What age were you when you realised God didn't exist

Scanlas The 2nd

I'm proud to say I was 9 about 1 or 2 years after I realised santa didn't exist.

Coriolanus

Oh ffs.

DrumSteve

When I got a lump of coal for Christmas

delonglad

First Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and now God???????? WTF

Lapin

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

I'm proud to say I was 9.

So how does it feel to be a 10 year old now?:rolleyes:

howamidifferent

Which God is that? :eek:

Scanlas The 2nd

howamidifferent wrote: »

Which God is that? :eek:

Whichever one you believed in at the time?

Caoimhín

Young enough, I suppose around age 14 or 15. Is just sort of dawned on me that all the nonsense that i had been told in school was simply preposterous.

coffee_cake

Oh go away

alexa5x5

Dont think I ever really did believe. Even as a kid I was logical, ask Santa for toys = I got toys. Ask God for toy = no toys. The evidence was there :rolleyes:


I employed more sophisticated thought process later on in life.

Buceph

Surely realisation needs knowledge. And seeing as I can't disprove god in any scientific way, I can't know. I can however choose not to believe because of a lack of evidence and the general stupidity of the idea. So that's what I do.

Scanlas The 2nd

bluewolf wrote: »

Oh go away

jog on

DarkJager

About 11 or 12. I hated having to go to mass anyway from a young age, just seemed a waste of time. Then we started getting religion classes in school, even at that age, everything I was being told just sounded like completely ridiculous bull****. The following school year, I opted for an hours study time instead of religion class and that was the end of it.

Rabidlamb

I was 14 & had been an altar server for years.
I'd read about a Roman emperor around 300 AD (Constadine ???) noticing the growing popularity of Christianity & using it to aid his political agenda.
Then I thought about it & saw it as the greatest mass brainwashing of humankind.
Sure it's great to belong.

thebullkf

how do you know he doesan't?

can you prove he doesn't?

you make the claim-burden of proof lies with you;)

CrazyRabbit

I think it was just after I was born. When that doctor slapped my arse, I just knew that no god would allow such unwarranted violence.

fakearms123

As much as I am pro science and evolution simply because all the facts are there, science still can't prove a "God" doesn't exist so I like to keep an open mind in that sense and I do have some beliefs, beliefs that make life worth living, I do believe that life doesnt end after death that in some way you live on, like when a flower dies, they decompose and some reseed for next year some are bulbs and grow back next year.

I just try to stay positive on death and God, you will find that even the most self-proclaimed anti-religious people when they are in some deep trouble they will be muttering to themselves "Oh please God, oh please God".

Rothmans

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

I'm proud to say I was 9 about 1 or 2 years after I realised santa didn't exist.

About the same age as you OP. Then I realised at the age of 9 I didn't know shit .


Now that I'm older and more sensible I do believe again.
/awaits heavy dissing

Dravokivich

It wasnt so much stopped believing or knew he wasnt real... In school I was told he "is..."

Nothing else...

...i was 16 when I found out religion didn't mean "being a christian over being a pagan..." and it didnt really matter being either... The only thing needed to be a good guy is not to be a prick...

I don't see the need in it for myself, so i'm not out there looking for him...

thebostoncrab

I never disbelieved in a God, but as I got older I gave less and less time for religion.

At around 23 I 100% got behind the idea that no religion is right, but I cannot proove or disproove that there is a God.

Vinny-Chase

There's a big difference between religion and God people. Don't get them confused.

jester77

I believed after I saw his miraculous hand and wizadry feet back in 86. He's still alive albeit a few eggs short of a full Easter basket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbbsytHDp2o

Scanlas The 2nd

thebullkf wrote: »

how do you know he doesan't?

can you prove he doesn't?

you make the claim-burden of proof lies with you;)

No burden lies with me.

I realized I was wrong when I was 9. My realization happened whether there was proof or not. No proof is required really though, just a bit of common sense. It's quite obvious to objective people with basic reasoning abiltiy that it is ridiculous to believe in a God.

Of course I can't prove there isn't a God, but at 9 I realized how ridiculous and astronomically unlikely a God was to exist.

I can't prove that I won't win next weeks lottery, but given the odds and the fact I never buy a ticket I think it would be a bit nonsensical to believe I will win the lottery. So I realize that believing I will win the lottery is wrong semantics aside.

Duggy747

Was never one for mass, praying or anything like that as a kid. Always saw as a waste of time since I utterly dispised having to go to mass and watch everyone mumble the prayers. (I used to mime the words "Mars Bars" so it looked like I knew what I was saying, could never remember the prayers :pac:)

While I never thought of God in the traditional sense of the Bible I'd just accepted that there was probably some higher power that plonked us here. Was around early teens, 13 - 14, when I came to the conclusion that there isn't a God, spiritual mumbo jumbo or anything beyond the 1 life I have.

What always stuck with me was when in 2nd class our teacher brought us out around the outskirts of my town to a crappy, unmaintained graveyard populated with babies & children who weren't christened. The grave was hidden out of sight (out of shame in those days) and we were told that it's residents were stuck in limbo for eternity because some water wasn't splashed on their heads.

The fact that people could go to mass / confessions, clean their slate with God and then carry on causing "sins" for another week while kids in that grave had to pay an unfair price for an "eternity" never sat well with me.

stovelid

I'm a atheist which means I don't spend a large amount of my time thinking about a God I don't believe in or taking those who do to task.

Much in the same way I don't waste too much of my time with incessant undergraduate arguments on forums dedicated to scientifically debunking the existence of unicorns and elves.

Chuck Stone

Buceph wrote: »

seeing as I can't disprove god in any scientific way, I can't know

You're an agnostic rather than an atheist if this 'logic' informs your stance.

Not being able to disprove that there are god(s) doesn't mean that they do not exist.

It can't be disproven that aliens exist on other planets but it is highly likely that they do.

You cannot cite the scientific method and then use it's non-application as a way of disproving something.

That ^^ is so full of contradiction it's difficult to break down.

Orando Broom

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

jog on

Keyboard warrior.

Wibbs

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

I realized I was wrong when I was 9. My realization happened whether there was proof or not. No proof is required really though, just a bit of common sense.

No proof is required? This is teenage/newage "ohmigodI'mhavinganovelthought!" stuff. Nope you're not. You're really not. This stage usually comes after or alongside the "amItheonlyonethatexistsandalllifeisillusary" notion. Whatever about a personal deity(and whatever floats your boat there) a creator deity or motive "intelligent" force that created the universe is still somewhat up for grabs. It certainly can't be disproven. There are a number of questions we're still asking and some of the current answers are... well out there, some IMHO hooey(tm) masquerading as science. Dark matter/energy for a start. A major fudge to make the existing theories figures fit. If the figures don't fit the equation rather than invent an invisible factor to balance the books, step back and revisit the equation. Think outside the box a bit. If you have ten apples in one hand and 5 in the other, it doesnt just tell you you have 15 apples, it also tells you you got huge fcuking hands. String theory? Nice enough, but unprovable and not a little weird in places(not always a bad thing). Hawkings recent stuff about the time "before" the universe fudges things and explains eff all just puts the creation bit back. Again. "Oh it didn't need any motive external force, just the laws of physics and gravity" yea brilliant that Ted. And where pray tell did they both come from?

Annnnyhoo. :D A creator force of some nature is likely to exist. It may be internal and "natural" to this universe or it could be external and "supernatural". That external may be a blind watchmaker fumbling in the dark or it just might be conscious and directed in building the cogs of our reality. The latter would to all intents and purposes be "God".

Scanlas The 2nd

Orando Broom wrote: »

Keyboard warrior.

waddle on

SeaFields

Duggy747 wrote: »

What always stuck with me was when in 2nd class our teacher brought us out around the outskirts of my town to a crappy, unmaintained graveyard populated with babies & children who weren't christened. The grave was hidden out of sight (out of shame in those days) and we were told that it's residents were stuck in limbo for eternity because some water wasn't splashed on their heads.

The fact that people could go to mass / confessions, clean their slate with God and then carry on causing "sins" for another week while kids in that grave had to pay an unfair price for an "eternity" never sat well with me.

I despise those graveyards as well. There is one by my girlfriends house where there isn't even headstones. Just a plate sized stone flat on the ground. Each stone represents the resting place of a child and there are hundreds of them. I believe for a period of time there wasnt allowed be a funeral/service/blessing either. The father alone of the child had to bury them after dark. Some backward teaching by the church.

Chairman Meow

And at what age did you realise you were a complete bell end?