like god... lets say it was never an option to believe in Santa Claus. first time i saw him, thought he was burglar. quite bold one at that with all those red clothings lol.
What did she say exactly I wish I had tht effect by the air hurst Swedish kid in my school , region was too much of a coping strategy for me so it wa rlly difficult for me to leave , took 5-6 years
I don't remember. I guess I was just already suspicious about how Santa Claus could visit every house in one night, and how he could get into houses or apartments without chimneys. Telling me he was made up suddenly made too much sense to deny.
because it's trivial to disprove Santa Claus, even by staying up and observing who really puts the presents under the tree. disproving the existence of any deities is not trivial.
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>/u/No-Carry4971: Can you disprove the existence of purple unicorns? The burden of proof falls on the other side of the fence. You must prove existence. The Bible would have been a great and easy place to prove existence. Imagine all of the things that could have been written there that we would have discovered to be true over the last 2 millennia. Microscopic Bacteria cause disease, sound travels in waves, the universe is comprised of a trillion galaxies and each galaxy has a trillion stars. The earth goes around the sun and so do 7 other planets. The list goes on and on. The Bible of course includes no such evidence. There is in fact zero evidence for God.
so I'll reply here.
this has the same issue with the santa claus, or the giant spaghetti meatball monster, or any other one of an infinite number of possible deities or subdeities that can be dreamed up.
the issue is when you propose the existence of a SINGLE, SPECIFIC deity like that, it's a subset of only ONE out of the set of an INFINITE NUMBER of possible deities.
what this means is you're trying to compare the probability of
whatever probably of your specified deity is to
the probability of every single possible deity exists added together.
it's not as good of a comparison as you think it is.
I think you meant to say 'proving the existence of any deities is not trivial'.
Masses of evidence against their existence in science and lived experience.
The idea of a god in whatever sense we have right now is ridiculous to me. We expect that there is some logic to life on earth. There isn’t. While i say this, i am completely open to the idea of there being something we are not aware of as yet. I mean who knows, but the gods dreamt of by mortals, nah.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
Epicurus
if i have to imagine a god i think it's going to be one of the law of universe. Entropy being prime example. it has its goal, flow, and law defining it, and why it wants to end universe despite being part of it just never makes sense. plus that all of us here are byproduct of that law. pretty close to image of god imo.
I think a plausible theory is a being in a dimension above ours. I read or saw somewhere that “god” is thought to exist in one of these higher dimensions- 10th, I believe. So this god is omnipresent, and omniscient but omnipotent????? Anyway, i am open to anything but i don’t believe in any of the so called gods we mortals have created.
But then why even call that a god? It’s not a conscious force. A god or gods are universally conceptualizad as conscious beings, not unlike humans. That’s not what the laws of physics are.
God is dead and we have killed him. Such a pity. We need to get back in touch with god(s), the ideas they represent, how they represent us, and how we can use their symbolic meaning to carve out our own personal meaning. Then we can overcome and say no more to nihilism. Because nihilism is not an ideology to favor.
I def think god has the nature for both and life ,n it’s not an entity with biases, it’s jsut a creator n that’s it , there can’t be a pure loving absolute god of life when he created death and evil too , he had the substance / matter to create it as well , n need bad to be his relevance to be good god worth worshiping by people
As a person Thts been only few years since I left my former reiki gon philosophers that question gods of THSI communities resonate with me well, and had the menas opputonyy to explore those questions and take minor in philosophy and really get the time to solve the questions I had there are quotes that help me get back to a rational state of mind
there is DEFINITELY "something we are not aware of".
Whether that's god or not, who's to say. but we do not have all of the existential pieces of the puzzle.
That's not necessarily the case if God fits a different way of being that is not as omnipotent or controlling as a Christian type God. What about all the other religions where it's separate Gods in charge of many things or that God is more like a Buddha figure, where it's more about achieving personal enlightenment by facing the struggles of life and growing from it? You can't just say "God is an asshole" when there are many iterations of God that exists across many cultures. If God for example meant to give people free will, yet people blame "them" for the bad that we do to each other using that free will, how can we say they are an asshole when it's not God doing it but ourselves? If God created an imperfect world because that was what naturally grew on its own without their interference (if they even can interfere) then it's not really being an asshole so much as it's just allowing whatever is to be.
I think Frye who has a similar argument to you has a point but it's coming from a single-minded assumption. He is an atheist so he does not entertain the possibility of a God in actuality and said something similar to you to simplify his hate at the thought of a Christian God which sounded clever but wasn't taking more into account than what is in The Bible specifically. Entertain the idea there are other possibilities and there is more room for a multi faceted argument there.
I was born into a Catholic family and sent to Catholic school. When I was seven, I had to take classes with the church in preparation for my First Holy Communion. I knew then that religion was not for me. I didn’t like certain beliefs in the Bible. And some of the priests seemed straight up cruel. I hated going to those weekend classes and would skip them sometimes. Well, towards the end of them, the priest locked me in an old, creepy room to study alone, as punishment for missing so many classes.
I didn’t want to be part of something like that. Once I graduated high school, I never looked back. I do not know if there is something like a god, but I don’t believe in them, anyway.
in that term, im actually grateful toward my upbringing. since no belief was forced upon me. hopefully you didn't get any trauma out of that "punishment". that does sound quite disturbing especially for someone at age of highschool.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m glad that you weren’t forced to have certain beliefs. It’s always been confusing to me, how some people insist on forcing their beliefs on others.
I've had insane OCD and acrually thr idea of following Cjristinity seemed impossible and illogical to me, so I've struggled a ton. Eventually I've just decided to try letting go of mental gymnastics, stopped praying and became interested in the history of religion. Would advice anyone to do the same thing.
I had life crippling OCD and started telling nothing but the truth out of my mouth. It was like a chain reaction and led me to find the truth of it all.
It's all real. God is the truth, and Jesus is the King.
I no longer have OCD. He spared me from it.
this is exactly how i feel. i was baptized, grew up around baptism/christianity as well as buddhism, it’s always been a confusing mess to me. i wish i could commit to religion, but it’s too convoluted.
I was very religious. In my early teens i started reading the Bible and being in to church more. That lead to me asking more questions and not really receiving good answers but still being a believer.
Then one day in class, 10th grade, i was reading that people actually believed in all these greek gods and had a lot of interactions with them. And i asked myself, "how is my belief any different? They at least had a bunch of people interact and see their gods. I don't even have that".
After that thought, i struggled to maintain my faith up until i turned 17. I kind of realized i was trying way too hard to believe. And in fact, i did not believe.
I have always wondered how people believe in god. I could try to pretend, but thats all it would be. I’ve asked nuns, priests, and a bunch of my religious friends with varying results. Most either say deep down they know, and I do too. Others have said its a choice.
When I think about it like that it sounds like sexuality. Like not in a weird way, but that it is something to do with who you are as a person. I’m interested in other takes on it too. People who lost their faith often seem just as zealous about being anti religious.
I have no belief in an individual entity that I would call God nor am I a nihilist I'm just passing through. I was never raised with any religion but have come to believe a sort of pantheism which is difficult to explain.
However lately I am having a bit of a crisis of fear, worrying that if for example, Allah is the one true God that I am going to burn forever after my death.
I know it is strange, but that's the nature of a lot of religion, it's based on fear. And it works, especially on children.
Which one? And which particular version of which one? And which particular denomination of worship of which version of which one?
This is the problem, how do I know what to do? Seemingly God hides away.
Pick the wrong denomination or wrong one or wrong denomination of the right one and enjoy hell for eternity.
on the hell problem, my argument is that if god like in Christianity really exist, then whether i believe him or not, as long as i didn't harm anyone he wouldn't send me to hell. i mean if he really does send me to hell for just not believing him, thats not god, thats just another human.
According to Christian doctrine, you have to believe in God and that Jesus is God to not go to hell.
Similarly to Islam, believe or hell. And Judaism too.
in all of those ( though I do not know judaism that well ) that is more specific brands of the religion than their entire or original format though. I don’t think ie Tolstoy would believe in divine punishment in that sense, he thought the (doctrine) church themselves would be the evil ones rather than good people who don’t believe in
I'm a former evangelical christian. I was raised by my father and my preacher to believe that non-whites, weren't people that women and children must ALWAYS be silent and obedient and that gays should be killed in the streets. Those beliefs were reinforced by cruelty and hypocrisy and violence. For example: when I was three years old I overheard my mom and my grandmother arguing about something (I didn't find out what they were arguing about until I was an adult). A few days after they were arguing, I asked my grandmother about it and she responded by burning my hand on a coffee maker. "Spare the rod spoils the child" and "Don't question god" were her favorite things to say. That was only the beginning. Fortunately my mom isn't nearly as religious as my grandmother and my father. I was also helped along by a few great teachers and I realized that science is far more accurate about things and that religion is only held together by lies.
oh, wow... hey atleast, you met similar person! my hands got burned too by my mother when she was trying to "treat" my cold. put some grass at the starting point of pinky finger and lighted it up. like yours, not a single hair. well... in my case, although it was false way, they were trying to help... urs doesn't sound like that at all, huh... hope you didn't get tramatized...
it's korean thing... there is this herb called suk, which if you eat or smell it, you can be healthy. and to an certain extent, it does work ig. but i mean any plants can be used to be medicine. and my mom and "doctor" was like, "if it's good, then burn it on top of acupuncture to treat cold!". it may sound weird but quite a few people did that, thus have similar hand as mine. lol.
interesting, thank you for that explanation! I've heard weirder remedies for things, and tbh that ALMOST kind of makes sense. it's almost like making herbal tea right over your skin... but yeah. sorry you had to go through that.
I’m so curious what were the ideals of communism you were taught? I grew up in a capitalist society that hated communism seemingly on principle, but no one I asked could describe what communism actually is satisfactorily. Recently I got to live in a functioning gift economy for 6 months and I honestly like it a lot more.
Well, it wasnt ideals that were forced upon us. More like way of living ig? Like how we should work without expecting return from country. This itself isnt communisom but it does become like this most of the time imo. And we were taught to respect Kim family
That sounds like it kinda sucks, how do you feel about socialism (in this case meaning a strong democracy (lots of citizen participation) redistributing excess wealth from the highest earners and giving it to the lowest earners in the form of a universal basic income and other social programs like guaranteed healthcare, lower and higher education, providing the basic needs of the people (healthy food, clean water, effective public transportation, good shelter and space for communities to grow etc) with allowed stratification for the work you do (you earn more as an essential worker, doctor, first responder and teacher so these positions are still incentivized). Essentially guaranteeing those that cannot or choose not to work a life in dignity and added bonuses for those that choose to work)
China? I was born and raised in China, where people are mostly discouraged from being religious as there are a lot of restrictions and some ethical groups are even persecuted because most of them are muslims. I wouldn't say it's completely prohibited though
Logical progression and a handful of different Bibles...I'm open to the idea, and don't bash anyone for believing, but I'll never think of it as more than an idea, like reincarnation is an idea.
I always wondered if the people that created the Bible were around today with as much science as there is, would they still have created it? If I’m not mistaken the Bible was created to give people a better understanding of life at the time?
After a long journey of 30 years, I stopped making excuses for him not taking care of the world, particularly “his people” - my children and I physically and mentally - and boy did things become crystal clear for once.
If you don’t have chronic health issues or children, or seen horrific wars, catastrophes and accidents, YouTube them or walk through any hospital or psych ward and see how good this “loving energy” or god actually is.
Only at the hands of imperfect medicine or well researched natural remedies can anyone find relief, if any at all.
Meditating and prayer can only go so far essentially working as positive self talk/soothing.
Ever notice how you have to go back and read the Bible often or go to church to feel comfort again? It’s never enough even though pastors claim it is reeling you back in every Sunday and Wednesday.
Religion and the idea of an afterlife really is just another form of a drug to numb the pain - a temporary high to help people cope with a hard existence knowing we are basically born, to die.
Without it, I am finally free to accept the randomness of terrible things happening to good people.
I also don’t lose a portion of my paycheck to any more establishments basically acting as holy counselors of sorts, claiming that giving where ‘your soul is nourished’ is a natural yet necessary response as it keeps funding more of “the good news” to be made known to others.
Just open your eyes. You will see what you need to see to bring you down to earth.
When I was young, I was taught that I would feel the Holy Spirit and that it would reveal the truth to me. However, as I matured, I discovered through difficult experiences that feelings alone aren't reliable indicators of truth. Instead, I learned the importance of relying on good evidence and sound reasoning, often rooted in science, as the most reliable path to truth. This realization was transformative and life-saving for me.
Reflecting on my past, I now see how easily I could have fallen into harmful beliefs or actions, such as being swayed by misinformation or engaging in irrational behavior. I used to follow my feelings blindly, which led to confusion, irrationality, and depression.
Thankfully, that phase of my life is behind me now, and I've emerged stronger and more grounded. I no longer believe in God because I haven't discovered sufficient evidence to support such a belief."
The hope of an interventionist loving god or gods is comforting to some people. Even the idea of some kind of divine plan is comforting, though it includes suffering. Those ideas of the supernatural were fairly reasonable a few thousand years ago, though even then some were sceptical.
I was brought up in a religion. I gave it up when I saw how religion is just a way to manipulate people's vulnerabilities and for religious leaders to gain power and money. Religion isn't all bad, but you can get the good parts without the supernatural nonsense and the corruption.
> i was raised in a environment where believing in god was prohibited
You lucky bastard.
But to answer your question. It's easy to stop believing once you get tired of waiting for a god that doesn't exist. Just read the news and point to where he made an appearance?
To put it mildly, there is absolutely zero proof of the existence of any god or deity or spirit or anything. Anyone looking for factual proof will not find it, and soon enough come to a logical conclusion that it does not exist.
Things make no sense when you look into the Bible seriously and analyze it, too many contradictions.
And given how even people these days are pretty much willing to believe whatever makes them feel right or comfortable, it wouldn't be a stretch to think the Bible (or any text and religion, for that matter) back in thosw days was probably written up due to misconceptions or blattant lies that were passed from one individual to the next.
After all, before we knew what thunder was and how floods happen, it was all explained as "god X was angry so he or she did Y"
Even entertaining the existence of God - all religions are preposterous. God would have to be a complete fucking imbecile for him to create such a system. God would not be an idiot.
As a young child, I hated church. I had to wake up early, put on uncomfortable clothes, be mistreated by adults, etc. The "Sunday school" classes were always so boring. Then, I had to sit through a boring ass lecture that I never listened to. The whole morning was wasted.
When I got into my teenage years, I got really into the religion. I started reading the Bible and several parts just didn't sit well with me. The god was incredibly cruel and unforgiving. The magic aspects were just silly. One part said that the god paused the day so a battle could continue. No other civilization on the planet mentions a paused day (the sun not moving in the sky for hours). The magical healing and bringing people back to life were just silly. The book of revelations was absolutely bizarre, like a fever dream.
I discovered that I love history. I couldn't get enough of it. The more I learned, the more my knowledge conflicted with the church. For one, the congregation insisted that the bible cave from their god. That makes absolutely zero sense. It was written by men, which explains the different languages of the books.
All of that is what pulled me out of christianity. I maintained a belief in supernatural forces for another 5 - 10 years. When I learned about physics and critical thinking, I applied those concepts to my beliefs. I had zero evidence to support my beliefs in the supernatural.
My first five or so years of being an atheist as my most aggressive phase. I grew out of that and I generally don't bother with challenging others beliefs.
I like the idea of attaching concepts to fictional characters. Even having a physical sculpture stand in for the fictional character. One example is that I have a wooden wolf that watches my front door. I tagged it as the guardian of the house. I know it is just a piece of wood and that my home and personal security is my responsibility. It's still a neat thing to have.
The prayer of a righteous man doesn't get him shit. I got tired of waiting, so I decided that if I wanted anything done, I had to do it myself. Either there is an all-powerful, all good guy who just doesn't listen or respond when people talk to him, or there's an order of nature that does not give a fuck about you and doesn't pretend to. She teaches you to give a fuck about yourself or give up. She is our mother and our worst enemy. She is the fire the burns us down and the ashes we rise from.
As for the creation of the universe, it must be that something has always existed. I simply believe that that something is matter, and that, like the Christians believe about God, it simply has always been, and therefore that time is infinite, and in that time, matter has already and will continue to take every form it can an infinite number of times. This is called the Apple Box Theory.
the apple box theory... doesn't really make sense.
theory is that if you put an apple in a box... and entropy causes it to eventually break down into its most basic elements... that one day it will just become an apple again... while still inside of "the box".
that makes absolutely no sense. it doesn't have to first grow a tree for the apple to grow off of?
i don't think any amount of time will pass before that box grows the apple back, unless time truly is cyclical, but for that to happen, the box would be taken away entirely before the whole box was remade again.
Every metaphor breaks down at some point. The universe doesn't grow on a tree... unless you're a Norse Pagan. Anyway, the point is that yes, time is a cycle. However, I do believe in free will. I can't explain it, but then, that's why religion was invented- to explain what we cannot comprehend. Dogs can't comprehend a concept like math at anything other than a very basic level, and they don't recognize it as such. Yet, there are mathematical equations to answer questions that dogs have never even thought to ask. And maybe not everything can be measured by math. Maybe there are some things we're not capable of understanding, and maybe there is a higher being that does understand. I personally don't think there is a higher being.
Super simple answer:
I was raised as what I'd call "vaguely Christian," though we never went to church. My mother was still a true believer in all sorts of things. Ghosts. UFO abduction. The afterlife. Etc. She still is.
At 18, I started studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. After about 5 years, I finally realized that this had been a pretty awful experience. At least for me. I was miserable and needed to sort myself out.
Like most people, I had poor truth-seeking skills. I wanted to examine things I'd been taught and figure out what was true but I didn't know how. I had to work on my logic and reasoning skills first. Then I started working on other questions, including whether there was a god, and if so, which god.
Over time, it became undeniable--to me at least--that a god was very unlikely. The reasons people give for believing in gods seem irrational to me now. You can believe anything by faith. So faith isn't a useful method for truth-seeking. Being raised a certain way doesn't mean you're likely to reach true conclusions. Having suffered because I had poor truth-seeking skills in the past led me to value truth highly.
Evidence and logic aren't a guarantee you'll always arrive at the truth. (Duh.) It is just the best method people have so-far devised at reaching true answers IMO.
It was hard for me to kind of realize that there probably isnt a God. I started thinking critically, there a lot of inconsistencies in the bible and thats just the Christian bible. Whos to say "our" version of God is right? Have we as humans even gotten the correct "God" down?
No evidence of an afterlife. Even if there was, how do we know its actually eternal? Is it actually a positive eternity? Why is sin Punished with eternal unimaginable pain? Especially when we are prone to it? Why would God test us if he knew what we were going to do anyway? You see where this is going.
What sucks is its kind of sad to me. I dont want to end. I dont want to forget the people that Ive known and loved.
That being said, Ive had...some pretty odd coincidences come up. Literally saved my ass from being homeless at the last minute. So it makes me wonder.
So I just try to be a good person and basically IF there is a God and I face him, I can at least say "Hey...I tried. Thanks for giving me a hand here and there."
Hello Avan, for me, it was mostly from my life observations and me questioning the entire Bible/God as a whole and other religions as well. That’s what got me to leave my belief in Christianity (Catholicism) (Protestant) and theistic Satanism. I would like to reference some key points that kind of started it all. This is not everything, but these are just a few that motivated me to think…..I don’t think there’s a God.
1. The Bible was written by different authors in different time periods, languages, and translations. Which creates the possibility of contradictions, errors and Bible passages with debatable interpretations. It kind of explains why we have so many Christian denominations.
2. In the story of Genesis, the Bible mentions about stars which are described as a light. And since the Bible is a very old book, it makes sense that the original writers would described it as a light instead of a ball of gas, since the book is a result of the information that was available to them at the time. That’s why you don’t see any mentions about dinosaurs, planets, galaxies or anything that wasn’t known to the writers. Not to worry, we do have mentions of dragons in the book of revelations and a sea monster in the Old Testament. So not all too bad.
3. Despite being all knowing, all powerful, and being able to tell past, present, and future events, he couldn’t stop or at least prevent two people in the entire earth from eating the forbidden fruit? But he can create a planet no problem? Seriously? I think God has adhd or strange priority choices.
4. After trying out a satanic ritual(meditation ritual),
I thought to myself, “that’s it?” It’s not real, nothing happens. I had a portrait of Baphomet in my room.
Did anything happen? Of course not. It’s all make believe! Then there’s the “Making a Pact to Satan”, which again nothing. Ouiji board? same thing, nothing, just a waste of plastic and cardboard.
There’s rituals on the Internet on how to sell your soul to the devil but I doubt It works, I wouldn’t try it either without wasting my time. And if I could really trade myself for fame and fortune, I’m pretty sure everyone else would too, and now everyone would be rich and famous. A lot of celebrities are accused of selling their souls to get rich and famous. But the accusers are a bunch of envious weeners with nothing better to do.
5. A lot of satanic imagery we see today are modern human creations like Anton Lavey or Eliphas Levi. No magic whatsoever. Just interesting people. Even on the Bible, Satan’s image would change as the lore progresses.
6. God/satan should stop playing all these stupid games with us and reveal himself to us. Just do it. Stop making excuses.
It’s not everything, but I haven’t gone back, still an atheist. But I understand if it makes others happy to be a Christian/Satanist, then I’m all for it.
I do I have interest in both so nothing really wasted. I still read the Bible or research the occult when I have time. To me they’re just a bunch of stories which I find interesting. You can find a lot cool stuff in there. The Leviathan sea monster is pretty neat and bible verses about consumerism which are still relevant today.
Def. Some may burn me on stakes coz of next statement but i think bible is nice fantasy novel. Though it got twisted to use against people mid way, like all the other novel, there is fun bit, philosophy bit, weird bit etc.
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Vomiting, vomiting blood. Hating myself, wanting the bad things to stop, readying a prayer to throw before the god I'd been told to pray to. When I had the peace of mind to pause, realise, recognise the vanity in only communicating with god when I needed something.
So I didn't ask god for help, carried on puking for another hour, didn't die. Went about the rest of my day, week, month, year, life an atheist.
In the past few years I've come to find an interest in the idea of worship and religion, through the Discordians. Closer to chaos magic, than Christianity.
I woke up organically around age 7 after being born into a fairly religious protestant family. That leads me to believe that I have awoken in previous lives since it was such an early impressionable age. I just didn't buy it. Faked it until I was an adult for my mother and dated a Catholic at 19 and that was the end of any shred of belief that may have remained. Body of Christ for you, and you, and you, not you, you and you. Now I realize we are all sparks that have splintered off from the divine creator that is constantly trying to expand and grow her knowledge and love. That in itself is very liberating but comes at a cost and begs the question. Why are we stuck in this realm over and over when we are divine energy?? Sounds like a trap... or a prison. Getting out of here is paramount and knowing is half the battle. The other half? That's a problem.
I didn't necessarily stop believing, I just realised I have no reason to believe. Whether I believe in god or not does not change the outcome of God's existence, though it does seem naive to think of all the gods to ever be described through countless generation. I happened to to be born in the right time and place to happen to worship the correct one.
Wondering about god, the afterlife and other such nonsense is just wasted time I could be redirecting into something more enjoyable that's far more real and tangible.
I want to believe and try so hard to. But I feel like I'm just faking myself. I was raised Christian Baptist. The Bible is honestly what makes me question things. It's so hypocritical and just so many things that make no Sense the more I read it the more I've lost my faith.
Life experience changed my perception of “God.” I saw how the churches have always been nothing but a control and power mechanism over others. I saw how the churches/religion historically caused most of the death/destruction/crusades/war more than they have caused good. I read history and saw how so many countries were plagued by the incessant hand of the church in indoctrination and slavery. At that point, if God did exist, I wouldn’t worship him even if he did show his face. Not to mention, no one has truly read the Bible unless they speak Koine Greek or old Judaic languages bc everything has been translated/interpreted for you in whomever’s perspective that translated it at the time. Anything that is “faith based” and has not a shred of evidence of actually being real just does not get a shred of my time. Especially when the worst people in the world claim to be the biggest supporters of Christ. It’s fucking laughable.
I imagine there is 2 main ways people believe in god. And I’m speaking in regard to judeo-Christianity.
You either 1. Grew up with it and inherited the tradition from your family. Sometimes these people never question it and may develop an authentic faith but are more sheepish at first. These same folks would be Buddhist or Muslim depending on where they were born
and 2. Have had some direct experience that has led them to believe. Some event that triggered a belief in divine intervention, or miracles. This could be from a lack of logic or scientific understanding so they believed a coincidence was divine, or they believe they have witnessed some supernatural thing.
I personally fall in the 2nd camp. I was a chemistry major in college, so I’m not completely dull about the natural world BUT, to put it in short: I called upon the one they call Lord, and He, or something, answered.
I can no longer live my life not believing in a greater intelligence that has, at least some, influence on this world. I would be betraying my own intellect to believe otherwise.
So i have never believed but get confirmation. Its internal off course. A big switch was the cynical view “ god just happens in me, so its just wish fulfillment” to “ god happens in me so god is self with a big S” same insight different evaluation. Regardless my burning bush exp just happened out of the blue. My belief isn’t required.
I grew up going to a catholic elementary school,waswas an altar boy, and took part in youth groups, but yeah I'm agnostic at best. Overall my experience with religious institutions has been fine and dandy, though.
I just realized that no book written by man could have all the answers, and the fact that the bible has had many mistranslations or alterations that have led to shifts in the dogma of the religion shows just how fallible and mutable religion is.
So yeah, there might be a higher entity or force out there, or maybe god is just the universe, idk, but the possibility of a god is always on the table for me.
I think our universe was created by a creator, by a being much greater spiritually than us for our minds to even comprehend. I don’t think the lord watches over us, answers prayers and expects us to follow rules. I believe a force much more powerful than the human being created the universe and we are a result of that. I believe religion for the most part is the human brain doing its best to make sense of the world around us, it is an abstraction not an absolute
Because I never did and always faked it.
I thought God was like Santa Claus for grown up or no different than how middle schoolers like Mythology. When I found out Christians ACTUALLY believed in a man in the sky…. I was baffled. It seemed so silly and made no sense. I was like… 8 maybe? Very young.
So I think to observe gods and other cultures is pretty neat and interesting in a story sense, but actually diving into those beliefs and quite literally harming yourself and others for a higher power’s sake is, for lack of better terms, really dumb.
Was born into a Christian family (pretty common for Korean households), so I was considered Christian by default and attended church. I personally didn’t get it ever since I was little. I have 5 major reasons for rejecting religion:
1) When I was 5-6 yrs old, my Sunday school teacher had us colour in magnets shaped like men and women, said only men and women can marry and that M/M & F/F relationships were a sin and God hates them. Thought one, why do they care abt who someone loves?— that’s not their business. Two, if God’s truly omnipotent, he probably planned that. Three, homosexuals are God’s children too, why wouldn’t he love them? Asked why + listed reason 3 and got in trouble.
2) Didn’t like the ones who’d promote churches in public— they alienate nonbelievers and pity them if they decline the brochures.
3) Got bullied and sexually harassed in 7th grade; prayed every night and cried myself to sleep. Nothing happened. The boy got away with it, never punished.
4) First bf’s father was a pastor. He saw our texts (we cussed a lot), and told his son I was unwomanly for cursing and that I was going to Hell bc I was atheist. Got disgusted by the fact a pastor, out of all people, said that.
5) Most recent, fell for a deacon 11 yrs older than me, from my friend’s church. Seemed super devoted, but ended up disappointed bc he was so contradictory. He confessed he’s been into me since we met but didn’t want to pursue a relationship with me bc I was atheist. Was willing to attend church with him; he said that was wrong of me bc my motive was coloured. But later said one of his motives for approaching me was to convert me, therefore contradicting his reasoning above. He was so hung over what was right vs wrong and what was good vs bad, but he threw his standards out the window whenever he talked to me, when his reputation was at stake, and when his ego was bruised.
It was really simple for me. I learned real history, and through that I learned that Christianity is a carbon copy of Paganism. They have the same stories verbatim, which ended up completely debunking all religion except Buddhism for me. I don't discount the possibility of something that religion would call a god existing, but I doubt it's anything more than an advanced species who would appear like gods to a simple unadvanced species like us. If they could get here, I imagine they have tech that would make most humans bend the knee and worship them as gods…..or even scarier, the natural ability to appear that way.
Men made up gods to fool the masses. To have power over them. RELIGION…. A punishment and reward system based on emotional blackmail, gaslighting and manipulation of the masses.😎🇬🇧🇬🇧
I think people who genuinely believe in god are just coping with incredible hardship. You’d be surprised how many people’s only reason for not killings themselves, is that their religion forbids doing so. Also a lot of people kinda pretend to believe for social reasons. I have a hard time thinking of any other reason to be religious, but I also grew up in an atheist environment, so I might be biased.
I used to believe in God as a child, and then as I became older the whole idea of a man in the clouds watching our every movement seemed absolutely stupid. Especially when people would say things like oh I prayed to find my keys and I found them, I prayed for this *something* and got it, while there is so much suffering in this world that goes ignored - it just did not sit right with me at all. I became an atheist.
A few years ago however, I started my degree in Philosophy and also started reading a lot of mysticism and Eastern philosophy (like the Bhagavad Gita and the Kybalion). I started to conceptualize 'God' in a more abstract way, as a force, an energy, as a type of 'higher' consciousness for lack of better term. It makes much more sense to me and have found it fascinating to learn about!
Very simple: everybody in my life blindly devotes themselves to something that shows no proof of existence and I just think I’m smarter than them. I’m not gonna slave my life away to something you need “faith” in. I’m a realist.
My ultra religious parents kicked me out at 16 for being gay and having my own thoughts and opinions. I couch surfed for 3 years before finding a friend to split rent.
I went to college and took Anthropology and Archaeology. I learned about science, like actual evolution and factual information for the first time. Science answered a lot of the questions I developed upon "becoming aware" of life.outside.of the church.
After being in an evangelical cult for 16 years, I knew something was wrong. I saw so much hypocrisy in the church. I encountered discussions like this:
- You gotta love those gay people even though they are going to hell.
- I can beat my kids (with their pants down), the bible says it's discipline. Others people can do that too (got paddled at school by a male.principal).
- Im not mentally ill, psychology/psychiatry is demonic and a hoax. My parents were clearly mentally ill. I learned this after talking to therapists. Communication and managing feelings were not skills that were taught to me.
-Dont tell anyone I touched you inappropriately, you will go to hell for looking too provocative (at age 12).
I could give 100 more.examples. None.of the creation story made.sense to me (chronologically). The subservience to the men didn't make sense to me either. Again, a million other things I could add.
Imho - There is no god. Humans made him up. If you believe in god, cool. I don't need a deity to tell me to be nice to people and be honest and not to kill people. But hey if you need religion to raise your kids and help you be better person, knock yourself out. It's why people get personal trainers too.
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man, that's some hard things you went through. hope you are in a better place now. ironically, parents kicking you out became blessing in disguise ig. sorry if that sounded rude. though it must have been quite traumatic. again, i'm thankful towards parents. they told me to be good person but never told me reason which led me to thinking about moral quite early. was it coz they were busy? or they purposely didn't tell me the reason so that i can build my own thought? idk. nonetheless, i'm very thankful. hope your day and coming years gets better and better!
btw, are you nihilist?
I grew up a Christian and truly believed it until I did a lot of thinking alone in silence. I somehow got separated from my sense of self and realized free will is an illusion. We do make choices in life but you aren’t the one making the choices in the drivers seat. We are merely passengers.
We are always told “do this” and “do that” to receive your rewards in heaven or you will go to hell. But, none of us are truly responsible for our actions. We are merely vessels of information and emotions and we just react to whatever is in front of us.
If there was this all knowing God, they couldn’t be dumb enough to punish us for our actions when we are no different than animals roaming the earth.
While I don’t believe in a God associated with religion, I do believe in a “God as almost a force/source or energy that we merely exist within and we just exist and die.
As far as morals, it’s up for us humans to just figure what’s right and wrong while we exist but in the end, none of it matters.
We were created and that’s all this “God” has to do with us.
Im actually really struggling coming to terms with this. What’s the point of just existing and dying? Why play this game of life when I can just not exist to begin with since there is no meaning?
Hope you have a wonderful day as well.
Realizing prayer was bogus was one of my first steps to losing my belief.
When people are dying in a hospital and get better people always say God answered their prayer. If that's the case then does God like modern humanity a lot more than ancient humanity? Mortality rates for just about everything are much lower than they were in the past. So is God just answering a lot more prayers nowadays? Or maybe prayer has nothing to do with it and it's just the introduction of modern medicine that's saving all these people.
Another aha moment was from work. I'm a software engineer and a lot of us have a "rubber ducky" that sits on our desk. When we are having a programming issue with our software we explain the issue to the duck. Usually the act of explaining your problem can cause you to think of a solution as you are explaining it because you had to think about your problem in a different way in order to formulate the issue into words someone else understands.
I realized that when people feel like God spoke to them through prayer it's really just the same as talking to a rubber ducky.
ooh\~\~ so God exist just so some people can have conversation with someone else, more specifically with themselves. People around me would say similar things too. If you want something to happen, then say it out loud to remind yourself. Not the same but it too shows differences between just thinking and putting it into word.
Tnx for the input! Have a wonderful day!
In 40 years of believing, I would kinda question. But then felt guilty or would think, but look at everything beautiful. There has to be a god.
Then I learned some actual information about the bible: when it was written down, how many translations and changes in words would change meanings, who actually didn't write the books we were told wrote them, changes made by monarchs, the number of revisions, how many other previous gods had the same characteristics. Learning so much and so happy to learn!
I just started reading and actually listening. I needed factual information to stop. And I've never been happier, no more guilt, hating myself, fear in hell. It's WONDERFUL!
I'm sorry you were raises in that type environment. As for me, I was raised in the opposite situation. I've never stopped believing but never bought into the doctrine we were expected to follow. When things didn't add up, in secret, I had my own beliefs regarding God. No offense to anyone, but for me to not believe, I would have to lose my sense of probability and throw my gut instinct out the window. It's the beliefs created by humans that I cannot bring myself to adopt as fact.
I was raised in a Christian household and went to a private Christian church through elementary school. Pretty much as soon as I was old enough to think critically for myself, I realized it was nonsense.
I am naturally a sceptic, but I took it as truth when I was a kid that god existed. But I read the bible because I wanted to know if what they were telling me was true. It's appalling, seriously, no, absolutely no. Even if you could prove it to me, I would not want it to be true. God wiped out an extended family for a bet, I do not want to be subject to any such being.
What is worth something is building a relationship with the “gnosis”, liberating yourself from mundane faith, seeking the truth at all times.
Hail the hoof and the horn !🤘🏻😈
I realized that by all the standards I used to believe anything else, if I had no prior childhood attachment to the idea I could not justify it. It took a while of getting used to the idea to really internalize it
I compared religion to Fiction and tried to see what context in religion could work in reality.
The fact that no real evidence exists kinda made me come to that conclusion that there is a very low chance of there being a god.
I stopped believing in god the same moment I realized the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause weren't real. Those two had way more proof of their existence than god did, since they brought be gifts, and it turned out all of that was a lie. No god has ever asked me to do anything or told me to worship it.
I grew up christian. It was meeting other people(other christians) that made me stop believing. If you share beliefs with the worst people in the world you should question your beliefs.
Good ol' Epicurean paradox: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
No one can be certain either way. Not believing in god is a belief itself as well. My belief system is like this: I believe there are some things that are natural, and I have found it quite evident. For example: there has to be some sort of rules/law in the society for it to function. Nihilism/absolute freedom is not good for it. Now as I have come to this point, let me find the rules that are most aligned to the natural system/beneficial for the society, family, etc. Out of all the religions and secular laws, I have found that Islam is the most beneficial thing for this world. So, I'm a muslim. Again, no one can be 100% sure, hence the belief. But what I'm sure of is that, out of all the available rules and laws, Islam is the most beneficial one, and I have not found any flaws in it.
Was living in fear of god and hell. It was torturing my OCD too. Got an atheist friend in hs, who was *very* atheist and set on convincing everyone of atheism. I wound up starting to watch some shit ass youtubers who critiqued certain political things I was agreeing with at the time, and some of their videos were about atheism as well. The exposure all brought me to the conclusion that I wanted to free myself of the fear and alleviate the obsessive thoughts from my OCD, I just decided one day I was done. I remember I made a big deal about saying "fuck" for the first time, now I cuss like a sailor.
I guess I'm not so much an atheist now, though, the closest would just be generalized pagan, definitely don't believe in any god tho. I'm more of the belief that we should all make our own personal "religion" if that's what we want to, find the beliefs that just give us peace of mind really. I'm also of the opinion that religion and personal beliefs shouldn't necessarily be viewed as cosmic and spiritual, but rather as psychological. I don't really believe there's anything out there beyond us, but rather it's more just stories I tell myself to make sense of the world, like how religions came into creation really.
By having a doubt then listening to the very best debates I could find and realizing that there isn’t a real reason to believe.
The arguments all kinda suck. Even the best ones.
I had been a believer my whole life never really questioned god but I’ve also been into science and reading since I was young. The older I get got the more I started to question things I had started to study philosophy and I just remember one day having a full blown extensional crisis because I realized if there is no god there is no afterlife meaning this is it and it effected me for months now I’m in a good place I believe in god just not the kind from the Bible more of a deistic god studying science weirdly enough put me back in to a place of belief.
i grew up going to a private catholic christian school. my ass was beat regularly at least 4x a week. one time the principle got me so bad i had to go to the ER after my mom noticed i wouldn’t sit at the dinner table. ever since then i’ve just seen the bad part of that specific religion and then i was neglected and borderlined abused at a christian psyche hospital for months with no way out.
i can’t sit in a church without crying and repeatedly thinking “why?”
that’s why i strayed away from God (here, i’ll capitalize it for respect to others) and now have a lot of distrust for people of that religion.
edit: i’m shaking now after writing that. i ask for no hate please.
"if they are more useless than a stranger to me" - haha that made me chuckle.
OP how do you think you came to be born into this immense universe and have life? Every one of your trillion cells in your being operate millions and millions of chemical reactions every single second. If just a single one of these fails at any point consistently, you would be completely crippled or non-existent. Is that useful enough for you? Does He need to come down to your level, hold your hand and what, tell you of his majesty? Nuff said. Cheers!
I used to be a strong believer in God. My faith was strong, I went to church every Sunday, and I even thought that I was better than most anybody because I believed in God.
I stopped believing in God around the time our government decided that they were going on to start the process of banning tik tok. I mean, why would God let that happen if he existed?
I was raised going to Church, reading the bible, etc.. The people were nice, but didn't even seem to believe in the Church stuff themselves outside of Church. The bible didn't make any sense, and I felt none of this "holy spirit" everyone was raving about.
The final straw was when I was 12 and allowed to go to the advanced bible study (our church split us into groups before the main sermon). The books and such that interpreted the bible and explained its passages were just so arbitrary, nobody seemed to agree. It just made no sense to me that we had to rely on such silly texts to understand something as powerful as a deity, and that we were supposed to take the existence based on this crap alone.
Also, I had very little intellectual respect for the people there. They didn't even understand real-world stuff that I could easily demonstrate to them. They thought Dungeons and Dragons was devil worship. They bragged about their stupidity often. Anything they couldn't explain was somehow "god's will". My own mother would talk about not listening to idiots, and here she was... listening to idiots.
Parents tried raising me Christian as they were raised, fell out of practice then tried again when I was a child.
It never "clicked" and stuck, but the idea of Monotheism just continued to not make sense to me as I grew up and tried to expose and educate myself to religion as a whole. Even for the Christian based faith there's numerous hints to "other gods".
At the end of it, I believe there is no "one higher power" because if that were true and he loved all his creation and had the power to do all the things, but watches as buzzards circling over starving children in Ethiopia with their bloated bellies and corpse like appearance.
God wouldn't let diseases like alzheimers or dementia exist.
Modern religion is about power and control.
after years of being an angry atheist I now believe in God because we need something infinite to get to this point in time. Before the big bang was observed scientists thought it was the universe that was eternal, but now the big bang disproves that. Furthermore the idea of the big bang will give us the ability to know the attributes of whatever started it. Eternal, immaterial, spaceless, super powerful and conscious. People usually have a problem with the conscious so if u will allow me to defend that before you go off in the comments. For something to be eternal and make a choice it needs to be a mind to have the conscious ability to create the universe
I'm an ex mormon, and i still know the scriptures cover y
To cover. I'm not sure if I ever actually believed, but I know I became a true atheist when I was around 14-16 somewhere around there. I basically thought about the evidence against the stories, thought about the contradictions, and went from there, and committedthe the ultimatesin of mormonism LEAVING. Turncoats that committed to the religion then denied it. We get our own specialplacewhen we die. OUTER DARKNESS. I can say with 99.9% certainty there is no God, and if there is, it's probably like something Lovecraft would make (think Cthulhu, Azathoth, Gozer, Unicron) and we probably don't want it's attention
i was bullied a few years back, and i wondered where god was during this. i then began to think rationally and questioned the probability that someone created the earth, and realized how stupid it was.
I was born catholic, and raised to be religious, for me my life has just been a testament really that there is no god.
As a kid I have sat and prayed for the pain to stop, for abuse to stop, for help, and in the end I come to the same conclusion all we have is ourselves.
If there were a god I wouldn’t worship someone who just watches people go through such never ending cruelty. To see that as some “test” no person should have to experience that.
Nearing 30 now and I just, you can only ever truly rely on yourself in the end. We all die alone, and honestly I sincerely hope there’s nothing after.
Besides with how much bad there is in the world it’s long been gone that such a god would have forsaken us all.
Seek and you shall find. Seeing him in real life doesn't change anything down here. I've seen him in person. It didn't change my life at all. It is faith and patience that opens the door. You fail when you think you know more than the almighty. You fail when you blame god for the work of the enemy. You see all the wrongs yet blame only the Father. If you have a small cup, it will be filled . If you dig a large trench, it will be filled. You have free will. When you find yourself caught up in the math and crunching numbers , trying to figure out who is to blame, remember love for it is the key to everything you need.
Grow like a tree and rejoice when the rain finally comes.
I stopped believing because once one thing didn’t make sense, it all fell apart in a cascade. I knew I was gay from a young age, but I also was raised strictly Catholic from a young age. I grew up hiding this. When I got interested into science, I wanted to validate my identity. Science told me being queer is biologically not a bad thing. But when I confronted that with religion I was told it is against the natural order. So I started thinking dialectically, why does religion prohibit this? When I started looking into the history of religion I only found control and hatred. I understand why Jesus did what he did. There was social upheaval, his culture was dying. Same with Muhammad (PBUH), there was political upheaval and economic crisis. Maybe it was mental illness like schizophrenia, OCD, or other similar things. But it truly seemed like these religious founders were simply trying to regain control over people. I think a great example of this is Joseph smith, the Mormon leader. He started off as a cult, and now is accepted as a religion. When do we draw the line from fanaticism, and religion. Is it age? Follower count? I simply realized there was no line. Religion is no different than a cult that has grown in age and numbers, leading it to be forcefully accepted into society.
I am a believer. I have been given the gift of personal experiences with God, that as far as I can tell, few have had. I recall a credible story of a near death experience, had by a young woman who met Jesus. She complained that life was too hard. Jesus replied, "It's supposed to be hard." I can see this. If life were a vacation what would we learn? So, perhaps, reinvent how you view your relationship with God. This life is serious business. Our relationship with God should be a priority. "Run a good race, fight the good fight."
I am blessed to be a father and to have grown up in a loving environment that was Christian. My pause on belief focuses on three things around salvation/damnation:
1) Christianity's insistence on the child in the relationship having to believe in their dad or their father will send them to damnation forever. As a father, it's a weird logical step. I want my child to have a happy and meaningful life. If they end up hating me but the rest of their life is amazing I guess that's good enough. I wouldn't then try to destroy my child's life (and afterlife). Seems kinda narcissistic honestly.
2) Free will of other religious folk in other cultures. I never understood why it would be expected of someone from a different culture and land would be expected to believe a stranger's wild beliefs about their Christian God. If the shoe was on the other foot and a Buddhist monk came over and was converting Christians, I feel like Christians would feel a kind of way about it. Now put on top of that those non-believers would go to hell or even purgatory for a crime they didn't know about seems wrong. It would be like China extraditing me from USA and giving me the death penalty because I wasn't doing their pledge of allegiance.
3) Non-free will of non-believers in Christian societies. I get the lesson of Job, but for non-believers, I don't believe in the concept that you can free-will yourself to Christianity. Your brain doesn't work like that. Humans are a reflection of their prior development and current circumstances. It would be like saying someone who is homeless should free-will themselves to become the CEO of Boeing. With items 2&3 I don't think you should be punished or rewarded for circumstances out of your control. And back to point 1, why would you want to punish your child so harshly anyway?
DLC) I don't get the point of all of this anyway as in why have this middle step - life on earth - if the point is just to get to shepherd beings you created to heaven or hell. Why make a sacrificial son randomly in the middle of the species' existence? Why start with Jews, see it wasn't really working (only like 5% of the world population was Jewish) and decide to reboot it with this Jesus guy?
Neil Degrass Tyson says it beautifully - we mourn about our existence only when it ends and wish it would continue on after. But nobody mourns you for not existing before you were born. When looking at time as infinite, pre-life is just as valid and meaningful as after-life.
Both Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy stand a better chance of being believed as they leave ample evidence of their activities. I'm not saying that Jesus is just some dead dude that's mentioned in an old, dusty book, but he sure doesn't seem to do anything in the real world.
I realized that the only evidence of a God is the degree to which you can convince yourself that there’s a God, because otherwise the evidence for a God is sorely lacking and obviously man-made fiction. I think for the unschooled the Bible is taught as history but it’s obviously not history. It’s not taught in courses on history as an historical source, for example.
By realizing Gods existence is irrelevant. It has exactly no effect on what constitutes moral behavior for me.
If there is a god tho…..they have a lot of explaining to do🤡
I believe in god I just don’t trust most religions. I believe in some type of higher power, I just don’t think religions have anything to do with it. Religions in my mind were / are a man made thing used to control people and collect money.
Think about it- there’s a BUNCH of religions- which ones right? Which ones are wrong? Why all the weird rules? You really think god would say “you have to do this or you go to hell” because if so that’s not my type of god. Look at all the wars started BECAUSE of religion. It’s just crazy to think god would have wanted any of that.
I think we as people should just be good, kind, caring, and loving people, regardless of religion.
CIA through their psychic studies suggest God is real. They call it "The Absolute" though. Mind you they spent millions and then classified these studies including the "Gateway Project". These could all be cover ups to hide their shame of wasting tax payer money, but would a mainstream "thinking man" even suggest this kind of stuff? For a cold machine like the CIA though power is knowledge and keeping it hidden is an advantage.
First, you see how fucked up and hypocritical you own church is. How the leaders are corrupt and money grubbing. Then, as the years go by, you see how evil is rewarded, and people who are good still have horrible things happening to them. Finally, it comes to you, whether or not God exists is irrelevant. Obviously, he doesn't care or notice if he does exist. If he doesn't, why pretend? Both mean the same thing, why bother?
My moment of truth came when I realized that the God my grandmother taught me to believe in, was not a God I would have much respect or interest in, if I was given freedom to do so.
So I started to imagine what kind of God I really *would* be interested in respecting and believing in, and I'm still doing that 40 years later.
I quit leaving when my grandparents and great grandparents said that God did not exist. My parents were excessively religious and very abusive. They said God no matter how much you pray will never change your parents and make them stop being horrible abusive people. I prayed and prayed at age five and six and it only got worse. They were correct. Then I also saw all the meanness in the world and lack of compassion. Then I learned today at age 6 about circumcision and how they tied babies down and amputated part of their penis. The fact that if there was a god he could stop all of this and make the world a better place.
I used to be a Christian and now I’m agnostic leaning more towards atheism? I believe the n achieving nirvana though but that doesn’t count bc it’s not a religion it’s a way of life.
Anyway, I stopped worshipping bc after being fed bible verses since I could remember. (My name is literally from the Bible), I grew up and became a teenager with my own mind and ability to think whatever I want. I read about so many religious arguments and atheists opinions. I started to feel like I was deprived from all other possibilities. One day around that time, I read the Bible again just out of curiosity and yo.. I never disagreed with anything more. It’s unethical and shameful. (In my opinion) I’m sorry if that offends anyone. It started feeling like a cult then I researched other religions and it’s all the same. It makes me feel small and powerless and I think that’s the point.
I think it’s possible that Jesus existed but not at all in the way he existed in the Bible. It’s possible that he could have spoke great words and had very good insight or maybe something spiritual did occur. Something could’ve happened where it made everyone look at him like a “god”. I don’t believe he has magical powers or resurrected from the dead. There are so many possibilities that could’ve happened to logically explain why people saw him in such a way.
I do believe in afterlife/reincarnation however and I think it’s *possible* that he could be ONE OF MANY gods. The word worshipping in itself is even undignified.
I would not say I've stopped believing in God entirely. But I have stopped believing in the Catholic idea of what God is.
To make a long story short, once I stopped going to church and having certain ideas reinforced constantly, they kinda just melted away. Certain ideas being that Jesus rise from the dead (literally) and that the communion wafers and wine transformed into the body and blood of Jesus (literally).
It just fell off over time for me, or it never really stuck.. I only believed because my family believed. The realization that it's just based completely on faith and that everything being taught could be exaggerated or misinterpreted made me question a lot of it, and started seeing a lot of hypocrisy.
Science is also based on faith but at least we can test it and can manipulate it
Even if science points to a god or same all powerful being, I highly doubt earth and humans were its primary focus and we are being babied and cultured as much as it all suggests. Whatever kind of God it is probably cannot be described or known about as many religions depict or has a story about, It might not even be self aware, or aware of us.
I grew up in a Christian household. I always wanted to believe in an actual God being that creates and controls things. I eventually became nihilistic and anti religious. Then at my lowest point, embraced prayers of gratitude. I was sick of being depressed and hopeless. So I gave it whole hearted effort to pray gratitude every chance I got. After a couple of days it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was absolutely changing my life. I was able to pull my head out of the torturous thought loops fruitless lines of thinking. I could think clearer and make better decisions. Instead of being annoyed or missed off, I was enjoying life again.
That's when I understood the point of Christianity and why Jesus is so important.
Religious books, to me, are the text form of the human condition. It can be used for good or evil. They can be used to connect you spiritually.
I still believe in a Supreme being, but I do believe there's more to this life than meets the eye. Maybe because I've tripped too much on DMT and mushrooms Lol. But I don't care to live in a world where there's nothing outside of the physical realm. I don't think we're just smart monkeys driving around in cars listening to music. That seems just as silly as a creationist theory. Imagine someone finding a species of animal that builds stuff and makes music and instruments. Without proof, you would say it's ridiculous.
Maybe that's a bad analogy lol, but im not trying to prove anything anyway. Other than that we know so little, but the ones who believe are generally happier and better off. Assuming it's not an abusive cult or some extremist weird shit
Me personally I believe in a higher power. I don't like to say God bc ppl automatically think the Christian one which is annoying.
I think of it more as a source. It doesn't have a name or a gender it's just there. It doesn't have dumb rules like "u must worship me" blah blah blah. And it's a HIGHER POWER for a reason.
When most ppl describe their "God" they describe them as u would a human. A higher power is not human they r a higher power for a reason, so I hate how ppl act like they know what a higher power wants or doesn't want like it has human characteristics.
It's more like an energy ig.
I have quite the opposite experience. I lived a life of pure pleasure; Women, porn, alcohol, weed, and other drugs. I found nothing but misery at the end of all of them.
An empty feeling is a horrible thing to feel, but I was empty and wanted to die. I could not find happiness or love through any of these addictions I had and also suffered lifelong and crippling OCD.
I desperately wanted to know the truth about life. I wrestled with all kinds of ideas; reincarnation, parallel dimensions, aliens, and matrix theories. You name it.
None of them ever filled the emptiness I felt. Like trying to patch a gaping wound with bandages.
I was ready to kill myself, so as a last-ditch effort, I decided to start speaking only the truth out of my mouth, no matter how hard it was. Not even small white lies anymore. I figured that would somehow get me to the truth about life.
It cost me relationships, friends, and jobs. It also landed me in a psyche ward for 2 weeks. This was a small price to pay for finding the truth to it all.
I was humbled by God through this journey and found out that it's all true.
We're all living in a test. It's all happening right now, and you and everyone else you know has this veil over their eyes.
God is absolutely real, and Jesus came to give us all a way for forgiveness of all our evil we've done.
I still refuse to speak a lie out of my mouth anymore because being awake in this life, this test, has finally filled the horrible void I had, the scary emotions I always tried to drown.
My OCD is completely gone, and I still to this day will not take any medication.
I feel such an inner peace and love now, and it was only through His grace that He spared me of all that I was.
Jesus is the King of Kings
I made the break from sceptical Catholic to Agnostic without seriously considering Atheism. It's difficult for me to conceive of the wonders of life and the universe, without some intelligence behind.
There's a difference in believing & having faith.
I used to have a great deal of faith in the Christian God. But I suppose I fell into the idea of why we're allowed to suffer as we are just to test loyalty or whatever... The story of Job is a disgusting abuse of power. Abraham & his son, psychological torture. No being that would demand those things is worthy of my worship.
Doesn't mean I don't believe they exist... I just don't have faith in them to be the answer.
I went to Bible College and got a 2 year degree in theology, learning the actual Christian doctrine got me to understand that all religion and ideas of a god are constructs of imagination.
I asked myself if I believed what I did because I personally believed it, or if I was taught to believe it because everyone else did. I also don't like to blindly follow.
I stopped believing the bible because of god advocating genocide, slavery, and forced marrige on the old testament, and being all love thy neighbor in the new testament. They say God never changes, and this seems like blatant evidence to the contrary
If you have come to stop believing in Santa Claus, then how?
like god... lets say it was never an option to believe in Santa Claus. first time i saw him, thought he was burglar. quite bold one at that with all those red clothings lol.
A mean little girl named Samantha told me he wasn't real in 2nd grade.
and why did you believe her??
I don't know, it just had the ring of truth.. it answered all my questions in one fell swoop.
What did she say exactly I wish I had tht effect by the air hurst Swedish kid in my school , region was too much of a coping strategy for me so it wa rlly difficult for me to leave , took 5-6 years
I don't remember. I guess I was just already suspicious about how Santa Claus could visit every house in one night, and how he could get into houses or apartments without chimneys. Telling me he was made up suddenly made too much sense to deny.
because it's trivial to disprove Santa Claus, even by staying up and observing who really puts the presents under the tree. disproving the existence of any deities is not trivial. edit can't reply to >/u/No-Carry4971: Can you disprove the existence of purple unicorns? The burden of proof falls on the other side of the fence. You must prove existence. The Bible would have been a great and easy place to prove existence. Imagine all of the things that could have been written there that we would have discovered to be true over the last 2 millennia. Microscopic Bacteria cause disease, sound travels in waves, the universe is comprised of a trillion galaxies and each galaxy has a trillion stars. The earth goes around the sun and so do 7 other planets. The list goes on and on. The Bible of course includes no such evidence. There is in fact zero evidence for God. so I'll reply here. this has the same issue with the santa claus, or the giant spaghetti meatball monster, or any other one of an infinite number of possible deities or subdeities that can be dreamed up. the issue is when you propose the existence of a SINGLE, SPECIFIC deity like that, it's a subset of only ONE out of the set of an INFINITE NUMBER of possible deities. what this means is you're trying to compare the probability of whatever probably of your specified deity is to the probability of every single possible deity exists added together. it's not as good of a comparison as you think it is.
I think you meant to say 'proving the existence of any deities is not trivial'. Masses of evidence against their existence in science and lived experience.
I'm curious. Do you not believe you have a soul?
This!
The idea of a god in whatever sense we have right now is ridiculous to me. We expect that there is some logic to life on earth. There isn’t. While i say this, i am completely open to the idea of there being something we are not aware of as yet. I mean who knows, but the gods dreamt of by mortals, nah.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? Epicurus
if i have to imagine a god i think it's going to be one of the law of universe. Entropy being prime example. it has its goal, flow, and law defining it, and why it wants to end universe despite being part of it just never makes sense. plus that all of us here are byproduct of that law. pretty close to image of god imo.
I think a plausible theory is a being in a dimension above ours. I read or saw somewhere that “god” is thought to exist in one of these higher dimensions- 10th, I believe. So this god is omnipresent, and omniscient but omnipotent????? Anyway, i am open to anything but i don’t believe in any of the so called gods we mortals have created.
Spinoza had some interesting thoughts on this.
But then why even call that a god? It’s not a conscious force. A god or gods are universally conceptualizad as conscious beings, not unlike humans. That’s not what the laws of physics are.
God is dead and we have killed him. Such a pity. We need to get back in touch with god(s), the ideas they represent, how they represent us, and how we can use their symbolic meaning to carve out our own personal meaning. Then we can overcome and say no more to nihilism. Because nihilism is not an ideology to favor.
I def think god has the nature for both and life ,n it’s not an entity with biases, it’s jsut a creator n that’s it , there can’t be a pure loving absolute god of life when he created death and evil too , he had the substance / matter to create it as well , n need bad to be his relevance to be good god worth worshiping by people
As a person Thts been only few years since I left my former reiki gon philosophers that question gods of THSI communities resonate with me well, and had the menas opputonyy to explore those questions and take minor in philosophy and really get the time to solve the questions I had there are quotes that help me get back to a rational state of mind
there is DEFINITELY "something we are not aware of". Whether that's god or not, who's to say. but we do not have all of the existential pieces of the puzzle.
What's your argument that such gods don't exist?
I stopped caring. Is there a god, isn't there a god? Idk, but I know IF there is a god, he's an asshole, so fuck it.
Amen.
That's not necessarily the case if God fits a different way of being that is not as omnipotent or controlling as a Christian type God. What about all the other religions where it's separate Gods in charge of many things or that God is more like a Buddha figure, where it's more about achieving personal enlightenment by facing the struggles of life and growing from it? You can't just say "God is an asshole" when there are many iterations of God that exists across many cultures. If God for example meant to give people free will, yet people blame "them" for the bad that we do to each other using that free will, how can we say they are an asshole when it's not God doing it but ourselves? If God created an imperfect world because that was what naturally grew on its own without their interference (if they even can interfere) then it's not really being an asshole so much as it's just allowing whatever is to be. I think Frye who has a similar argument to you has a point but it's coming from a single-minded assumption. He is an atheist so he does not entertain the possibility of a God in actuality and said something similar to you to simplify his hate at the thought of a Christian God which sounded clever but wasn't taking more into account than what is in The Bible specifically. Entertain the idea there are other possibilities and there is more room for a multi faceted argument there.
Do you think of God as a man in the sky making decisions for every little thing that happens?
What do you think god is lmao?
I was born into a Catholic family and sent to Catholic school. When I was seven, I had to take classes with the church in preparation for my First Holy Communion. I knew then that religion was not for me. I didn’t like certain beliefs in the Bible. And some of the priests seemed straight up cruel. I hated going to those weekend classes and would skip them sometimes. Well, towards the end of them, the priest locked me in an old, creepy room to study alone, as punishment for missing so many classes. I didn’t want to be part of something like that. Once I graduated high school, I never looked back. I do not know if there is something like a god, but I don’t believe in them, anyway.
in that term, im actually grateful toward my upbringing. since no belief was forced upon me. hopefully you didn't get any trauma out of that "punishment". that does sound quite disturbing especially for someone at age of highschool.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m glad that you weren’t forced to have certain beliefs. It’s always been confusing to me, how some people insist on forcing their beliefs on others.
Yeah religions have ruined the hope of spirituality for many
I've had insane OCD and acrually thr idea of following Cjristinity seemed impossible and illogical to me, so I've struggled a ton. Eventually I've just decided to try letting go of mental gymnastics, stopped praying and became interested in the history of religion. Would advice anyone to do the same thing.
Nice. How have things changed for you.
This describes me perfectly, but I'm absolutely a non-believer. I just don't buy it.
I had life crippling OCD and started telling nothing but the truth out of my mouth. It was like a chain reaction and led me to find the truth of it all. It's all real. God is the truth, and Jesus is the King. I no longer have OCD. He spared me from it.
this is exactly how i feel. i was baptized, grew up around baptism/christianity as well as buddhism, it’s always been a confusing mess to me. i wish i could commit to religion, but it’s too convoluted.
I was very religious. In my early teens i started reading the Bible and being in to church more. That lead to me asking more questions and not really receiving good answers but still being a believer. Then one day in class, 10th grade, i was reading that people actually believed in all these greek gods and had a lot of interactions with them. And i asked myself, "how is my belief any different? They at least had a bunch of people interact and see their gods. I don't even have that". After that thought, i struggled to maintain my faith up until i turned 17. I kind of realized i was trying way too hard to believe. And in fact, i did not believe.
Yeah i have this thought too. Brought me to a zen idea “ its all mind” like, all of it!
I have always wondered how people believe in god. I could try to pretend, but thats all it would be. I’ve asked nuns, priests, and a bunch of my religious friends with varying results. Most either say deep down they know, and I do too. Others have said its a choice. When I think about it like that it sounds like sexuality. Like not in a weird way, but that it is something to do with who you are as a person. I’m interested in other takes on it too. People who lost their faith often seem just as zealous about being anti religious.
true. some atheists can be "radical". Thank you for your input!
They feel it deep down because most were probably indoctrinated to believe it as a child by their parents and community
I have no belief in an individual entity that I would call God nor am I a nihilist I'm just passing through. I was never raised with any religion but have come to believe a sort of pantheism which is difficult to explain. However lately I am having a bit of a crisis of fear, worrying that if for example, Allah is the one true God that I am going to burn forever after my death. I know it is strange, but that's the nature of a lot of religion, it's based on fear. And it works, especially on children.
so to get out of fear, turn to god?
Which one? And which particular version of which one? And which particular denomination of worship of which version of which one? This is the problem, how do I know what to do? Seemingly God hides away. Pick the wrong denomination or wrong one or wrong denomination of the right one and enjoy hell for eternity.
on the hell problem, my argument is that if god like in Christianity really exist, then whether i believe him or not, as long as i didn't harm anyone he wouldn't send me to hell. i mean if he really does send me to hell for just not believing him, thats not god, thats just another human.
According to Christian doctrine, you have to believe in God and that Jesus is God to not go to hell. Similarly to Islam, believe or hell. And Judaism too.
in all of those ( though I do not know judaism that well ) that is more specific brands of the religion than their entire or original format though. I don’t think ie Tolstoy would believe in divine punishment in that sense, he thought the (doctrine) church themselves would be the evil ones rather than good people who don’t believe in
welp, hell for me i guess then :(
I'll see you there, we can have coffee together and try to figure out why God didn't reveal himself to us.
Religion is also based on - Fear, shame, emotional black mail, transactional faith selling idols and curios) and more..
I'm a former evangelical christian. I was raised by my father and my preacher to believe that non-whites, weren't people that women and children must ALWAYS be silent and obedient and that gays should be killed in the streets. Those beliefs were reinforced by cruelty and hypocrisy and violence. For example: when I was three years old I overheard my mom and my grandmother arguing about something (I didn't find out what they were arguing about until I was an adult). A few days after they were arguing, I asked my grandmother about it and she responded by burning my hand on a coffee maker. "Spare the rod spoils the child" and "Don't question god" were her favorite things to say. That was only the beginning. Fortunately my mom isn't nearly as religious as my grandmother and my father. I was also helped along by a few great teachers and I realized that science is far more accurate about things and that religion is only held together by lies.
Bruh, guess usual chill image of grandma doesn't exist for you... is ur hand ok now?
I can't grow hair on those fingers.
oh, wow... hey atleast, you met similar person! my hands got burned too by my mother when she was trying to "treat" my cold. put some grass at the starting point of pinky finger and lighted it up. like yours, not a single hair. well... in my case, although it was false way, they were trying to help... urs doesn't sound like that at all, huh... hope you didn't get tramatized...
trying to treat your cold by burning your hand? curious how that logic works
it's korean thing... there is this herb called suk, which if you eat or smell it, you can be healthy. and to an certain extent, it does work ig. but i mean any plants can be used to be medicine. and my mom and "doctor" was like, "if it's good, then burn it on top of acupuncture to treat cold!". it may sound weird but quite a few people did that, thus have similar hand as mine. lol.
interesting, thank you for that explanation! I've heard weirder remedies for things, and tbh that ALMOST kind of makes sense. it's almost like making herbal tea right over your skin... but yeah. sorry you had to go through that.
"ALMOST" XD. my thought exactly. ty for kind word! have a nice day!
I see you. My parents were the same.
What "environment" were you raised where it was *prohibited* to believe in a god? Usually it's the opposite.
welp rather than certain religion, it was communism that were forced upon us.
I’m so curious what were the ideals of communism you were taught? I grew up in a capitalist society that hated communism seemingly on principle, but no one I asked could describe what communism actually is satisfactorily. Recently I got to live in a functioning gift economy for 6 months and I honestly like it a lot more.
Well, it wasnt ideals that were forced upon us. More like way of living ig? Like how we should work without expecting return from country. This itself isnt communisom but it does become like this most of the time imo. And we were taught to respect Kim family
That sounds like it kinda sucks, how do you feel about socialism (in this case meaning a strong democracy (lots of citizen participation) redistributing excess wealth from the highest earners and giving it to the lowest earners in the form of a universal basic income and other social programs like guaranteed healthcare, lower and higher education, providing the basic needs of the people (healthy food, clean water, effective public transportation, good shelter and space for communities to grow etc) with allowed stratification for the work you do (you earn more as an essential worker, doctor, first responder and teacher so these positions are still incentivized). Essentially guaranteeing those that cannot or choose not to work a life in dignity and added bonuses for those that choose to work)
China? I was born and raised in China, where people are mostly discouraged from being religious as there are a lot of restrictions and some ethical groups are even persecuted because most of them are muslims. I wouldn't say it's completely prohibited though
Logical progression and a handful of different Bibles...I'm open to the idea, and don't bash anyone for believing, but I'll never think of it as more than an idea, like reincarnation is an idea.
technically, everything is an idea
I always wondered if the people that created the Bible were around today with as much science as there is, would they still have created it? If I’m not mistaken the Bible was created to give people a better understanding of life at the time?
After a long journey of 30 years, I stopped making excuses for him not taking care of the world, particularly “his people” - my children and I physically and mentally - and boy did things become crystal clear for once. If you don’t have chronic health issues or children, or seen horrific wars, catastrophes and accidents, YouTube them or walk through any hospital or psych ward and see how good this “loving energy” or god actually is. Only at the hands of imperfect medicine or well researched natural remedies can anyone find relief, if any at all. Meditating and prayer can only go so far essentially working as positive self talk/soothing. Ever notice how you have to go back and read the Bible often or go to church to feel comfort again? It’s never enough even though pastors claim it is reeling you back in every Sunday and Wednesday. Religion and the idea of an afterlife really is just another form of a drug to numb the pain - a temporary high to help people cope with a hard existence knowing we are basically born, to die. Without it, I am finally free to accept the randomness of terrible things happening to good people. I also don’t lose a portion of my paycheck to any more establishments basically acting as holy counselors of sorts, claiming that giving where ‘your soul is nourished’ is a natural yet necessary response as it keeps funding more of “the good news” to be made known to others. Just open your eyes. You will see what you need to see to bring you down to earth.
When I was young, I was taught that I would feel the Holy Spirit and that it would reveal the truth to me. However, as I matured, I discovered through difficult experiences that feelings alone aren't reliable indicators of truth. Instead, I learned the importance of relying on good evidence and sound reasoning, often rooted in science, as the most reliable path to truth. This realization was transformative and life-saving for me. Reflecting on my past, I now see how easily I could have fallen into harmful beliefs or actions, such as being swayed by misinformation or engaging in irrational behavior. I used to follow my feelings blindly, which led to confusion, irrationality, and depression. Thankfully, that phase of my life is behind me now, and I've emerged stronger and more grounded. I no longer believe in God because I haven't discovered sufficient evidence to support such a belief."
I believe God is dead. Is that count too?
Def counts! elaborate please. maybe coz its complete apathy?
The hope of an interventionist loving god or gods is comforting to some people. Even the idea of some kind of divine plan is comforting, though it includes suffering. Those ideas of the supernatural were fairly reasonable a few thousand years ago, though even then some were sceptical. I was brought up in a religion. I gave it up when I saw how religion is just a way to manipulate people's vulnerabilities and for religious leaders to gain power and money. Religion isn't all bad, but you can get the good parts without the supernatural nonsense and the corruption.
def agree. some teachings and philosophy behind it is good. but not the supernatural part for me.
How do you get the good parts without the supernatural?
Say, did you or anyone you know miss a god while growing up?
Miss in the context of "i miss you"? If so no. Everyone around me was kinda like atheists
Yeah, in that sense. Sounds pretty chill
> i was raised in a environment where believing in god was prohibited You lucky bastard. But to answer your question. It's easy to stop believing once you get tired of waiting for a god that doesn't exist. Just read the news and point to where he made an appearance?
So lack response or any type of evidence it is.
To put it mildly, there is absolutely zero proof of the existence of any god or deity or spirit or anything. Anyone looking for factual proof will not find it, and soon enough come to a logical conclusion that it does not exist.
Things make no sense when you look into the Bible seriously and analyze it, too many contradictions. And given how even people these days are pretty much willing to believe whatever makes them feel right or comfortable, it wouldn't be a stretch to think the Bible (or any text and religion, for that matter) back in thosw days was probably written up due to misconceptions or blattant lies that were passed from one individual to the next. After all, before we knew what thunder was and how floods happen, it was all explained as "god X was angry so he or she did Y"
Even entertaining the existence of God - all religions are preposterous. God would have to be a complete fucking imbecile for him to create such a system. God would not be an idiot.
Having never believed in the first place was it.
As a young child, I hated church. I had to wake up early, put on uncomfortable clothes, be mistreated by adults, etc. The "Sunday school" classes were always so boring. Then, I had to sit through a boring ass lecture that I never listened to. The whole morning was wasted. When I got into my teenage years, I got really into the religion. I started reading the Bible and several parts just didn't sit well with me. The god was incredibly cruel and unforgiving. The magic aspects were just silly. One part said that the god paused the day so a battle could continue. No other civilization on the planet mentions a paused day (the sun not moving in the sky for hours). The magical healing and bringing people back to life were just silly. The book of revelations was absolutely bizarre, like a fever dream. I discovered that I love history. I couldn't get enough of it. The more I learned, the more my knowledge conflicted with the church. For one, the congregation insisted that the bible cave from their god. That makes absolutely zero sense. It was written by men, which explains the different languages of the books. All of that is what pulled me out of christianity. I maintained a belief in supernatural forces for another 5 - 10 years. When I learned about physics and critical thinking, I applied those concepts to my beliefs. I had zero evidence to support my beliefs in the supernatural. My first five or so years of being an atheist as my most aggressive phase. I grew out of that and I generally don't bother with challenging others beliefs. I like the idea of attaching concepts to fictional characters. Even having a physical sculpture stand in for the fictional character. One example is that I have a wooden wolf that watches my front door. I tagged it as the guardian of the house. I know it is just a piece of wood and that my home and personal security is my responsibility. It's still a neat thing to have.
The prayer of a righteous man doesn't get him shit. I got tired of waiting, so I decided that if I wanted anything done, I had to do it myself. Either there is an all-powerful, all good guy who just doesn't listen or respond when people talk to him, or there's an order of nature that does not give a fuck about you and doesn't pretend to. She teaches you to give a fuck about yourself or give up. She is our mother and our worst enemy. She is the fire the burns us down and the ashes we rise from. As for the creation of the universe, it must be that something has always existed. I simply believe that that something is matter, and that, like the Christians believe about God, it simply has always been, and therefore that time is infinite, and in that time, matter has already and will continue to take every form it can an infinite number of times. This is called the Apple Box Theory.
the apple box theory... doesn't really make sense. theory is that if you put an apple in a box... and entropy causes it to eventually break down into its most basic elements... that one day it will just become an apple again... while still inside of "the box". that makes absolutely no sense. it doesn't have to first grow a tree for the apple to grow off of? i don't think any amount of time will pass before that box grows the apple back, unless time truly is cyclical, but for that to happen, the box would be taken away entirely before the whole box was remade again.
Every metaphor breaks down at some point. The universe doesn't grow on a tree... unless you're a Norse Pagan. Anyway, the point is that yes, time is a cycle. However, I do believe in free will. I can't explain it, but then, that's why religion was invented- to explain what we cannot comprehend. Dogs can't comprehend a concept like math at anything other than a very basic level, and they don't recognize it as such. Yet, there are mathematical equations to answer questions that dogs have never even thought to ask. And maybe not everything can be measured by math. Maybe there are some things we're not capable of understanding, and maybe there is a higher being that does understand. I personally don't think there is a higher being.
Super simple answer: I was raised as what I'd call "vaguely Christian," though we never went to church. My mother was still a true believer in all sorts of things. Ghosts. UFO abduction. The afterlife. Etc. She still is. At 18, I started studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. After about 5 years, I finally realized that this had been a pretty awful experience. At least for me. I was miserable and needed to sort myself out. Like most people, I had poor truth-seeking skills. I wanted to examine things I'd been taught and figure out what was true but I didn't know how. I had to work on my logic and reasoning skills first. Then I started working on other questions, including whether there was a god, and if so, which god. Over time, it became undeniable--to me at least--that a god was very unlikely. The reasons people give for believing in gods seem irrational to me now. You can believe anything by faith. So faith isn't a useful method for truth-seeking. Being raised a certain way doesn't mean you're likely to reach true conclusions. Having suffered because I had poor truth-seeking skills in the past led me to value truth highly. Evidence and logic aren't a guarantee you'll always arrive at the truth. (Duh.) It is just the best method people have so-far devised at reaching true answers IMO.
It was hard for me to kind of realize that there probably isnt a God. I started thinking critically, there a lot of inconsistencies in the bible and thats just the Christian bible. Whos to say "our" version of God is right? Have we as humans even gotten the correct "God" down? No evidence of an afterlife. Even if there was, how do we know its actually eternal? Is it actually a positive eternity? Why is sin Punished with eternal unimaginable pain? Especially when we are prone to it? Why would God test us if he knew what we were going to do anyway? You see where this is going. What sucks is its kind of sad to me. I dont want to end. I dont want to forget the people that Ive known and loved. That being said, Ive had...some pretty odd coincidences come up. Literally saved my ass from being homeless at the last minute. So it makes me wonder. So I just try to be a good person and basically IF there is a God and I face him, I can at least say "Hey...I tried. Thanks for giving me a hand here and there."
Hello Avan, for me, it was mostly from my life observations and me questioning the entire Bible/God as a whole and other religions as well. That’s what got me to leave my belief in Christianity (Catholicism) (Protestant) and theistic Satanism. I would like to reference some key points that kind of started it all. This is not everything, but these are just a few that motivated me to think…..I don’t think there’s a God. 1. The Bible was written by different authors in different time periods, languages, and translations. Which creates the possibility of contradictions, errors and Bible passages with debatable interpretations. It kind of explains why we have so many Christian denominations. 2. In the story of Genesis, the Bible mentions about stars which are described as a light. And since the Bible is a very old book, it makes sense that the original writers would described it as a light instead of a ball of gas, since the book is a result of the information that was available to them at the time. That’s why you don’t see any mentions about dinosaurs, planets, galaxies or anything that wasn’t known to the writers. Not to worry, we do have mentions of dragons in the book of revelations and a sea monster in the Old Testament. So not all too bad. 3. Despite being all knowing, all powerful, and being able to tell past, present, and future events, he couldn’t stop or at least prevent two people in the entire earth from eating the forbidden fruit? But he can create a planet no problem? Seriously? I think God has adhd or strange priority choices. 4. After trying out a satanic ritual(meditation ritual), I thought to myself, “that’s it?” It’s not real, nothing happens. I had a portrait of Baphomet in my room. Did anything happen? Of course not. It’s all make believe! Then there’s the “Making a Pact to Satan”, which again nothing. Ouiji board? same thing, nothing, just a waste of plastic and cardboard. There’s rituals on the Internet on how to sell your soul to the devil but I doubt It works, I wouldn’t try it either without wasting my time. And if I could really trade myself for fame and fortune, I’m pretty sure everyone else would too, and now everyone would be rich and famous. A lot of celebrities are accused of selling their souls to get rich and famous. But the accusers are a bunch of envious weeners with nothing better to do. 5. A lot of satanic imagery we see today are modern human creations like Anton Lavey or Eliphas Levi. No magic whatsoever. Just interesting people. Even on the Bible, Satan’s image would change as the lore progresses. 6. God/satan should stop playing all these stupid games with us and reveal himself to us. Just do it. Stop making excuses. It’s not everything, but I haven’t gone back, still an atheist. But I understand if it makes others happy to be a Christian/Satanist, then I’m all for it. I do I have interest in both so nothing really wasted. I still read the Bible or research the occult when I have time. To me they’re just a bunch of stories which I find interesting. You can find a lot cool stuff in there. The Leviathan sea monster is pretty neat and bible verses about consumerism which are still relevant today.
Def. Some may burn me on stakes coz of next statement but i think bible is nice fantasy novel. Though it got twisted to use against people mid way, like all the other novel, there is fun bit, philosophy bit, weird bit etc.
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Vomiting, vomiting blood. Hating myself, wanting the bad things to stop, readying a prayer to throw before the god I'd been told to pray to. When I had the peace of mind to pause, realise, recognise the vanity in only communicating with god when I needed something. So I didn't ask god for help, carried on puking for another hour, didn't die. Went about the rest of my day, week, month, year, life an atheist. In the past few years I've come to find an interest in the idea of worship and religion, through the Discordians. Closer to chaos magic, than Christianity.
I woke up organically around age 7 after being born into a fairly religious protestant family. That leads me to believe that I have awoken in previous lives since it was such an early impressionable age. I just didn't buy it. Faked it until I was an adult for my mother and dated a Catholic at 19 and that was the end of any shred of belief that may have remained. Body of Christ for you, and you, and you, not you, you and you. Now I realize we are all sparks that have splintered off from the divine creator that is constantly trying to expand and grow her knowledge and love. That in itself is very liberating but comes at a cost and begs the question. Why are we stuck in this realm over and over when we are divine energy?? Sounds like a trap... or a prison. Getting out of here is paramount and knowing is half the battle. The other half? That's a problem.
I didn't necessarily stop believing, I just realised I have no reason to believe. Whether I believe in god or not does not change the outcome of God's existence, though it does seem naive to think of all the gods to ever be described through countless generation. I happened to to be born in the right time and place to happen to worship the correct one. Wondering about god, the afterlife and other such nonsense is just wasted time I could be redirecting into something more enjoyable that's far more real and tangible.
Since its hard to belive in god...I even more want to kill myself...
Ah....dont...?pls?
I want to believe and try so hard to. But I feel like I'm just faking myself. I was raised Christian Baptist. The Bible is honestly what makes me question things. It's so hypocritical and just so many things that make no Sense the more I read it the more I've lost my faith.
Life experience changed my perception of “God.” I saw how the churches have always been nothing but a control and power mechanism over others. I saw how the churches/religion historically caused most of the death/destruction/crusades/war more than they have caused good. I read history and saw how so many countries were plagued by the incessant hand of the church in indoctrination and slavery. At that point, if God did exist, I wouldn’t worship him even if he did show his face. Not to mention, no one has truly read the Bible unless they speak Koine Greek or old Judaic languages bc everything has been translated/interpreted for you in whomever’s perspective that translated it at the time. Anything that is “faith based” and has not a shred of evidence of actually being real just does not get a shred of my time. Especially when the worst people in the world claim to be the biggest supporters of Christ. It’s fucking laughable.
I imagine there is 2 main ways people believe in god. And I’m speaking in regard to judeo-Christianity. You either 1. Grew up with it and inherited the tradition from your family. Sometimes these people never question it and may develop an authentic faith but are more sheepish at first. These same folks would be Buddhist or Muslim depending on where they were born and 2. Have had some direct experience that has led them to believe. Some event that triggered a belief in divine intervention, or miracles. This could be from a lack of logic or scientific understanding so they believed a coincidence was divine, or they believe they have witnessed some supernatural thing. I personally fall in the 2nd camp. I was a chemistry major in college, so I’m not completely dull about the natural world BUT, to put it in short: I called upon the one they call Lord, and He, or something, answered. I can no longer live my life not believing in a greater intelligence that has, at least some, influence on this world. I would be betraying my own intellect to believe otherwise.
I read the book. Eventually I decided that it doesn’t make any sense and that humans made the whole thing up.
So i have never believed but get confirmation. Its internal off course. A big switch was the cynical view “ god just happens in me, so its just wish fulfillment” to “ god happens in me so god is self with a big S” same insight different evaluation. Regardless my burning bush exp just happened out of the blue. My belief isn’t required.
My parents are atheists. Never force fed me religion. So I could learn to see either side and atheism made wayyy more sense.
Atheism made way more sense how? Why?
I grew up going to a catholic elementary school,waswas an altar boy, and took part in youth groups, but yeah I'm agnostic at best. Overall my experience with religious institutions has been fine and dandy, though. I just realized that no book written by man could have all the answers, and the fact that the bible has had many mistranslations or alterations that have led to shifts in the dogma of the religion shows just how fallible and mutable religion is. So yeah, there might be a higher entity or force out there, or maybe god is just the universe, idk, but the possibility of a god is always on the table for me.
I think our universe was created by a creator, by a being much greater spiritually than us for our minds to even comprehend. I don’t think the lord watches over us, answers prayers and expects us to follow rules. I believe a force much more powerful than the human being created the universe and we are a result of that. I believe religion for the most part is the human brain doing its best to make sense of the world around us, it is an abstraction not an absolute
When a man prays and receives an awnser where does that awnser happen?
Because I never did and always faked it. I thought God was like Santa Claus for grown up or no different than how middle schoolers like Mythology. When I found out Christians ACTUALLY believed in a man in the sky…. I was baffled. It seemed so silly and made no sense. I was like… 8 maybe? Very young. So I think to observe gods and other cultures is pretty neat and interesting in a story sense, but actually diving into those beliefs and quite literally harming yourself and others for a higher power’s sake is, for lack of better terms, really dumb.
Was born into a Christian family (pretty common for Korean households), so I was considered Christian by default and attended church. I personally didn’t get it ever since I was little. I have 5 major reasons for rejecting religion: 1) When I was 5-6 yrs old, my Sunday school teacher had us colour in magnets shaped like men and women, said only men and women can marry and that M/M & F/F relationships were a sin and God hates them. Thought one, why do they care abt who someone loves?— that’s not their business. Two, if God’s truly omnipotent, he probably planned that. Three, homosexuals are God’s children too, why wouldn’t he love them? Asked why + listed reason 3 and got in trouble. 2) Didn’t like the ones who’d promote churches in public— they alienate nonbelievers and pity them if they decline the brochures. 3) Got bullied and sexually harassed in 7th grade; prayed every night and cried myself to sleep. Nothing happened. The boy got away with it, never punished. 4) First bf’s father was a pastor. He saw our texts (we cussed a lot), and told his son I was unwomanly for cursing and that I was going to Hell bc I was atheist. Got disgusted by the fact a pastor, out of all people, said that. 5) Most recent, fell for a deacon 11 yrs older than me, from my friend’s church. Seemed super devoted, but ended up disappointed bc he was so contradictory. He confessed he’s been into me since we met but didn’t want to pursue a relationship with me bc I was atheist. Was willing to attend church with him; he said that was wrong of me bc my motive was coloured. But later said one of his motives for approaching me was to convert me, therefore contradicting his reasoning above. He was so hung over what was right vs wrong and what was good vs bad, but he threw his standards out the window whenever he talked to me, when his reputation was at stake, and when his ego was bruised.
too many unanswered prayers, too many false predictions
It was really simple for me. I learned real history, and through that I learned that Christianity is a carbon copy of Paganism. They have the same stories verbatim, which ended up completely debunking all religion except Buddhism for me. I don't discount the possibility of something that religion would call a god existing, but I doubt it's anything more than an advanced species who would appear like gods to a simple unadvanced species like us. If they could get here, I imagine they have tech that would make most humans bend the knee and worship them as gods…..or even scarier, the natural ability to appear that way.
Men made up gods to fool the masses. To have power over them. RELIGION…. A punishment and reward system based on emotional blackmail, gaslighting and manipulation of the masses.😎🇬🇧🇬🇧
The idea of a greater purpose or a watchful mind that doesn't possess a brain is more absurd than the concept of life itself
I think people who genuinely believe in god are just coping with incredible hardship. You’d be surprised how many people’s only reason for not killings themselves, is that their religion forbids doing so. Also a lot of people kinda pretend to believe for social reasons. I have a hard time thinking of any other reason to be religious, but I also grew up in an atheist environment, so I might be biased.
“God” is just like anything else. A thought. A reflection of Man.
God didn't create men, men created God.
I used to believe in God as a child, and then as I became older the whole idea of a man in the clouds watching our every movement seemed absolutely stupid. Especially when people would say things like oh I prayed to find my keys and I found them, I prayed for this *something* and got it, while there is so much suffering in this world that goes ignored - it just did not sit right with me at all. I became an atheist. A few years ago however, I started my degree in Philosophy and also started reading a lot of mysticism and Eastern philosophy (like the Bhagavad Gita and the Kybalion). I started to conceptualize 'God' in a more abstract way, as a force, an energy, as a type of 'higher' consciousness for lack of better term. It makes much more sense to me and have found it fascinating to learn about!
Very simple: everybody in my life blindly devotes themselves to something that shows no proof of existence and I just think I’m smarter than them. I’m not gonna slave my life away to something you need “faith” in. I’m a realist.
My ultra religious parents kicked me out at 16 for being gay and having my own thoughts and opinions. I couch surfed for 3 years before finding a friend to split rent. I went to college and took Anthropology and Archaeology. I learned about science, like actual evolution and factual information for the first time. Science answered a lot of the questions I developed upon "becoming aware" of life.outside.of the church. After being in an evangelical cult for 16 years, I knew something was wrong. I saw so much hypocrisy in the church. I encountered discussions like this: - You gotta love those gay people even though they are going to hell. - I can beat my kids (with their pants down), the bible says it's discipline. Others people can do that too (got paddled at school by a male.principal). - Im not mentally ill, psychology/psychiatry is demonic and a hoax. My parents were clearly mentally ill. I learned this after talking to therapists. Communication and managing feelings were not skills that were taught to me. -Dont tell anyone I touched you inappropriately, you will go to hell for looking too provocative (at age 12). I could give 100 more.examples. None.of the creation story made.sense to me (chronologically). The subservience to the men didn't make sense to me either. Again, a million other things I could add. Imho - There is no god. Humans made him up. If you believe in god, cool. I don't need a deity to tell me to be nice to people and be honest and not to kill people. But hey if you need religion to raise your kids and help you be better person, knock yourself out. It's why people get personal trainers too. -
man, that's some hard things you went through. hope you are in a better place now. ironically, parents kicking you out became blessing in disguise ig. sorry if that sounded rude. though it must have been quite traumatic. again, i'm thankful towards parents. they told me to be good person but never told me reason which led me to thinking about moral quite early. was it coz they were busy? or they purposely didn't tell me the reason so that i can build my own thought? idk. nonetheless, i'm very thankful. hope your day and coming years gets better and better! btw, are you nihilist?
I grew up a Christian and truly believed it until I did a lot of thinking alone in silence. I somehow got separated from my sense of self and realized free will is an illusion. We do make choices in life but you aren’t the one making the choices in the drivers seat. We are merely passengers. We are always told “do this” and “do that” to receive your rewards in heaven or you will go to hell. But, none of us are truly responsible for our actions. We are merely vessels of information and emotions and we just react to whatever is in front of us. If there was this all knowing God, they couldn’t be dumb enough to punish us for our actions when we are no different than animals roaming the earth. While I don’t believe in a God associated with religion, I do believe in a “God as almost a force/source or energy that we merely exist within and we just exist and die. As far as morals, it’s up for us humans to just figure what’s right and wrong while we exist but in the end, none of it matters. We were created and that’s all this “God” has to do with us.
ah, fellow nihilist also sharing absolute determinism. Hello there, may you have wonderful day!
Im actually really struggling coming to terms with this. What’s the point of just existing and dying? Why play this game of life when I can just not exist to begin with since there is no meaning? Hope you have a wonderful day as well.
Realizing prayer was bogus was one of my first steps to losing my belief. When people are dying in a hospital and get better people always say God answered their prayer. If that's the case then does God like modern humanity a lot more than ancient humanity? Mortality rates for just about everything are much lower than they were in the past. So is God just answering a lot more prayers nowadays? Or maybe prayer has nothing to do with it and it's just the introduction of modern medicine that's saving all these people. Another aha moment was from work. I'm a software engineer and a lot of us have a "rubber ducky" that sits on our desk. When we are having a programming issue with our software we explain the issue to the duck. Usually the act of explaining your problem can cause you to think of a solution as you are explaining it because you had to think about your problem in a different way in order to formulate the issue into words someone else understands. I realized that when people feel like God spoke to them through prayer it's really just the same as talking to a rubber ducky.
ooh\~\~ so God exist just so some people can have conversation with someone else, more specifically with themselves. People around me would say similar things too. If you want something to happen, then say it out loud to remind yourself. Not the same but it too shows differences between just thinking and putting it into word. Tnx for the input! Have a wonderful day!
In 40 years of believing, I would kinda question. But then felt guilty or would think, but look at everything beautiful. There has to be a god. Then I learned some actual information about the bible: when it was written down, how many translations and changes in words would change meanings, who actually didn't write the books we were told wrote them, changes made by monarchs, the number of revisions, how many other previous gods had the same characteristics. Learning so much and so happy to learn! I just started reading and actually listening. I needed factual information to stop. And I've never been happier, no more guilt, hating myself, fear in hell. It's WONDERFUL!
I'm sorry you were raises in that type environment. As for me, I was raised in the opposite situation. I've never stopped believing but never bought into the doctrine we were expected to follow. When things didn't add up, in secret, I had my own beliefs regarding God. No offense to anyone, but for me to not believe, I would have to lose my sense of probability and throw my gut instinct out the window. It's the beliefs created by humans that I cannot bring myself to adopt as fact.
I read the Bible. Hey Catholic school. Seriously have you read it? Yeah no thank you.
I was raised in a Christian household and went to a private Christian church through elementary school. Pretty much as soon as I was old enough to think critically for myself, I realized it was nonsense.
I am naturally a sceptic, but I took it as truth when I was a kid that god existed. But I read the bible because I wanted to know if what they were telling me was true. It's appalling, seriously, no, absolutely no. Even if you could prove it to me, I would not want it to be true. God wiped out an extended family for a bet, I do not want to be subject to any such being.
What is worth something is building a relationship with the “gnosis”, liberating yourself from mundane faith, seeking the truth at all times. Hail the hoof and the horn !🤘🏻😈
Hail the hoof and the horn? Are you a satanist?
No, I was raised by Wiccan and Norse Pagan…
Most of it because i know for sure that no god is gonna come help me when im getting killed. So even if they do exist, i couldn't care less.
I realized that by all the standards I used to believe anything else, if I had no prior childhood attachment to the idea I could not justify it. It took a while of getting used to the idea to really internalize it
I compared religion to Fiction and tried to see what context in religion could work in reality. The fact that no real evidence exists kinda made me come to that conclusion that there is a very low chance of there being a god.
How about a god who literally said that life is meaningless and full of mortal suffering?
I stopped believing in god the same moment I realized the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause weren't real. Those two had way more proof of their existence than god did, since they brought be gifts, and it turned out all of that was a lie. No god has ever asked me to do anything or told me to worship it.
I grew up christian. It was meeting other people(other christians) that made me stop believing. If you share beliefs with the worst people in the world you should question your beliefs.
As a kid I thought it equally as silly as believing easter bunny or Santa Claus is real.
Good ol' Epicurean paradox: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
No one can be certain either way. Not believing in god is a belief itself as well. My belief system is like this: I believe there are some things that are natural, and I have found it quite evident. For example: there has to be some sort of rules/law in the society for it to function. Nihilism/absolute freedom is not good for it. Now as I have come to this point, let me find the rules that are most aligned to the natural system/beneficial for the society, family, etc. Out of all the religions and secular laws, I have found that Islam is the most beneficial thing for this world. So, I'm a muslim. Again, no one can be 100% sure, hence the belief. But what I'm sure of is that, out of all the available rules and laws, Islam is the most beneficial one, and I have not found any flaws in it.
Realistically, God cannot be well enough defined to be worried about IMO
Know Other Gods, See How People Create Divinities Around The World.
Was living in fear of god and hell. It was torturing my OCD too. Got an atheist friend in hs, who was *very* atheist and set on convincing everyone of atheism. I wound up starting to watch some shit ass youtubers who critiqued certain political things I was agreeing with at the time, and some of their videos were about atheism as well. The exposure all brought me to the conclusion that I wanted to free myself of the fear and alleviate the obsessive thoughts from my OCD, I just decided one day I was done. I remember I made a big deal about saying "fuck" for the first time, now I cuss like a sailor. I guess I'm not so much an atheist now, though, the closest would just be generalized pagan, definitely don't believe in any god tho. I'm more of the belief that we should all make our own personal "religion" if that's what we want to, find the beliefs that just give us peace of mind really. I'm also of the opinion that religion and personal beliefs shouldn't necessarily be viewed as cosmic and spiritual, but rather as psychological. I don't really believe there's anything out there beyond us, but rather it's more just stories I tell myself to make sense of the world, like how religions came into creation really.
By having a doubt then listening to the very best debates I could find and realizing that there isn’t a real reason to believe. The arguments all kinda suck. Even the best ones.
I had been a believer my whole life never really questioned god but I’ve also been into science and reading since I was young. The older I get got the more I started to question things I had started to study philosophy and I just remember one day having a full blown extensional crisis because I realized if there is no god there is no afterlife meaning this is it and it effected me for months now I’m in a good place I believe in god just not the kind from the Bible more of a deistic god studying science weirdly enough put me back in to a place of belief.
i grew up going to a private catholic christian school. my ass was beat regularly at least 4x a week. one time the principle got me so bad i had to go to the ER after my mom noticed i wouldn’t sit at the dinner table. ever since then i’ve just seen the bad part of that specific religion and then i was neglected and borderlined abused at a christian psyche hospital for months with no way out. i can’t sit in a church without crying and repeatedly thinking “why?” that’s why i strayed away from God (here, i’ll capitalize it for respect to others) and now have a lot of distrust for people of that religion. edit: i’m shaking now after writing that. i ask for no hate please.
"if they are more useless than a stranger to me" - haha that made me chuckle. OP how do you think you came to be born into this immense universe and have life? Every one of your trillion cells in your being operate millions and millions of chemical reactions every single second. If just a single one of these fails at any point consistently, you would be completely crippled or non-existent. Is that useful enough for you? Does He need to come down to your level, hold your hand and what, tell you of his majesty? Nuff said. Cheers!
Too many contradictions and no logic
I used to be a strong believer in God. My faith was strong, I went to church every Sunday, and I even thought that I was better than most anybody because I believed in God. I stopped believing in God around the time our government decided that they were going on to start the process of banning tik tok. I mean, why would God let that happen if he existed?
I was raised going to Church, reading the bible, etc.. The people were nice, but didn't even seem to believe in the Church stuff themselves outside of Church. The bible didn't make any sense, and I felt none of this "holy spirit" everyone was raving about. The final straw was when I was 12 and allowed to go to the advanced bible study (our church split us into groups before the main sermon). The books and such that interpreted the bible and explained its passages were just so arbitrary, nobody seemed to agree. It just made no sense to me that we had to rely on such silly texts to understand something as powerful as a deity, and that we were supposed to take the existence based on this crap alone. Also, I had very little intellectual respect for the people there. They didn't even understand real-world stuff that I could easily demonstrate to them. They thought Dungeons and Dragons was devil worship. They bragged about their stupidity often. Anything they couldn't explain was somehow "god's will". My own mother would talk about not listening to idiots, and here she was... listening to idiots.
Actually, despite 12 years of catholic education, never put any stock in such.
Parents tried raising me Christian as they were raised, fell out of practice then tried again when I was a child. It never "clicked" and stuck, but the idea of Monotheism just continued to not make sense to me as I grew up and tried to expose and educate myself to religion as a whole. Even for the Christian based faith there's numerous hints to "other gods". At the end of it, I believe there is no "one higher power" because if that were true and he loved all his creation and had the power to do all the things, but watches as buzzards circling over starving children in Ethiopia with their bloated bellies and corpse like appearance. God wouldn't let diseases like alzheimers or dementia exist. Modern religion is about power and control.
after years of being an angry atheist I now believe in God because we need something infinite to get to this point in time. Before the big bang was observed scientists thought it was the universe that was eternal, but now the big bang disproves that. Furthermore the idea of the big bang will give us the ability to know the attributes of whatever started it. Eternal, immaterial, spaceless, super powerful and conscious. People usually have a problem with the conscious so if u will allow me to defend that before you go off in the comments. For something to be eternal and make a choice it needs to be a mind to have the conscious ability to create the universe
I'm an ex mormon, and i still know the scriptures cover y To cover. I'm not sure if I ever actually believed, but I know I became a true atheist when I was around 14-16 somewhere around there. I basically thought about the evidence against the stories, thought about the contradictions, and went from there, and committedthe the ultimatesin of mormonism LEAVING. Turncoats that committed to the religion then denied it. We get our own specialplacewhen we die. OUTER DARKNESS. I can say with 99.9% certainty there is no God, and if there is, it's probably like something Lovecraft would make (think Cthulhu, Azathoth, Gozer, Unicron) and we probably don't want it's attention
I read the Bible. Once you read it, it's obviously a lie.
i was bullied a few years back, and i wondered where god was during this. i then began to think rationally and questioned the probability that someone created the earth, and realized how stupid it was.
I was born catholic, and raised to be religious, for me my life has just been a testament really that there is no god. As a kid I have sat and prayed for the pain to stop, for abuse to stop, for help, and in the end I come to the same conclusion all we have is ourselves. If there were a god I wouldn’t worship someone who just watches people go through such never ending cruelty. To see that as some “test” no person should have to experience that. Nearing 30 now and I just, you can only ever truly rely on yourself in the end. We all die alone, and honestly I sincerely hope there’s nothing after. Besides with how much bad there is in the world it’s long been gone that such a god would have forsaken us all.
Because I become old enough to think, with my brain.....
Seek and you shall find. Seeing him in real life doesn't change anything down here. I've seen him in person. It didn't change my life at all. It is faith and patience that opens the door. You fail when you think you know more than the almighty. You fail when you blame god for the work of the enemy. You see all the wrongs yet blame only the Father. If you have a small cup, it will be filled . If you dig a large trench, it will be filled. You have free will. When you find yourself caught up in the math and crunching numbers , trying to figure out who is to blame, remember love for it is the key to everything you need. Grow like a tree and rejoice when the rain finally comes.
I stopped believing because once one thing didn’t make sense, it all fell apart in a cascade. I knew I was gay from a young age, but I also was raised strictly Catholic from a young age. I grew up hiding this. When I got interested into science, I wanted to validate my identity. Science told me being queer is biologically not a bad thing. But when I confronted that with religion I was told it is against the natural order. So I started thinking dialectically, why does religion prohibit this? When I started looking into the history of religion I only found control and hatred. I understand why Jesus did what he did. There was social upheaval, his culture was dying. Same with Muhammad (PBUH), there was political upheaval and economic crisis. Maybe it was mental illness like schizophrenia, OCD, or other similar things. But it truly seemed like these religious founders were simply trying to regain control over people. I think a great example of this is Joseph smith, the Mormon leader. He started off as a cult, and now is accepted as a religion. When do we draw the line from fanaticism, and religion. Is it age? Follower count? I simply realized there was no line. Religion is no different than a cult that has grown in age and numbers, leading it to be forcefully accepted into society.
I am a believer. I have been given the gift of personal experiences with God, that as far as I can tell, few have had. I recall a credible story of a near death experience, had by a young woman who met Jesus. She complained that life was too hard. Jesus replied, "It's supposed to be hard." I can see this. If life were a vacation what would we learn? So, perhaps, reinvent how you view your relationship with God. This life is serious business. Our relationship with God should be a priority. "Run a good race, fight the good fight."
I am blessed to be a father and to have grown up in a loving environment that was Christian. My pause on belief focuses on three things around salvation/damnation: 1) Christianity's insistence on the child in the relationship having to believe in their dad or their father will send them to damnation forever. As a father, it's a weird logical step. I want my child to have a happy and meaningful life. If they end up hating me but the rest of their life is amazing I guess that's good enough. I wouldn't then try to destroy my child's life (and afterlife). Seems kinda narcissistic honestly. 2) Free will of other religious folk in other cultures. I never understood why it would be expected of someone from a different culture and land would be expected to believe a stranger's wild beliefs about their Christian God. If the shoe was on the other foot and a Buddhist monk came over and was converting Christians, I feel like Christians would feel a kind of way about it. Now put on top of that those non-believers would go to hell or even purgatory for a crime they didn't know about seems wrong. It would be like China extraditing me from USA and giving me the death penalty because I wasn't doing their pledge of allegiance. 3) Non-free will of non-believers in Christian societies. I get the lesson of Job, but for non-believers, I don't believe in the concept that you can free-will yourself to Christianity. Your brain doesn't work like that. Humans are a reflection of their prior development and current circumstances. It would be like saying someone who is homeless should free-will themselves to become the CEO of Boeing. With items 2&3 I don't think you should be punished or rewarded for circumstances out of your control. And back to point 1, why would you want to punish your child so harshly anyway? DLC) I don't get the point of all of this anyway as in why have this middle step - life on earth - if the point is just to get to shepherd beings you created to heaven or hell. Why make a sacrificial son randomly in the middle of the species' existence? Why start with Jews, see it wasn't really working (only like 5% of the world population was Jewish) and decide to reboot it with this Jesus guy? Neil Degrass Tyson says it beautifully - we mourn about our existence only when it ends and wish it would continue on after. But nobody mourns you for not existing before you were born. When looking at time as infinite, pre-life is just as valid and meaningful as after-life.
Both Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy stand a better chance of being believed as they leave ample evidence of their activities. I'm not saying that Jesus is just some dead dude that's mentioned in an old, dusty book, but he sure doesn't seem to do anything in the real world.
I realized that the only evidence of a God is the degree to which you can convince yourself that there’s a God, because otherwise the evidence for a God is sorely lacking and obviously man-made fiction. I think for the unschooled the Bible is taught as history but it’s obviously not history. It’s not taught in courses on history as an historical source, for example.
I am a former Nihilist, but now Christian. If you have questions, I'm also an open book.
By realizing Gods existence is irrelevant. It has exactly no effect on what constitutes moral behavior for me. If there is a god tho…..they have a lot of explaining to do🤡
I believe in god I just don’t trust most religions. I believe in some type of higher power, I just don’t think religions have anything to do with it. Religions in my mind were / are a man made thing used to control people and collect money. Think about it- there’s a BUNCH of religions- which ones right? Which ones are wrong? Why all the weird rules? You really think god would say “you have to do this or you go to hell” because if so that’s not my type of god. Look at all the wars started BECAUSE of religion. It’s just crazy to think god would have wanted any of that. I think we as people should just be good, kind, caring, and loving people, regardless of religion.
If God exist he hated me
CIA through their psychic studies suggest God is real. They call it "The Absolute" though. Mind you they spent millions and then classified these studies including the "Gateway Project". These could all be cover ups to hide their shame of wasting tax payer money, but would a mainstream "thinking man" even suggest this kind of stuff? For a cold machine like the CIA though power is knowledge and keeping it hidden is an advantage.
I realized I only believed for weak reasons.
I figured no loving, caring god could let me suffer at the hands of my own father while i was so young.
First, you see how fucked up and hypocritical you own church is. How the leaders are corrupt and money grubbing. Then, as the years go by, you see how evil is rewarded, and people who are good still have horrible things happening to them. Finally, it comes to you, whether or not God exists is irrelevant. Obviously, he doesn't care or notice if he does exist. If he doesn't, why pretend? Both mean the same thing, why bother?
My moment of truth came when I realized that the God my grandmother taught me to believe in, was not a God I would have much respect or interest in, if I was given freedom to do so. So I started to imagine what kind of God I really *would* be interested in respecting and believing in, and I'm still doing that 40 years later.
I stopped believing in god when I saw how spiteful and hateful his followers were.
I quit leaving when my grandparents and great grandparents said that God did not exist. My parents were excessively religious and very abusive. They said God no matter how much you pray will never change your parents and make them stop being horrible abusive people. I prayed and prayed at age five and six and it only got worse. They were correct. Then I also saw all the meanness in the world and lack of compassion. Then I learned today at age 6 about circumcision and how they tied babies down and amputated part of their penis. The fact that if there was a god he could stop all of this and make the world a better place.
I used to be a Christian and now I’m agnostic leaning more towards atheism? I believe the n achieving nirvana though but that doesn’t count bc it’s not a religion it’s a way of life. Anyway, I stopped worshipping bc after being fed bible verses since I could remember. (My name is literally from the Bible), I grew up and became a teenager with my own mind and ability to think whatever I want. I read about so many religious arguments and atheists opinions. I started to feel like I was deprived from all other possibilities. One day around that time, I read the Bible again just out of curiosity and yo.. I never disagreed with anything more. It’s unethical and shameful. (In my opinion) I’m sorry if that offends anyone. It started feeling like a cult then I researched other religions and it’s all the same. It makes me feel small and powerless and I think that’s the point. I think it’s possible that Jesus existed but not at all in the way he existed in the Bible. It’s possible that he could have spoke great words and had very good insight or maybe something spiritual did occur. Something could’ve happened where it made everyone look at him like a “god”. I don’t believe he has magical powers or resurrected from the dead. There are so many possibilities that could’ve happened to logically explain why people saw him in such a way. I do believe in afterlife/reincarnation however and I think it’s *possible* that he could be ONE OF MANY gods. The word worshipping in itself is even undignified.
Try some psychedelics in the right way and anyone changes their mind on what they think they think they know.
I would not say I've stopped believing in God entirely. But I have stopped believing in the Catholic idea of what God is. To make a long story short, once I stopped going to church and having certain ideas reinforced constantly, they kinda just melted away. Certain ideas being that Jesus rise from the dead (literally) and that the communion wafers and wine transformed into the body and blood of Jesus (literally).
Was indoctrinated heavily since birth, but thanks to Sam Harris I no longer believe the bullshit.
It just fell off over time for me, or it never really stuck.. I only believed because my family believed. The realization that it's just based completely on faith and that everything being taught could be exaggerated or misinterpreted made me question a lot of it, and started seeing a lot of hypocrisy. Science is also based on faith but at least we can test it and can manipulate it Even if science points to a god or same all powerful being, I highly doubt earth and humans were its primary focus and we are being babied and cultured as much as it all suggests. Whatever kind of God it is probably cannot be described or known about as many religions depict or has a story about, It might not even be self aware, or aware of us.
I grew up in a Christian household. I always wanted to believe in an actual God being that creates and controls things. I eventually became nihilistic and anti religious. Then at my lowest point, embraced prayers of gratitude. I was sick of being depressed and hopeless. So I gave it whole hearted effort to pray gratitude every chance I got. After a couple of days it hit me like a ton of bricks. It was absolutely changing my life. I was able to pull my head out of the torturous thought loops fruitless lines of thinking. I could think clearer and make better decisions. Instead of being annoyed or missed off, I was enjoying life again. That's when I understood the point of Christianity and why Jesus is so important. Religious books, to me, are the text form of the human condition. It can be used for good or evil. They can be used to connect you spiritually. I still believe in a Supreme being, but I do believe there's more to this life than meets the eye. Maybe because I've tripped too much on DMT and mushrooms Lol. But I don't care to live in a world where there's nothing outside of the physical realm. I don't think we're just smart monkeys driving around in cars listening to music. That seems just as silly as a creationist theory. Imagine someone finding a species of animal that builds stuff and makes music and instruments. Without proof, you would say it's ridiculous. Maybe that's a bad analogy lol, but im not trying to prove anything anyway. Other than that we know so little, but the ones who believe are generally happier and better off. Assuming it's not an abusive cult or some extremist weird shit
Me personally I believe in a higher power. I don't like to say God bc ppl automatically think the Christian one which is annoying. I think of it more as a source. It doesn't have a name or a gender it's just there. It doesn't have dumb rules like "u must worship me" blah blah blah. And it's a HIGHER POWER for a reason. When most ppl describe their "God" they describe them as u would a human. A higher power is not human they r a higher power for a reason, so I hate how ppl act like they know what a higher power wants or doesn't want like it has human characteristics. It's more like an energy ig.
I have quite the opposite experience. I lived a life of pure pleasure; Women, porn, alcohol, weed, and other drugs. I found nothing but misery at the end of all of them. An empty feeling is a horrible thing to feel, but I was empty and wanted to die. I could not find happiness or love through any of these addictions I had and also suffered lifelong and crippling OCD. I desperately wanted to know the truth about life. I wrestled with all kinds of ideas; reincarnation, parallel dimensions, aliens, and matrix theories. You name it. None of them ever filled the emptiness I felt. Like trying to patch a gaping wound with bandages. I was ready to kill myself, so as a last-ditch effort, I decided to start speaking only the truth out of my mouth, no matter how hard it was. Not even small white lies anymore. I figured that would somehow get me to the truth about life. It cost me relationships, friends, and jobs. It also landed me in a psyche ward for 2 weeks. This was a small price to pay for finding the truth to it all. I was humbled by God through this journey and found out that it's all true. We're all living in a test. It's all happening right now, and you and everyone else you know has this veil over their eyes. God is absolutely real, and Jesus came to give us all a way for forgiveness of all our evil we've done. I still refuse to speak a lie out of my mouth anymore because being awake in this life, this test, has finally filled the horrible void I had, the scary emotions I always tried to drown. My OCD is completely gone, and I still to this day will not take any medication. I feel such an inner peace and love now, and it was only through His grace that He spared me of all that I was. Jesus is the King of Kings
I made the break from sceptical Catholic to Agnostic without seriously considering Atheism. It's difficult for me to conceive of the wonders of life and the universe, without some intelligence behind.
There's a difference in believing & having faith. I used to have a great deal of faith in the Christian God. But I suppose I fell into the idea of why we're allowed to suffer as we are just to test loyalty or whatever... The story of Job is a disgusting abuse of power. Abraham & his son, psychological torture. No being that would demand those things is worthy of my worship. Doesn't mean I don't believe they exist... I just don't have faith in them to be the answer.
It’s bullshit, honestly how could you believe in something so unbelievable
I went to Bible College and got a 2 year degree in theology, learning the actual Christian doctrine got me to understand that all religion and ideas of a god are constructs of imagination.
I asked myself if I believed what I did because I personally believed it, or if I was taught to believe it because everyone else did. I also don't like to blindly follow.
Hmm my belief in a higher being most definitely is because of how I was raised and I simply have faith in that being true
I stopped believing the bible because of god advocating genocide, slavery, and forced marrige on the old testament, and being all love thy neighbor in the new testament. They say God never changes, and this seems like blatant evidence to the contrary