Volt Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 I was never really a religious person... I just had the basic belief that God made the world, Adam and Eve, blah blah, then Jesus died on the cross for everyone. Yet i didn't really apply those beliefs to anything, and I wonder if it was ever a belief in the first place, or just a story I knew o_o; I was always into dinosaurs. I always read books about them and other prehistoric animals. Since dinosaurs and all those other creatures lived millions of years ago, I just assumed that God made the universe a really freaking long time ago. I remember in one of my books, it talked about how long man has been around. That was fine, till one day I was like...wait... I already knew that humans and most modern animals did not live at the same time as dinosaurs. But if God supposedly made Adam and Eve first, then all the animals, then it didn't make sense! Humans were not here at the beginning of the world, I knew that. So that's basically what kicked it off for me. I was 7 or 8 at the time. I tried praying a lot when I was like 10, but nothing really happened or changed and I never felt anything, so I just quit that. We got internet access again when I was 12, and I was into Greek mythology at the time, so I always looked up Greek myths and names of constellations, and stuff on mythical animals. That was when i started thinking about how ancient people had gods and stuff, and people today even have different religions, so I was like "Well, they can't all be right..." I became interested in reading debates on forums between believers and nonbelievers. I always found myself agreeing with the nonbeliever, just because it made so much more sense! So I pretty much quit believing because of dinosaurs and internet. I can't even explain what sort of belief I had in God, I just thought he was there or something :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volt Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 I guess I should also add that the behavior and opinions of more serious Christians than my parents that i knew also turned me off to the religion. I thought their reasons for, say, objecting to Harry Potter, or saying my favorite video games were Satanic, were stupid and they were overreacting and taking their Bible to seriously. My parents agreed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue elephant Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 For me, the end of a marriage was a trigger for investigating whether I thought the Bible was true. I had been drifting along, not attending church or praying for about three or four years at this time. I was married to someone but I was very unhappy. I knew that if I decided the Bible was true and that I did intend to continue being a Christian, I would have to stay married to that person. So, I started reading the book of Luke in the New Testament. Got to the part where Jesus cursed the tree and decided that Jesus was an illogical and capricious character and not the Son of God at all. This was in 1981. I have never had another flirtation with Christianity since that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingLife Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 The Harry Potter was something I "protected" my kids from w/o even reading or seeing a movie and it boils down to one must never be allowed to discern fact from fiction IMO. I am watching the whole series now and it is merely entertainment. You have to only believe in their fairies and goblins, no one else's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smellincoffee Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 I grew up in the Oneness, Holiness Pentecostal tradition which places great emphasis on 'experiencing god' through tongues, dancing, worship, etc. I could never feel God, and by the time I was 20 this worried me considerably. I despaired at the thought of Hell, eventually became angry, and told God to piss off. ..and then a couple of months later I found a forum for freethinkers and it's been clear skies ever since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyChef Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 For me it was actually reading the babble and seeing the contradictions and failures of a "perfect god".Then I went to Paramedic school and saw enough proof of an imaginary "god". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted February 28, 2011 Author Moderator Share Posted February 28, 2011 I Hope this post helps. I feel I've wrote way to much. This is just a condensed version of my thoughts on this. There are other aspects, but I've got to get some sleep at this point. this has helped me a lot 'none'. thank you for taking the time! I appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volt Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 The Harry Potter was something I "protected" my kids from w/o even reading or seeing a movie and it boils down to one must never be allowed to discern fact from fiction IMO. I am watching the whole series now and it is merely entertainment. You have to only believe in their fairies and goblins, no one else's. They considered me a bad influence to their kids because I love magic and fantasy stuff. They used to call my parents out on it and try to convince them to bring us(the kids) to church and make me stop with all the fantasy play... We never did it because my parents got pissed that someone was trying to change their parenting and that church isn't really our style anyway. They still live there, they're okay people, I'm friends with their kids still, but the parents are really full of themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 A lot of things over the years brought me to the conclusion religion's gods, all religions, are not real. There many 'aha!' moments over the years too, where I would suddenly awaken to something not correct in the Bible, an error of fact or translation, didn't matter. They got my brain working to discover what the church was passionate about covering up in order to conceal their sins of the past, present and future. The church seemed more concerned about its personal appearance than in taking care of claims of abuse and molestations. The stories written in the OT and NT put together into one Holy Bible just did not make sense. It was definitely for me many things over many years that lead me to where I am now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evelyn Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 Mine was a case of cognitive dissonance over the years, plus I always had doubts. I converted because of fear of hell. I called it "faith at gunpoint", believe or else! I don't like hypocrites and finally realized that I was one and decided to be honest with myself instead. Getting to that point was a gradual process. There was a definite time, though, when I deconverted and that was late November 2004. After going thru the initial weirdness of a change in world view and beliefs, I have settled into the ex-xian life and am happy with my decision. Fortunately, my husband supported me in this process and he soon deconverted. We've had some economic and physical health challenges recently and he told me that he's now doing a bit of a spiritual quest. I am supportive of him doing this though I let him know that I am not on a spiritual quest myself. I've been tempted to seek comfort in religion during our tough times but haven't given in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ Fuego ♦ Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 I first believed because I wanted protection from demons (about age 11). During my 34 years of faith, I had plenty of "Hmmm" moments where things didn't add up or I took some pastor's explanation of events in the scripture as good enough for me to keep going. All of those moments were stored on shelves in my mind. There were lots of things I felt confirmed the reality of the faith as well, and used those to shore up the shelves. But with the right kick, they started falling off the shelves. For me the kick was catching my most influential preacher in flat-out lies about "power encounters" he had with a coven of witches in Germany. It was like a slap to the face. I started off just questioning what I had believed through him and reexamining the extent to which his preaching had shaped my faith. It took a year or so for me to start really questioning Jesus, but that was the event that kicked my shelved questions down from the shelves and made me willing to question things instead of assuming they were true. Within a few months of really questioning and searching online, I had deconverted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMJ Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 There was no single moment that led me to disbelieve in god. It was a slow drip, drip over the years that finally eroded my faith. Everytime I doubted, the tremendous guilt and fear that my questions caused made me immediately shut down the part of me that asked the questions. One of my ongoing problems was my mom. She was abusive and manipulative. For most of my adult life, I tried very hard to honor and respect her. This was very, very difficult and as the years went by I found myself growing very resentful, not only toward my mom but god also. I couldn't understand why I had to be the one with the screwed up parent. People kept trying to tell me that god had a reason, but what possible reason could he have for allowing my siblings and I to spend our childhoods with our mother? It used to make me even angrier when people said that everything happened for god's glory. What a jerk god sometimes seemed to me. Once I admitted that I didn't believe, it was like a weight lifted off me but it took me a long time to admit that I no longer had any faith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petunia Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 My husband started to question his faith, which lead us to talking a lot - which lead me to begin asking questions as well. Researching has been a huge part of it - looking up how the Bible came together, about other religions versions of Jesus/God, looking at the Bible myself instead of just thinking I know it from what I learned when I was younger/am told, listening to what others say about Christian topics and of course, lurking around these boards has been a tremendous help! Everything is still happening for me though, it is all a big process. But my faith is certainly destroyed, I cannot go back knowing what I know now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gypsy79 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 It was definitely not nasty events for me. Don't get me wrong, I've had my share of nasty events, but they never led me to question my faith. Oddly, they always made my faith stronger because I thought I needed Jesus to make it through. I started to question my faith while studying the history of religion and the Bible. More and more, it just didn't make sense and when I tried to read the Bible objectively, it struck me that believing in it literally made about as much sense as thinking the gods of Mt. Olympus are real. The origins of life still confused me, though, so I stuck with deism for a while and read everything I could get my hands on. In the end, I became agnostic and then atheist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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