In what way did you know you didn't believe in God?

[Jamesman42]

Title.

Just wondering based off of tj's thread.

I also was gonna put a comedy option of "AndyDT," but decided against it.

Edit: Let me know if another option is needed.

[glaurung]

I guess the second option fits me the best. But by "raised to believe" I mean I went to church every now and then when I was a kid before the age of 8 (so even then it wasn't really a big part of my life). Once I learned about evolution and how it makes complete and total sense I just sort of figured "Oh, well that's that I guess".

[Jamesman42]

Yeah, by "raised to believe" it could be just going to church to religion being forced down your throat.

[Cool Chris]

I was never raised to believe in any sort of religion by my parents. I think that trickled down from them, who, if I am recalling correctly, weren't raised to follow a religion as kids themselves. I wasn't exposed to any organized religion directly until around 4th grade, when I met one of my best childhood friends, whose family was Catholic. I went to church with them a couple times. Boy, did I not have a clue what the heck was going on. I wanted to drink the juice and eat the cracker like everyone else, but they advised me against it

For high school, I was sent to a Jesuit school, where I was really introduced to religion for the first time. Not only through classes, but through Christian friends. I found it interesting from a historical standpoint. Even as a kid I enjoyed history. But I never really felt like I believed in any sort of deity.

This (non)belief developed further, when I went to college and made friends with some Christians. I was really struggling and they encouraged me to go to church with them. Not to try and convert me, but to help me find whatever answers and/or comfort I wasn’t finding on my own. I found the comfort, but ended up finding it within myself. (or maybe that was God working in His own way…)

So, I guess I never felt like I believed in a God in the first place, so not sure if there was ever a point when it occurred to me that I indeed felt that way. But it has been something I have questioned within myself over the years.

[Jamesman42]

^So you're unsure still? Just wondering.

[TheVoxyn]

Didn't grow up believing in god. I doubt I would still believe in a god if I were raised believing, but you never know. I'm a pretty determined atheist.

[Cool Chris]

^So you're unsure still? Just wondering.

No. I’ve never felt like I truly believed, even if at times I wanted to. But in retrospect, those times I wanted to were for the wrong reasons (because my friends did, because I felt I should…) And to me, that always seemed wrong, almost hypocritical, when I would attend a mass as a non-believer. Even now at times when I am lost, or looking for answers/comfort, something keeps me from believing in a higher power.

[sonatafanica]

Somewhere between the second and third I guess? I was raised as a Christian and went to church often until I was maybe fourteen/fifteen. You name a denomination of church and I've attended a mass at least one, Lutheran, Protestant, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, the list goes on. I even went to Catholic school for middle school.  When I was about thirteen I went to this one presbyterian church that was very, very, super friendly and everyone there was awesome. They didn't have actual masses, they just owned this huge house and every Wednesday night a bunch of high schoolers would go there and there would be live music and sermons and basically everyone would hang out in the various rooms and have a blast.

After that I started going to masses at a different church every now and then. This was just your run-of-the-mill, boring white people Christian church of God or something like that. It was way different from the previous one I had gone to, obviously, as that church was more focused on everyone being together and happy as people with just a little Jesus-this-and-that thrown in there. But this church was allll Jesus all the time. Hallelujah, praise be. I figured I would start to educate myself on what I was learning, so I read about as much of christianity as I could. Then I started to...notice things. I guess in the same sort of fashion Mark Twain did, just flaws of character. God and Jesus were just badly written characters. They seemed to contradict themselves often. I felt even I could write a god better than the christian one over a three day weekend. Then I started to read more and more about evolution and things like that and God didn't need to exist anymore after I started seeing things put together.

I didn't start out on the path to non-belief with a resentment to god or anything like that. It's just that a lot of it didn't fit, too much for it to be true.

[rumborak]

Raised Catholic (was even an altarboy for a while), but over time, combined with my growing interest in the sciences, the claims of religion lived up less and less to their claims. I also am a very self-content person, so I never saw the need to either worship or connect with this elusive being that seemingly made a sport out making itself look like a product of human need and imagination.

rumborak

[GuineaPig]

First option.

[The Silent Cody]

Second option for me. My parents gave me free will, you know. I was trying to go to church, ray and stuff, but I never find anything that would be good for me. So I stopped worrying and now I can say, I'm an atheist.

[Jamesman42]

Which one of you mods put that 4th option in there.

I bet it was bosk.

[bosk1]

  What are you rambling on about?

[glaurung]

I didn't start out on the path to non-belief with a resentment to god or anything like that. It's just that a lot of it didn't fit, too much for it to be true.

I think this is important for me too, I bear no ill will towords any particular religion. I may be an atheist but the really hard core ones that go around yelling at religious people about how their bowing to false idols and lies piss me off more than (almost) any religious person ever could. Everyone should just do what makes them happy and leave others to do what they will.

[Quadrochosis]

My option would be:

Was raised to believe, but reason and logic spoke differently, once I hit the ripe old age of about.. seven or so.

[Ħ]

Has anyone who has gone from disbelief to belief gone back to disbelief?  Or vice versa?

[Quadrochosis]

Has anyone who has gone from disbelief to belief gone back to disbelief?  Or vice versa?

I guess for a while there I was testing the waters of different religions (like 11th grade through freshman year in college) but it ultimately proved inconclusive, and I still remain indecisive to this day on anything, ever.

[ClairvoyantCat]

Has anyone who has gone from disbelief to belief gone back to disbelief?  Or vice versa?

Yeah, I was sort of on the fence for about a year a while ago, occasionally hoping on either side for a spell to see if I found firm ground.  Really, I never made a resolving decision, but instead the theist in me was just sort of suffocated silently.  I'm pretty Atheist now, but I'm to young to be sure of this shit, for the most part. 

[sonatafanica]

Has anyone who has gone from disbelief to belief gone back to disbelief?  Or vice versa?

Personally, I'm pretty cautious about making assessments, especially at the level we're talking. I'm open-minded, but it would take some pretty sturdy stuff for me to flip-flop in the way you're implying.

[Jirpo]

Umm well theres not really any religion in my family, but we used to go to church on easter and christmas and my aunt and uncle are religous, and I guess I figured it out when I got old enough to be able to think for myself (13 or so) but I always had a belief deep inside that it just couldn't be true.

[King Postwhore]

I was raised to believe, but it just sort of faded with time as I grew older.

Went to church but had a falling out.  I will never hold it against anyone for their beliefs.  Some people believe that God challenges you during the hard times.  My hard times have lead me the other way.  But to each his own.

[RuRoRul]

I wasn't exactly raised atheist, and I remember my school used to sing hymns about God and stuff evne though it wasn't a Christian school... but religion was never a big deal, my parents weren't religious, so I never believed in it.

[Jamesman42]

Has anyone who has gone from disbelief to belief gone back to disbelief?  Or vice versa?

I've gone from belief to disbelief to belief again. It took A LOT to believe again.

[Bonham]

I was raised as a reform Jew, in a very liberal community. Nearly everyone that I associated with in my early development was more secular than not, and my parents encouraged me to explore my options personally (we celebrated Passover and went to synagogue once every few years, but it was mostly in celebration of the culture).

Essentially, over the past year, I've been training myself (or, at least, attempting to train myself) to think as objectively as possible. And as I find meaning in the naturalists perspective of the world, I see no reason to confine myself to a religion. I certainly concede the possibility of a God's existence, but I'm not going to define myself through a philosophical dead argument.

[tjanuranus]

I was raised as a reform Jew, in a very liberal community. Nearly everyone that I associated with in my early development was more secular than not, and my parents encouraged me to explore my options personally (we celebrated Passover and went to synagogue once every few years, but it was mostly in celebration of the culture).

Essentially, over the past year, I've been training myself (or, at least, attempting to train myself) to think as objectively as possible. And as I find meaning in the naturalists perspective of the world, I see no reason to confine myself to a religion. I certainly concede the possibility of a God's existence, but I'm not going to define myself through a philosophical dead argument.

Well said!

[HarlequinForest]

My parents are Christian, so I was raised to be Christian, but we didn't go to church very often.  I don't ever remember a time when I "actively" believed in God; by that, I mean when I got to the point where I was old enough to question myself if I believed, there was never a time when I did.  The earliest time I remember proclaiming my disbelief was around 12-years-old.  I told my best friend that I didn't believe in God, then later that day, when we were in the car with my mom, my friend asks my mom, "Did you know HarlequinForest is an atheist?  He doesn't believe in God."  I was kind of embarrassed/scared because I hadn't said anything about it to my mom before, but she didn't make a big deal about it because, I think, to this day she doesn't believe I'm "really" an atheist, and that I'll "see the light" one day.  At that time, I didn't even know what "atheist" meant.

Back then, my friend was telling my that I was gonna go to Hell, but when we were about 20, after not seeing eachother for a couple years, he told me he doesn't believe anymore either.

[Dublagent66]

I was raised to believe, but that was before I knew how to make up my own mind.  Now, I'm wiser with age and I don't believe what people or books tell me to believe.