Poll, How did you become Athiest/Theist?

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I have a fundamentalist Christian Mom. My Dad never cared too much. We went to church, and most of what the adults said was good enough for me at the time. I was raised Christian, but it wasn’t strict. Then last year, here in Houston and after learning more about sexual orientation, the newest volunteer preacher would say something wrong about LGBT now and then. He sets LGBT next to criminals practically.

He also said other things that I thought were bigot minded remarks. Some of his points offended me enough that I walked out of the auditorium, holding in my disgust. I left at least six times in front of everyone.

Other religions, Evolutionists, LGBT, etc. when the guys in front would start talking about them, I then started seeing an ego trip out of it. To me, it wasn’t loving and kind to me to pity nod people or talk down to others who didn’t choose their place in the world, but someone was always going to do that.

I figured one day that leaving the auditorium was one time enough, and thought that it would help my soul to test myself and stay out of church, and read the bible like a skeptic nonbeliever. After that, I would truly understand how right the bible was, remove all my little wee doubts toward God and the congregation, and finally know my god without their explanations and butt carrying, like a ‘real Christian lady’ was supposed to do.

I took at home suppers, and it felt so wrong that I stopped. It even made me paranoid a time or two. I again went to church once in a while, and it did nothing to correct the irrational fear problem that started. I lost a few nights of sleep, thinking the big bad boogie men…. I mean demons were going to get me while I sleep, or some nonsense. I even saw shadow people during day light and heard footsteps in my room when trying to sleep. Looks like a messed up head, I know. Not so bad now. I think my eyes might have a little damage, however. Seeing swishes this often, and the animals around here and the people all being as peaceful as they are only means it’s just me.

Finally, I just flat stayed at home on Sundays, and that made my Mum concerned for a short while. I eventually grabbed the Old King James cassettes and played them while gaming online. I kept saying to myself “What the heck? I didn’t just hear him say that.”, but I would then look at my Old King James bible, and yes, he did correctly. This was after chilling out my paranoid mind. I started noticing myself thinking like this “Oh no, it really means THAT, right?” and so forth to make the God a guy who honestly cares, and his guys look good. After a while, I thought about how everything had to justify certain things matter what, and I told myself to stop that. That’s what really did it for me. Things I thought were wrong, I felt I needed to stop making them ok dandy to myself like that.

I was born and raised a Lutheran, and remain one to this day. But I consider myself to be open minded enough to embrace the legitimacy of evolution over a literal interpretation of the Genesis account.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I was born into a family that was religious, and I realized that I was the only one there who seemed to take it seriously or believe it meant anything. I think that's part of why I became an atheist: I took religion a little too seriously, and I ended up asking questions about it that other people didn't.

Well, what really broke me was being taken to my grandmother's church one time (my parents had quit taking their children, but it was a sort of mediocre and boring Methodist church). I was sort of in the same situation then. In the Sunday school, I felt like I was the only one there who was listening. Nobody there really showed any amount of interest in the object of the lesson.

I was sitting in a pew with her once, and the preacher said, "there is only one way you can be a real Christian. Forget all these ideas about how it's some kind of force or something, but the only interpretation is what it says here in the Bible." The thing is, I'd read the Bible, and what he was saying didn't seem to add up with what was in the scriptures.

Now, I thought to myself, "so we're not supposed to try to think about this?" I found that kind of disturbing, and I started comparing that in my mind to people who might have listened to Nazi propaganda or racist sentiments and didn't ever question it. It would be off-putting to anybody, I think.

Oh, it gets better. During the same session, he started talking about how any real Christian ought to try to live with a sense of humility, and there are much more important things in life than being dressed in the newest or fanciest clothes. It all sounded like good stuff, in a kind of bland and superficial sort of way. I had always respected ascetics.

I looked around. Everyone there was dressed in the most outrageously over-priced looking crap I had ever seen, and I thought, "wow. If these people ever saw me trying to live as an ascetic, they'd probably talk about me as if I were a lunatic." I was thoroughly disgusted. I thought, "what a bunch of sanctimonious bull crap."

And you have to understand, I had just spent three years being forced to take an SSRI that had been causing severe flat affect and a worsening in my rage attacks and general sense of mental confusion rather than helping me in any way, and it made me feel kind of uncomfortable and sickly. The fact that I was not responding well to it was blamed entirely on me. I was punished for trying to say that it wasn't working, that it was harming me. So, quite frankly, the idea of obediently going along with whatever the adults in my life told me had lost its charm.

I think that what ultimately made me feel comfortable with giving up religion, though, was reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and all its sequels. I have a leatherbound copy of the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide sitting on the coffee table right now, just black with gold lettering. To me, it has more wisdom in it than the Bible really does, so it ought to look like a Bible and be displayed like a Bible. The message I got from it was that the universe is not going to take me seriously, and it makes me look like a fool to go through life expecting it to. However, if you are open-minded and patient, you can find a little bit of charm and grace in the universe. It might not take the form you would have expected. It might be weird. You might be the only one who recognizes that it is worthwhile. But, for a little while, every now and then, the universe can look magical and beautiful. Finally, it helps you realize that the universe isn't purposely trying to prove to you what a fool you are, but you have just been demanding that it try to be something that it's not, and it's really a lot more respectful and puts you a lot more at peace with yourself to try to appreciate it for what it is. If you are a good boy and try to be nice to people, even when they don't take you seriously, then someday, you will find a small tribe full of dummies, in some remote place, who think about the world in the way that you do, and they will make you feel, for a while, that you are valued. The final message of the book seems to be that these "new and improved" machines that are supposed to do "everything and then some" will ultimately bring about the destruction of the world, and they are just another obscene product of runaway greed that we ought to strangle in the cradle before it is too late.

Anyway, I had some of the inevitable fears that God would send me to burn in Hell, but I thought, "if there is a Supreme Being or 'universal consciousness' or something out there that I would actually have the ability to worship with any sincerity, it probably wouldn't punish someone for refusing to worship the sadistic lunatic who has been generally portrayed as 'God,' so it's time to grow up."

Ultimately, I consider my experience to be fairly ordinary.

I was not raised in a very religious family I would attend church, with my mother. When I was seven I converted to Christianity by choice. I view it this way my religion and culture coming from a irish german family. I converted because I do believe that people have a overwhelming desire to believe in something but not necessary in a God or a higher power but we all believe in something.

I was raised in a Fundamentalist Baptist household, and went to Fundamental Baptist Christian school from pre-school to sixth grade. Around sixth grade, the legalism in the church environment got to be too much for me, and I melted down, with the meltdown being compounded by my uncle living in my house. I refused to go to school, and to church. Partially out of religious problems, and partially out of social problems. It was a really excessive environment, Pokemon was banned because it was demonic, your hair couldn't be over your ears if you were a guy (which got me in trouble so many times, just because my parents were lazy as f**k getting me haircuts, and I'd get in trouble for THEM not getting me a haircut, in 5th grade no less.) As a kid, you had to wear collared shirts and a belt to school, and once you got to middle school, button up shirts and no jeans. Oh, and modern music was all bad, even Christian rock. And there were no other Christians except Baptists, and no other Bible except the King James. So as soon as I got to the "age of reason" if you would, I realized it was crazy, but I didn't know any alternatives, I just knew I wanted out.

The next few years, I was more or less agnostic, I'd go to church with my friends occasionally, I went to my friend's Lutheran Church and really liked it, but I couldn't go very often, so that just didn't work out. I still believed in God, though, just beyond that, I didn't know what to believe, who was right, etc. Then, some bad stuff happened in my life, and I figured it was a message from God to straighten up, if you would. So I started going with a friend from high school, to more or less a house church, that started from my high school's Christian club, and I learned a lot, liked it, made a lot of friends, etc. But, I had theological questions nobody could seem to answer. It was a nondenominational church, so it was sorta like, think what you want about _____, but not about ____, but at stake were questions about like, salvation, and what it is, who is saved, etc, which isn't a "little" issue by any means.

But, bigger than that, maybe, it was the place where I finally realized there was something "different" about me. I got really involved with the youth group there, and it was my first real taste of group identity, a sense of belonging, all that. I'd be over "hanging out" at people's houses like 3 times a week, and suddenly almost overnight had a lot of "friends." But, my "Aspie" qualities showed through, and oddly enough, the youth pastor (who I can say lots of unfavorable things about, but will try not to) was the one who made fun of me most for them. Also, regarding spiritual and social practices, I was often times the only dissenting voice in the youth group. But, one day, I'd been on vacation, and not been to youth group in a couple weeks. He really cared about youth group, moreso than if you went to Sunday church. The youth group was called "CONNECT" and, I told him I was away, but that I didn't feel like going to youth group, as I wasn't connecting to the other youth there, and I might be at fault, but that's just the way things are. He responded back with "I thought the Kingdom of God was about how you can serve others, not about how you can be served." And I responded back with "Woe to you teachers of the law, for you give men heavy burdens they can hardly bare, but do not lift a finger to help them." I just realized from my experience there, there was something different about me, the main pastor's son also had NVLD like me, too, and he experienced the same issues I did in those kind of congregations, but for him, he turned agnostic over it. Also, another compounding factor was a girl I liked/loved (no idea which) got married and I had unresolved feelings over the issue. So, I left.

Now, I'm in the Orthodox Church, which is the church that's stayed truest to the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. It's very oldschool. At the Orthodox Church, it's sorta calmer of an environment, and there's less young people, and most of the people that go are pretty nerdy anyway. Some you could probably DX Aspergers, one guy I know has like a 170 IQ there. So, I'm more appreciated there, partially out of "yay, a young person goes to our church" but more that people there aren't quite as extroverty and more shy reserved people are appreciated there, and social gatherings are usually well planned and stuff. The only problem is like, this whole thing really strained my relations with my old church, and my friend who basically got me back into Christianity again now more or less thinks I'm not "saved" and basically isn't my friend anymore. I think it's because he saw my friendship less as friendship and more a religious obligation. In a lot of senses, my old church was cultlike, and yeah.

But yeah, still Christian, though times of doubt through the years. And I've kinda switched churches a good deal, but it seems the Orthodox Church is going to be good for me, but only time will tell. I think a big difference in the Orthodox Church is that, you know, the standard is very high, and it's going to take a long time to reach it, but that God gives you a whole life, whereas in my old Protestant nondenom church, in their spiritual outlook, it sorta seemed like a quick burnout type of spirituality, not sustainable for your whole life.

Oh well, yeah.

When I was born the household consisted of my grandma, my grandpa, my aunt, my mom, and me. My grandmother is very religious, and the rest of my family I guess is Christian, but they don't really go to church or anything.

Anyway, I went to a Christian school from grades 4 to 12, and I was made to go to Christian summer camps. I enjoyed my experiences at these schools (nice people, small classes, no bullying), but I found religion (not just Christianity) to be mostly nonsense.

There is not an option for "Born into religious family - resisted continuous attempts to be indoctrinated and have always been an atheist"

Even at the lowest point of doubt, I would still follow Pascal.

"There is no good and sufficient reason to either believe or disbelieve in the truths of religion. It's a toss up if there is a god and an afterlife, but the safer bet is there is one, because if there is, you win, and if there isn't, it doesn't matter anyway."

I was born into a family that never went to church, yet sent me to Sunday School. My family never read the Bible, or prayed, or even talked about God. Still, my mother was horrified when I told her I was an atheist (I'm now agnostic). I think, however, that she was more concerned about what the neighbors would think than with the fate of my immortal soul.

Gradual process. First I was a fervent catholic, but reading the bible and how much of a jerk Yahweh was, I started losing faith. Then after thinking some more I realized I shouldn't follow any idea of god but my own, and decided to believe in him my own way. Then even more time passed, I learn about the scientific method, about philosophy and psychology, and managed to explain all the experiences that could be interpreted as religious, in scientific terms. Then I became agnostic because i figured that if god existed, we wouldn't have the tools to know.

And now that I've almost finished The God Delusion, the last stone is set. I'm now an atheist. There is this part of me, probably the same one where faith normally comes from, that doesn't want to let go from the idea to a God to give some meaning to life beyond life itself, and allow me to take the easy way out when confronting mortality, but my rational mind has already been convinced that most, most likely there is not such thing.

I grew up in a very spiritually confused household. My mother was raised with and practices traditional Catholicism, my father Baptist. Throughout my early childhood, my parents tried several churches, never sticking to one for more than a couple years. I don't really remember the reason for this, but it wasn't until I was 8 or 9 that they found a Lutheran church they felt comfortable in. I attended Sunday school, my parents went to bible studies, the whole bit. I hated Sunday school. I was always the inquisitive child, and I could never quite wrap my head around the reasoning behind what was taught to us. I didn't know or care to know the books of the Bible from a hole in the ground, and this irritated the teachers tremendously. We stayed at this church until I was about 14. My parents eventually tired of the congregation's cliquey attitude, and we left.

Since then, we've only been to church a handful of times, at two Catholic churches. Neither stuck. Now that I am nearing adulthood, I basically have no religious or spiritual identity whatsoever. I believe in God, but I cannot take part in such a flawed and hypocritical system and devote myself to it without question. As one poster mentioned above, I too found Darwin's writings to make more sense than those in the Bible. I am science-minded, and I plan to further pursue science in the years to come. If there is a happy medium between science and spirituality I would be interested to learn more about it.

When thinking back to my churchgoing early teens, I remember one visit in particular very well. It was Easter Sunday, and my whole family had gone to my grandparents' Baptist church for the morning service. I was around 13 and much more interested in talking with my cousin than paying attention to what the preacher was saying. All of a sudden, I heard a loud, booming voice shout "....and as God says, homosexuality is a sin! Repent! Repent!" or something to that effect. Of course I was mortified. But what did I expect? Needless to say, our Easter Sundays since have been celebrated differently.

Being young, now is the time for me to begin to figure out where I stand, spiritually. I used to identify as Nondenominational Christian, but that didn't feel right either. I am not an atheist as I believe in a God. I'm just not sure what kind of God.

I pretty much grew up around a lot of Jews but lucky for me my Bubby was pretty much an atheist since she could remember in that she never really believed. So I guess I was either protected from spiritual woo by my Bubby, or I just didn't take to it when someone was talking about concepts like an afterlife or a god. I do remember some confusion over the years as I realized that my peers and many adults around me really did believe in these bizarre stories.

I don't know exactly when but I did eventually take the stance that I do not believe in anything supernatural. I never practiced any sort of religion and people can often tell that I'm a Jew though.

My mum and her friends explored spiritualism when I was seven. I sat in on their conversations. I was hooked since them. I became an alter boy in Church of England; then biblical fundy with 2.75 years of bible college. Then decided other religions were equally valid, so got into Wicca. Kept searching.

Now I mix science, polytheism and animism.

My parents were atheists (and still are), but they weren't very outspoken on the subject, so my upbringing didn't have much influence on my current views. I've always been interested in understanding why things happen and only settling for logical explanations. So I was naturally drawn to science and repelled by religion. In recent years, I have polarised a bit more and am now of the opinion that religion has too much influence on society and that full separation of church and state should be implemented.

In fact, the first time I actually attended a religious service was 3 years ago, at age 24, at the first communion of a cousin of my wife. Much to my surprise, I didn't spontaneously burst into flames when I entered.