טבו]

1. I left Christianity when I was around 15.

2. I went to my first tent revival at 3 months old. I don't remember when I was first formally introduced to the concept of deity.

[HuaiDan]

I was born into christianity. My mom and dad were introduced by my uncle, who is a pastor. I knew once and for all I was finished with it after my grandfather died when I was 21 after a long debilitating illness following a stroke.

[Vigile]

I was indoctrinated from the day I was born. I was forced to go to church 3 times a week during my entire youth. My parents read the bible and prayed with us at the bed post before bed. I was uterly immersed in it from my first memories. At about 22 I believed that xianity was still the way, but that the church had gotten it all wrong. I stopped going to church and spent years trying to figure out what it was that I really believed. By around 25 I was some form of deist. By about 30 I was an atheist. I'll be 41 this week.

[Vigile]

My mom and dad were introduced by my uncle, who is a pastor.

 

Sheesh, we must be brothers, both expats, I find myself agreeing with your opinions most of the time and now this. Exactly the same. My parents were introduced by my mom's brother, who is a pastor.

[NearlyInsane]

I was born into it - my entire extended family is xian. I'm the only black sheep that I know of.

 

I began to despise xianity in my teens, but w/out anyone to talk to who wasn't xian, the actual deconversion took many years. I was in my late 20's when I was finally 100% confident that xianity was NOT TRUE. This took some doing, as I had a lot of hell-fear to overcome. It was easy to WANT to not believe, but to become confident that I really-absolutely-without-a-doubt NOT going to burn in hell for eternity took quite a bit of effort, study, thought, & arguing w/ fundies. In the beginning I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to argue from the other side than it had been to argue the xian perspective, LOL!!! After years of being confused & conflicted about almost EVERYTHING, suddenly it all made sense. What a revalation that was!

[Lycorth]

I was born into the Roman Catholic sect of Xianity and heard about its god at least by age 5, though probably a bit earlier.

 

I left Xianity at about age 27, in the aftermath of a terrible breakup in which Xian fanaticism played a part. I set about reviewing my entire life at that point and finally saw that I could not be honest with myself and who I was and still remain Xian, so I began evolving away from the cult, to Deism then to Paganism then to Atheism blended with Paganism, where I basically now rest.

 

My deconversion was helped along by my then-girlfriend/ future wife, who was doubting Xianity at the time as well. We played off each other and helped each other along and basically deconverted together

[freeman]

I also was born into the catholic cult. First communion at age 6? (1st grade), the whole nine yards. Went to catholic schools from kindergarten thru 12th grade. Had doubts in 9th grade and it was during theology class in the 12th (17yr old) grade that I no longer believed! I became a deist at 17, now at 42, just the Big Bang!

[webmdave]

Taken to church on and off since age 5, officially "saved" at 11, and left at 41.

[pandora]

Raised Catholic, converted to evangelical Christianity, went to college and became a very liberal Christian for a while through age 21-ish. At 23, I became intrigued by eastern philosophy and religion and was open to some very liberal concepts of God, but I still considered myself an agnostic. I desperately wanted there to be something out there. At age 24 or so, I completely made my break from religion and wishful thinking. I still study comparative religion because it fascinates me (in fact, one of my degrees is in comparative religion and philosophy). It's like rubber-necking to watch a car accident.

[Llwellyn]

My parents are Bible-translating missionaries in Africa and had been doing this five years before my birth. I was born while my parents were on break in the USA, and then was raised in Africa on a missionary commune. They were Protestants -- Reformed Calvinists, to be precise, and they baptised me as an infant. The only mindset I was taught was the twisted, confusing Christian mindset.

 

I was confirmed at age 14 and began taking the communion at that time. I was, of course, a very avid and enthusiastic Christian and witnessed to all my friends, argued with people who disagreed, and faithful performed all the proper Christian activities. I voluntarily attended a Christian College in the USA after my high school graduation in Africa. Following college, I attended law school.

 

During my year of clerking for a judge following law school, I deconverted, this was age 25. I remember beginning the year as a conviced Christian, but ending the year as a convinced Platonist. The aspect of Christianity that made me give it up was the doctrine of "God's curse," and the Bible's explanation of the cross as a "penal substitution."

 

I am presently 27 years old.

[Llwellyn]

At 39, I started to have a nervous breakdown and about the same time I started to deconvert. By 40, I had left Christianity. I am now 41, soon to be 42.

What was causing you so much distress? Did it have anything to do with the Christian religion? What is the connection between the nature or your distress and the deconversion?

 

I'm really curious!

[Rhia]

I was first taught at the age of 9, upon entering a Pentecostal foster home.

 

"Saved" at 13.

 

I deconverted at the age of 19, after a year at a very liberal Christian college.

 

I'm 22 now.

[Cliff Dweller]

Nominal Christianity as a child, atheist by age 13. Became converted and was confirmed as an Anglican at 32, was received into the Catholic Church at age 44. Started deconverting about 3 years ago at 52 years, with some false starts and going back - finally made it about February this year aged 54. Am just starting to feel happy again after all the anguish.

[Babelfish]

I was raised Southern Baptist, was in church from infancy. I got "saved" at 4 and was baptised at 6-7, which I was always proud of as a Christian but which disgusts me now. I had no idea at the age of 4 what being "saved" meant, I was just doing what everyone said you were supposed to do and trying to please my parents. I'd started doubting somewhere in my mid teens and definitely had disparate doctrinal beliefs but just clung harder to Christianity (I was one of the tards spouting AIG answers in evolution/creation debates.) until I actually admitted my atheism to myself at 20.

[Piprus]

Didn't get much religion, just a few basics, really, as a very young kid. Got "saved" as a southern baptist at age 9 or 10, but that didn't last for long. I was out of fundiethink by age 13 although I still went to church fairly regularly, and out of xianity by age 16. I was a deist for a long time, but within the past several years I've evolved more into outright atheism. I'm now 56.

[perianwalsh]

been interesteed on xtianity a long time.First a deist,then christian buddhist,then christian,-->??

timeline:From age 17 to age 18

[godlessgrrl]

1) 29. As with Varokhar, the final straw came after a nasty breakup with a nasty fundy.

 

2) I don't remember. Maybe 5?

[ShackledNoMore]

I was born into the catholic church, and was raised with a typical moderate religious emphasis until I was 12. Then my mother was "saved" and dragged along with the tide into full strength fundy-land, I was also officially "born again."

 

I was 25 by the time I had worked through the deconversion process.

[Luke Wolf]

I was born into Christian parents. I really didn't have much of a choice.

I at about 14 or 15 years old, I began to question and doubt. The more questioning and doubting I did, the more of a hardcore Jesus freak I became until I had a mental break down.

At the age of 16, I started to wonder about the Bible. I remember that most of the OT is based on older stories, but I still wanted to cling onto Jesus.

But a few months later, I denounced Christianity.

I have been off of Christianity for almost 5 years now. And thank god I'll be able to enjoy turning 21 next month. Allthough I've been drunk and passed out enough times to know damned well it isn't fun anymore after a certain point is reached, I'm still gonna go bar hopping to find the bars I like and have good drink selections and prices, and good strippers and dancers. (Allthough I pretty much already know.)

[Taphophilia]

I was raised and confirmed Methodist. My parents were more or less agnostic, but if there was a god, it was the Christian one. Something very tramatic happened to me when I was 12 at summer camp. I watched a friend die. She had an undetected heart defect and woke up one morning with the "flu" then passed out. The camp counselors gave her CPR but she died right there. This left an impact on my 12 year old mind and much questioning life and death. The next school year I went to a really fundy Christian school, not because it was Christian but because it was private. They had all the answers to my questions.

 

I bought my first computer in 2000 when I was 33 and I started reading arguments against Christainity that I'd never been exposed to before. They made sense, a lot of sense. I started reading books, I'd requested from the local library's book lending program. Some books took my right leaning brain forever to get through. I then read apologetic books in hopes they would prove Christianity right, but it was too late. By this time, I knew what circular reasoning was. I didn't have a choice. No matter how much I wanted to believe, I couldn't believe anymore.

 

I'm 40 now.

[Toxic]

Indoctrinated with Xtainity as soon as I could read, attended Sunday school as a child, attended a charismatic/fundy Anglican church at 17, stopped going to church at 18, dabbled in paganism in my early 30s, now alternate between theism and atheism bepending on what kind of a day I'm having.

[Everglaze]

I was a non-believer since I was a child (I didn't believe in Jesus like I believed in Santa), yet I was misinformed, so I believed I was someway a Christian just because I attended church with my parents. I attended church on and off until 2000 when I convinced myself that I truly wasn't a Christian, but an Atheist. In 2004, I officially converted into a Christian at the age of 21. I left in the middle of 2006 at age 23 to return to my Atheistic roots and now I'm 24.

[Evolution_beyond]

I stopped being conventionally christian in my beliefs when I was about 18. I stopped believing that Jesus was literally divine two or three years later, at the age of 20.