What was your religious circumstance, when you embraced Atheism?

JimiTime

Ok, just curious. Were any of you independantly Christian when you embraced atheism. By that I mean, lets say you were raised Catholic, but you then saw its errors and found Christs message elsewhere. Afterwhich, you found that it was all nonsense and you concluded God does not exist.

I don't know if I've been clear enough here, so ask away if it seems like a ramble.
Cheers,
Jimi.

seamus

I was raised Catholic, mostly by school as my parents' interest in the church waned as I approached my teens. I was never a fervent follower, but like most others I had always taken it as a given that God existed and gave a ****. I had come to the conclusion quite early that Jesus probably existed at one point, but he didn't occupy any specific place in heaven, i.e. he was just a messenger.
My interest in the whole thing died in my teen years, I just went through the motions in school masses and the like.

Thinking back on it, I think in my mind I always knew that it was all crap (I can remember declaring at 16 that I wouldn't get my kids baptised), but the damn indoctrination made it tough to admit it to myself. When you're told from 4 years of age that God exists and the bible is the factual truth, it can be very difficult to question that as an adult.

Bizarrely, it was watching Stargate and the way that spirtuality was dealt with in the show that made me realise that this TV show's fictional take on the universe was equally likely and valid as any of the major religions, and it's all just a pile of made up bull.

JimiTime

Thanks seamus.

Mena

Was raised with no belief system at all really. Parents sent me to one or the other Sunday school at one stage so I could see what it was all about and make up my own mind. Didn't take very long at all.

Have since become more of an Anti-theist in my later years however.

kelly1

Mena wrote: »

Have since become more of an Anti-theist in my later years however.

Why anti-theist Mena if you don't believe in God? Presumably you feel that religion is harmful?

Dades

kelly1 wrote: »

Why anti-theist Mena if you don't believe in God? Presumably you feel that religion is harmful?

Noel, unless you've recently embraced atheism (imagine!) I'm going to request we not pursue this here. Lets keep a thread on topic for once. TIA, Mena.

Mena

Dades wrote: »

Noel, unless you've recently embraced atheism (imagine!) I'm going to request we not pursue this here. Lets keep a thread on topic for once. TIA, Mena.

Was going to say the same thing, perhaps best left for another thread.

Soul Winner

kelly1 wrote: »

Why anti-theist Mena if you don't believe in God? Presumably you feel that religion is harmful?

I think it means that he's against theists not God per se. If you don't believe that God exists then how can you be against Him? But you can be against those who believe that He (God) does exist which is a different thing. I would be very much against people who believe in God myself if I didn’t believe that God existed. Most of them would do your head in.

biko

JimiTime wrote: »

Ok, just curious. Were any of you independantly Christian when you embraced atheism. By that I mean, lets say you were raised Catholic, but you then saw its errors and found Christs message elsewhere. Afterwhich, you found that it was all nonsense and you concluded God does not exist.

I don't know if I've been clear enough here, so ask away if it seems like a ramble.
Cheers,
Jimi.

You're a believer aren't you? My sister is a believer too and we've had some heated discussions

I didn't "embrace" anything. Atheism just make more sense than anything else.

I was raised by intellectuals who never really believed in god. I did go to church a few times and attended Sunday school but instinctively felt it was wrong.

CerebralCortex

I was agnostic the only thing keeping me there was hardwired fear of an existence without god. But when I started to declare myself as atheist I suddenly realised my life wasn't any worse without a belief in god, actually I'd say life has improved somewhat

JimiTime

biko wrote: »

You're a believer aren't you?

Indeed i am.

My sister is a believer too and we've had some heated discussions

my sister and brother in law are filthy heathens Atheists:) too. Some doozies we've had too. Its good to have serious challenges to ones notions I think.

I didn't "embrace" anything. Atheism just make more sense than anything else.

Ok, but u know what I mean. Accept Atheism etc. Its just semantics.

Thanks for answering. Thanks to everyone else too who have taken the time.

JimiTime

kelly1 wrote: »

Why anti-theist Mena if you don't believe in God? Presumably you feel that religion is harmful?

Good question Noel, but as Dades said, its likely to bring this thread way off track. If you want to start another thread for it, I'd say it'd be interesting. though be prepared to be appalled:)

Galvasean

For my experience check out the 'turning point' thread.

edit: 'Defining moment'.
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055363599

JimiTime

Galvasean wrote: »

For my experience check out the 'turning point' thread.

edit: 'Defining moment'.
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055363599

I'm not really looking for the turning point though. I'm asking what your religious circumstance was, and specifically, were any of you independantly Christian/Muslim etc when you concluded that there was no God.

Dave!

I was baptised, communed (?), and confirmed by the folks for the sake of tradition/ceremony/family/society/culture/normality. I was brought to church until I was about 15 or 16, when I started making a fuss about going and insisted I wouldn't anymore. The parents never mentioned religion to me any other time that I'm aware actually We just had the usual ceremonies, holidays, and celebrations!
The only other contact I had with religion was in school, where we did the usual thing of learning Christian songs and prayers, and so on.

So I was nominally Catholic, but my parents didn't really push the religious stuff beyond the norm really

rainbow kirby

I became an atheist when I was still a child (agnostic at 9, atheist at 12), so my experience was limited really to primary school religion classes and my mum dragging me to mass every Sunday. Either way - that plus what I chose to learn independently as a voracious bookworm of a child was enough to leave me convinced that religion and faith in an invisible man in the sky was a load of crap.

DenMan

When I grew up both of my parents were Catholics, especially my Mother who is a devout Catholic. I grew up questioning a lot of things instead of blindly following them. I would consider myself Agnostic. I have had many great conversations with Christians, Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus, Native American tribes, Atheists from all around the world, and I have come to respect all of their beliefs. I do not consider myself a sheep and will not blindly follow any religion. There is good in all of them, and I have come to respect that. Of all the beliefs I have come into contact with it, it is the Native American tribes I have the most respect for. They respect everybody else's beliefs and do not force/coerce their own beliefs on others. That is the greatest gift of all, the understanding to allow and respect a person's individuality while not forcing them to become part of a larger group if they do not want to.

Zillah

JimiTime wrote: »

I'm not really looking for the turning point though. I'm asking what your religious circumstance was, and specifically, were any of you independantly Christian/Muslim etc when you concluded that there was no God.

Why such a specific question?

I was, like the vast majority of my generation, raised half heartidly as a Catholic. I was never really a believer, as soon as I was old enough to actually understand the issues I realised how ridiculous they were. The moment of realisation was quite empowering. To finally say out loud "Wait, they're...wrong! Say it again. Wrong! Awesome."

What kind of believer are you Jimi?

JimiTime

Zillah wrote: »

Why such a specific question?

Curiosity. Just seeing if there is anyone who actually had faith rather than tradition, or schooling before they became atheist.

What kind of believer are you Jimi?

I would say a non-denominational, cautious of religion, type believer.

iUseVi

Hey Jimi, interesting question.

I have wondered about this myself. Although it being a "Catholic country" I kind of anticipated the result a little.

It appears I am the only lurker around here who was a former full blown Fundy. Was born into an Evangelical family, my brain-washing was a severe case indeed. Somehow I got out the other end of the tunnel though....

JimiTime

iUseVi wrote: »

Hey Jimi, interesting question.

I have wondered about this myself. Although it being a "Catholic country" I kind of anticipated the result a little.

It appears I am the only lurker around here who was a former full blown Fundy. Was born into an Evangelical family, my brain-washing was a severe case indeed. Somehow I got out the other end of the tunnel though....

Would that count as the traditions of your family though?

iUseVi

JimiTime wrote: »

Would that count as the traditions of your family though?

Well yeah I suppose so. I couldn't have come up with all those crazy novel ideas by myself.

But there are very few people who have their own self-styled religions, and they generally seem to be a few peanuts short of a packet, IMO.
If you call yourself a member of one of the "big three", I would have thought that tradition or schooling would have come into the equation at some point.

5uspect

Like Zillah has pointed out I was a typical Irish kid half heartedly brought up with religion "cos thats wots proper". Looking back I never really had more faith in God than a child does in Santa.

Nightwish

Coming from a mixed religion background, I turned to atheisim when I was about 12. On Sundays I had to got to Mass with my mother and then go to protestant service with my dad. Talk about confusing a child! I went to a catholic school and in the end religion just bored me. I didnt find that vital aspect in either catholicism or protestantism to make me latch onto either.

DenMan

Jeepers that must have been a hell of a lot to take onboard Nightwish. I went to Catholic mass but to go from one denomination to another must have been instrumental in turning you away. What about the conflicting separations between the both of them? Ever get into discussions with your parents regarding beliefs? Ever win any? At least you went to both churches with your parents and at the time probably hated it, but at least you did do it.

Galvasean

JimiTime wrote: »

I'm not really looking for the turning point though. I'm asking what your religious circumstance was, and specifically, were any of you independantly Christian/Muslim etc when you concluded that there was no God.

Well I do explain all that in the thread.

Zillah wrote: »

I was, like the vast majority of my generation, raised half heartidly as a Catholic. I was never really a believer,

Yeah, me too.

edanto

My wrinklies had a similar mixed background, my Dad's agnostic and Mum's catholic but the family had a Mass routine and no worries agreeing to disagree about stuff like that. It's just a personal thing.

For me, I remember being young at mass - not sure what age, but about as tall as a church pew and looking up at all the adults faces as the priest was waffling on and thinking to myself

'how can they all really believe in this stuff?!'

From there, I carried an atheist flag around for a while until I got a bit older and then came across the meme that convinced me.

No matter who is at the front of a religious movement, no matter what costume they're wearing, day they celebrate or animal that they don't eat - there is just no way at all that they can honestly know for sure that what they're preaching is right. It's just what they feel. No one can know. So neither can I.

EDIT - I kinda take from religion the common moralities - things like do unto others etc. No reason to ignore the good while thinking that there probably isn't an "invisible man in the sky" ( ;> kirby)

MrPudding

JimiTime wrote: »

Curiosity. Just seeing if there is anyone who actually had faith rather than tradition, or schooling before they became atheist.

No, not in the sense you guys have, only the habit that was instilled by church, school and family. I never had one of those moments where god spoke to me or anything like that.

MrP

jtsuited

I stopped believing in a God, after I read about evolution as a kid. since then, I have yet to be even slightly persuaded about the existence of any mystical beings.

I was in a Catholic school, with Catholic parents (technically speaking). In fact my grandfather trained to be a priest, and was probably the most anti-religious person I've ever met.

tbh, I'm pretty sure most of the 'Catholics' in my family are fairly straight down the line agnostics or atheists. Well apart from some of the 'country cousins'. They love a bit of Jesus they do.

CerebralCortex

CerebralCortex wrote: »

I was agnostic the only thing keeping me there was hardwired fear of an existence without god. But when I started to declare myself as atheist I suddenly realised my life wasn't any worse without a belief in god, actually I'd say life has improved somewhat

I was thinking about it I don't anyone can embrace atheism like for example embracing islam or christianity. I think atheism just describes a state of being where you are unassuming about the nature of the universe or you existence you just live your life the best way you know how.

ChocolateSauce

I was offically an atheist before I became an atheist. As I was never baptised et al in any faith, I legally/morally/offically/unoffically etc was without religion. It was funny though, even though I believed in god I didn't consider myself a Christian, or anything.