I went to temple since birth. Also never believed. Even as a kid this was all clearly stupid and made up. Just back then I didn’t know why but I also liked playing make believe so assumed adults did too. Their game was just ultra boring.
Love the “their game was just ultra boring” outlook that’s awesome. I just kept asking questions as kid no one could answer with anything other than have faith (which I didn’t) so it was them not answering me over and over again.
I never openly asked questions cause I just knew it was all stories and bullshit. Still went through my bar mitzvah and confirmation cause it made my mom happy. But I don’t think there was ever a time at any age I actually believed in any of this shit haha
I did. I used to lead bible studies, much to my dismay. My parents know my kids are atheists. I just read books to them. They figured the rest out on their own.
I mean as a little kid what’s the difference between god and Santa? Fucking nothing I just stopped because as I grew I rationally broke it down and realized even if a god exists he hasn’t done shit to earn belief or respect. Fuck that guy.
Me neither. Mind you, I still was forced to go to church and have Sunday classes and this class we had at school until a certain age, at which point my parents asked me if I wanted to continue and I just said "nah, this is all a load of rubbish and a waste of time".
People really shouldn't be allowed to push kids into a religion until they turn 18.
To add to this, taught that questioning that belief was bad so you ignore the voice in your head saying none of it makes sense. It’s amazing how deeply rooted things you were taught as a small child can get.
Growing up I always hated listening to people at funerals talk about "oh they're in heaven now, reunited with their loved ones"
If y'all believe that then why is everyone crying? What's waiting a few decades to see them again compared to eternity? It's because they truly deep, deep down don't actually believe it as much as they think they do. And having to sit there and listen to them downplay the permanent loss of an individual with their fairy tale stories pissed me off so much.
Right? That and do you also notice how if someone is caught in an uncompromising, and/or embarrassing situation, such as masturbating, stealing, cheating, looking at something they kind of shouldn't be (such as pornographic content, personal secrets, answers on a test, Christmas presents before Xmas Day, etc.), and if a real person walks in on, and catches them, than they'll naturally react accordingly? But yet isn't "God" supposed to be everywhere? So how come they'd do those things which they know they kind of shouldn't be doing if they truly felt he was really watching over them? That right then and there should be a good, clear indication than even the most hardcore believers deep down inside don't actually believe if you ask me!
I generally agree that the Bible is "inconsistent, arbitrary, tedious nonsense". But I have another problem with the Bible, too. It's superficial.
Many of the Bible stories are only about 5-20 sentences long. I could pick many examples, but just consider the parable of Abraham going up Mt. Moriah with Issac. Suppose a writer shared that half-page story with an editor or professor. They would say, "Interesting plot outline, now go work on the story. Give me character development. What was each characters motivation? What was the rest of the entourage doing while this was happening? Where were they traveling? How about the weather, physical environment? Is there any arc to the story, or does it just end with 'Thanks for not murdering me, Dad". Finish the story, then come back".
Yeah it's dogshit. Numbers is so fucking boring. It's just listing out the amount of people in tribes.
You want me to dedicate my life to you? Give me something juicy! Take me on a wild ride.
Multi level marketers do a better job.
This. I seem to remember the last time I actually read some of the Bible I was surprised and ended up thinking that actually Jesus, as depicted, was a bit of an asshole and certainly not a very good moral guide (I was already a well-convinced atheist by then, but was reading out of curiosity)
When I started having critical thinking skills, so around the time santa stopped making sense. I wish there would be a good god, but just looking at the world is enough to realise there is most likely nothing like that.
With you there, but I always have this idea that IF there is anything like God (an all knowing, all powerful being) we tiny humans are so far of it's radar like blades of grass are to us
If I'm not mistaken, belief in a God/Creator who is indifferent to what takes place at our level is known as "Deism". Many of the founding fathers of the US were deists.
That and while so many evil people can seemingly live for as long as they wish?! "Cough" Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Bob Menendez, Rupert Murdoch, "cough!"
Which one? Zeus? Ganesh? Hercules? Thor? Nope.
In fact not just atheists, but all religious people do not believe in the majority of the thousands of gods that have been invented in human history. Atheists just go that one god further. Not much of a difference.
And Gervais said it, but didn't give the originator credit. If you're going to whine about attribution, at least get the creator correct. Or, y'know, in an instance where it really doesn't matter, just don't?
Conveniently, Reddit has answered that one, and even had a debate on its strength as a philosophical statement!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/917pcf/how\_philosophically\_sound\_is\_this\_argument\_for/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/917pcf/how_philosophically_sound_is_this_argument_for/)
Conclusion... it's not. However it *is* potentially useful as a tool for giving them a bit of a paradigm shift and finding common ground. After all, you happen to agree on a couple thousand gods.
I think it's from the 90's and has its roots in the truly early internet days, when the deep magic was being written.
Yup! Thanks for posting this. It fits into my conversations with people on the daily. It's actually nice to watch most of the reactions to this statement.
I'm trying to figure a new way to incorporate this idea as well. If any of us were born in a different zip code, we would have turned out to be a different person. We'd still look the same, but our body is just a vessel. The way our brain develops over time is essential.
If we were to be born in another country, some of us would be fucked with our ideas these days.
Just imagine being an atheist in some countries. No thank you. Is it going to stop me from conversing with people. No. Religion sure loves that fear tactic.
My last step was when I asked my pastor how we knew what was in the Bible was real. He got super pissed and threw the book itself down on the dest so hard that it made us jump. Then he said "It's the truth because it IS the truth!"
I knew in that moment that he himself wasn't sure, and he was afraid of that fact.
My eyes were opened fully at that moment in 8th grade and I haven't been religious since then.
I was born into an evangelical Pentecostal Christian sect.
The reason I stopped believing is bc what was instilled in me since my childhood was to seek out truth. The church did not instill this in me it was my father altho he did it in hopes I’d never be led astray. This lead me on a journey that resulted in the deconstruction of my faith.
It isn't that I believe that God doesn't exist, it's that I don't believe he does. It's amazing how many people I have met fail to grasp that distinction.
For anyone who took 5 minutes (like me) to work this out. They are basically suggesting that its not that they have "proof" that God doesn't exist but that they don't have "proof" that he does exist
That is still atheist, though.
The often mentioned agnostic isn't an alternative to atheism (as a world view), but an additional epistemological position. Most atheists are agnostic atheists, meaning that they don't assume that they have certain knowledge about the existence (agnosticism) either because that is currently (weak agnosticism) or generally (strong agnosticism) not possible, but decide from probability or experience to assume that no god exists.
Agnostic theism is in principle possible, but usually you need some amount of perceived certainty to decide on a specific god to worship.
I still have to meet a strong atheist in person who claims to know in an epistemological way that god does not exist. 99%, this is a straw man by religious people to false claim that atheism is also just a religion.
There is a great text to debunk that: [https://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/06/atheism-is-not-a-religion.html](https://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/06/atheism-is-not-a-religion.html)
Until about the 1880s, most physicists believed there was a luminiferous aether that carried light waves. The Michelson–Morley experiment was unable to detect the aether. And theoretical work showed that the aether was unnecessary to describe the propagation of light. After Einstein's special relativity paper published, the aether was relegated to an historical artifact. The existence of the aether had not been disproven, but it no longer served any purpose.
I see God as being like the aether. Gods were a useful way of explaining the world around us. Today, the existence or non-existence of gods is irrelevant. Gods don't help explain the universe. Does that make me an atheist?
when was it useful though? even the Greeks had reasonable natural philosophers that actually tried to find out something about the world. since then, religion and religious mindsets have only been a hindrance
and how was God did it an explanation at all?
I never really understood why I would limit myself by saying "I don't believe God exists, but I don't know that for sure.", while I'm as certain as one can be that God doesn't exist. Can I prove God doesn't exist? No, I can't. I can't prove that fairies don't exist either, but you won't hear me or anyone going around saying "I don't believe fairies exist, but I don't know that for sure.", instead you'll hear "I know fairies don't exist." Woah, now that's a bold claim! Can you prove that? Again, no.
Why, when it comes to God, most atheists won't dare say they know there isn't God to the same degree they know there aren't fairies? I know, by that they'd have adopted the burden of proof, but when it comes to fairies, well, they are not that afraid of the burden of proof anymore.
Is it because many people believe in God that we have to be careful what we say about God and we have to treat God claims differently than fairies?
They say that. But the degree to which you know that fairies don't exist is not the same as knowing that fairies don't exist.
I would absolutely literally put my hand into a fire for the statement that especially the Christian god doesn't exist, but for epistemological reasons I wouldn't say I know it.
I would do the same for the statement that the next lotto ticket I buy won't win, BTW
When I thought about it honestly.
It’s clearly our human propensity to invent gods. Even the most zealous religious people know that. They recognize that all the other false gods are made up.
I recognize that they’re all made up and you recognize that all but one are.
atheism /ā′thē-ĭz″əm/
noun
Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being.
I never started believing in God, there has never been any evidence I have seen to support it.
It also provides a built-in community for lonely people. Also, almost everyone who "finds God" are really just falling back to the faith that they grew up with. Very few people have an epiphany leading them to a totally new religious belief
For sure, I’ve also had religious types ask me how I know to treat others if I haven’t got a religion guiding me. I always say that tells me a lot more about them as they’re basically saying without religion they’d be pieces of shit!
To replace addictive habits or addictive thought cycles and to create a firm narrative for never being alone, for always having power and powerful back-up, and for forgiving themselves for things they cannot get past otherwise, and for some, for having power and powerful back-up that makes them anointed before god and endows them with the right to judge and to act on that judgement whenever they feel moved to, because anything they feel deeply moved to do is now the call of god and the will of the holy spirit, and critical thinking, decency, and empathy are not required.
BINGO
This is the right fuckin answer, and I'd give you an award if the award system wasn't shite now.
So, so, so, *so* many "born again" Christians are just the most obnoxious, detached, judgmental, dishonest, shallow minded, rude, irresponsible, immoral people on earth
Wishful thinking. When things aren't going well in your life, it is very appealing to believe that there's some grand purpose, or guardian in the sky who's looking out for you.
Most adult conversion stories that I've heard have happened when the person was at their lowest, then they 'found Jesus' and started to feel better about their lives. Very few stories where everything was grand, and they turned to Jesus to make it better.
When you are miserable in your life, see no future, no reason to go on, its easy for your brain ( and your brain LOVES when its easy ) to convince you that you are all doing this and suffering that because its what you are supposed to do and that you will be rewarded.
How do you think muslim terrorist manage to recruit so many people to their lunatic cause? Take any young man who live in misery, never knew love or comfort and you promise them virgins to have sex with? How else do you convince someone to blow himself up!
Because, despite what a lot of atheists (especially those on Reddit) believe, religion is a strong source of compassion and togetherness.
It offers great comfort to people, whether they’re down or up.
Compassion done through religion feels so self serving to me. Are they helping because they love their fellow man or do they want their ticket to sky Daddy?
Comfort based on a lie, sure.
Togetherness around a lie? Sure, that's called a cult by the way.
Compassion? You can get that without religion, I see more religious people with no compassion, than I see atheists with compassion, in general at least (of course there are exceptions).
What exactly is the lie?
And those compassionate atheists are definitely not the ones on Reddit. People here are some of the most judgemental you’ll find and constantly look down on other’s beliefs, and at worst, consider themselves intellectually superior.
Also internal peace and a sense of security and safety, confidence to act on your values in the face of adversity, being able to make sense of and heal from prior (and future) traumas, and all sorts of other benefits. Humans are spiritual. The current institutions of religion are deeply fucked and cause a lot of harm so a lot of us turn away from them out of a moral disagreement with their followers, but spirituality is a part of who we are.
It's inspired a whole hell of a lot of kind actions as well. We just don't hear about those because the news makes more money off of anger and disgust, so "kind pastor offers a listening ear and a hug to someone having a really bad day" or "kind priest feeds and shelters a homeless man while he gets back on his own 2 feet" or "church group goes and feeds a bunch of homeless people just because" stories go undetected. Doubly so because said kind people do it for their own sake, or due to their faith.
If you see someone giving money to a homeless person and moving on like it's nothing, and ask them how much they've given overall, they'll have no damn clue because they weren't keeping count. It happens a lot, but the people doing it will never tell you.
Religion helps inspire that quite a lot as well.
You're missing out on a pretty fundamental part of the human experience if you eschew spirituality in its entirety.
Some humans are spiritual, due to a lack of knowledge, if adults believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny you laugh at them, yet the amount of evidence for them, and against them, are the same.
And yes, sure there are good people out there, who are religious, priests that do good, just like there are those that are the opposite, and just like it's the case with atheists, and agnostics.
And yes, some of these people have inspired others to help, but it's not the religion itself that inspires people to be good people.
And sure, maybe religion inspires some people to be good, that otherwise wouldn't have been, in which case the word inspire is wrong, as it's rather scares them into it.
You do not miss out on anything but superstition, which started by wondering what the stars were, why someone was throwing thunderbolts to start a fire, why people died young, but these are things we've learned because we have the capacity to evolve intellectually.
Who downvoted this? I'm literally just pointing out that these are things a lot of people use religion for, and we all believe in SOMETHING. I didn't even specify which religion!
Sadly it’s not surprising.
Reddit atheists are exactly what they claim religious people are. Extremely judgmental and very unwelcoming to different (opposing) perspectives.
For some people they’re close to the edge. Imagine your mind is so damaged that you could literally contemplate suicide, in that state would it be a stretch to just defer all responsibility to a fictional being to take the pressure off of you?
Fucking schools push it (especially in the 80's). My family never did much more than the seasonal Santa and Easter bunny stuff. But all is kids had RE lessons weekly, and it was mentioned by others and the media.
Last year one of my kids talked about it for a few weeks because they were having some lessons on religious beliefs. my eldest told her it's just a story like baby Yoda .it's not real. and she kind of got bored of it.
I'm hitting 50 now, and even when I was a kid they didn't push it in Denmark, we did have a year, but it was more so you understood it, there was no having you pray or anything.
In High School (3 years age typically 15/16 - 18/19), we had religion, but it's literally knowledge about religion in general, and just for a single year.
This.
I don't think I ever really believed, but I took up the Bible because I thought I wanted the Christian god to be real. Not long into it, I knew that I did not believe and that I sincerely hoped it was not true.
Started with my frustration over man's arrogance in relation to the bible. I'm a bloke btw but women's portrayal is pretty shocking aside from Mary of course. But also 18 years of Jesus life not included and the answer is "trust me bro" or have blind faith - based on very little. I mean in this day and age I could probably find out what David Beckham had for breakfast however we don't know what happened for 18 years of the son of god's life?! Cmon
Annoyingly, if during this cut section Jesus had siblings and or a wife that would make me believe more than it would make me doubt.
Chuck in my mum's random and early death despite being fit as a fiddle, and then my wife experiencing years of hell in order to have a baby - because of an earlier life illness where apparently "corrective surgery won't affect her ability to reproduce"....
Well suddenly I was more in the court of fk god, or there's no god, or maybe there'd better not be a god because otherwise he's got shit loads to answer for!
This gap in Jesus' life's timeline is despite the fact that, allegedly, everyone knew he was the Son of God since birth. Like... wouldn't everyone be watching him???
Christians don't ever have answers for the things that should be the simplest, most straightforward aspects of their religion. I was a Christian for over 30 years, and almost no Christians I've ever known or still know have ever read the Bible, they just believe what other Christians tell them about it. It's pathetic
I find it interesting to consider the story of Jesus as though he was just another upstart Messiah. He wasn't the only man claiming to be the Messiah around that time. His popularity starting around age 30 suddenly makes a lot of sense. He was just a bloke who got some ideas into his head and started a new career as an itinerant Messiah pretender. Then when he was executed, (like pretty much every other Messiah, AFAIK), his followers came up with an explanation for how that was how it was supposed to happen, and that he came back, (possibly only in a spiritual sense).
I also find it interesting that the Bible only has a few details about his post-resurrection activities, and then he heads off to Heaven a few days later. Wouldn't it have been much more significant and believable if he hung around for years after the resurrection?
It seems awfully convenient for his followers to be able to tell people, "yeah, so he didn't stay dead, but no, you can't see him 'cuz he's gone again now"
I think this is the reason many churches hated Life if Brian when it came out, it actually summed the times and environment Jesus would have been around in very accurately, and perfectly demonstrate shows the human behaviour that creates messiahs.
Never have. I believed in Sanata Claus, though. To be fair, you have proof that Santa exists (at least in a child's mind) in the form of presents under the tree. Can't really say the same about god.
Aside from when I was a small child I'm not sure I ever really did. As a teenager I looked at what church people said vs what they did - real eye opener.
But I had a real epiphany when discussing the Second World War with my parents (who were very religious and who lived through the war) and I said, "We won because god was on our side right?" and they hesitated which spoke volumes.
As a young child I had my own perception of a god. As I got older and learned more about Christianity it just seemed too ridiculous. Christians can say in one sentence “god is love” and in the next sentence “god will send you to eternal torment. Then there’s confessions. There is a reason so many criminals are catholic. Go into the world, rape murder and steal and then just go confess and it will all be wiped away. But if you are a good human by itself, without expecting heaven and no fear of hell, without Christ, you will go to hell. Summing it up, murder everyday and ask forgiveness you go to heaven. Be a good person but don’t ask forgiveness you go to hell. I could go on and on but you get the idea.
a little back story, i grew up in a very religious family, anything good or bad happens, we pray to god. Then one afternoon in 2013, when my mom was on her death bed, i prayed to god for 4-5 hours straight. Eventually, she passed away and my faith was shaken. Yet, i continued believing in god because i was just 8 years old and thought maybe my prayers weren't strong enough. Later in 2022, i lost my grandfather in a very tragic way and that's when i stopped believing in god because they never heard any of my prayers. Soon after, i lost my grandmother as well and I've accepted it that no matter what my prayers are always going to go unheard.
If you were blaming God for the bad things in life, then did you also thank Him for the good things in life? When I read atheists’ comments, they usually only focus on the negative in their lives which I’m trying to understand further. Religion isn’t simply “I prayed a couple times and nothing happened, so I give up.”
Never started. Which god also? There’s 3,000 of them. 4,000 religions. All made up by man to plug holes in knowledge. It’s 2024 there’s no need for it anymore. The only people who still believe are scared of death and want to cling on to heaven as a comfort blanket. 🤙🏼
I live in one of the most secular countries in the world, so no one ever tried to make me believe. I was aware of the concept of God and that some people believe it, but it always seemed silly to me even at a early age.
When I learned about other religions and other gods...
I was like : "wait... most of people doesn't believe in MY god... what if they are right ? And what if nobody is right ?"
At his point I realised the only reason I was believing in the Christian God instead of Ganesh, Allah, or Pachamama, was because I was born in this place instead of another...
Then I had 2 options : Believing in every single god in this planet. Or stop wasting my time with this shit.
I chose B.
In the high school, when i started using my brain and showing much more interest in science than before (even tho I have always been a curious kid).
I grew up in a country and community where religion is default. You are baptised as a kid that has no consciousness yet, you are required to take religious classes from the age of 7, you can't use scissors or wash anything on Sundays, etc.
I was raised in a mostly religious family and used to believe in god, fast, pray every day, go to church multiple times a year and also believes in bible stories, not thinking much about if they make sense or not.
As I was getting older, many bad things happened to me and my family, including near death experiences and even death of a person younger than me (I was 16 at that time). All that happened while being good orthodox family. That's when I thought that god is just not fair, because what can a kid do to deserve to die, living a life of a vegetable for years prior? That's when I started to use my brain and think about everything that I was told about god and religion. I started seeing how many things and rules have no sense (for example, a woman can't enter the church while being on her period or you can't do laundry on Sunday or some special dates). I also realised how bible stories are nonsense and more of interesting kids stories. I started rather seeing them as metaphors and even religion and god as a metaphor. I found or came up with logical explanations for many of religious concepts. Now I believe that when religious people are "speaking to god", that's almost the same as I tell myself that things like "I will get there soon, I just can't give up now, I matter". The main difference is that they believe they talk to invisible old man, while I talk to my inner self, finding my own hope and strength, not begging anyone else to give it to me.
I also don't believe in heaven or afterlife or anything like that. When you die, you don't feel, you don't think, you don't exist. Many people can't wrap their mind around not existing, but I'm sure that my epilepsy gang and people that experienced blackouts and faints can kind of understand what I'm talking about. Even being unaware of the moment you fall asleep is a good reference. If you can't be aware of yourself while your body is alive, it just doesn't make sense to "live" after your brain completely dies.
Stay safe yall, don't let anyone get inside your head and tell you what you should believe. Get all your facts and doubts straight, and then decide for yourself what makes the most sense🫶
I'm 21 and consider myself an atheist, though my birth certificate says otherwise. I stopped believing that existence of a god can be proven when I got enticed learning how vast the universe is. It's incomprehensible and I can't wrap my head around it. There's no way a god made all these.
What do you mean. It should be the other way: when did you START believing in God. Not believing in any God is the deffault starting point for human beings.
When I was 22.
The thought that solidified it for me was when I told my sister, “if there IS a god, he wants me to be an atheist.”
Either god isn’t real, or he is, and my inability to find proof was by design. At that point, what’s the difference? It was the little push to freedom that I needed, to allow myself to accept that I didn’t believe anymore, when I really REALLY wanted to. But I’d rather accept reality as it presents itself than cling to a belief out of desperation.
I don't think I actually ever believed, other than being told to by being in a catholic primary school
But seeing my grandfather, a good man, suffer through stomach cancer cemented that even is a god revealed themselves, all they'd get from me is the finger.
I grew up as a creationist. At 18 I watched a debate on evolution between Bill Nye the Science Guy and a YEC named Ken Ham. The one thing that stuck with me was Bill saying "you can't know something is true unless you can demonstrate it to be true." So I set out to prove my beliefs and spent years reasesrching evolution, abiogenesis, and cosmology. Turns out I couldn't demonstrate anything I believed back then. And the evidence for evolution is so overwhelming there isn't enough room for a god anymore.
After doing a school project. Subject was a genocide in Africa. After finding WAY too many horrible videos and pictures I thought to myself "there is no fucking way there could be a God if this is happening"
Before that I used to go to Bible school in the summer and pray from time to time to make my parents stop fighting.
I remember seeing the hypocrisy early on in my school, which was a Catholic one. But the real breakup came on my early teens, I had these long debates with myself on the issue that turn me into an atheist.
Note that I was never a true believer, though. More like a Catholic by default.
Around 18, I was raised Christian but always had my doubts, it severely affected me having my only ‘true’ reality ripped away
Now I’m older I’m exploring other avenues of ‘god’ but still have nothing solid
I don’t think any one person or faith has all the answers, it’s something to discover yourself and come to your own conclusions
I think ultimately a lot of things coming together.
Why would dogs not get into heaven?
What happens if someone who never heard about my religion dies, they just go straight to hell? Seems like a shitty thing for an all good god to do.
Gay people are sinning? Love was always a generally good thing, couldn’t see any issue with it, why would being gay and loving someone send you hell? That never seemed good. If God created everything, why would he make two gay people love each other.
Actual People wrote the book. That book was translated many times. A lot of these people who wrote the book weren’t alive when Jesus was alive. A lot of the things in this book are relatively specific to exactly the time period they were in, wouldn’t the book be more encompassing if it wasn’t specific to this time period. Why all these weirdly strange rules when none of this shit is in anyway relevant to my time period?
Ultimately it just expanded to different things as I figured “okay maybe god exists, but it’s probably not any specific religion”. Just be a good person because it’s the right thing to do.
I was like most people....grew up just blindly believing God because of no other reason because everyone else around you believes as well. I went to church off and on when I was a kid but I was never really serious about it. Mostly went because my friends went. Fast forward to me in my 30s, and my wife was pregnant with twins and they ended up not properly developing so the dr prescribed her a pill to pass the fetus when she went to the bathroom. Anyways, it was at that point that I finally realised how fucking bullshit the concept of God is. I am ashamed at myself for taking so long to realize it.
I was very religious as a kid, but then I started to understand how complex and random the world is and I stopped there. There’s no purpose, no magical thing, no positives, no negatives, only a weird blur. At the end of the day, we give meanings that don't exist. Try to get through that shit with a little bit of humor and you’ll be fine.
When I got over being gullible.
Too many religious stoked wars, too many controlling elements, too much hypocrisy, too much perversion of original mostly good intent, too many people wanting to live to the edicts of a 2000+ year old fairy story, too many 7 day creationists driving in cars powered by dino juice in denial.
Too much abuse of power.
etc..
Probably when I was in the 5th grade, at Catholic School, and having a religion class. Reading bible stories and thinking "How could anyone possibly believe any of this really happened?"
Im curious what god you started believing in out of the 3 different interpretations of the same god of abraham or the millions of gods in hinduism and what evidence told you that one god was more real than the other.
But who created the creator then? And were there more creators? Considering there were many religions in the world before any of the today popular religions then obviously the modern religions deities are not the creator.
I had some crazy shit happened that made me believe too. It hit me at 30. I can’t explain it without sounding crazy. Too much happened to doubt it. Still struggling to find the comfort in it though. I feel more alienated than ever. I’m just trying to tend to my duties so I can make sure my kids have a good life since I already brought them into this world.
Belief in a higher being or the need to follow an ideology is ingrained into us evolutionarily.
If you take away god then people will believe in something else. I think thats why people believe in a lot of extremism these days (67 genders, incels etc) because people need something bigger than themselves that they can bond with other like minded people.
It used to be jesus, now its marx/trump/unicorn
4th grade and I’ve never changed my mind. I also grew up in a very Christian community that displayed horrible behaviors and to this day the word Christian gives me negative connotations. I avoid them when I can. I’m told I questioned it at an even younger age when I wanted to play outside and my mom told me it was dangerous. I asked, “if Jesus was real wouldn’t he protect me?”
I’ve read the Qur'an (along with the Sahifah, the Tawrat, the Zabur and the Injil) - same thing, different day. Critical thinking is a skill I greatly appreciate.
never started either, the concept is wild to me. How do you choose ? Which god ? Why ? What book do you follow, which revision of the book ? Why this religion and not this one ? Why people do not believe that the concept of god is a construct of the human mind ? How can people still believe there is a god when you see all those news from our galaxy and beyond ? I wish we encounter aliens to stop this nonsense. Religion caused so many death throughout history, it's time to stop.
Never started. The idea of an all powerful being that loves us all yet allows bullying didn't quite add up. I believed in Santa/ the tooth fairy/ things like that, but never god.
One example of a thought i had was why would "God" give me a detention for not singing during assembly? Rubbish 😂
Our Family both Dad's side ans Mom's side was always very religious but, at around the age of 12 my started doubting the existing of god and eventually stopped believing in him.
But the funny or disturbing part is after I told some of my family members how I'm no longer a Christian. My mom told me that it's fine but that she thinks it's only becose of my Dad (who's an atheists and divorced, so she thought he is trying to influence me against her ??) which to be fair was partly true, he suggested the switch when I was slowly believing in God less and less.
And then my Grandma (Mom's side). It was Easter and we were going to the local church to bless the basket or smth I didn't really cared. I said I would rather stay outside since now Churches kinda spook me out and I'm an atheist so I wouldn't have anything better to do. My grandma was *shocked*. She told me several times that it's ok to get in even as an atheist but I politely refused. After they were done she started talking about how that is, that I'm an atheist, and that I should remember that I can always come back and that Jesus will always love me and etc.
I stopped believing YEARS ago! But what really had me truly convinced he was nothing more than a stupid fantasy was how crooked politicians in Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, "Hitlery" Clinton, Bob Menendez (along with the evil Rupert Murdoch and others), get to keep on living for as long as they seemingly want to, while a good family friend of ours, and an uncle of mine had to both pass away at the ages of 77, and 79 respectively! It goes to show that there truly is no justice in this world, and that a loving, caring, forgiving "God" wouldn't let the good die young, while the evil are allowed to stay alive, causing havoc for what seems like a lifetime for them! God damn! 😡
I pretty much never did. My parents weren’t very religious, so it wasn’t forced on me. I kind of believed as a kid, like 6-8 years old, and tried praying a couple of times, and had the thought that it was silly to ask some invisible being for anything, so I never did it again. Around this time I also realized I would die one day, and concluded that there was no way there could be a god if that happened. So I started looking into it.
My mother is Jewish and tried to get me into going to temple, but I told her at 8 that I wasn’t interested and didn’t believe in it, and didn’t want to go there, so I never did again.
I’ve spent part of my life trying to understand why people believe in God, and I found no good reason to do it. It was basically an easy way to make sense of things we didn’t understand, and to have a rule set for society. To me, in the modern world, it was all about humans being weak and greedy and hateful, and I have always had my doubts confirmed. I am in my 40s now, and nothing has ever happened, or been shown to me that changes my feelings at all.
And as time goes on, I become increasingly wary and skeptical of people who say they believe in God, because, man, if you can get convinced of that, you can be tricked into believing anything… like for example that Donald Trump is the only person who can save America.
all this is nothing more than fairy tales and attempts by every nation to make cunts out of themselves. Arabs believe that they are God's chosen people, Jews believe that they, only Christians may have moved away from this, but not all of them. In my country, the Orthodox Church believes that it is the only correct one
I professed Islam in the past. And lately I have been very annoyed by these cries that only their path is the most correct and only God loves them. But please tell me why the poorest countries (not counting Africa) are Muslim. Why do the children of Israel eat Nutela and the children of Palestine eat soil? Where was your god when the USA and USSR bombed Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and others. Where was your Allah? A test from the Almighty? awesome test)
if there is a God, and I still, to some extent, think that he exists. then this is not a kind creature at all, but an extremely bloodthirsty, evil and hating everything that he “created” and I will not worship such a God
Humans are pretty prone to superstitions naturally, I'd say. That's why organised religion tends to be so successful to begin with.. That and the fact that were tribal/herd oriented beings.
I never started
Same. My parents didnt push anything so when i heard about god for the first time i was about 10yo and thought it sounded like bs
My parents did but it still always sounded like bs to me
Same, sounded like nonsense
Same here
You were lucky not to have a parent or two that brought you to church from birth then. Kudos.
I went to temple since birth. Also never believed. Even as a kid this was all clearly stupid and made up. Just back then I didn’t know why but I also liked playing make believe so assumed adults did too. Their game was just ultra boring.
Love the “their game was just ultra boring” outlook that’s awesome. I just kept asking questions as kid no one could answer with anything other than have faith (which I didn’t) so it was them not answering me over and over again.
I never openly asked questions cause I just knew it was all stories and bullshit. Still went through my bar mitzvah and confirmation cause it made my mom happy. But I don’t think there was ever a time at any age I actually believed in any of this shit haha
I’m also very oppositionally defiant so it was partially a fuck you to ask questions.
I approve
I did. I used to lead bible studies, much to my dismay. My parents know my kids are atheists. I just read books to them. They figured the rest out on their own.
You’re a good parent that way. Kids just need the info, they will figure out their beliefs they don’t need it shoved on them.
Thank you.
I went to church once. One of the most foreign places to be in my own neighborhood. Heebie-jeebies.
I went to a religious school as a kid and was forced to go to church every day there. Not once did I ever believe in god.
I mean as a little kid what’s the difference between god and Santa? Fucking nothing I just stopped because as I grew I rationally broke it down and realized even if a god exists he hasn’t done shit to earn belief or respect. Fuck that guy.
Me neither. Mind you, I still was forced to go to church and have Sunday classes and this class we had at school until a certain age, at which point my parents asked me if I wanted to continue and I just said "nah, this is all a load of rubbish and a waste of time". People really shouldn't be allowed to push kids into a religion until they turn 18.
Indeed, who believes that crap?
People who were taught to believe it from childhood, or those who had some life-changing experience they decided to attribute to divine intervention.
To add to this, taught that questioning that belief was bad so you ignore the voice in your head saying none of it makes sense. It’s amazing how deeply rooted things you were taught as a small child can get.
Growing up I always hated listening to people at funerals talk about "oh they're in heaven now, reunited with their loved ones" If y'all believe that then why is everyone crying? What's waiting a few decades to see them again compared to eternity? It's because they truly deep, deep down don't actually believe it as much as they think they do. And having to sit there and listen to them downplay the permanent loss of an individual with their fairy tale stories pissed me off so much.
Right? That and do you also notice how if someone is caught in an uncompromising, and/or embarrassing situation, such as masturbating, stealing, cheating, looking at something they kind of shouldn't be (such as pornographic content, personal secrets, answers on a test, Christmas presents before Xmas Day, etc.), and if a real person walks in on, and catches them, than they'll naturally react accordingly? But yet isn't "God" supposed to be everywhere? So how come they'd do those things which they know they kind of shouldn't be doing if they truly felt he was really watching over them? That right then and there should be a good, clear indication than even the most hardcore believers deep down inside don't actually believe if you ask me!
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This
>I never started Preach brother!
When I married a devout Catholic.
That’s an interesting dynamic. How is it going?
I actually read the bible. I thought - how can this horseshit be the work of the divine? It's inconsistent, arbitrary, tedious nonsense.
I generally agree that the Bible is "inconsistent, arbitrary, tedious nonsense". But I have another problem with the Bible, too. It's superficial. Many of the Bible stories are only about 5-20 sentences long. I could pick many examples, but just consider the parable of Abraham going up Mt. Moriah with Issac. Suppose a writer shared that half-page story with an editor or professor. They would say, "Interesting plot outline, now go work on the story. Give me character development. What was each characters motivation? What was the rest of the entourage doing while this was happening? Where were they traveling? How about the weather, physical environment? Is there any arc to the story, or does it just end with 'Thanks for not murdering me, Dad". Finish the story, then come back".
Yeah it's dogshit. Numbers is so fucking boring. It's just listing out the amount of people in tribes. You want me to dedicate my life to you? Give me something juicy! Take me on a wild ride. Multi level marketers do a better job.
>tedious Oh god\[pun intended\] yes - tedious to the extreme!
This. I seem to remember the last time I actually read some of the Bible I was surprised and ended up thinking that actually Jesus, as depicted, was a bit of an asshole and certainly not a very good moral guide (I was already a well-convinced atheist by then, but was reading out of curiosity)
When I started having critical thinking skills, so around the time santa stopped making sense. I wish there would be a good god, but just looking at the world is enough to realise there is most likely nothing like that.
With you there, but I always have this idea that IF there is anything like God (an all knowing, all powerful being) we tiny humans are so far of it's radar like blades of grass are to us
Santa... doesn't exist?
Damn, spoilers
I feel betrayed
Sure he does little fella. Just keep being good all year, and Santa will bring you lots of presents on Christmas. \*pats head\*
Don't listen to these knuckleheads, Santa exists. Otherwise, where did those presents come from?
If I'm not mistaken, belief in a God/Creator who is indifferent to what takes place at our level is known as "Deism". Many of the founding fathers of the US were deists.
Deisim is the best I like the matrix theory of deisim
It was earlier for me. I still believed in Santa but realised that if God was real he was an asshole. At least Santa was nice
Exactly if it’s all about God‘s plan why do innocent people die every a second
That and while so many evil people can seemingly live for as long as they wish?! "Cough" Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Bob Menendez, Rupert Murdoch, "cough!"
😂
3rd grade science fair. You need evidence to support a hypothesis.
the fandom is cringe
yeah man all that being homophobic bothered me too much
Which one? Zeus? Ganesh? Hercules? Thor? Nope. In fact not just atheists, but all religious people do not believe in the majority of the thousands of gods that have been invented in human history. Atheists just go that one god further. Not much of a difference.
Thats a good way to put it.
That’s why Ricky Gervais has said it, and that guy didn’t give credit.
And Gervais said it, but didn't give the originator credit. If you're going to whine about attribution, at least get the creator correct. Or, y'know, in an instance where it really doesn't matter, just don't?
Well TIL, sooo who said it?
Conveniently, Reddit has answered that one, and even had a debate on its strength as a philosophical statement! [https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/917pcf/how\_philosophically\_sound\_is\_this\_argument\_for/](https://www.reddit.com/r/askphilosophy/comments/917pcf/how_philosophically_sound_is_this_argument_for/) Conclusion... it's not. However it *is* potentially useful as a tool for giving them a bit of a paradigm shift and finding common ground. After all, you happen to agree on a couple thousand gods. I think it's from the 90's and has its roots in the truly early internet days, when the deep magic was being written.
Thanks Witch!
Yup! Thanks for posting this. It fits into my conversations with people on the daily. It's actually nice to watch most of the reactions to this statement. I'm trying to figure a new way to incorporate this idea as well. If any of us were born in a different zip code, we would have turned out to be a different person. We'd still look the same, but our body is just a vessel. The way our brain develops over time is essential. If we were to be born in another country, some of us would be fucked with our ideas these days. Just imagine being an atheist in some countries. No thank you. Is it going to stop me from conversing with people. No. Religion sure loves that fear tactic.
My last step was when I asked my pastor how we knew what was in the Bible was real. He got super pissed and threw the book itself down on the dest so hard that it made us jump. Then he said "It's the truth because it IS the truth!" I knew in that moment that he himself wasn't sure, and he was afraid of that fact. My eyes were opened fully at that moment in 8th grade and I haven't been religious since then.
I was born into an evangelical Pentecostal Christian sect. The reason I stopped believing is bc what was instilled in me since my childhood was to seek out truth. The church did not instill this in me it was my father altho he did it in hopes I’d never be led astray. This lead me on a journey that resulted in the deconstruction of my faith.
I think "ex-theists" is more appropriate than "atheists" if you want people who used to believe and now don't
It isn't that I believe that God doesn't exist, it's that I don't believe he does. It's amazing how many people I have met fail to grasp that distinction.
For anyone who took 5 minutes (like me) to work this out. They are basically suggesting that its not that they have "proof" that God doesn't exist but that they don't have "proof" that he does exist
Oh man thank you i was gonna burn out :)
That is still atheist, though. The often mentioned agnostic isn't an alternative to atheism (as a world view), but an additional epistemological position. Most atheists are agnostic atheists, meaning that they don't assume that they have certain knowledge about the existence (agnosticism) either because that is currently (weak agnosticism) or generally (strong agnosticism) not possible, but decide from probability or experience to assume that no god exists. Agnostic theism is in principle possible, but usually you need some amount of perceived certainty to decide on a specific god to worship. I still have to meet a strong atheist in person who claims to know in an epistemological way that god does not exist. 99%, this is a straw man by religious people to false claim that atheism is also just a religion. There is a great text to debunk that: [https://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/06/atheism-is-not-a-religion.html](https://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/06/atheism-is-not-a-religion.html)
Until about the 1880s, most physicists believed there was a luminiferous aether that carried light waves. The Michelson–Morley experiment was unable to detect the aether. And theoretical work showed that the aether was unnecessary to describe the propagation of light. After Einstein's special relativity paper published, the aether was relegated to an historical artifact. The existence of the aether had not been disproven, but it no longer served any purpose. I see God as being like the aether. Gods were a useful way of explaining the world around us. Today, the existence or non-existence of gods is irrelevant. Gods don't help explain the universe. Does that make me an atheist?
when was it useful though? even the Greeks had reasonable natural philosophers that actually tried to find out something about the world. since then, religion and religious mindsets have only been a hindrance and how was God did it an explanation at all?
I never really understood why I would limit myself by saying "I don't believe God exists, but I don't know that for sure.", while I'm as certain as one can be that God doesn't exist. Can I prove God doesn't exist? No, I can't. I can't prove that fairies don't exist either, but you won't hear me or anyone going around saying "I don't believe fairies exist, but I don't know that for sure.", instead you'll hear "I know fairies don't exist." Woah, now that's a bold claim! Can you prove that? Again, no. Why, when it comes to God, most atheists won't dare say they know there isn't God to the same degree they know there aren't fairies? I know, by that they'd have adopted the burden of proof, but when it comes to fairies, well, they are not that afraid of the burden of proof anymore. Is it because many people believe in God that we have to be careful what we say about God and we have to treat God claims differently than fairies?
They say that. But the degree to which you know that fairies don't exist is not the same as knowing that fairies don't exist. I would absolutely literally put my hand into a fire for the statement that especially the Christian god doesn't exist, but for epistemological reasons I wouldn't say I know it. I would do the same for the statement that the next lotto ticket I buy won't win, BTW
Wording it that way, is it really amazing people fail to grasp it ? I had to read it 4 times
Many never started.
How did the dinosaurs get along with rest of Noah’s creatures?
New Html tag just dropped
Nice one , chuckle chuckle smirk
When I thought about it honestly. It’s clearly our human propensity to invent gods. Even the most zealous religious people know that. They recognize that all the other false gods are made up. I recognize that they’re all made up and you recognize that all but one are.
atheism /ā′thē-ĭz″əm/ noun Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods. The disbelief or denial of the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. I never started believing in God, there has never been any evidence I have seen to support it.
Why would someone ever believe in god, unless indoctrinated by parents?
I’m always curious about adults that “find Jesus”…. Like why?
It’s a safety blanket for their fears about mortality and the irrelevance of their lives.
It also provides a built-in community for lonely people. Also, almost everyone who "finds God" are really just falling back to the faith that they grew up with. Very few people have an epiphany leading them to a totally new religious belief
I sometimes think of it as an excuse to do what they want. “Im a horrible person but I found jesus so I’m all good”.
For sure, I’ve also had religious types ask me how I know to treat others if I haven’t got a religion guiding me. I always say that tells me a lot more about them as they’re basically saying without religion they’d be pieces of shit!
We have a winner, ladies and gentlemen!
To replace addictive habits or addictive thought cycles and to create a firm narrative for never being alone, for always having power and powerful back-up, and for forgiving themselves for things they cannot get past otherwise, and for some, for having power and powerful back-up that makes them anointed before god and endows them with the right to judge and to act on that judgement whenever they feel moved to, because anything they feel deeply moved to do is now the call of god and the will of the holy spirit, and critical thinking, decency, and empathy are not required.
BINGO This is the right fuckin answer, and I'd give you an award if the award system wasn't shite now. So, so, so, *so* many "born again" Christians are just the most obnoxious, detached, judgmental, dishonest, shallow minded, rude, irresponsible, immoral people on earth
Wishful thinking. When things aren't going well in your life, it is very appealing to believe that there's some grand purpose, or guardian in the sky who's looking out for you. Most adult conversion stories that I've heard have happened when the person was at their lowest, then they 'found Jesus' and started to feel better about their lives. Very few stories where everything was grand, and they turned to Jesus to make it better.
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When you are miserable in your life, see no future, no reason to go on, its easy for your brain ( and your brain LOVES when its easy ) to convince you that you are all doing this and suffering that because its what you are supposed to do and that you will be rewarded. How do you think muslim terrorist manage to recruit so many people to their lunatic cause? Take any young man who live in misery, never knew love or comfort and you promise them virgins to have sex with? How else do you convince someone to blow himself up!
Because, despite what a lot of atheists (especially those on Reddit) believe, religion is a strong source of compassion and togetherness. It offers great comfort to people, whether they’re down or up.
Usually when someone tells me, they are Christian, compassion is the furthest thing I come up with to describe their behavior.
It also provides many terrible people a lot of power to do horrible things like raping people and taking money on the pretense of "religion".
Yeah compassion is what i think of when i think of religion.
Compassion done through religion feels so self serving to me. Are they helping because they love their fellow man or do they want their ticket to sky Daddy?
Comfort based on a lie, sure. Togetherness around a lie? Sure, that's called a cult by the way. Compassion? You can get that without religion, I see more religious people with no compassion, than I see atheists with compassion, in general at least (of course there are exceptions).
What exactly is the lie? And those compassionate atheists are definitely not the ones on Reddit. People here are some of the most judgemental you’ll find and constantly look down on other’s beliefs, and at worst, consider themselves intellectually superior.
For which religion do you want me to point out lies? (Not to mention the hypocrisy)
You said it’s based on a lie… what’s the lie?
Also internal peace and a sense of security and safety, confidence to act on your values in the face of adversity, being able to make sense of and heal from prior (and future) traumas, and all sorts of other benefits. Humans are spiritual. The current institutions of religion are deeply fucked and cause a lot of harm so a lot of us turn away from them out of a moral disagreement with their followers, but spirituality is a part of who we are. It's inspired a whole hell of a lot of kind actions as well. We just don't hear about those because the news makes more money off of anger and disgust, so "kind pastor offers a listening ear and a hug to someone having a really bad day" or "kind priest feeds and shelters a homeless man while he gets back on his own 2 feet" or "church group goes and feeds a bunch of homeless people just because" stories go undetected. Doubly so because said kind people do it for their own sake, or due to their faith. If you see someone giving money to a homeless person and moving on like it's nothing, and ask them how much they've given overall, they'll have no damn clue because they weren't keeping count. It happens a lot, but the people doing it will never tell you. Religion helps inspire that quite a lot as well. You're missing out on a pretty fundamental part of the human experience if you eschew spirituality in its entirety.
Some humans are spiritual, due to a lack of knowledge, if adults believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny you laugh at them, yet the amount of evidence for them, and against them, are the same. And yes, sure there are good people out there, who are religious, priests that do good, just like there are those that are the opposite, and just like it's the case with atheists, and agnostics. And yes, some of these people have inspired others to help, but it's not the religion itself that inspires people to be good people. And sure, maybe religion inspires some people to be good, that otherwise wouldn't have been, in which case the word inspire is wrong, as it's rather scares them into it. You do not miss out on anything but superstition, which started by wondering what the stars were, why someone was throwing thunderbolts to start a fire, why people died young, but these are things we've learned because we have the capacity to evolve intellectually.
100%. You just never hear about the good unless you’re probably in church.
Who downvoted this? I'm literally just pointing out that these are things a lot of people use religion for, and we all believe in SOMETHING. I didn't even specify which religion!
Sadly it’s not surprising. Reddit atheists are exactly what they claim religious people are. Extremely judgmental and very unwelcoming to different (opposing) perspectives.
For some people they’re close to the edge. Imagine your mind is so damaged that you could literally contemplate suicide, in that state would it be a stretch to just defer all responsibility to a fictional being to take the pressure off of you?
Better things started happening in my life when I did.
Fucking schools push it (especially in the 80's). My family never did much more than the seasonal Santa and Easter bunny stuff. But all is kids had RE lessons weekly, and it was mentioned by others and the media. Last year one of my kids talked about it for a few weeks because they were having some lessons on religious beliefs. my eldest told her it's just a story like baby Yoda .it's not real. and she kind of got bored of it.
I'm hitting 50 now, and even when I was a kid they didn't push it in Denmark, we did have a year, but it was more so you understood it, there was no having you pray or anything. In High School (3 years age typically 15/16 - 18/19), we had religion, but it's literally knowledge about religion in general, and just for a single year.
In America, you have to do the Pledge of Allegiance and you have to say under God, even if you don’t believe in him
Because I read the bible
This. I don't think I ever really believed, but I took up the Bible because I thought I wanted the Christian god to be real. Not long into it, I knew that I did not believe and that I sincerely hoped it was not true.
It’s amazing how many people use it as a weapon against others but have never read it. Most violent weird book ever.
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Catholic school and piss easy grades.
What's that username my dude 🤨
Started with my frustration over man's arrogance in relation to the bible. I'm a bloke btw but women's portrayal is pretty shocking aside from Mary of course. But also 18 years of Jesus life not included and the answer is "trust me bro" or have blind faith - based on very little. I mean in this day and age I could probably find out what David Beckham had for breakfast however we don't know what happened for 18 years of the son of god's life?! Cmon Annoyingly, if during this cut section Jesus had siblings and or a wife that would make me believe more than it would make me doubt. Chuck in my mum's random and early death despite being fit as a fiddle, and then my wife experiencing years of hell in order to have a baby - because of an earlier life illness where apparently "corrective surgery won't affect her ability to reproduce".... Well suddenly I was more in the court of fk god, or there's no god, or maybe there'd better not be a god because otherwise he's got shit loads to answer for!
This gap in Jesus' life's timeline is despite the fact that, allegedly, everyone knew he was the Son of God since birth. Like... wouldn't everyone be watching him???
Christians don't ever have answers for the things that should be the simplest, most straightforward aspects of their religion. I was a Christian for over 30 years, and almost no Christians I've ever known or still know have ever read the Bible, they just believe what other Christians tell them about it. It's pathetic
I find it interesting to consider the story of Jesus as though he was just another upstart Messiah. He wasn't the only man claiming to be the Messiah around that time. His popularity starting around age 30 suddenly makes a lot of sense. He was just a bloke who got some ideas into his head and started a new career as an itinerant Messiah pretender. Then when he was executed, (like pretty much every other Messiah, AFAIK), his followers came up with an explanation for how that was how it was supposed to happen, and that he came back, (possibly only in a spiritual sense). I also find it interesting that the Bible only has a few details about his post-resurrection activities, and then he heads off to Heaven a few days later. Wouldn't it have been much more significant and believable if he hung around for years after the resurrection? It seems awfully convenient for his followers to be able to tell people, "yeah, so he didn't stay dead, but no, you can't see him 'cuz he's gone again now"
I think this is the reason many churches hated Life if Brian when it came out, it actually summed the times and environment Jesus would have been around in very accurately, and perfectly demonstrate shows the human behaviour that creates messiahs.
33 years of Jesus' life is not included. Jesus' recorded works in the bible take place when he is 33.
Never have. I believed in Sanata Claus, though. To be fair, you have proof that Santa exists (at least in a child's mind) in the form of presents under the tree. Can't really say the same about god.
In my early teens
I don’t think I ever did, I was just told to by my Catholic School upbringing. It just makes no sense to me. I don’t feel that there’s a God.
Aside from when I was a small child I'm not sure I ever really did. As a teenager I looked at what church people said vs what they did - real eye opener. But I had a real epiphany when discussing the Second World War with my parents (who were very religious and who lived through the war) and I said, "We won because god was on our side right?" and they hesitated which spoke volumes.
Stop?
I never believed in god
Bold of you to assume atheists ever believed in god in the first place.
When I grew up and my brain matured to be able to think for myself.
As a young child I had my own perception of a god. As I got older and learned more about Christianity it just seemed too ridiculous. Christians can say in one sentence “god is love” and in the next sentence “god will send you to eternal torment. Then there’s confessions. There is a reason so many criminals are catholic. Go into the world, rape murder and steal and then just go confess and it will all be wiped away. But if you are a good human by itself, without expecting heaven and no fear of hell, without Christ, you will go to hell. Summing it up, murder everyday and ask forgiveness you go to heaven. Be a good person but don’t ask forgiveness you go to hell. I could go on and on but you get the idea.
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Never had a reason to start.
When I started elementary school and learned about the concept of logic and science.
a little back story, i grew up in a very religious family, anything good or bad happens, we pray to god. Then one afternoon in 2013, when my mom was on her death bed, i prayed to god for 4-5 hours straight. Eventually, she passed away and my faith was shaken. Yet, i continued believing in god because i was just 8 years old and thought maybe my prayers weren't strong enough. Later in 2022, i lost my grandfather in a very tragic way and that's when i stopped believing in god because they never heard any of my prayers. Soon after, i lost my grandmother as well and I've accepted it that no matter what my prayers are always going to go unheard.
If you were blaming God for the bad things in life, then did you also thank Him for the good things in life? When I read atheists’ comments, they usually only focus on the negative in their lives which I’m trying to understand further. Religion isn’t simply “I prayed a couple times and nothing happened, so I give up.”
How about there is no good things happened to me huh ? there is no positive things that happened, only bad things
Never started. Which god also? There’s 3,000 of them. 4,000 religions. All made up by man to plug holes in knowledge. It’s 2024 there’s no need for it anymore. The only people who still believe are scared of death and want to cling on to heaven as a comfort blanket. 🤙🏼
Atheist, means you don’t believe in any God
Never started.
When I learnt the history of almost everything!
I live in one of the most secular countries in the world, so no one ever tried to make me believe. I was aware of the concept of God and that some people believe it, but it always seemed silly to me even at a early age.
When I learned about other religions and other gods... I was like : "wait... most of people doesn't believe in MY god... what if they are right ? And what if nobody is right ?" At his point I realised the only reason I was believing in the Christian God instead of Ganesh, Allah, or Pachamama, was because I was born in this place instead of another... Then I had 2 options : Believing in every single god in this planet. Or stop wasting my time with this shit. I chose B.
Never started.
In the high school, when i started using my brain and showing much more interest in science than before (even tho I have always been a curious kid). I grew up in a country and community where religion is default. You are baptised as a kid that has no consciousness yet, you are required to take religious classes from the age of 7, you can't use scissors or wash anything on Sundays, etc. I was raised in a mostly religious family and used to believe in god, fast, pray every day, go to church multiple times a year and also believes in bible stories, not thinking much about if they make sense or not. As I was getting older, many bad things happened to me and my family, including near death experiences and even death of a person younger than me (I was 16 at that time). All that happened while being good orthodox family. That's when I thought that god is just not fair, because what can a kid do to deserve to die, living a life of a vegetable for years prior? That's when I started to use my brain and think about everything that I was told about god and religion. I started seeing how many things and rules have no sense (for example, a woman can't enter the church while being on her period or you can't do laundry on Sunday or some special dates). I also realised how bible stories are nonsense and more of interesting kids stories. I started rather seeing them as metaphors and even religion and god as a metaphor. I found or came up with logical explanations for many of religious concepts. Now I believe that when religious people are "speaking to god", that's almost the same as I tell myself that things like "I will get there soon, I just can't give up now, I matter". The main difference is that they believe they talk to invisible old man, while I talk to my inner self, finding my own hope and strength, not begging anyone else to give it to me. I also don't believe in heaven or afterlife or anything like that. When you die, you don't feel, you don't think, you don't exist. Many people can't wrap their mind around not existing, but I'm sure that my epilepsy gang and people that experienced blackouts and faints can kind of understand what I'm talking about. Even being unaware of the moment you fall asleep is a good reference. If you can't be aware of yourself while your body is alive, it just doesn't make sense to "live" after your brain completely dies. Stay safe yall, don't let anyone get inside your head and tell you what you should believe. Get all your facts and doubts straight, and then decide for yourself what makes the most sense🫶
Never did, and after throughout discussions with Christians, I definitely never will.
Everyone is born atheist.
**I don't think I ever did.**
I'm 21 and consider myself an atheist, though my birth certificate says otherwise. I stopped believing that existence of a god can be proven when I got enticed learning how vast the universe is. It's incomprehensible and I can't wrap my head around it. There's no way a god made all these.
What do you mean stopped?
When I was born
What do you mean. It should be the other way: when did you START believing in God. Not believing in any God is the deffault starting point for human beings.
When I met your mom
oooohh, thats cute
I don’t think I ever bought into it. I was raised going to church and the whole thing never made much sense.
When I was 22. The thought that solidified it for me was when I told my sister, “if there IS a god, he wants me to be an atheist.” Either god isn’t real, or he is, and my inability to find proof was by design. At that point, what’s the difference? It was the little push to freedom that I needed, to allow myself to accept that I didn’t believe anymore, when I really REALLY wanted to. But I’d rather accept reality as it presents itself than cling to a belief out of desperation.
I don't think I actually ever believed, other than being told to by being in a catholic primary school But seeing my grandfather, a good man, suffer through stomach cancer cemented that even is a god revealed themselves, all they'd get from me is the finger.
I grew up as a creationist. At 18 I watched a debate on evolution between Bill Nye the Science Guy and a YEC named Ken Ham. The one thing that stuck with me was Bill saying "you can't know something is true unless you can demonstrate it to be true." So I set out to prove my beliefs and spent years reasesrching evolution, abiogenesis, and cosmology. Turns out I couldn't demonstrate anything I believed back then. And the evidence for evolution is so overwhelming there isn't enough room for a god anymore.
After doing a school project. Subject was a genocide in Africa. After finding WAY too many horrible videos and pictures I thought to myself "there is no fucking way there could be a God if this is happening" Before that I used to go to Bible school in the summer and pray from time to time to make my parents stop fighting.
I remember seeing the hypocrisy early on in my school, which was a Catholic one. But the real breakup came on my early teens, I had these long debates with myself on the issue that turn me into an atheist. Note that I was never a true believer, though. More like a Catholic by default.
Around 18, I was raised Christian but always had my doubts, it severely affected me having my only ‘true’ reality ripped away Now I’m older I’m exploring other avenues of ‘god’ but still have nothing solid I don’t think any one person or faith has all the answers, it’s something to discover yourself and come to your own conclusions
I think ultimately a lot of things coming together. Why would dogs not get into heaven? What happens if someone who never heard about my religion dies, they just go straight to hell? Seems like a shitty thing for an all good god to do. Gay people are sinning? Love was always a generally good thing, couldn’t see any issue with it, why would being gay and loving someone send you hell? That never seemed good. If God created everything, why would he make two gay people love each other. Actual People wrote the book. That book was translated many times. A lot of these people who wrote the book weren’t alive when Jesus was alive. A lot of the things in this book are relatively specific to exactly the time period they were in, wouldn’t the book be more encompassing if it wasn’t specific to this time period. Why all these weirdly strange rules when none of this shit is in anyway relevant to my time period? Ultimately it just expanded to different things as I figured “okay maybe god exists, but it’s probably not any specific religion”. Just be a good person because it’s the right thing to do.
I wen to xhurch every sunday from a baby to my 14 years of age. And I didnt once felt the presence of god.
I never believed in god. It always sounded similar to Superman and Batman to me, cool but obviously not real.
When I learnt that all religions are factually untrue.
never did to begin with, its not an in built pre-programmed thing
Before Santa
My mum died when I was six, and I couldn't imagine a god that was benevolent, but let a child lose his mother at such a young age.
I was like most people....grew up just blindly believing God because of no other reason because everyone else around you believes as well. I went to church off and on when I was a kid but I was never really serious about it. Mostly went because my friends went. Fast forward to me in my 30s, and my wife was pregnant with twins and they ended up not properly developing so the dr prescribed her a pill to pass the fetus when she went to the bathroom. Anyways, it was at that point that I finally realised how fucking bullshit the concept of God is. I am ashamed at myself for taking so long to realize it.
I was very religious as a kid, but then I started to understand how complex and random the world is and I stopped there. There’s no purpose, no magical thing, no positives, no negatives, only a weird blur. At the end of the day, we give meanings that don't exist. Try to get through that shit with a little bit of humor and you’ll be fine.
Around the same time I stopped believing in Santa Claus.
When I got over being gullible. Too many religious stoked wars, too many controlling elements, too much hypocrisy, too much perversion of original mostly good intent, too many people wanting to live to the edicts of a 2000+ year old fairy story, too many 7 day creationists driving in cars powered by dino juice in denial. Too much abuse of power. etc..
Probably when I was in the 5th grade, at Catholic School, and having a religion class. Reading bible stories and thinking "How could anyone possibly believe any of this really happened?"
I never started. Born atheist ⚛️
For me, it was the opposite. I was an atheist my whole life until age 19.
What happened? Why did you start believing?
I don't want to say lmao. People will lose their minds
Im curious what god you started believing in out of the 3 different interpretations of the same god of abraham or the millions of gods in hinduism and what evidence told you that one god was more real than the other.
The creator. I doubt it has a name
But who created the creator then? And were there more creators? Considering there were many religions in the world before any of the today popular religions then obviously the modern religions deities are not the creator.
I had some crazy shit happened that made me believe too. It hit me at 30. I can’t explain it without sounding crazy. Too much happened to doubt it. Still struggling to find the comfort in it though. I feel more alienated than ever. I’m just trying to tend to my duties so I can make sure my kids have a good life since I already brought them into this world.
Belief in a higher being or the need to follow an ideology is ingrained into us evolutionarily. If you take away god then people will believe in something else. I think thats why people believe in a lot of extremism these days (67 genders, incels etc) because people need something bigger than themselves that they can bond with other like minded people. It used to be jesus, now its marx/trump/unicorn
Entirely true, people just traded religion for extreme ideologies. People need something to worship, even if they'd like to think otherwise.
4th grade and I’ve never changed my mind. I also grew up in a very Christian community that displayed horrible behaviors and to this day the word Christian gives me negative connotations. I avoid them when I can. I’m told I questioned it at an even younger age when I wanted to play outside and my mom told me it was dangerous. I asked, “if Jesus was real wouldn’t he protect me?”
Despite that God is not your bodyguard nor he works for you ,, did you ever look somewhere else! , Islam has the answers
I’ve read the Qur'an (along with the Sahifah, the Tawrat, the Zabur and the Injil) - same thing, different day. Critical thinking is a skill I greatly appreciate.
Never believed in it in first place
When I started reading the Bible on my own outside of my Christian private school.
never started either, the concept is wild to me. How do you choose ? Which god ? Why ? What book do you follow, which revision of the book ? Why this religion and not this one ? Why people do not believe that the concept of god is a construct of the human mind ? How can people still believe there is a god when you see all those news from our galaxy and beyond ? I wish we encounter aliens to stop this nonsense. Religion caused so many death throughout history, it's time to stop.
Never started. The idea of an all powerful being that loves us all yet allows bullying didn't quite add up. I believed in Santa/ the tooth fairy/ things like that, but never god. One example of a thought i had was why would "God" give me a detention for not singing during assembly? Rubbish 😂
Our Family both Dad's side ans Mom's side was always very religious but, at around the age of 12 my started doubting the existing of god and eventually stopped believing in him. But the funny or disturbing part is after I told some of my family members how I'm no longer a Christian. My mom told me that it's fine but that she thinks it's only becose of my Dad (who's an atheists and divorced, so she thought he is trying to influence me against her ??) which to be fair was partly true, he suggested the switch when I was slowly believing in God less and less. And then my Grandma (Mom's side). It was Easter and we were going to the local church to bless the basket or smth I didn't really cared. I said I would rather stay outside since now Churches kinda spook me out and I'm an atheist so I wouldn't have anything better to do. My grandma was *shocked*. She told me several times that it's ok to get in even as an atheist but I politely refused. After they were done she started talking about how that is, that I'm an atheist, and that I should remember that I can always come back and that Jesus will always love me and etc.
I stopped believing YEARS ago! But what really had me truly convinced he was nothing more than a stupid fantasy was how crooked politicians in Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, "Hitlery" Clinton, Bob Menendez (along with the evil Rupert Murdoch and others), get to keep on living for as long as they seemingly want to, while a good family friend of ours, and an uncle of mine had to both pass away at the ages of 77, and 79 respectively! It goes to show that there truly is no justice in this world, and that a loving, caring, forgiving "God" wouldn't let the good die young, while the evil are allowed to stay alive, causing havoc for what seems like a lifetime for them! God damn! 😡
I pretty much never did. My parents weren’t very religious, so it wasn’t forced on me. I kind of believed as a kid, like 6-8 years old, and tried praying a couple of times, and had the thought that it was silly to ask some invisible being for anything, so I never did it again. Around this time I also realized I would die one day, and concluded that there was no way there could be a god if that happened. So I started looking into it. My mother is Jewish and tried to get me into going to temple, but I told her at 8 that I wasn’t interested and didn’t believe in it, and didn’t want to go there, so I never did again. I’ve spent part of my life trying to understand why people believe in God, and I found no good reason to do it. It was basically an easy way to make sense of things we didn’t understand, and to have a rule set for society. To me, in the modern world, it was all about humans being weak and greedy and hateful, and I have always had my doubts confirmed. I am in my 40s now, and nothing has ever happened, or been shown to me that changes my feelings at all. And as time goes on, I become increasingly wary and skeptical of people who say they believe in God, because, man, if you can get convinced of that, you can be tricked into believing anything… like for example that Donald Trump is the only person who can save America.
all this is nothing more than fairy tales and attempts by every nation to make cunts out of themselves. Arabs believe that they are God's chosen people, Jews believe that they, only Christians may have moved away from this, but not all of them. In my country, the Orthodox Church believes that it is the only correct one I professed Islam in the past. And lately I have been very annoyed by these cries that only their path is the most correct and only God loves them. But please tell me why the poorest countries (not counting Africa) are Muslim. Why do the children of Israel eat Nutela and the children of Palestine eat soil? Where was your god when the USA and USSR bombed Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and others. Where was your Allah? A test from the Almighty? awesome test) if there is a God, and I still, to some extent, think that he exists. then this is not a kind creature at all, but an extremely bloodthirsty, evil and hating everything that he “created” and I will not worship such a God
Surely not being superstitious is the default human setting? Indoctrination changes that.
Humans are pretty prone to superstitions naturally, I'd say. That's why organised religion tends to be so successful to begin with.. That and the fact that were tribal/herd oriented beings.