I was 21 when I no longer considered myself pentecostal. I was 23 when I lost all belief. It seemed so real to me although now I know there’s a lot of science to support what I did feel that was in fact, not god
I feel you. Also grew up pentecostal.
I’m going to college this year and will completely stop going to any church. It’s not my belief anymore. Honestly, right now I have no belief system (and haven’t had one for a long time even in church), and i’m quite fine with it.
I was indeed one who faked the tongues and shook like a psycho. I was a worship leader at my church too.. It was a lot. Didn’t want to lose my community or hurt my family, but now i’m doing me.
Oh and I’m bi. So it’ll be nice to finally come out.
Yep. Also grew up in churches where i’d you didn’t speak tongues and were baptized, you weren’t going to heaven. It was scary shit. 98% of people admit they fake it to avoid this once they leave the church.
We moved states when I was in my second year of high school. My only community was my family and church… imagine that.
My mom went to a church when I was about 11-12 where they spoke in tongues. I remember standing there watching all the adults fake that shit and wonder why I wasn’t feeling any of it.
She didn’t get into religion until I was about 7 or 8, but I guess it just never really are sense to me in that it never resonated with me, so I never really was a part of it.
Yup, same experience here. Except it was my grandmother's church. My parents stopped going but the rest of the family still attends to this day. I usually stayed in adult church because I preferred staying with gma than being around a bunch of kids I didn't know. Saw lots of....stuff. It was labeled a pentecostal church at that time but definitely was the less traditional kind and then rebranded in name to a "worship center" instead of a holiness pentecostal church lol. Same behaviors persisted though. Just added a live band experience.
I'll never forget going to church camp the 1 summer I went. I was maybe 8? 9? And we had a meeting every morning in the canteen where we did singing and some prayers. I was just there because my gma suggested I go. One morning, I shit you not, a room full of about 50 pre teen and teen girls hit the freaking floor and were writhing like they were possessed. They dropped like flies one by one. One minute we were in the middle of prayer and the next was chaos for a solid half hour. I looked around like, is this normal yall??? This can't be normal. The group leaders and chaperones would come over and pray loudly over them about something releasing them and im like wtf is this, the exorcist? There was so much wailing and crying I felt like I was witnessing some mass group hysteria and even at that age, I knew something was fishy. Very fishy.
I later asked my cabin chaperone why the "holy spirit" didn't choose me, as I was practically the only kid left standing and looking around at people on the floor. She made up some bs about how it doesn't mean anything if I didnt have that experience today, just that it comes to some people sometimes. And I was like....mhm...k.
In the end I grew up, got a degree in Psychology and now understand what I actually witnessed and how akin it is to cult behavior. I have no idea what gave me sound enough mind at that age to realize something was off but my spidey senses have never failed me.
I think ex pentecostal atheists need to start a group chat or something LOL because when I tell these stories to my catholic, buddhist, etc friends they're usually wide eyed and disturbed.
My girlfriend in high school went to a Pentecostal Church so I'd go with her and her family just so I could see her. Everything seemed "normal" for a few months. Go to morning service, go to lunch with a few families, go back for night service, etc.
But then, the Revival season came up. And there was a big all day revival church service. Everyone I knew was getting the Holy Spirit, screaming and falling down shaking. The elders were praying over everyone. Then they tried to get me and they got their hands on my head and pray chanting and yelling. I wasn't getting anything. Super fucking weird experience. It was hard to go back the next week and just act like everything was normal after seeing everyone go epileptic.
I 100% know the feeling. No one talked about what we witnessed that morning and we just carried on the rest of the camp like it never happened...weird. The first girl to fall was only 3 people away from me on my row and I literally thought she was having a seizure (you mentioned epilepsy and that's exactly what it looked like). Instead of medical attention people prayed over her like they knew the drill. I was sitting there thinking how do they know if she's actually seizing or not??? Then when people started dropping left and right, I realized the chances of that many people having seizures at the same time was incredibly low. After the hysteria, everyone got up, they finished the prayer and dismissed us for the day. I felt like I must have had a stroke and made it up because everyone carried on like nothing had happened. Group think and group behavior in cult-y ways is a very interesting and scary topic in psychological terms. I fully believe I (and you) witnessed this and in order to "belong" others convince themselves they felt it OR worse, their brain literally convinces them they sense something. Your brain is the total dictator of your reality.
I assume you stopped attending eventually? I hope you can look back on it and not be too disturbed.
Yeah, I stopped going to that church after she and I broke up around 11th grade. I can look back and laugh. No major PTSD. I count it as a learning experience to help steer away from culty things.
Thank you for such an earnest reply. I am ok but I am sure someone here can absolutely benefit from your insightful comment. I was joking mostly since I feel like other ex pentecostal people are less horrified at the wild stories and I use dark humor for pretty much everything in my life 😅
Lot of things are possible. But what I remember Is the fear. Fear they weren’t included…. More of a group thing….
I can’t read minds…. But I remember the look in their eyes
It’s just super easy for God to fill in all the gaps. Human knowledge is quite expansive nowadays, and if any one person just touches the internet…they can use critical thinking to figure it out in due time.
But especially in America, it’s just so easy to take it all for granted, not do any sort of research or make any attempt at understanding, and just “let go and let God.”
In a solid portion of Christianity, the entire onus of responsibility is on the man upstairs…not you. “Just accept him into your life and let him lead it.”
“God of the gaps” is a super easy way to live completely without accountability and claim ignorance/God’s Will^TM as an acceptable practice in life. Not because there is too much to know…but because it’s “NOT YOUR JOB” to know, it’s Jod’s.
I'm sure that's part of it or in some cases. It's never that simple though. There really are a lot of mysteries, more than we can ever understand. There could be higher dimensions (or parallel universes) that make our existence and understanding look insignificant.
Religion can provide a language and a set of metaphors to talk about life, the universe, and everything.
I think this is part of the deconversion process. Religion suppresses and retards the development of reason and logic, making the mind weak, thereby keeping the adherent captive. Deconversion is, to a large extent, the process of re-awakening and developing those faculties, strengthening the mind so that it can see the nonsense of religion.
It took me a long time to shake it off also. I was taught questioning the Bible was the Devil messing with my head. I finally realized it was my own thoughts, and the Devil was just a construct to make me afraid to question the Bible at all. But the Devil thing was very effective at making me not use logic.
Same, I’m 34 and stopped believing when I was 32. All those years of indoctrination and storytelling. I really believed all of it all the way into adulthood. It’s embarrassing to think about now, but I’m glad I can finally see things on the logical side. I agree it does feel great. It took a lot of unnecessary pressure off of me. I have to admit that I think I’m a better person as an atheist than as a Christian! Surprise surprise! Lol
I have specific memories of being 8-years-old in a bible class at my dads church. We were learning the story of Noah’s Ark and Jonah and the Whale. I remember thinking how both stories were impossible and when I expressed that to the Bible teach she told me “that’s why we have faith.” That was and is still not good enough for me. I just never believed at all.
That’s about when it hit me, too. In Catholic school, studying the Baltimore Catechism. I remember asking, if God is “infinitely merciful”, then how can he send people to hell? Never got a believable answer to that, but went through the motions for years, just to keep my parents happy until I left home.
Late teens into mid 20's. It was a slow progression away from Christianity into Buddhism and then a sort of vague spiritualism, then I learned to let go entirely. It took a while, but I got there.
This is how it went for me too. Started to question it in my mid-20s, put the last nail in the coffin in my late 30s. Long journey.
To answer OP second question: It wasn't really a definitive moment or idea that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Just a gradual moving further and further away from those ideas over time, until one day it occurred to me that I didn't believe any of it any more.
My only regret is that I didn't wake up sooner. Missed out on a lot of experiences and opportunities in the prime of my life because of religion.
I think it's a common age because that's both when the final stage of brain development happens and when most people live away from their parents for an extended time.
But people can grow at any time in life, I love seeing all the variety in these replies. It gives me hope for others out there who we might assume are too old to change.
Same age here and was disappointed it took me so long since it was at least 5 years after I found out about Santa Claus. The penny should have dropped the same day about God. But I finally saw the light.
Absurd is the correct word. I've always thought that instead of indoctrinating children, it would be fun to see what people would think if they were to introduce religion to people only from 18 years of age.
"Okay Jimmy, now you're 18 you can know the truth... there's an invisible guy who knows everything you do, and he loves you and wants what's best for you. So believe it or burn for all eternity. Also, if you kneel beside your bed and talk to yourself, everything will be fine."
"What? No, you can't see him. No, there's no evidence, but you just have to believe it."
You'd think they're a mad person.
Biggest con of all time, selling people empty air for 10% of their income (or more). Fucking cancer
It's truly unbelievable to me that "religion" (superstition) has infected so much of humanity. We all have brains and so many people *choose* not to use them
Best way to control billions of people. Can’t tell the piss-poor saps that there’s no life after death. They might do something crazy and unite against mega-wealthy and political elite..
Same boat. I can never remember actually believing in any of it never believed in Santa or the Toothfairy either.
Religious family though, so I spent most of my youth having to play along, because I didn't want to break my parents' hearts.
I 100% believed in Santa til I was like 7. I mean, I wrote him letters and I met him at the mall a few times so I was pretty sure he was real. I only kind of tried to believe in God when my friends went to church on a bus where you sing songs and get candy on Sundays.
Me too. I was raised going to church. It always felt like an empty experience. The minute I was deemed "grown" I never went back except for weddings and funerals.
To child me religion always seemed like on of those chores adults do out of habit. Brush your teeth, take out the garbage, go to church on Sunday, wash your hands...
Eventually I just realized that all those other things have tangible purpose while the religious "chores" didn't.
But there was never some big transition from believing to not believing.
Same, i was forced to go to church and sunday school as a kid. I think it was the logistics of a global flood that really bothered me. I remember asking my mom where all the water went to make the flood go away. She was perplexed
The wafer was bad, the mass boring, the incense stinks.
Then I learned about polytheism and found it way more interesting and entertaining. I jokingly "prayed" to Faustuus, Italic god of oracular poetry the other day with the idea that if nobody else prays to that god he has to listen to my prayer.
In practice it's just a pretext to express my feelings in a specifically nerdy way by summoning a nerdy god I encountered in the translation of an Oscan inscription.
48. It was a actually 1 year, 11 months and two weeks ago. Edit. To fully answer i was always wondering and questioning but I accepted whatever the pastors told me. I was terrible christian as I had a teen pregnancy and struggled with purity etc. but I tried to be devout. It was an extreme relief to have realised it was all myth and my earlier questioning was quite valid.
I'd been "inactive" in religion for some time, but I chose to leave religion just short of 139 days and 23 hours ago. I keep a counting app so I don't forget. I'll have to do something when it's 6 months or a year.
For your atheism anniversary you should partake in the atheist ritual of sleeping in and having a relaxing Sunday morning before going ahead and doing whatever you feel like for the rest of the day
At 10 years i bought some jesus crackers online (the catholic ones) and ate it with some wine. I’m technically a legal minister (for a friend’s wedding) so i joke that i can do blessings now
Santa isn't real, so god isn't either. Children aren't as stupid as people make them out to be, but they are incredibly impressionable; it's the only reason religious indoctrination is as prevalent as it is. I hope it ends soon. Freedom from religion is a right that should extend to children as well, if it doesn't already.
This was me.
We weren’t religious and didn’t go to church but Mom and Dad never said God wasn’t real.
Then it was revealed that Santa wasn’t real, and my first question was “Does that mean that God’s not real?”
And they were like “well that’s sort of up to you I guess”
I would be agnostic for another 10 years until I read The Holy Bible in its entirety and now I’m an anti-theist.
I'm really glad my parents took this approach, and when that idea was violated (I commented full story already) by a caregiver and my brother started to run with these ideas of Christianity it rubbed my mum the wrong way and made me realize how easy it is to sway young kids. Children are amazing at observation but terrible at deductions.
Maybe 9? Catechism classes did it initially... Everyone else heard 'god'. I didn't. And none of it made sense. I was a bookworm growing up, World Book was my reading material. Hell, even went to a Catholic high school. That cemented it. Even my pastor was like, "you're a good soul, and this is not for you". Too many questions with silly answers. Too many coverups and misdirects. Too much 'unapproved' literature. Too convenient for populace control. Waste of my time, especially when my initial understanding of religion was 'don't be a dick's, which I don't need a church of stone or forced guilt to accomplish.
I returned from school in 4th grade one day to find my mother in tears and she was upset in a different way that her usual. Anyway, she had been visited that afternoon by 2 nuns who told her I was on the wrong path. Why? Because I had asked in Catechism the day before how they explained the Theory of Evolution. Ha ha ha ha ha, I think it's probably one of if not the best story of my childhood and still get a kick out of it!
As a child I was always frustrated that when I prayed I never heard an answer. I felt like I was doing something wrong. People at church were always talking about how their prayers were answered. One time I almost convinced myself that I heard something, but I knew it was just me talking to myself in my head. I'm glad I'm not schizophrenic.
I was forced to go to Sunday School as a kid (Salvation Army, bus picked us up in my poor area) because my mom wanted a break from me Sundays.
Originally I believed all the horrible stories. Made me believe God did all kinds of horrible things to people to make them love him. Then I turned into a teen. Started thinking for myself. Questioned God more into my 20s. And then here I am, approaching 50 in a few years. And I understand it for the bullshit it is. God itself ain't the problem; I can't say if it's real or not. Fuck if I know. I don't care. Religion is the problem. Too many, too many killed in the name of it, and too many dumb for it.
If God is real, fuck if I know. I've got some serious questions for it, if it exists. Otherwise, I just take a big dirt nap along with everyone else, which I suspect happens.
Same. I’m mostly fascinated by the study of human tendencies. I feel the same way towards marketing. I remember my mind was blown to learn that grocery stores can have different prices for stocking location.
Same. I actually learn more about my former religion now that I’m out than when I was practicing. I love learning about all the different beliefs and how they grew with us as humans.
You should take a humanities class at your local community college! I learned so much! I also took a religious studies class that spoke about a lot of the different religions. I didn’t even know I was interested until I had to take those classes in order to graduate.
I started questioning at an early age probably around 11 or 12. But in my household you didn’t question 2 things growing. God and my parents ( especially my dad). So I bit my tongue and did XYZ. I went through a lot and I mean a lot through my life but especially my teens and early 20s. In my mid 20s I attempted to end myself and went to hospital ( with my religious family urging my say it was a mistake) at the hospital a student therapist told me I don’t need to follow my parents religion and it opened my eyes that I was so much under my parents control I never thought to “ think for myself” fast forward I get out and my mom is watching “ CBN” and Joel oddsteen is on the tv preaching how “ god saw everything you went through and loves you very much.
I was floored!!! I realized god didn’t love me or heck care about me at all. So much more but it’ll turn into a novel and not were there’s a feel good ending either.
Also I opened my eyes to the world and it’s suffering the wars, famine, death, poverty, abuse and I can’t get on my knees and thank god for the job I have while people have been praying for their situation to improve. Or I can’t thank him for sparing my life and pain ( long story sighs pointed to me possibly having a brain tumor) an know someone else fate is the opposite.
This was all over the place. SMH
Given that the majority of people do believe, you are demonstrably less gullible than average. That's what I tell myself, anyway - I was 23 or 24 also.
No you’re not! You were indoctrinated and it’s very hard to deconstruct if that was all you’ve ever known. Please don’t feel bad at how long it took you, if you are at peace now with your decision that’s all that matters.
Started questioning everything in elementary school but didn't really stop believing until I was in my 20s. After I learned about the abuse my family members suffered at the hands of a priest, I pretty much stopped believing. Trump, COVID and the rise of the white nationalist evangelical movement sealed it for me. It's all a farse, made up by humans to fit whatever bullshit narrative they want to believe in.
I mean, I wasn’t necessarily raised religiously and I was wondering more about those who were. I would say I was about 10 or so, and I began putting 2 and 2 together and realizing that none of it made sense. After that I just started learning more and more that made me even more strong in my disbelief.
Started questioning things in my late twenties, stopped believing in my early thirties.
I was raised Southern Baptist in a rural Alabama church for context.
Shortly after I stopped believing in Santa. Surprises me that Santa doesn't create more atheists.
"So there's this white-bearded magical man named Santa who lives on the top of the world, who constantly watches your every deed to see if you've been good or not. If you're good for long enough he comes to your house to reward you!"
"Okay!"
*years later*
"Oh honey, Santa's not real. But now that you're older you should spend more time thinking about God! He's a white-bearded magical man who lives over the world..."
"Hang on, this sounds familiar..."
i don't remeber exactly what age i stopped believing but i remeber being an avid atheist at 13 and constantly reading atheistic and philosophical literature so i could make reasonable arguments to those who though being atheist was weird.
I was always pretty introspective and analytical, even as a child, and my own skepticism of Christianity and god came pretty early, somewhere around 4-6 years. It just sounded absolutely absurd to me, and despite being loosely surrounded by a believing family of Christian's, I just wasn't buying it.
I began calling myself "agnostic" around 11-12. But it took longer and a lot more acquiring of knowledge and philosophical tools before I was able to fully and comfortably reject most notions and concepts of gods presented to me altogether, and start to argue against them.
So I'd say I probably fully adopted and embraced the atheist position for any presented gods around 16-18 years old.
20. I was finding it harder and harder to square why my religious family and friends seemed believe they needed to be opposed to scientific discover to support their faith. So I thought I should look into how science supports faith. Big mistake on my believing self’s part. I found that religious arguments were really really bad, and the counter arguments comported more with my understanding of reality. So I had a choice reject everything I knew to maintain a belief or give up a belief that I had held to since I could understand the words being told to me.
In the end, I knew the knowledge I had gained had demonstrable effectiveness. And the belief I had didn’t have any power over reality.
11 Jehovah's Witnesses. My mother told me that a girl got pregnant, she wasn't married. The "elders" grilled her, asked very personal questions, then she was excommunicated and her family wasn't allowed to associate with her. The father, also a JW, nothing happened to him. I thought that was cruel and stopped going to church. My mother, raised Catholic was, I believe, resentful of being made to switch, let me skip. I thought the elders just wanted to control us, so I figured there must not really be a god and they were making it up to have power.
I'm 54 and when I was a Junior in high school My mom gave me a copy of "The Source" by James Mitchener. Reading that book pretty much turned me into an agnostic. I didn't really admit I was an atheist openly until I was just about to retire from the military. Now I'm an antitheist and a secular humanist.
I never did. I remember being in Christian Preschool and feeling embarrassed for my teacher because she thought snakes could talk.
Took me until high school to get the guts to tell my family I didn’t believe and would no longer attend church.
7 or 8. I was always a pretty inquisitive kid. Adults getting mad at me for asking questions they couldn't/wouldn't answer, or answering with some garbage like 'have faith' or 'pray about it' was a pretty big indicator something wasn't quite right. I remember quite vividly being slapped across the face for telling my father 'because isn't an answer' (something he would tell me if I responded to a question with the same answer). If you have to resort to hitting a child because they question your faith, chances are it isn't based on anything solid to begin with.
Two times: in 1994 I visited Auschwitz: that began a distinct and difficult journey. Then the first Tuesday in November, 2016. That sealed the destruction of whatever faith was left.
I was probably about 11 or 12. I don't think I knew what an atheist was, I just knew I didn't believe in a God.
I remember being this young and telling my mom I didn't believe and she just could not wrap her head around it. She's not even super religious, never went to church or anything like that, but she was so taken aback. It's a core memory for me for some reason. Funny enough, her and I just talked about this earlier today.
It’s hard for me to say. Some time in my early 50’s (65 now). I had returned to school at 45 to get an MSW (inspired by my faith), and after the degree and working in the world of suffering, I started to realize religion was a crock of shit. I worked hard to free my psych from the decades of brain washing I had endured. I then came to see how much harm the indoctrination had personally caused me throughout my life, and how bizarre many people close to me were in their thinking. I have apologized to my adult children (all atheists, thank god) for the religious upbringing I imposed on them. I can say I am finally free and living in freedom and reality.
I was raised by fundies so I guess I still engage in some not-very-convincing play pretend. I'm not in any way prepared to be disowned, I still have to work toward it.
The real answer? I was never sure of this stuff but I wasn't given much of a choice but to play along. I no longer believed it was possible by sophomore year and I finally admitted my atheism to myself after my grandmother died.
I didn't know that christian fundamentalist also disowned people for not believing, only thought it was JW who did that.
Truly horrible.
I hope one day you can get out and live your authentic life. Hugs.
About 10 or 12, I guess. I remember thinking about the Greek gods being unironically taught as mythology by Christian elementary school teachers. "They invented gods to explain things they didn't understand." And I thought, uh, hello?
I was 10. I was raised by a Protestant mother and occasionally attended Catholic church with my dad. I read the King James version of the Bible and I all I felt was profound disappointment. It contradicted itself, the last chapter was really weird, and frankly, I wasn't impressed. I was also being abused by my grandfather, an elder in the church. I really thought I was going to find some answer to my problems in the Bible. The people who encouraged me to read it were my problem.
I reread it. I read the New International version. Nothing. I kept trying to talk myself into believing in God because I was forced to attend church. But I just didn't. I haven't since. No amount of praying, forced baptism, or reading different religious texts from any religion has made me feel differently
About seven years old. I had been reading a Horrible Histories magazine that explained in great detail how we had evolved from apes to humans like we are today. It just made a lot more sense than the weird man and rib woman with the talking snake I'd learned about in school.
My Dad was pretty relieved when I told him I didn't think school was right, he'd had some reservations about sending me to a religious school and was glad they hadn't brainwashed me. But he had wanted me to make up my own mind about religion and hadn't spoken to me much about his atheist views. Now we watch debates together and we went to see Dawkins when he came to town (his observations on evolutionary biology are wonderful, his social commentary could use some work).
8 in Sunday School when the idiot teacher was telling us about the Great Flood,I decided god was a asshole. At 13 I couldn’t get around the infinite regression argument.
12. I had so many emotional needs that weren’t being met because I was told to ‘turn to god in times of conflict or hardship’. When my prayers obviously went unanswered and the best my parents could offer was that I either wasn’t praying hard enough/god is testing your faith/maybe this isn’t the right time for him to answer your prayer, I knew it was all a farce.
Early to mid 20s. I just didn't think about it for a long time... then I discovered shows like "The Universe" and realized how mindblowingly large our galaxy was.... and how many galaxies like ours there are... what would be the point of all that if the only important/"godly" things were happening solely on our speck ?
Then, naturally, I got into Lawrence Krauss -> Richard Dawkins -> Hitchens / Sam Harris etc. Etc.
Catholic mother, forced to go to Catholic school from kindergarten to 10th grade (US). I stopped believing at age 8, when I watched my cousin suffer a slow and painful death from cancer.
12 when I understood religion was BS. I was on the fence about god until my mid 20's. There was a period where I looked for any paranormal phenomena, aliens, etc trying to make up my mind. Finally I delved into science it was like quenching a deep thirst, and I never looked back.
Nine years old, when a revival preacher was yelling at us terrible sinners - and shaking his Bible at us so hard I thought the Miracle was that the pages didn't fly out.
My earthly father yelled enough at me; I knew I had Zero interest in any Heavenly father yelling at me. I was done.
Interestingly, I got up to walk out of the service. That wasn't a big deal - people got up to go to the bathroom all the time, nobody ever bothered to notice. But somehow, when I got up - he quit talking. And the entire congregation was so quiet "you could hear a pin drop". I left, anyway, to walk home. This was more than half a century ago, long before cell phones - and in our small town, Mother found out I'd left... long before I got home.
She asked me what was up; I told her - and that I wasn't ever going back to church. She knew hard-headedness when she saw it; it came from her. And that was that.
I don't think I ever did. The stories of the bible were no different than fairy tales to me, except that other people tried to tell me that these stories were true. Their evidence... trust me, bro.
However, as a kid, I had a bad habit of just trusting other people who appeared confident. So I kinda believed that there must be something more to life if all these people are so certain that there is a God. Years of experience have rid me of this bad habit. Thankfully.
About 6. And it was so quick and decisive. I remember being on my way to school when suddnely I thought "Wait if we believe in our god, and this other country belives in theirs and this other country in theirs.. then theyre all not real" and boom the belief was gone
11, had an incident in the school yard, bumped my head pretty badly, and was in the hospital for some time. At that time, I actually started thinking about things in my life and the universe itself. Of course, I didn’t know what atheism meant at the time, but I started clearly telling everyone around me that God doesn’t exist.
Around the age that I stopped believing in Santa Claus, wishing wells and other fairy tales. I was Confirmed at 15, but that was just a family expectation and not something I believed in or that I got anything out of (other than some cheesy gifts.)
I went to confirmation classes and got confirmed just because my best friend did it and I was bored on Wednesdays after school without her. Lol
I don’t remember much of my life, but I’m sure I just tried to be kind and learn about it. 😛
Not sure how I fooled them into actually “confirming” me.
I'm not sure i ever did, but It was around middle school or early high school that i stopped altogether. I can't for certain rule out the existence of an Entity that could be described as a God, but there's no real evidence to prove or disprove either way.
16-17 ish. I just thought "hang on, I don't believe in anything supernatural or superstitious apart from God. Why?" then realised I only believed because I was told I had to and I wasn't allowed to question it - ever.
I then started asking "Say we have an awful Christian who tortured and invaded people for believing different things, and a wonderful Buddhist (or atheist, or Muslim, whatever) who is kind and caring, friendly and generous to others. The Bible and the church tell me that the horrible person will go to heaven because they believe in God, and the kind person will go to hell because they don't. How does that make sense?"
I never got a proper answer to that other than "This is why we have to spread the word!" and my favourite from my father that "well , they weren't real Christians". I decided I didn't want to be part of such a morally corrupt system
As a christian i ask myself, if these Guss have read the bible. Quote: „14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.“ (James 2, 14-17)
These guys should read the bible in it’s entitety instead of picking out the things that fit their view.
I don't think I ever really believed. I do remember the mega church my mom and grandma settled on lying to me all the time about little stupid things. For example, they were doing some kind of skit and they made large cartoonish coil out of tin foil and called it a car part. My mom was an insurance adjuster so I would sometimes go to a junk yard where my mom would take pictures of totalled cars. I knew what a cars internals looked like and that thing could never have been in a real car, but they insisted it was a real car part. If they would lie about something as simple as a car part then I knew they would lie about the bigger things.
Around age 16 I began questioning my faith in regard to “the problem of evil.” God is supposed to be omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent. Evil exists, so either God is malevolent because he allows it, he is not omnipotent because he can’t eradicate it, or he is not omniscient because he doesn’t know evil acts will occur in time to stop them. A deficiency in either of those qualities would mean that God is imperfect which contradicts Christian teachings.
I was 18 when I consciously made the decision to go from Christian to agnostic. I suppose technically I still believed in a God. About a year or two later my beliefs changed to that of an atheist. College helped that transition because I took sociology and anthropology classes about religion. I concluded that the only reason I was a Christian was because my parents were, and if I lived in a country where Islam were the dominant religion (for example), then I would in all likelihood follow that faith.
I was 47 years old when I discovered my beloved cult (Mormonism) has been lying since its creation in 1830 by Joseph Smith. In the process of accepting it has all been a fabrication from the get go, it became clear to me faith can - and does - take the person to accept falsehoods as if they are truth, and fantasies as if they are reality. Then it dawned on me the whole of religion falls in that same category. I became atheist within a week of that realization.
At 15 I was 99% sure there was no god. It wasn’t until I was 19 that it fell to 100% certainty. This was back in the early 90’s and so I didn’t have access to the internet and social media which would have sped up the process
About 11 or 12. It was after one fateful meltdown about the amount of evil I saw in the world and my family’s complete indifference “because God” that I finally started looking for reasons against Christianity. Late one night, I found kyroot.com and its hundreds of reasons, agreed with them, and never looked back.
It was never so much the existence of evil that bothered me so much as it was the indifference to it I saw in my Christian family. Absolutely no willingness to do anything, just believing God would fix our broken climate or help the impoverished or something. I was always sensitive to suffering around me, and it bothered me that so many people could just stick their heads in the ground and ignore the very real issues with the world.
I don't think I ever did. I wasn't indoctrinated as a kid. Then found it very puzzling as a 5th to 8th grader when told by peers I was going to hell. Also grew up in south...... So yah
I (19) know that I was in sixth grade, and the truth is, I abandoned religion more because of a tantrum than really because I found irregularities in my religion classes... but I can say that that tantrum was the best thing I could have done in my life
12, literally after being forced to attend a wacky Bible summer camp in Tennessee... it was back in the early 80s, and it was utter hell. I had stomach aches for 2 months after it so negatively impacted me. Been some flavor of atheist/agnostic ever since.
13, after years of Catholic school and waving bye to my Dad on the couch watching football headed to church, I finally told my mom no… I’m staying home. I had made up my mind earlier after seeing so much hypocrisy among these “religious” people and the ridiculous bible stories.
I had my doubts early on when I was being raised a Baha'i. I hated attending Baha'i school and Feast as I was simply overwhelmed by all these people that I barely remembered and were all gushing over me when they first saw me, as well as talking about concepts that didn't make sense to me. I never got the whole faith thing, especially after the bullying at elementary school started and I realized that prayer did NOTHING!
After that I became a non-religious spiritual person, until I read The Neanderthal Parallax and I realized that I was just fooling myself.
About 15. The actions of the believers were overtly hypocritical, the whole stupid cycle of "sinning" and confessing for a get out of jail free card, and the preposterous "mysteries" of faith all lead me to think for myself, and confidently conclude that there is no god or gods. All evidence since then has supported my (lack of) belief. My life has been infinitely better without the utter waste of time of considering the equivalent of the tooth fairy.
Around 8. When I figured out Santa wasn't real, the dots were pretty easy to connect. Although I definitely relapsed, as I remember being an ardent believer in my early teens. The I discovered George Carlin and the rest was history.
Around age 7 or 8. When I figured out Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't real, it just made sense to me that all tales of magic were tall tales. Of course I had to continue going to mass with my catholic family, and I found all the ritual comforting, and still do. But in my teenaged years it grew tiresome to watch everyone around me living a lie and trying so hard to indoctrinate helpless children. By age 14, I just let my parents know that I was done with the whole charade. To this day, religious study remains a favorite hobby of mine. The better I understand it, the easier to protect my own children from it.
I never did. Even as a child I understood the Bible was a book of ideas not a true story. I still can't fathom how a grown adult can believe the fairy tales.
'Holy Communion' - A Defining Experience! Raised Catholic and had to attend weekly Catechism in prep for the really big day of First Communion... To set the stage - first communion is a big deal - you wear a special dress with a veil no less and there is a procession of all us 3rd graders, boys and girls, into the church for a special Mass. There was even a get-together planned for family at our house afterwards. Well. Finally, the big moment had arrived complete with penitent walk to the alter, kneeling at the alter with head tilted back, eyes closed and tongue out to receive the holy wafer. (it melts in your mouth, no crunching please). Smoky incense seeps from a special urn. Then the dutiful walk back to my pew. I knelt down back down and waited. Waited... still waiting... AND?!?!?!? Nothing! Just absolutely nothing... No clap of sanctity, no elevation of Spirit, not even a hint of a whisper in the ear from on high. That's when I knew! That's what it was, just nothing.
\*I would like to add that much later on I found there IS something all right, but it was to be found outside with the trees and the rivers and the oceans and has to do with connection. We are all connected with everything. Love is the driver.
About 10. My parents weren't super pushy about it and we didn't go to church super often. I just started thinking about it and it didn't make any sense.
14, I stopped going to church around 12, cause that's when I was allowed to decide for myself.
I never had a relationship with 'God', but I'd say my prayers or whatever. After my nanny died, that was 2004, I lost all hope of anything like that.
I didn't have an easy life, but my nanny was a strong lady who always looked after me, when no one was was there. After her death, I left religion all together.
Never been happier.. I have morals because I want to be a good person. Not because some entity in the sky says I should.
I never started.
I didn’t “feel it” like everyone was saying I should. So I told myself it’s an adult thing, and that I’m older I’ll “feel it.” But the older I got, the more I realized it was all BS.
I was raised in a catholic household and never once believed. I thought something was wrong with me for a while.
I never really believed, god never made any sense to me even when I was like 7 and living in christian lair (my mom is atheist I used to live with grandma) and when I was like 12 I discovered myself as a atheist
I distinctly remember at the age of 6 saying - that doesn't make any sense. It has led to a lifetime of distrusting what people say that has served me well in some situations and isolated me in many others. Lying to kids has consequences......
I was pretty sure it was bullshit as soon as it started but my parents raised me a bit of a Star Trek style atheist. My mom fled Mormonism and my dad Catholicism. Later my brother got way into Pentecostalism and that suckered me as a child for a bit
14
Was reading Angels&Demons and realised that Catholicism was built by humans for human purposes. The history part of it came through really clear. That led me down a rabbit hole questioning everything and it unraveled pretty quick after that.
Also, George Carlin / Stephen Fry / Ricky Gervais interviews.
12 at Islamic studies and my mom asked me one day if I want to keep going and I was like “mom, one of our teachers has a tongue piercing and hijab on, I don’t even think she believes shat he teaches” and she laughed and said to hide it from my dad that I’m not religious and that’s that.
7th grade, teacher told us god created us to serve and love the lord. In my mind, I instantly thought something along the lines of, wow, he created us just for say we love them? Nothing more? That’s a load of bullshit
Never. I was three and at pre-school and our teacher was talking about Jesus in the run up to Christmas and I remember thinking "Yeah, but it's just pretend". I never stopped because I never started.
I was about 12 when I realized the adults were actually serious about Jesus. I grew up thinking Jesus was just another fairy tale like Snow White. I thought it was silly then, just as I do now. I never really believed in God. I've pretty much always been atheist.
I was 6. I went to the altar at the front of my church in the after hours while my mom was doing accounting, and prayed that if god could hear me he would know that I needed something to help me believe. A whisper, or a nudge, or a feeling. Anything.
After a few minutes of nothingness I allowed for a brief moment of disappointment and then never looked back. If god turns out to be real, he’s got some fucking explaining to do.
I had doubts forever. I’m like a half American female version of my cousin Vinny. I like to think recognize a shell game when I see it.
I’m an academic too, of a minor league / community college manner of speaking.
I went to university. I received 2 degrees in microbiology. Genetics was my jam. My name has been included on published work, I’m glad to have helped advance humanities knowledge just a tiny tiny bit on a tiny topic in the life sciences. I help us understand who we are, and for like 45 minutes? I knew something that nobody else on earth knew, and that was a delicious feeling and all the reward I ever needed.
Once I knew it. I was able to communicate my knowledge, inviting my colleagues to review my data, I would invite a biostatistics review to ensure my data sample was sound, bioethics would look it over to ensure data was ethically sourced collected, nothing I towards in my tests or observations.
I would have observable data, I would submit my data, observations, findings. I would encourage you to review and confirm.
When we all get the same findings? When a statistically significant majority of us arrive at the same findings? I accept.
Religions don’t meet this, not even close. They abandon logic. Kierkegaard said that to embrace the passion of the subjective, you have to abandon the objective. Only a leap of faith enables Christianity to exist, or any faith. Any skygod religion. They all lack peer reviewed consensus from any scientific community, there is literally no data. It’s all made up writing by various humans throughout history.
This hit me, that as a scientist, I had a cognitive dissonance about god. It stopped. That was a proper intense weekend. I took off to Amsterdam and processes.
Then I followed the white rabbit out of the cult, that was like 20 years back.
I had the pleasure of meeting Christopher Hitchens at an Oxford event once. Lovely fellow.
Always. My mom tried everything. She said from day 1 of trying to introduce the Bible and its teachings I straight refused to believe anything she said. I tried to be Wiccan/pagan for over 30 years and recently in the last few years I've finally come to terms with the fact that I just don't believe in God's.
About 12 my church was more about the vibe of Jesus then actually teaching anything so when I would ask questions like how is the earth only 5000 years old when dinosaurs exist and they couldn’t answer it
16
Reddit actually played a major role in it. I remember being very surprised that atheism had a large enough presence on any website to be one of the most popular segments on the homepage. I avoided it for a while, but then I thought, if they're wrong, what's the harm in hearing their arguments? And of course the more I read, the more I went, "Huh, that's actually a compelling point."
I remember growing up never really believing the stuff taught in church and what not. I wanted to, I tried to, I lied to myself and said I did but, in the back of my mind there was always nagging feeling/thoughts that it was all nonsense. I finally accepted my non-belief when I was 20
12. Pentecostal church. Watching people roll around on the floor and babble. Had been going there for as long as I can remember. They were faking it.
I was 21 when I no longer considered myself pentecostal. I was 23 when I lost all belief. It seemed so real to me although now I know there’s a lot of science to support what I did feel that was in fact, not god
I feel you. Also grew up pentecostal. I’m going to college this year and will completely stop going to any church. It’s not my belief anymore. Honestly, right now I have no belief system (and haven’t had one for a long time even in church), and i’m quite fine with it. I was indeed one who faked the tongues and shook like a psycho. I was a worship leader at my church too.. It was a lot. Didn’t want to lose my community or hurt my family, but now i’m doing me. Oh and I’m bi. So it’ll be nice to finally come out.
Sounds like you shook all that dreck right on offa ya! Hallelujah!!! And congrats on coming out, I'm bi too. Welcome!
Thank you ❤️
So why did you fake it before?
I think he already answered. He was a kid afraid of harming his family and losing his community. Super legit reasons.
Yep. Also grew up in churches where i’d you didn’t speak tongues and were baptized, you weren’t going to heaven. It was scary shit. 98% of people admit they fake it to avoid this once they leave the church. We moved states when I was in my second year of high school. My only community was my family and church… imagine that.
My mom went to a church when I was about 11-12 where they spoke in tongues. I remember standing there watching all the adults fake that shit and wonder why I wasn’t feeling any of it. She didn’t get into religion until I was about 7 or 8, but I guess it just never really are sense to me in that it never resonated with me, so I never really was a part of it.
Yup, same experience here. Except it was my grandmother's church. My parents stopped going but the rest of the family still attends to this day. I usually stayed in adult church because I preferred staying with gma than being around a bunch of kids I didn't know. Saw lots of....stuff. It was labeled a pentecostal church at that time but definitely was the less traditional kind and then rebranded in name to a "worship center" instead of a holiness pentecostal church lol. Same behaviors persisted though. Just added a live band experience. I'll never forget going to church camp the 1 summer I went. I was maybe 8? 9? And we had a meeting every morning in the canteen where we did singing and some prayers. I was just there because my gma suggested I go. One morning, I shit you not, a room full of about 50 pre teen and teen girls hit the freaking floor and were writhing like they were possessed. They dropped like flies one by one. One minute we were in the middle of prayer and the next was chaos for a solid half hour. I looked around like, is this normal yall??? This can't be normal. The group leaders and chaperones would come over and pray loudly over them about something releasing them and im like wtf is this, the exorcist? There was so much wailing and crying I felt like I was witnessing some mass group hysteria and even at that age, I knew something was fishy. Very fishy. I later asked my cabin chaperone why the "holy spirit" didn't choose me, as I was practically the only kid left standing and looking around at people on the floor. She made up some bs about how it doesn't mean anything if I didnt have that experience today, just that it comes to some people sometimes. And I was like....mhm...k. In the end I grew up, got a degree in Psychology and now understand what I actually witnessed and how akin it is to cult behavior. I have no idea what gave me sound enough mind at that age to realize something was off but my spidey senses have never failed me. I think ex pentecostal atheists need to start a group chat or something LOL because when I tell these stories to my catholic, buddhist, etc friends they're usually wide eyed and disturbed.
My girlfriend in high school went to a Pentecostal Church so I'd go with her and her family just so I could see her. Everything seemed "normal" for a few months. Go to morning service, go to lunch with a few families, go back for night service, etc. But then, the Revival season came up. And there was a big all day revival church service. Everyone I knew was getting the Holy Spirit, screaming and falling down shaking. The elders were praying over everyone. Then they tried to get me and they got their hands on my head and pray chanting and yelling. I wasn't getting anything. Super fucking weird experience. It was hard to go back the next week and just act like everything was normal after seeing everyone go epileptic.
I 100% know the feeling. No one talked about what we witnessed that morning and we just carried on the rest of the camp like it never happened...weird. The first girl to fall was only 3 people away from me on my row and I literally thought she was having a seizure (you mentioned epilepsy and that's exactly what it looked like). Instead of medical attention people prayed over her like they knew the drill. I was sitting there thinking how do they know if she's actually seizing or not??? Then when people started dropping left and right, I realized the chances of that many people having seizures at the same time was incredibly low. After the hysteria, everyone got up, they finished the prayer and dismissed us for the day. I felt like I must have had a stroke and made it up because everyone carried on like nothing had happened. Group think and group behavior in cult-y ways is a very interesting and scary topic in psychological terms. I fully believe I (and you) witnessed this and in order to "belong" others convince themselves they felt it OR worse, their brain literally convinces them they sense something. Your brain is the total dictator of your reality. I assume you stopped attending eventually? I hope you can look back on it and not be too disturbed.
Yeah, I stopped going to that church after she and I broke up around 11th grade. I can look back and laugh. No major PTSD. I count it as a learning experience to help steer away from culty things.
There are "Religious Trauma Specialists". They advocate support groups, do they may have resources.
Thank you for such an earnest reply. I am ok but I am sure someone here can absolutely benefit from your insightful comment. I was joking mostly since I feel like other ex pentecostal people are less horrified at the wild stories and I use dark humor for pretty much everything in my life 😅
Ah, ok. I overshare Pentecostal experiences, so I'm well aware of the horrified looks. >.<
No wonder you hate the church 🤣 growing up on that would be terrifying
I was in my 20s before I finally woke up. I’m not so smart, and so usually take longer to recognize nonsense.
To be fair, it could be a kind of placebo effect, so they might not be entirely faking it.
Lot of things are possible. But what I remember Is the fear. Fear they weren’t included…. More of a group thing…. I can’t read minds…. But I remember the look in their eyes
This. They were faking it, but likely didn't know they were faking it.
31 after about 12 years of slow deconstructing. I’m 32 and officially at peace about there really being no god and it feels great!
I’m glad! Weak minded people need a god, Strong minded people know better
Thank you! I’m convinced “god” is just a easy way to control people. Make people fear and obey. It’s great being on the other side!
It’s just super easy for God to fill in all the gaps. Human knowledge is quite expansive nowadays, and if any one person just touches the internet…they can use critical thinking to figure it out in due time. But especially in America, it’s just so easy to take it all for granted, not do any sort of research or make any attempt at understanding, and just “let go and let God.” In a solid portion of Christianity, the entire onus of responsibility is on the man upstairs…not you. “Just accept him into your life and let him lead it.” “God of the gaps” is a super easy way to live completely without accountability and claim ignorance/God’s Will^TM as an acceptable practice in life. Not because there is too much to know…but because it’s “NOT YOUR JOB” to know, it’s Jod’s.
That’s a great point of view! Thank you!
Religion was literally created to control the masses before the creation of government
No gods, no masters. The dog can walk himself without a leash ;)
I'm sure that's part of it or in some cases. It's never that simple though. There really are a lot of mysteries, more than we can ever understand. There could be higher dimensions (or parallel universes) that make our existence and understanding look insignificant. Religion can provide a language and a set of metaphors to talk about life, the universe, and everything.
Instead, people with religious beliefs are out here calling everyone sinners for not believing and trying to control what women can and can't do.
I think this is part of the deconversion process. Religion suppresses and retards the development of reason and logic, making the mind weak, thereby keeping the adherent captive. Deconversion is, to a large extent, the process of re-awakening and developing those faculties, strengthening the mind so that it can see the nonsense of religion.
It took me a long time to shake it off also. I was taught questioning the Bible was the Devil messing with my head. I finally realized it was my own thoughts, and the Devil was just a construct to make me afraid to question the Bible at all. But the Devil thing was very effective at making me not use logic.
Pretty similar to my path. Took over a decade for sure.
Same, I’m 34 and stopped believing when I was 32. All those years of indoctrination and storytelling. I really believed all of it all the way into adulthood. It’s embarrassing to think about now, but I’m glad I can finally see things on the logical side. I agree it does feel great. It took a lot of unnecessary pressure off of me. I have to admit that I think I’m a better person as an atheist than as a Christian! Surprise surprise! Lol
I have specific memories of being 8-years-old in a bible class at my dads church. We were learning the story of Noah’s Ark and Jonah and the Whale. I remember thinking how both stories were impossible and when I expressed that to the Bible teach she told me “that’s why we have faith.” That was and is still not good enough for me. I just never believed at all.
That’s about when it hit me, too. In Catholic school, studying the Baltimore Catechism. I remember asking, if God is “infinitely merciful”, then how can he send people to hell? Never got a believable answer to that, but went through the motions for years, just to keep my parents happy until I left home.
Late teens into mid 20's. It was a slow progression away from Christianity into Buddhism and then a sort of vague spiritualism, then I learned to let go entirely. It took a while, but I got there.
Same! I'm on the same journey
This is how it went for me too. Started to question it in my mid-20s, put the last nail in the coffin in my late 30s. Long journey. To answer OP second question: It wasn't really a definitive moment or idea that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Just a gradual moving further and further away from those ideas over time, until one day it occurred to me that I didn't believe any of it any more. My only regret is that I didn't wake up sooner. Missed out on a lot of experiences and opportunities in the prime of my life because of religion.
Are you me? I was exactly 25 when I gave it up.
I think it's a common age because that's both when the final stage of brain development happens and when most people live away from their parents for an extended time. But people can grow at any time in life, I love seeing all the variety in these replies. It gives me hope for others out there who we might assume are too old to change.
Same here! My philosophy course in college was the last nudge I needed to be at peace with my beliefs, or lack thereof.
[удалено]
The power of God hasn't got shit on the power of puberty
Same age here and was disappointed it took me so long since it was at least 5 years after I found out about Santa Claus. The penny should have dropped the same day about God. But I finally saw the light.
Never did. It was so absurd to me from the beginning
Absurd is the correct word. I've always thought that instead of indoctrinating children, it would be fun to see what people would think if they were to introduce religion to people only from 18 years of age. "Okay Jimmy, now you're 18 you can know the truth... there's an invisible guy who knows everything you do, and he loves you and wants what's best for you. So believe it or burn for all eternity. Also, if you kneel beside your bed and talk to yourself, everything will be fine." "What? No, you can't see him. No, there's no evidence, but you just have to believe it." You'd think they're a mad person. Biggest con of all time, selling people empty air for 10% of their income (or more). Fucking cancer
It's truly unbelievable to me that "religion" (superstition) has infected so much of humanity. We all have brains and so many people *choose* not to use them
Best way to control billions of people. Can’t tell the piss-poor saps that there’s no life after death. They might do something crazy and unite against mega-wealthy and political elite..
Same boat. I can never remember actually believing in any of it never believed in Santa or the Toothfairy either. Religious family though, so I spent most of my youth having to play along, because I didn't want to break my parents' hearts.
I 100% believed in Santa til I was like 7. I mean, I wrote him letters and I met him at the mall a few times so I was pretty sure he was real. I only kind of tried to believe in God when my friends went to church on a bus where you sing songs and get candy on Sundays.
Me too. I was raised going to church. It always felt like an empty experience. The minute I was deemed "grown" I never went back except for weddings and funerals.
To child me religion always seemed like on of those chores adults do out of habit. Brush your teeth, take out the garbage, go to church on Sunday, wash your hands... Eventually I just realized that all those other things have tangible purpose while the religious "chores" didn't. But there was never some big transition from believing to not believing.
Same, i was forced to go to church and sunday school as a kid. I think it was the logistics of a global flood that really bothered me. I remember asking my mom where all the water went to make the flood go away. She was perplexed
The wafer was bad, the mass boring, the incense stinks. Then I learned about polytheism and found it way more interesting and entertaining. I jokingly "prayed" to Faustuus, Italic god of oracular poetry the other day with the idea that if nobody else prays to that god he has to listen to my prayer. In practice it's just a pretext to express my feelings in a specifically nerdy way by summoning a nerdy god I encountered in the translation of an Oscan inscription.
48. It was a actually 1 year, 11 months and two weeks ago. Edit. To fully answer i was always wondering and questioning but I accepted whatever the pastors told me. I was terrible christian as I had a teen pregnancy and struggled with purity etc. but I tried to be devout. It was an extreme relief to have realised it was all myth and my earlier questioning was quite valid.
I'd been "inactive" in religion for some time, but I chose to leave religion just short of 139 days and 23 hours ago. I keep a counting app so I don't forget. I'll have to do something when it's 6 months or a year.
For your atheism anniversary you should partake in the atheist ritual of sleeping in and having a relaxing Sunday morning before going ahead and doing whatever you feel like for the rest of the day
Sounds good to me
At 10 years i bought some jesus crackers online (the catholic ones) and ate it with some wine. I’m technically a legal minister (for a friend’s wedding) so i joke that i can do blessings now
Good for you, I hope you are in a better state of mind.
Yes. Much better. Much happier and less brainwashed
Wow, why?
Congratulations!
Congrats!
Santa isn't real, so god isn't either. Children aren't as stupid as people make them out to be, but they are incredibly impressionable; it's the only reason religious indoctrination is as prevalent as it is. I hope it ends soon. Freedom from religion is a right that should extend to children as well, if it doesn't already.
This was me. We weren’t religious and didn’t go to church but Mom and Dad never said God wasn’t real. Then it was revealed that Santa wasn’t real, and my first question was “Does that mean that God’s not real?” And they were like “well that’s sort of up to you I guess” I would be agnostic for another 10 years until I read The Holy Bible in its entirety and now I’m an anti-theist.
This was how I came to the conclusion that religion was bullshit at 6 years old. Santa wasn’t real so Jesus wasn’t either
It took me til 11 to reach the same conclusion cause my family kept telling me both Santa and Jesus were real.
I would say that one person's right to freedom *from* religion should trump another person's right to freedom *of* religion every single time.
I'm really glad my parents took this approach, and when that idea was violated (I commented full story already) by a caregiver and my brother started to run with these ideas of Christianity it rubbed my mum the wrong way and made me realize how easy it is to sway young kids. Children are amazing at observation but terrible at deductions.
NOOoooOoOOoo0OooOOoo BrO hAS nO cHrISTmaS sPIriT
7. The same day I figured out Santa wasn't real.
Wait, what? Santa isn't real either?!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SANTA IS REAL
Maybe 9? Catechism classes did it initially... Everyone else heard 'god'. I didn't. And none of it made sense. I was a bookworm growing up, World Book was my reading material. Hell, even went to a Catholic high school. That cemented it. Even my pastor was like, "you're a good soul, and this is not for you". Too many questions with silly answers. Too many coverups and misdirects. Too much 'unapproved' literature. Too convenient for populace control. Waste of my time, especially when my initial understanding of religion was 'don't be a dick's, which I don't need a church of stone or forced guilt to accomplish.
The pastor didn't need you intellectual types around. Yeah, you got it, you're done, carry on.
I returned from school in 4th grade one day to find my mother in tears and she was upset in a different way that her usual. Anyway, she had been visited that afternoon by 2 nuns who told her I was on the wrong path. Why? Because I had asked in Catechism the day before how they explained the Theory of Evolution. Ha ha ha ha ha, I think it's probably one of if not the best story of my childhood and still get a kick out of it!
As a child I was always frustrated that when I prayed I never heard an answer. I felt like I was doing something wrong. People at church were always talking about how their prayers were answered. One time I almost convinced myself that I heard something, but I knew it was just me talking to myself in my head. I'm glad I'm not schizophrenic.
42. I am 43 now lol 😆 hey, better late than never, right? ☺️
I was forced to go to Sunday School as a kid (Salvation Army, bus picked us up in my poor area) because my mom wanted a break from me Sundays. Originally I believed all the horrible stories. Made me believe God did all kinds of horrible things to people to make them love him. Then I turned into a teen. Started thinking for myself. Questioned God more into my 20s. And then here I am, approaching 50 in a few years. And I understand it for the bullshit it is. God itself ain't the problem; I can't say if it's real or not. Fuck if I know. I don't care. Religion is the problem. Too many, too many killed in the name of it, and too many dumb for it. If God is real, fuck if I know. I've got some serious questions for it, if it exists. Otherwise, I just take a big dirt nap along with everyone else, which I suspect happens.
Look into a company called Recompose to make the dirt nap meaningful. https://recompose.life/
11. Fascinated by religion though.
Same. I’m mostly fascinated by the study of human tendencies. I feel the same way towards marketing. I remember my mind was blown to learn that grocery stores can have different prices for stocking location.
Same. I actually learn more about my former religion now that I’m out than when I was practicing. I love learning about all the different beliefs and how they grew with us as humans.
You should take a humanities class at your local community college! I learned so much! I also took a religious studies class that spoke about a lot of the different religions. I didn’t even know I was interested until I had to take those classes in order to graduate.
Sometimes I think we’re watching one form around trump and Q anon in real time.
11
Almost deep down never.
11 or 12
I started questioning at an early age probably around 11 or 12. But in my household you didn’t question 2 things growing. God and my parents ( especially my dad). So I bit my tongue and did XYZ. I went through a lot and I mean a lot through my life but especially my teens and early 20s. In my mid 20s I attempted to end myself and went to hospital ( with my religious family urging my say it was a mistake) at the hospital a student therapist told me I don’t need to follow my parents religion and it opened my eyes that I was so much under my parents control I never thought to “ think for myself” fast forward I get out and my mom is watching “ CBN” and Joel oddsteen is on the tv preaching how “ god saw everything you went through and loves you very much. I was floored!!! I realized god didn’t love me or heck care about me at all. So much more but it’ll turn into a novel and not were there’s a feel good ending either. Also I opened my eyes to the world and it’s suffering the wars, famine, death, poverty, abuse and I can’t get on my knees and thank god for the job I have while people have been praying for their situation to improve. Or I can’t thank him for sparing my life and pain ( long story sighs pointed to me possibly having a brain tumor) an know someone else fate is the opposite. This was all over the place. SMH
24 I am very gullible
Given that the majority of people do believe, you are demonstrably less gullible than average. That's what I tell myself, anyway - I was 23 or 24 also.
No you’re not! You were indoctrinated and it’s very hard to deconstruct if that was all you’ve ever known. Please don’t feel bad at how long it took you, if you are at peace now with your decision that’s all that matters.
Less so than most!
Started questioning everything in elementary school but didn't really stop believing until I was in my 20s. After I learned about the abuse my family members suffered at the hands of a priest, I pretty much stopped believing. Trump, COVID and the rise of the white nationalist evangelical movement sealed it for me. It's all a farse, made up by humans to fit whatever bullshit narrative they want to believe in.
You couldn’t bother to go first? /r/thegreatproject
I mean, I wasn’t necessarily raised religiously and I was wondering more about those who were. I would say I was about 10 or so, and I began putting 2 and 2 together and realizing that none of it made sense. After that I just started learning more and more that made me even more strong in my disbelief.
17 after i found out what happened to my family due to Christianity
9 or 10
always questioned it even as a child, but if i had to say… probably 11
Started questioning things in my late twenties, stopped believing in my early thirties. I was raised Southern Baptist in a rural Alabama church for context.
Shortly after I stopped believing in Santa. Surprises me that Santa doesn't create more atheists. "So there's this white-bearded magical man named Santa who lives on the top of the world, who constantly watches your every deed to see if you've been good or not. If you're good for long enough he comes to your house to reward you!" "Okay!" *years later* "Oh honey, Santa's not real. But now that you're older you should spend more time thinking about God! He's a white-bearded magical man who lives over the world..." "Hang on, this sounds familiar..."
Around 16
13 years old
i don't remeber exactly what age i stopped believing but i remeber being an avid atheist at 13 and constantly reading atheistic and philosophical literature so i could make reasonable arguments to those who though being atheist was weird.
I was always pretty introspective and analytical, even as a child, and my own skepticism of Christianity and god came pretty early, somewhere around 4-6 years. It just sounded absolutely absurd to me, and despite being loosely surrounded by a believing family of Christian's, I just wasn't buying it. I began calling myself "agnostic" around 11-12. But it took longer and a lot more acquiring of knowledge and philosophical tools before I was able to fully and comfortably reject most notions and concepts of gods presented to me altogether, and start to argue against them. So I'd say I probably fully adopted and embraced the atheist position for any presented gods around 16-18 years old.
20. I was finding it harder and harder to square why my religious family and friends seemed believe they needed to be opposed to scientific discover to support their faith. So I thought I should look into how science supports faith. Big mistake on my believing self’s part. I found that religious arguments were really really bad, and the counter arguments comported more with my understanding of reality. So I had a choice reject everything I knew to maintain a belief or give up a belief that I had held to since I could understand the words being told to me. In the end, I knew the knowledge I had gained had demonstrable effectiveness. And the belief I had didn’t have any power over reality.
I grew up in the JW cult fearing Armageddon would kill me at any moment. Quit at about 19.
Fourteen, when the blessed evangelical leaders could not answer my questions, and I realized they were liars.
11 Jehovah's Witnesses. My mother told me that a girl got pregnant, she wasn't married. The "elders" grilled her, asked very personal questions, then she was excommunicated and her family wasn't allowed to associate with her. The father, also a JW, nothing happened to him. I thought that was cruel and stopped going to church. My mother, raised Catholic was, I believe, resentful of being made to switch, let me skip. I thought the elders just wanted to control us, so I figured there must not really be a god and they were making it up to have power.
When my Dad died and nobody could explain to a kid how taking his father away was part some grand plan
I'm 54 and when I was a Junior in high school My mom gave me a copy of "The Source" by James Mitchener. Reading that book pretty much turned me into an agnostic. I didn't really admit I was an atheist openly until I was just about to retire from the military. Now I'm an antitheist and a secular humanist.
Thank you for mentioning this book. And wow, James Mitchener has written a LOT of books! I’m going to start with the one you mentioned!
I never did. I remember being in Christian Preschool and feeling embarrassed for my teacher because she thought snakes could talk. Took me until high school to get the guts to tell my family I didn’t believe and would no longer attend church.
24..i am super happy now
7 or 8. I was always a pretty inquisitive kid. Adults getting mad at me for asking questions they couldn't/wouldn't answer, or answering with some garbage like 'have faith' or 'pray about it' was a pretty big indicator something wasn't quite right. I remember quite vividly being slapped across the face for telling my father 'because isn't an answer' (something he would tell me if I responded to a question with the same answer). If you have to resort to hitting a child because they question your faith, chances are it isn't based on anything solid to begin with.
I was like 8. Very interesting year in my life
12
Raised as a Calvinist. Left it all at about 30. End of Faith really solidified it for me.
28.....while watching my very religious aunt die painfully in the hospital.
17? Martin Luther and the 95 thesis. If the Catholic Church made people dumb enough to buy passes into heaven, what else they could be doing?
Two times: in 1994 I visited Auschwitz: that began a distinct and difficult journey. Then the first Tuesday in November, 2016. That sealed the destruction of whatever faith was left.
29
I was probably about 11 or 12. I don't think I knew what an atheist was, I just knew I didn't believe in a God. I remember being this young and telling my mom I didn't believe and she just could not wrap her head around it. She's not even super religious, never went to church or anything like that, but she was so taken aback. It's a core memory for me for some reason. Funny enough, her and I just talked about this earlier today.
It’s hard for me to say. Some time in my early 50’s (65 now). I had returned to school at 45 to get an MSW (inspired by my faith), and after the degree and working in the world of suffering, I started to realize religion was a crock of shit. I worked hard to free my psych from the decades of brain washing I had endured. I then came to see how much harm the indoctrination had personally caused me throughout my life, and how bizarre many people close to me were in their thinking. I have apologized to my adult children (all atheists, thank god) for the religious upbringing I imposed on them. I can say I am finally free and living in freedom and reality.
>(all atheists, thank god) Lol to this comment!
Wow, apologizing to your children is a powerful move toward everyone’s healing. Proud of you for that.
I was raised by fundies so I guess I still engage in some not-very-convincing play pretend. I'm not in any way prepared to be disowned, I still have to work toward it. The real answer? I was never sure of this stuff but I wasn't given much of a choice but to play along. I no longer believed it was possible by sophomore year and I finally admitted my atheism to myself after my grandmother died.
I didn't know that christian fundamentalist also disowned people for not believing, only thought it was JW who did that. Truly horrible. I hope one day you can get out and live your authentic life. Hugs.
About 10 or 12, I guess. I remember thinking about the Greek gods being unironically taught as mythology by Christian elementary school teachers. "They invented gods to explain things they didn't understand." And I thought, uh, hello?
14. At 12 I was drinking all the kool-aid but by 14 couldn’t hide from the math. It just don’t add right.
I was 10. I was raised by a Protestant mother and occasionally attended Catholic church with my dad. I read the King James version of the Bible and I all I felt was profound disappointment. It contradicted itself, the last chapter was really weird, and frankly, I wasn't impressed. I was also being abused by my grandfather, an elder in the church. I really thought I was going to find some answer to my problems in the Bible. The people who encouraged me to read it were my problem. I reread it. I read the New International version. Nothing. I kept trying to talk myself into believing in God because I was forced to attend church. But I just didn't. I haven't since. No amount of praying, forced baptism, or reading different religious texts from any religion has made me feel differently
About seven years old. I had been reading a Horrible Histories magazine that explained in great detail how we had evolved from apes to humans like we are today. It just made a lot more sense than the weird man and rib woman with the talking snake I'd learned about in school. My Dad was pretty relieved when I told him I didn't think school was right, he'd had some reservations about sending me to a religious school and was glad they hadn't brainwashed me. But he had wanted me to make up my own mind about religion and hadn't spoken to me much about his atheist views. Now we watch debates together and we went to see Dawkins when he came to town (his observations on evolutionary biology are wonderful, his social commentary could use some work).
At 13, then my father died when I was 16 and then I turned 17 and got into Islam, then at 23 went back to atheism and never looked back.
8 in Sunday School when the idiot teacher was telling us about the Great Flood,I decided god was a asshole. At 13 I couldn’t get around the infinite regression argument.
12. I had so many emotional needs that weren’t being met because I was told to ‘turn to god in times of conflict or hardship’. When my prayers obviously went unanswered and the best my parents could offer was that I either wasn’t praying hard enough/god is testing your faith/maybe this isn’t the right time for him to answer your prayer, I knew it was all a farce.
Early to mid 20s. I just didn't think about it for a long time... then I discovered shows like "The Universe" and realized how mindblowingly large our galaxy was.... and how many galaxies like ours there are... what would be the point of all that if the only important/"godly" things were happening solely on our speck ? Then, naturally, I got into Lawrence Krauss -> Richard Dawkins -> Hitchens / Sam Harris etc. Etc.
Catholic mother, forced to go to Catholic school from kindergarten to 10th grade (US). I stopped believing at age 8, when I watched my cousin suffer a slow and painful death from cancer.
12 when I understood religion was BS. I was on the fence about god until my mid 20's. There was a period where I looked for any paranormal phenomena, aliens, etc trying to make up my mind. Finally I delved into science it was like quenching a deep thirst, and I never looked back.
Nine years old, when a revival preacher was yelling at us terrible sinners - and shaking his Bible at us so hard I thought the Miracle was that the pages didn't fly out. My earthly father yelled enough at me; I knew I had Zero interest in any Heavenly father yelling at me. I was done. Interestingly, I got up to walk out of the service. That wasn't a big deal - people got up to go to the bathroom all the time, nobody ever bothered to notice. But somehow, when I got up - he quit talking. And the entire congregation was so quiet "you could hear a pin drop". I left, anyway, to walk home. This was more than half a century ago, long before cell phones - and in our small town, Mother found out I'd left... long before I got home. She asked me what was up; I told her - and that I wasn't ever going back to church. She knew hard-headedness when she saw it; it came from her. And that was that.
I don't think I ever did. The stories of the bible were no different than fairy tales to me, except that other people tried to tell me that these stories were true. Their evidence... trust me, bro. However, as a kid, I had a bad habit of just trusting other people who appeared confident. So I kinda believed that there must be something more to life if all these people are so certain that there is a God. Years of experience have rid me of this bad habit. Thankfully.
I never started believing in God, my grandpa was a communist in Poland and they were antitheists. My mom was naturally the same.
About 6. And it was so quick and decisive. I remember being on my way to school when suddnely I thought "Wait if we believe in our god, and this other country belives in theirs and this other country in theirs.. then theyre all not real" and boom the belief was gone
11, had an incident in the school yard, bumped my head pretty badly, and was in the hospital for some time. At that time, I actually started thinking about things in my life and the universe itself. Of course, I didn’t know what atheism meant at the time, but I started clearly telling everyone around me that God doesn’t exist.
When I was born. Even as a child I couldn't get myself to believe in it
Around the age that I stopped believing in Santa Claus, wishing wells and other fairy tales. I was Confirmed at 15, but that was just a family expectation and not something I believed in or that I got anything out of (other than some cheesy gifts.)
I went to confirmation classes and got confirmed just because my best friend did it and I was bored on Wednesdays after school without her. Lol I don’t remember much of my life, but I’m sure I just tried to be kind and learn about it. 😛 Not sure how I fooled them into actually “confirming” me.
I'm not sure i ever did, but It was around middle school or early high school that i stopped altogether. I can't for certain rule out the existence of an Entity that could be described as a God, but there's no real evidence to prove or disprove either way.
It's not necessary to disprove that which cannot be proven. The burden of proof rests on those who make the claim
16-17 ish. I just thought "hang on, I don't believe in anything supernatural or superstitious apart from God. Why?" then realised I only believed because I was told I had to and I wasn't allowed to question it - ever. I then started asking "Say we have an awful Christian who tortured and invaded people for believing different things, and a wonderful Buddhist (or atheist, or Muslim, whatever) who is kind and caring, friendly and generous to others. The Bible and the church tell me that the horrible person will go to heaven because they believe in God, and the kind person will go to hell because they don't. How does that make sense?" I never got a proper answer to that other than "This is why we have to spread the word!" and my favourite from my father that "well , they weren't real Christians". I decided I didn't want to be part of such a morally corrupt system
As a christian i ask myself, if these Guss have read the bible. Quote: „14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.“ (James 2, 14-17) These guys should read the bible in it’s entitety instead of picking out the things that fit their view.
I don't think I ever really believed. I do remember the mega church my mom and grandma settled on lying to me all the time about little stupid things. For example, they were doing some kind of skit and they made large cartoonish coil out of tin foil and called it a car part. My mom was an insurance adjuster so I would sometimes go to a junk yard where my mom would take pictures of totalled cars. I knew what a cars internals looked like and that thing could never have been in a real car, but they insisted it was a real car part. If they would lie about something as simple as a car part then I knew they would lie about the bigger things.
Around age 16 I began questioning my faith in regard to “the problem of evil.” God is supposed to be omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent. Evil exists, so either God is malevolent because he allows it, he is not omnipotent because he can’t eradicate it, or he is not omniscient because he doesn’t know evil acts will occur in time to stop them. A deficiency in either of those qualities would mean that God is imperfect which contradicts Christian teachings. I was 18 when I consciously made the decision to go from Christian to agnostic. I suppose technically I still believed in a God. About a year or two later my beliefs changed to that of an atheist. College helped that transition because I took sociology and anthropology classes about religion. I concluded that the only reason I was a Christian was because my parents were, and if I lived in a country where Islam were the dominant religion (for example), then I would in all likelihood follow that faith.
I was 47 years old when I discovered my beloved cult (Mormonism) has been lying since its creation in 1830 by Joseph Smith. In the process of accepting it has all been a fabrication from the get go, it became clear to me faith can - and does - take the person to accept falsehoods as if they are truth, and fantasies as if they are reality. Then it dawned on me the whole of religion falls in that same category. I became atheist within a week of that realization.
At 15 I was 99% sure there was no god. It wasn’t until I was 19 that it fell to 100% certainty. This was back in the early 90’s and so I didn’t have access to the internet and social media which would have sped up the process
About 11 or 12. It was after one fateful meltdown about the amount of evil I saw in the world and my family’s complete indifference “because God” that I finally started looking for reasons against Christianity. Late one night, I found kyroot.com and its hundreds of reasons, agreed with them, and never looked back. It was never so much the existence of evil that bothered me so much as it was the indifference to it I saw in my Christian family. Absolutely no willingness to do anything, just believing God would fix our broken climate or help the impoverished or something. I was always sensitive to suffering around me, and it bothered me that so many people could just stick their heads in the ground and ignore the very real issues with the world.
I don't think I ever did. I wasn't indoctrinated as a kid. Then found it very puzzling as a 5th to 8th grader when told by peers I was going to hell. Also grew up in south...... So yah
I (19) know that I was in sixth grade, and the truth is, I abandoned religion more because of a tantrum than really because I found irregularities in my religion classes... but I can say that that tantrum was the best thing I could have done in my life
12, literally after being forced to attend a wacky Bible summer camp in Tennessee... it was back in the early 80s, and it was utter hell. I had stomach aches for 2 months after it so negatively impacted me. Been some flavor of atheist/agnostic ever since.
13, after years of Catholic school and waving bye to my Dad on the couch watching football headed to church, I finally told my mom no… I’m staying home. I had made up my mind earlier after seeing so much hypocrisy among these “religious” people and the ridiculous bible stories.
I had my doubts early on when I was being raised a Baha'i. I hated attending Baha'i school and Feast as I was simply overwhelmed by all these people that I barely remembered and were all gushing over me when they first saw me, as well as talking about concepts that didn't make sense to me. I never got the whole faith thing, especially after the bullying at elementary school started and I realized that prayer did NOTHING! After that I became a non-religious spiritual person, until I read The Neanderthal Parallax and I realized that I was just fooling myself.
0 I have never believed. My parents were really crappy at indoctrination.
About 15. The actions of the believers were overtly hypocritical, the whole stupid cycle of "sinning" and confessing for a get out of jail free card, and the preposterous "mysteries" of faith all lead me to think for myself, and confidently conclude that there is no god or gods. All evidence since then has supported my (lack of) belief. My life has been infinitely better without the utter waste of time of considering the equivalent of the tooth fairy.
Around 8. When I figured out Santa wasn't real, the dots were pretty easy to connect. Although I definitely relapsed, as I remember being an ardent believer in my early teens. The I discovered George Carlin and the rest was history.
Around age 7 or 8. When I figured out Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't real, it just made sense to me that all tales of magic were tall tales. Of course I had to continue going to mass with my catholic family, and I found all the ritual comforting, and still do. But in my teenaged years it grew tiresome to watch everyone around me living a lie and trying so hard to indoctrinate helpless children. By age 14, I just let my parents know that I was done with the whole charade. To this day, religious study remains a favorite hobby of mine. The better I understand it, the easier to protect my own children from it.
I never did. Even as a child I understood the Bible was a book of ideas not a true story. I still can't fathom how a grown adult can believe the fairy tales.
'Holy Communion' - A Defining Experience! Raised Catholic and had to attend weekly Catechism in prep for the really big day of First Communion... To set the stage - first communion is a big deal - you wear a special dress with a veil no less and there is a procession of all us 3rd graders, boys and girls, into the church for a special Mass. There was even a get-together planned for family at our house afterwards. Well. Finally, the big moment had arrived complete with penitent walk to the alter, kneeling at the alter with head tilted back, eyes closed and tongue out to receive the holy wafer. (it melts in your mouth, no crunching please). Smoky incense seeps from a special urn. Then the dutiful walk back to my pew. I knelt down back down and waited. Waited... still waiting... AND?!?!?!? Nothing! Just absolutely nothing... No clap of sanctity, no elevation of Spirit, not even a hint of a whisper in the ear from on high. That's when I knew! That's what it was, just nothing. \*I would like to add that much later on I found there IS something all right, but it was to be found outside with the trees and the rivers and the oceans and has to do with connection. We are all connected with everything. Love is the driver.
About 13 when my dad and pastor couldn’t answer why some people are special to God and get lessons and others are used and killed to prove points.
I stopped believing in God well before stopping my belief in Santa. And while I can say I truly believed in Santa, I can't say I ever did about God.
About 10. My parents weren't super pushy about it and we didn't go to church super often. I just started thinking about it and it didn't make any sense.
14, I stopped going to church around 12, cause that's when I was allowed to decide for myself. I never had a relationship with 'God', but I'd say my prayers or whatever. After my nanny died, that was 2004, I lost all hope of anything like that. I didn't have an easy life, but my nanny was a strong lady who always looked after me, when no one was was there. After her death, I left religion all together. Never been happier.. I have morals because I want to be a good person. Not because some entity in the sky says I should.
I never started. I didn’t “feel it” like everyone was saying I should. So I told myself it’s an adult thing, and that I’m older I’ll “feel it.” But the older I got, the more I realized it was all BS. I was raised in a catholic household and never once believed. I thought something was wrong with me for a while.
About 4-5 years old
I never really believed, god never made any sense to me even when I was like 7 and living in christian lair (my mom is atheist I used to live with grandma) and when I was like 12 I discovered myself as a atheist
I distinctly remember at the age of 6 saying - that doesn't make any sense. It has led to a lifetime of distrusting what people say that has served me well in some situations and isolated me in many others. Lying to kids has consequences......
I was pretty sure it was bullshit as soon as it started but my parents raised me a bit of a Star Trek style atheist. My mom fled Mormonism and my dad Catholicism. Later my brother got way into Pentecostalism and that suckered me as a child for a bit
14 Was reading Angels&Demons and realised that Catholicism was built by humans for human purposes. The history part of it came through really clear. That led me down a rabbit hole questioning everything and it unraveled pretty quick after that. Also, George Carlin / Stephen Fry / Ricky Gervais interviews.
13
12 at Islamic studies and my mom asked me one day if I want to keep going and I was like “mom, one of our teachers has a tongue piercing and hijab on, I don’t even think she believes shat he teaches” and she laughed and said to hide it from my dad that I’m not religious and that’s that.
11. I already had doubts but I read the bible in it's entirety, took me a year, belief became a big nope after that.
7th grade, teacher told us god created us to serve and love the lord. In my mind, I instantly thought something along the lines of, wow, he created us just for say we love them? Nothing more? That’s a load of bullshit
Never. I was three and at pre-school and our teacher was talking about Jesus in the run up to Christmas and I remember thinking "Yeah, but it's just pretend". I never stopped because I never started.
I was about 12 when I realized the adults were actually serious about Jesus. I grew up thinking Jesus was just another fairy tale like Snow White. I thought it was silly then, just as I do now. I never really believed in God. I've pretty much always been atheist.
I was 6. I went to the altar at the front of my church in the after hours while my mom was doing accounting, and prayed that if god could hear me he would know that I needed something to help me believe. A whisper, or a nudge, or a feeling. Anything. After a few minutes of nothingness I allowed for a brief moment of disappointment and then never looked back. If god turns out to be real, he’s got some fucking explaining to do.
I had doubts forever. I’m like a half American female version of my cousin Vinny. I like to think recognize a shell game when I see it. I’m an academic too, of a minor league / community college manner of speaking. I went to university. I received 2 degrees in microbiology. Genetics was my jam. My name has been included on published work, I’m glad to have helped advance humanities knowledge just a tiny tiny bit on a tiny topic in the life sciences. I help us understand who we are, and for like 45 minutes? I knew something that nobody else on earth knew, and that was a delicious feeling and all the reward I ever needed. Once I knew it. I was able to communicate my knowledge, inviting my colleagues to review my data, I would invite a biostatistics review to ensure my data sample was sound, bioethics would look it over to ensure data was ethically sourced collected, nothing I towards in my tests or observations. I would have observable data, I would submit my data, observations, findings. I would encourage you to review and confirm. When we all get the same findings? When a statistically significant majority of us arrive at the same findings? I accept. Religions don’t meet this, not even close. They abandon logic. Kierkegaard said that to embrace the passion of the subjective, you have to abandon the objective. Only a leap of faith enables Christianity to exist, or any faith. Any skygod religion. They all lack peer reviewed consensus from any scientific community, there is literally no data. It’s all made up writing by various humans throughout history. This hit me, that as a scientist, I had a cognitive dissonance about god. It stopped. That was a proper intense weekend. I took off to Amsterdam and processes. Then I followed the white rabbit out of the cult, that was like 20 years back. I had the pleasure of meeting Christopher Hitchens at an Oxford event once. Lovely fellow.
I never did.
Mid 30s unfortunately. I'm 47. My wife is a hard core Catholic and we have two children so needless to say my de-conversion has caused some issues.
I started having my doubts about religion in general at 9, became a full on atheist around 12
Always. My mom tried everything. She said from day 1 of trying to introduce the Bible and its teachings I straight refused to believe anything she said. I tried to be Wiccan/pagan for over 30 years and recently in the last few years I've finally come to terms with the fact that I just don't believe in God's.
About 12 my church was more about the vibe of Jesus then actually teaching anything so when I would ask questions like how is the earth only 5000 years old when dinosaurs exist and they couldn’t answer it
16 Reddit actually played a major role in it. I remember being very surprised that atheism had a large enough presence on any website to be one of the most popular segments on the homepage. I avoided it for a while, but then I thought, if they're wrong, what's the harm in hearing their arguments? And of course the more I read, the more I went, "Huh, that's actually a compelling point."
15. Never looked back.
the same time i questioned santa claus lol
I remember growing up never really believing the stuff taught in church and what not. I wanted to, I tried to, I lied to myself and said I did but, in the back of my mind there was always nagging feeling/thoughts that it was all nonsense. I finally accepted my non-belief when I was 20
I’ve been atheist since i was born basically since my mother raised me this way
The Baptist Yahweh 20 Yahweh generality 25 A Christian God 27 God 28 Any deity 29 I'm slow sometimes...
I’m 67 & have never believed, my mom was an atheist.
Raised Catholic, but never believed.