How Long Have You Been Out Of Christianity?

[StevoMuso]

Been atheist since 14 November 1996 - close to 14 years (I remember the date coz it was my daughter's 8th birthday).

[Riz]

Unofficially I've been on a slow decline for the past three years...

 

Officially? More like a matter of weeks or months.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

Doubts began when I was 13, but technically it became official when I was 15, so 5 years. Though being a nonchurch going nonchristian in denial for a year prior maybe. I dont know how long exactly. All I know is that I was becoming "super-fundie" at around age 14 just to try to re-believe, and ended up just deciding when I realized I knew more than a preacher, this crap is crap, not even worth my time I wasted.

[kavodel]

I've been out about two years. For a long time I wondered what I would do to replace the considerable time and energy it took up in my life. I started a yoga class last month. So far it has more than filled the void.

[Shenandoah]

about three weeks maybe... although my path to deconversion started in 2007 when I spent some time in the hospital for depression. I realized part of the reason I was depressed in the first place was because I was so concerned I wouldn't measure up and that God would send me to hell... I slowly drifted to where I am today, which would probably be agnostic.

[Cycel]

On March 21, 2004 I came to the conscious realization I didn’t believe in Christianity or the God of the Bible anymore.

 

There was one moment in time when I realized that I no longer believed in God, and I shall never forget it, however, I never bothered to record the date. May I ask, what happened 21 Mar 2004? Was it a sudden revelation or a quiet moment of reflection?

[DoubleDee]

On March 21, 2004 I came to the conscious realization I didn’t believe in Christianity or the God of the Bible anymore.

 

There was one moment in time when I realized that I no longer believed in God, and I shall never forget it, however, I never bothered to record the date. May I ask, what happened 21 Mar 2004? Was it a sudden revelation or a quiet moment of reflection?

 

It was a quiet moment of reflection after a very intense 3 months of studying the bible, christianity and anything related to god. When I became a "born again" christian I had been told to write the date of my new birth in my bible. It just so happens that my departure from christianity came exactly 13 years to the day later.

 

DD

[J.W.]

Two years today!

 

 

Beginning of May 2010... still sifting through the ashes

[freecanadian]

The last time I went to church was January 2007, but I didn't know I'd never go back. So I've been out for 3.5 years, but only decided I'd never go back in the last year.

 

 

[nightcomeson]

I don't know the exact date, but it's approaching four years since I came clean. A little Dawkins pointing out that chance can be responsible for the conditions that made life possible in one little corner of the vast universe, and everything collapsed.

[godlessgrrl]

I went apostate sometime at the end of December 2001. By New Year's Day of 2002, I wasn't a believer anymore.

 

So it's been about 8 and a half years now.

[Da Realist84]

I've been out for about 5 yrs off and on. It has been a rollercoaster ride emotionally for me. Thats why im here.

[Komadori]

Ex-Christian since October 1997, when my Dad died. Ritually buried the last vestiges of my faith with him.

Tried Wicca... never successfully called the L&L

Determined eclectic pagan... never determined a pantheon...

Pantheist for the last... two or so years, possibly more. Didn't know the definition until then.

 

I still consider myself pagan, culturally speaking. I like mysticism. It's an interesting exercise for the mind. Doesn't mean it's real, though. (Does that count as spiritual LARP?)

[Eddie]

oh, bout 14 years now.....

[flockoff]

I parted with Christianity by telling God for various reasons to go fuck himself in June 2007. I used deism and agnosticism temporarily while I looked for enough scientific justification to become atheist. Didn't take long, about Christmas of the same year.

 

 

[RJT]

As many of you know, "leaving Xty" was a process for most of us, not so much an event. Since I was in the ministry, the process went on quite a while for me. But, it came to a head in the spring of 2004 when I made the decision to leave the ministry and return to the USA and a secular life working in the trades. My wife and I were missionaries in Europe. The decision to leave was made, as I said, in the spring of 2004, but we didn't actually physically leave the ministry until March of 2005. It takes time to close down 28 years of ministry. So, I actually became a "civilian" again about 5.5 years ago. I returned Stateside what I would have considered a "liberal Xtn", but the deconversion process was still going on. Within a year or so I realized I was actually a theist. Within another year I had to admit to myself I was a deist, and it wasn't even another year before I had to be honest and recognize that I am an agnostic. Kind of interesting, 'cause I was converted to Xty from agnosticism and here I am back where I started. Well, not exactly. I've learned a WHOLE LOT in my 40 year pilgrimage in the world of Evangelicalism! I'm a much more convinced agnostic now than I was 40 years ago. Whew!

[Jeremy Allen]

Been out since March 2008, after 15 years of conservative fundamentalist Southern Baptist style Christianity. So glad I am out.

[Benyan]

Just a few months from confessing deconvert. I like this web site. Its positive.

[βlaᵴⱣhe ɱᴲ]

It will soon be 2 years since my mind opened and the burden of Christianity was lifted from me.  

[Randi]

5 days. Best week of ym life so far, and it's only going to get better.

[FinallyFree]

I have officially been an ex-christian for about six months or so; however, I have unknowingly been going through the deconversion process for nearly 9 years. It has been long and arduous path to get to where I am at now - and I've still got a long ways to go.

 

I was raised as a born-again-christian attending a non-denominational, full-gospel church from age 5 (we were catholic before then). My dad had us throw all of our catholic relics into the wood stove, and he sat us down to watch "A Thief in the Night" - 1972. I was traumatized and lived in an intense amount of fear day in and day out. I was not concerned for myself - because I knew I would be "raptured" - I was scared to think about what would happen to the loved ones I would leave behind.

 

At the age of ten or eleven, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, but I wasn't able to speak in tongues like everyone else - there must have been something wrong with me, I thought. I probably didn't have enough faith or I didn't trust god enough.

 

I could share so many experiences - and will at a later date - but for now, suffice it to say that since I have left christianity behind - I am FinallyFree.

[Overcame Faith]

Since September 17, 2007. And good riddance to the religion that I now loathe (I don't loathe individual Christians, only the Christian religion).

[kittypaws]

I've recently realised that I actually have no idea when I've stopped being a Christian. I remember when I first started having doubts, and I very clearly remember the agonising crisis of faith that lasted for years. In the end, I had to make a conscious effort to try to stop thinking about Christianity and praying because a) it was futile and b ) my mental health was really suffering.

 

At this point, I still believed Christianity to be "the truth" but I felt God had abandoned me. There seemed to be no other explanation for why God would remain silent when I spent hours in tears praying for "Him" to restore my faith. Eventually, as I was making the decision to sweep the whole mess under the carpet in order to preserve my sanity, I tried to comfort myself by reasoning that God had some purpose in making me suffer like this. Maybe He wanted me to be able to help others having a crisis of faith, and would eventually answer my prayers. Or maybe I had believed in the wrong way, and God wanted me to stop believing before He would give me a renewed, better kind of faith.

 

I was in my early to mid-twenties (23? 24? possibly even 25) when I stopped praying for God to restore my faith. I felt like I would never get over the pain of losing my faith. But somehow, over the years, my subsonscious must have been processing my deconversion. When I occasionally allowed myself to think about these matters, it was less painful, and at some point I realised I no longer believed that Christianity was true. It was only after I was deconverted that I was able to think freely about the doctrines of Christianity and realised they made no sense to me at all.

 

I was about nineteen when my crisis of faith began, and by the age of thirty I was fully deconverted. I'm now forty and have been reviewing my beliefs in the recent years. There's no way I can ever return to Christianity if I remain in full possession of my mental faculties.

 

BTW, this is my first post here. I've been eagerly lurking for a while now; this site is great. I wish my deconversion process hadn't begun in the pre-internet era - a place like this would have been a great help for me back then!

[Vendredie]

4 and a half years

 

I've been a full-on atheist for 4 years... if you don't count the few months here and there I was Wiccan.

 

I think I'm pretty well shot of it.

[Overcame Faith]

It was only after I was deconverted that I was able to think freely about the doctrines of Christianity and realised they made no sense to me at all.

 

This describes me, too, Kittypaws. While a Christian, I would tell myself that I was going to look at it all with an objective eye, but I now realize that I really didn't have the objectivity necessary because I always had an agenda. And that agenda was to convince myself that Christianity was true. Once I left the religion, then I saw it all for what it really is. And this brings up an important issue. If some of us can't really see the truth until we leave Christianity, how is it that we were ever able to leave Christianity in the first place? Or, put another way, what is it exactly that allows a person who is a true believer to turn off the belief and see the religion objectively? It's sort of like the chicken and the egg question and it is why some are destined to be lifelong true believers while other true believers are able to escape.