Atheist : Have you studied religion thru and thru?

I was born into a Catholic family and sent to a convent school.

Years later my parents (and me) changed to Protestant.

I remained a Christian for over 30 years and constantly studied the bible.

Bible study and the study of the real history of the origins of Christianity gave me enough time and informed knowledge to realise that not only was the religion false but that there is also no evidence for the existence of any gods. I became an atheist in my early 30's.

I am now 65 yo and am as hard an atheist as you will ever find.

The more I read the bible, the less I believed in Christianity until I finally left altogether. History helped with that, you know history and its facts. I find Christianity, Islam and Judaism to be the 3 most unbelievable religions out there. I like eastern religions and the myths and legends from the ancient areas of Europe and the Middle East, but I haven't found a religion that I agree with 100%.

I wasn't raised in a religious family but I attended a Catholic school merely because of its credentials. My parents weren't necessarily pushy about their atheism so the only real religious influence I got at a young age was that of Catholicism.

Luckily, we were taught about many world religions (we had a mandatory class, religious education, in which we learned about all religions with equal weight until graduation).

I've studied religions in my own time, too. I pondered religion over and over until I decided that it wasn't for me. My dismissal wasn't nonchalant at all.

It bothers me when I see kids born into *name* religion, and then grow up to believe in that religion and do the same to their kids without ever questioning it or educating themselves about current and past religions. Even if nothing about them necessarily captivates you into believing in them, it's no excuse for ignorance.

I found that the more I researched and studied, the less I believed, and the more atheistic I felt.

Me and my best friend were hard core Christians for years, but the more we studied the bible, the more it didn't make sense. It is full of contradictions. The only reason religion is around is to reassure people that there is something after death. The world needs something to believe in or everyone will freak out.

What, every religion? No... I can't say I'm a master at every religion, or anything like that. I did take a religion class in college that covered most of the main ones though.

Used to be Christian / read books by biblical scholars (geeky hobby.)

Without meaning to blow my own trumpet, I think I, and a lot of non-theists who take an interest in religion, know more about the history of religion due to (some) theists refusing to stray from scripture. I posted a question once asking if Christians study their own religion outside of scripture and a large percentage said they refused to because it strayed from the bible. I even had a few people say it's the work of Satan to deceive them (facepalms.)

You don't have to be a theist to take an interest in religion, and I would argue that it helps if you're not.

I was raised in the Methodist church. In the 80's I went on a soul-searching mission and wound up studying:

Christianity

Islam

Judaism

Hinduism

Buddhism

Tao

Kabala

All this led me to read on other mythologies, like Greek, Roman and Norse. My conclusion was that Man has an active imagination and wants to ascribe to a deity that which he does not understand.

I was raised a Christian and went to church every Sunday for 15 years of my life...

Assuming you are not an Atheist I am sure that what ever religion you are has taught you not pass judgment on anyone and to accept them for who they are.

I went to Catholic school from K-12.

I've also studied Buddhism.

Read this and you will understand.

I was born into a Christian family and went to church every Sunday and Wednesday for 18 years.I gave my heart to God/Jesus and did everything thing that a person's supposed to do.But,it just never did anything for me.I watched everyone crying and happy,preachers preaching from the heart with emotion.I was just interested in the psychology of it all .Too much did not make sense.Too many in the things the Bible says did not match the obvious realities of the world.I feel very lucky for myself that unlike most children who are born into this or that religion that I was able to make decisions on my own.Most children who are raised from birth in religion are forever unable to break free from the deep implant put into their psyche from birth.It's called conditioning.If you ever ask yourself questions it's not wrong,it is natural and a sign of intelligence to question things.Just to give you an example.My question that changed everything for me was(and religious theologians cannot contradict this).If the Bible says that God is perfect and with out sin,he can not sin.He can not create sin and heaven was with out sin.The universe was without sin.Where then did sin come from?So,try for 1 second to create a whole number to fit between 1 and 2 in your head......You can not.Why?Because it is impossible.It does not exist.So if God created everything from the smallest nucleus to the universe itself and every thought and emotion that man kind could ever have and he did it all without sin existing anywhere in any form in all of it.Then how did the devil sin for the first time when he wanted a coup in heaven before god supposedly cast him out.How did he even come up with the idea?The normal first response is "God gives us a choice,free will."But, you cannot make a choice if the choice does not exist,anymore than you can create a whole number to fit between 1 & 2.It doesn't exist.The choice for sinning was not even in the selection of thoughts to chose from.The devil couldn't have sinned because sin didn't exist.Was there a devil before the devil who tempted the devil?No.impossible.The Bible stumbles right from the first few pages and does not stop until the colorful ending and which now that I am free from all of those nightmare stories I look back with a very sick feeling my stomach that there were people out there who wanted those kind of things in my head.Things that aren't real or are never going to happen.I have since traveled the world and have an understanding now of things that I never had before.The world is a book and those who don't travel only read one page.Like the normal Christians don't out of fear unless they are missionaries.One important stop I made was here in Thailand where I came to study meditation.One of the worst,dirtiest lies we are taught in church is that Buddhism is a cult.A cult! True Buddhism isn't even a religion.It's philosophy and no,real Buddhists monks don't believe you come back as a chicken or a carrot because you were bad.Rebirth means the rebirth of bad actions in this life like an alcoholic falling off the wagon.I am just a person studying meditation,not serious Buddhist and no monks don't proselytize it is forbidden in Buddhism.People come to Buddhism,Buddhism never comes knocking on your door when your trying to watch NFL.I have learned a very powerful lesson about the world and my Christian upbringing and that is that all of the normal Christian churches talk about the Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses saying that they are cults-which is true-but those same churches have never looked in the mirror at their own face.Two quotes;1 from Jesus and 1 from The Buddha can sum it up.1st.Jesus said."Come to me with the faith of a child and be a sheep in my flock."Okay,but children are naive and believe in Santa clause if we tell them to and sheep are witless followers who will walk to their death over a cliff to follow their Shepard.2nd.The Buddha said"Don't listen to what I say and take it on blind faith.Instead go into the world and see for yourself whether what I say is true or not.Because true wisdom is not simply believing what you are told but instead experiencing and understanding truth and reality."

In all reality which one of these quotes sounds like a cult?

Source(s):

I woke up and so can anyone who asks questions..

Source(s):

Religion is nothing more than words in books.

Source(s):

Truth

Source(s):

Wake up happy.