Why did you leave your religion of birth?

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Catholicism ... I remember being a child in school, and the teacher told us about how Jesus resurrected and I burst out laughing after asking if she meant in real life..

I've since studied Christianity extensively, Atheist points of view for most of my teenage years (Christopher Hitchens was a big inspiration then).. and I have now moved on to studying Buddhism (last few years), Daoism (last year) and Hinduism lately.

If I were forced to label myself, which I don't really like doing since I'm not entirely sure, and probably won't ever be as I don't believe in blindly accepting universal truths, I would say I'm now a Taoist with a Mahayana Buddhist twist.

I didn't. My parents are atheist too.

When I got into Philosophy in university and actually read what the bible said (unlike everyone else apparently). We were raised very liberal Christian and it was clear that what I was taught had nothing to do with the bible and was all nice stuff without any God.

I fully rejected monotheistic religions when we studied 'proofs of God' in university. I left that lecture saying "are you %@^$ kidding me? "God" has less proof than unicorns do and even then, he's such a petty, jealous, insecure child who wants anything to do with him anyway? If this is the best religion has to offer I am NOT impressed. Finding out that a loving God would sentence people to eternal damnation when I could never dream of doing anything so barbaric sealed the deal.

This ex-mormon learned a few years ago in a college science class precisely how our nervous system reacts to stimuli, either manifesting in good feelings or feelings of anxiety. All those years of low-self worth and nervousness were a response to my thoughts and environment as much as those peaceful feelings that I mistook as revelation. No one ever told us in church that we have receptors and neurotransmitters in our guts! This was the first time I ever doubted and decided I owed it to myself to look deeper into the church. It only took a few minutes to find substantial evidence accrued by men and scholars - not some paranormal force - shedding light on the fraud which has been forgotten, covered up, omitted, and blamed on the fallibility of man.

Trust your instincts; think for yourself using all the tools nature provided you. You will know what is right and what is wrong. You can understand suffering. Part of me didn't want my friends to suffer the pain of knowing, but I testify that above all I feel peace. It is still painful to think about, but I am infinitely happier. You can decide what is right and wrong, to tell a sane man otherwise is to lower him to the intelligence of sheep. I hope you find rest.

If you're ever looking for rational discussion on how our minds work, a great place to start is here: http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Sequences

Here is one of the first ex-mormon experiences I ever read: http://www.exmormon.org/whyileft.htm. In his conclusion he correctly points out that

I just couldn't identify with it. I actually had 3 birth religions that I couldn't identify with. My mom's side is Jewish while my birth-father's side is Roman-Catholic and Protestant. I couldn't identify with 3 big religions, which was a pretty big deal for me, so I began learning about more. Again, none of them seemed to clique, which is when I thought I was an Atheist, until I thought that over a little more.

So I don't identify as an Atheist, but I can't really say what religion I am exactly, because I doubt it even exists as a religion. I've tried explaining it to a some close friends (who were nice enough to accept it even if they couldn't understand), my therapist (who listened, but stayed neutral about the whole thing, which I'd expect), and family (who had mixed reactions.) In the end, no one understood, so I find it pointless to go off on a long rant describing what I really do believe in.

I come from a catholic family, but my parents were never really strict. I never really believed, I suppose the ritual is a sort of routine, but as I got older I didn't need other people's routines. It was a gradual process but my family got used to the fact that I wasn't a believer, I wasn't exactly secretive about it. It is not like they go to church every Sunday. Just on holidays, they tried to convince me to go, but realized that I would be a hypocrite for going. It is not like I try convince them not to.

It was actually my sister not my parents who was the slowest to accept my lack of faith. She has a sort emotional connection to the church even though her theological knowledge is poor. She doesn't go to church, but wanted to get married in the faith, and baptize my nephew. My brother-in-law's family are not really religious, and were not really that clued up with catholic faith (apart from the grandma).

Because of my dad job I when to a catholic boarding schools (which I hated). Ironically let an Evangelical American preach at this monastery school, which was odd. He claimed about all the poster odd scantly clad women the boy had up on the walls.

I remember allegations of sexual misconduct by one of the monks, and them telling us not to to talk to the press. That case wasn't with the boys, but a young woman, who was somehow associated with he church. However there were a few monks especially one house master, I suspect were nonces. In fairness there were some ok monks. One was a WWII vet, who's passion was his model railway. He was lucky enough to be given a room to conduct his passion. He wasn't a teacher nor had anything to do with the school, but this space was in the junior school. He wouldn't hurt a fly, but was happy to talk about his passion if anybody was interested. He also used to wear his military beret often. Boarding school was hell, so people like him were refreshing. He was a sort of an outsider, inside the faith,. He was old fashioned but eccentric. He died just before I left.

One of the English teachers at the school was a Marxist atheist, who had a Hemingway/machismo complex. He abandoned our reading of Animal Farm, in favour of The Old Man and the Sea. My dad was posted to Angola. This guy mentioned, his military service he was fighting on the side of Savimbi's Unita who was a Maoist and the Dos Santos side were vaguely Maxist, which is probably why this guy had such a complex.

I grew up in a baptist church. wich basically scared the living daylights out of me, and gave me all kinds of issues I had to deal with later because my young mind couldnt deal with all of this Imaginary stuff going on. I flipflopped alot about wanting to be religious because I didnt want to burn in hell when I died. but now through Taoism (Wu Wei) I am repairing my mind.

I was left to make up my own mind. I did go to a Church of England school, but I was yanked out by the time I was ten. No further religious observance was forthcoming on my part, and I hated even the relatively mild religious indoctrination attempts at my school.

ummonkdm quote

I've since studied Christianity extensively, Atheist points of view for most of my teenage years (Christopher Hitchens was a big inspiration then).. and I have now moved on to studying Buddhism (last few years), Daoism (last year) and Hinduism lately.

If I were forced to label myself, which I don't really like doing since I'm not entirely sure, and probably won't ever be as I don't believe in blindly accepting universal truths, I would say I'm now a Taoist with a Mahayana Buddhist twist.[/quote]


Glow- buddhism is a less controversial and least expensive way of resorting to ones faith in a less democratic apporach to human endoctrination. thus meaning that those who have struggled seek out alternative medicines or therapies in the most harshest of times.

I would have to say I take my spirituality from Paganism, Wicca, and Buddhism. putting my faith in one "religion" is not something I like doing. you gotta make up your own mind and take things from other faiths. Question everything as well.

Are there any good online resources for reading up on Daoism? I have a copy of the Tao Te Ching(spell?), but I would like some clarification on how some terms are used like Integral One.

I wasn't raised with a religion. My parents (dad excommunicated catholic and mom liberal protestant turned socialist) left it up to me. When I asked questions, they would speak about religion, but otherwise the subject wasn't spoken of.

We lived practically next to the oldest science museum in the Netherlands to which my parents took me at a very early age. I learned about evolution there. According to a family anecdote I don't remember myself, I seemed to have ridiculed a teacher in a Christian school I briefly went to because there was no public/non religious school near when she read out the Genesis creation myth.