Former Theist: What was your turning point?

I was raised Catholic. I attended mass every week as well as Catholic church until age 13. Growing up, I despised Catholic school. Being a private school, all of my classmates were very vain and their primary concern seemed to be what brand of clothing they wore.

Aside from that fact, I simply never believed. When I prayed, I felt nothing. When I attended church, I felt nothing. When I took the communion, I felt nothing. I wanted so badly to feel something and believe like everyone else did but, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't.

At age 13, I decided that I no longer wanted to attend church. I didn't yet know that I was a non-believer, as indoctrination can be difficult to let go of, but I knew I no longer wanted to attend church. My mom said that if I no longer wanted to attend our church, I had to attend *a* church, whether it was Catholic, Protestant, or non-denominational. As long as it was Christian and I was attending church, it didn't matter.

So I went various churches with various friends but still nothing. Eventually both my mother and I stopped attending. Me because I simply didn't want to. Her because of church politics. She is, however, still Christian.

At age 18 I was living on my own and dating a Southern Baptist whose father used to be a deacon and was very active in the church. I hadn't attended church in 5 years and never gave religion or spirituality much thought. I still identified as a Christian, by default, because I still had not come to grips with my lack of belief. My boyfriend's father would talk to me about God and religion and what not, and I would engage in the conversation, but didn't really have a stance one way or another.

While working in a call center, I stumbled across Yahoo! Answers. A user by the name of Jim Darwin (an atheist) was always posting questions that I saw on the main board, as I wasn't yet frequenting the R&S section, that I found very interesting and thought provoking. After being able to discuss religion with other nonbelievers here on R&S and studying/reading about various religions as well as the history of religion, I realized that I was an atheist and began identifying as such at age 19.

At first, I was a little uncomfortable with it. I was not doubtful at all, don't get me wrong. But I was uncomfortable with telling other people because of what they might think of me. A few years later, at 22, after much growth and self realization I can also say that I am 100% comfortable in my disbelief, regardless of others' perceptions.

Sorry for the long winded answer, I was on a roll. :-)

I guess I wouldn't say I'm completely a former theist. I was raised Catholic and after my parents divorced, my mom forced me to become Lutheran with her. I guess she didn't "force" me to, but she got whiny and laid the guilt-trip pretty hard that eventually I got fed up and just did it. The weird thing is, I'm fine sitting through Catholic mass, but I felt really uncomfortable whenever she made me go to the Lutheran church on Sundays. It wasn't the fault of the church itself or the people - it was a nice place and people were nice, I just always felt physically uncomfortable being there. Overall, I don't feel like I can support Christianity anymore because a lot of Christians I know (not all, but a lot of them, my mother and many family included) who say that they are "good Christians" who "don't judge anyone" but at the same time preach about how homosexuality is wrong, abortion is wrong, Islam is all about violence, pagans worship Satan, seem to think that racism is over because there are laws against discrimination, say that feminists hate men, etc etc, and then after they finish preaching all of that, they say "but it isn't my place to judge" or "the Lord will judge them at The Revelation" or some other things like that. Basically, they are under the impression that because they are Christian and straight, they are automatically guaranteed a place in heaven. Additionally, while the New Testament seems to talk about love and acceptance in some parts, there are many parts that don't and promote violence and hate (mainly parts in the Old Testament. However, I do know Christians who are a bit more cool-headed and I respect them A LOT more than the hypocritical ones who won't accept that there is any flaw in the teachings of a book that was written millennium ago.

I say that I'm not completely a former theist, because I do believe that there is some kind of universal energy that may not plan out every detail of everyone's lives, but maybe dabbles here and there - not everything is fate and destiny, but some things are, a little bit.

Basically to me, for a religion that claims it promotes love and acceptance, there has been a lot of negativity and hate among the people I know who believe in it and support that negativity and hate, and that is not something that I can support.

Actually, I'm a former Christian who's just a theist.

The turning point - the point at which I realized that I didn't want Christianity or Jesus in my life - was when God started trying to force ideas on me that were strongly against my values.

But I knew in the back of my head that all the things that Christianity says - that a talking snake convinced a rib-woman to do something she was told not to do, that a man survived in the stomach of a whale for a number of days, that the world was created in only 6 days, that Jesus was able to turn water into wine, that Jesus rose from the dead, etc. - was all merely a myth. It was when God tried forcing ideas on me that strongly go against my values that I quit forcing myself to believe in all these nonsensical Christian myths.

I was a gradual atheist. I didn't find god ever important enough to think about him too much because my mom and dad never pressed me to believe (although, she did insist I go to church to be confirmed). Once I left home I suddenly realized that I should have an opinion of god and so I started to research different books and came to the conclusion that it is simply CRAZY to believe in god! How was it different than an adult version of Santa, the easter bunny, the tooth faerie? And even more startling to me me was the realization of the bad things that has been done in the name of god. Now everyday I am becoming more and more fearful of the future with people whose gods want them to kill each other for various reasons. And people who wish to die and hope for the end of the world more than improving lives and environment on this planet. I am now a little peeved with myself for not coming to these realizations earlier. It would have given me purpose in my teenage years rather than spending that time grieving over my fathers death. Now that I think of it I don't know why his death didn't make me think of god more...I guess it is because I was never really raised to even consider him (thank you mom and dad!).

...UGH, I just changed the most shitty diaper ever!!! Reaffirming my belief that there is NO god. lol

Yeah, with me it was reading Leviticus, Deuteronomy... Joshua.. people casually writing about entire cities being wiped out... men, women, children... without provocation.

It was not the only thing, maybe not even the most important thing, but when I think about `turning point´ that time pops up. The utter callousness of genocide. "Killing a baby can be good, if God orders it".

1)When a priest told me a 13 year old suicidal kid ( I know the kid, he struggled many problems, I understand why he's suicidal ) is going to hell. that was the last straw.

2) Science is my dream, I love it explains nature through details,observations and cold hard evidence, when I looked at God for explanations, all I got was " ....."

3) when I was a kid myself, I had weird fantasy of insulting God & Jesus even when I was a hard core Christian, I even tried exorcism but that fantasy never went, I guess it was my rational side of my mind trying to ridicule my beliefs .

I can't say that I ever had an epiphany, I never really believed as a Christian, I did not know much else. As I became more educated and observed the world, I understood that the Christian idea of god is ridiculous.

Taoist/Atheist

I've always been skeptical, but I was raised Catholic. I guess when I got to college, I just realized that I never really believed any of it. I just appreciate Christianity because some of the stories and morals that are taught are very valuable. I've honestly never seen another Catholic condemn someone to Hell, so maybe I was already a part of somewhat of an open-minded group?

Before you write your paper I suggest reviewing your rules of grammar.

The turning point or as I like to refer to it the major push, was when I was 9 years old and I wrote CCD sucks on my CCD book and the Deacon yelled at me. I pointed out the questions in the book and how foolish they were and how what they were saying happened obviously could not have happened. Man did he get pissed. He yelled and screamed and said all sorts of things. I stopped going after that point.

When I read the bible thoroughly and realised it was nonsense. I was 10.