A question on religion.?

Hi I was a Christian for 22 years. I became an atheist 15 years ago. I don't consider "non belief' a religion but I don't know if you're including us in your research or not.

I am an atheist because I could not reconcile the bible with the facts I knew to be true (such as scientific facts of astronomy, biology, medicine, etc) and I could not reconcile it with what I knew to be morally true (such as slavery, rape and oppression are morally wrong, but are approved in the bible). I realized there is no such thing as "free will" in Christianity, just coercsion under threat of torture (love me, believe me, or I'll use you for firewood for all of eternity) I realized that the idea of original sin, or being responsible for things that happened (or didn't..ahem) before you were born was completely nonsensical. Most importantly, I couldn't find any sort of proof for the existence of a God.

I'm 41. (There were a few years between Christianity and Atheism where I was sort of Deist and then Agnostic)

People are not "inspired" to join a religion but do so because of the child abuse of being forced into it from a very early age!!

Acceptance of a supernatural claim tends to promote cooperative social relationships. This communication demonstrates a willingness to accept, without skepticism, the influence of the speaker in a way similar to a child's acceptance of the influence of a parent. By encouraging this kind of behavior where the most intense social relationships occur it facilitates the lack of skepticism and deters more open minded thinking.

They are christian, Muslim or the other religions depending where they were born simply because they were indoctrinated by their parents as very young children. They will go on to indoctrinate their own children and those will go on to indoctrinate their grandchildren!!

Atheists have the intellect to see through the conditioning and escape into the real world!!

Agnostics have the intellect to see through the conditioning but lack the courage to throw of the conditioning entirely.

Sadly Christians are still held firmly prisoner by the self perpetuating brainwashing!!

I saw through religion at 9 and thanks to education and intellect there are now many posts from young teens who have done so. Sadly they also report their parents have turned against them and now punish and persecute them!!

I've spent most of my life reading various holy texts and researching all religions with an open mind, and then finding that all of them are either close variants of each other or just complete bull ****; or just way out of the way for me. I'm Atheist and I'm 17.

I was born to a very casual, lukewarm, probably completely pretend Catholic dad and a once passionate Southern Baptist mom. I frankly have NO IDEA why my mom in particular didn't force us to go to church, except that liberalism was ALREADY starting to preach to parents: "Don't shove your religion down your children's throats."

So, jump cut 30 years later ... I'm 36 years old, believe in God, have been feeling his pull for several years, but have still never set foot in church. I'm married to a Catholic lady. I've told her that there's no way I would attend Catholic mass! That has to do with some research I had done on the intertwining of Catholicism and Paganism, which dates back to Caesar.

Anyway ... she wants to go to some church. She's feeling empty and in need of a church family. I know it's the right thing to do, but ... which church? I don't know Mormons from Lutherans from Charismatics to non-denominational.

So, every Sunday we'd go and sit outside this church and that. We'd just stare at the people to see if they looked like aliens. (Joking of course.) I have no idea WHAT we were looking at or for.

I was scared to death to set foot inside a church. Eventually we stopped doing this and it was back to ... we should be in church, but we aren't. We'd like to go, but we don't know where. Etc.

Then one day my wife watches D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries. She thinks he seems like an okay dude. She watches a few more Sundays before asking me to watch. I'm like ... that's a solid Biblical message. He's a Presbyterian. Hey! Maybe Presbyterians are okay!

So, the following Sunday we went to a Presbyterian church. We attended over the next 6 months or so, but never really felt at home in that church. One day we decided to try another church. It just so happened another Presbyterian church was right across the street. So, we walked in.

It turns out that the FIRST Presbyterian church was a PCUSA church. The second was a PCA church. The Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) had broken away from the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA) because ... the PCUSA church had become ... liberal.

The folks at the PCUSA church had never heard of Dr. James Kennedy. But no one at that church ever explained any of this to me. It was the PCA church that cleared it all up.

We've moved since then to a city in Kansas which doesn't have a PCA church. While there, we attended a few other Reformed churches, but never felt as "at home" as we do in the PCA church. So, we moved again, this time making sure that there was a PCA church in the town we moved to.

It's been 12 years since we first stumbled into that PCA church. We're still at home in our church!!!

For me, it's all about a pure Biblical message. Reverance to God. Truth. Etc.

Lord bless.

I neither have nor want a religion and my age is my business.

Edit: That means old and I ain`t telling.

The money is good and also the guilt free sinning was a real big plus.

I'm 8

I'm atheist. I find religion illogical. My age is really none of your concern.

I got one hell of a deal for my soul! age 270!

It's been in my family and i beleive it all. 14.