Respectfully, why did you leave religion?

I think this is a rather interesting discussion, since it is culturally unexperienced by me.

I was born in a place where religious apathy, or lack of a god, is the norm. Here in Sweden, if one is religious, that is often frowned upon.

Indeed, for me it was the opposite! I was born without religion, was never taught religion, but then found it myself.

Interesting, interesting...

 

I can't help it lol, I am a philosopher by nature.

---------- Post added 3rd Aug 2015 at 04:45 AM ----------

Interesting indeed to see the contrast. Here in the UK it's not mainstream to be religious at least in my area. But it's only really frowned upon when you're a kid in school. That said I still believed in God, kind of , and went to church quite regularly, I enjoyed being involved in the ceremony until I was about 16. Then I became a self confessed heretic, although I wasn't Catholic. Eventually exploring several other faiths such as Wicca etc until I finally settled on atheism.

 

Because when I was like 9 at school they asked us to describe how we see God. I said he looks like a semi-transparent blue man in the sky, with a beard (like a hologram). Basically like a very old and wise grand-father. And they told me "No, God is not like that." That's the last time I remember imagining God...

 

I was baptised involuntarily, so technically I'm still a Catholic since I can't be bothered to 'unsubscribe', but I never saw any difference between the bible and the tales from Mother the Goose.

 

I was never really religious to begin with but when it came to shedding the last of any ridiculous supernatural beliefs I may have held, It's simple. You see, I care about what is real and true. As such, I came to the conclusion that there is no reason or evidence to support "any" religious claims and thus I wouldn't therefore be justified in believing them. I also realised that faith isn't a path to truth, and is little more than gullibility and so believing in anything on faith, is intellectually dishonest.

As such, I took the only intellectually honest direction I could and declared myself an atheist.

Happy days

 

Well at a young age, I prayed to God to take away my disability, the thing didn't work, so I just started to not care. That eventually led me to form my own beliefs just to experiment.

Really the only thing that stopped me from being atheist early was what happened after death. Being in the ground and being eaten by worms is not appealing in any way. But then I kinda looked at death properly and I just imagined it was like sleeping forever, so just blackness and that answered the death question and now I treat the Bible like Myths of Ancient Greece, as stories.

 

Growing up i was forced into Catholic School but not because of religion but for a good education. But my mom just kind of guessed that i would believe in god just like her, but sadly (for her), the scriptures shoved down my throat (and being told I'm going to hell with my growing lesbianism) from my teachers made me resent most if not all religious things, but now I'm studying buddhism and learning to accept myself

 

I love churches, they are so beautiful. And I sorta believe in a mightier God, but I didn't feel comfortable participating in the masses and being patronised by the community members. I've only frequented Protestant circles, though.

 

I gave it up because I never really thought that having a divine being(s) rule over all was a very substantial idea. My "religion" is science. I always thought it was fascinating how devoted people can be to an idea or belief or person that really can never be proven of existence.

 

I outgrew it when I turned 12. There hasn't been a single reason since then to come back to what I call "classical religions". Organized religion is particularly repulsive to me, I have more than enough brains to be able to think and make decisions for myself, I don't need someone to tell me what's right or wrong.

However, I think that we are all religious in one way or another, whether that is an amazement of the natural world, or the feeling of warmth from the belief that supernatural forces are watching over us, it is the same feeling. So, I have utmost respect and understanding for the people who are religious - strength and comfort must come from somewhere in one's life.

My problem is with the assholes and the bigots who think that religion allows them to tread on others.

 

I was raised in an extremely religious environment and, up until I was about 13 or 14, religion was a huge part of my identity as a person.
When I was about 14, I moved out of my religious father's house into a more open-minded environment with my mother. While she's still very religious, she understands that each person's beliefs are their own and she can't change that fact. She even encouraged me to learn about other religions and find my own truth in them or in none if that suited me.

At first, the idea of changing my religion or losing my faith sounded scary and even abhorrent. I couldn't let go of what God would think of me if I did something like that.

It wasn't until I went through the long, hard process of coming out to myself that I really began to question everything I had been taught my whole life. Through a lot of soul-searching and struggling, I realized that I don't believe in the Bible. At all. To me, there are just so many other religions and sub-religions or cults or even everyday things that people believe in but aren't actually the truth. There were suddenly just too many grey areas to truly stick to one, and I didn't, in fact, believe any of them.

I remember the week I came out to my friends as agnostic. They were all Atheists for the most part, so I knew they'd be supportive, but it was still stressful to admit that I wasn't as "devout" as they'd all been accustomed to me being.
I told them "Sometimes I feel like maybe God or the idea of a higher being is something someone made up to make themselves feel better because then at least they wouldn't be alone. Or they could 'give all their problems to God' so that they could let go of things in their lives. Maybe God is just a subconscious form of therapy that our minds revert to when we have nowhere else to go."
That was when I realized that I hadn't ever truly believed in God at all. Or at least not the God of the Bible.

I still question myself sometimes, and wonder if I'm really going to go to hell, or whatever the place is where terrible people go. And sometimes I just feel like a regular atheist, and that there's nothing after death so I better live my life the best I can while I'm here. So that's what I do. I continue living and learning and trying my hardest to make the world a better place for others to be in. Because what else can you do when death is such a mystery?
Thank you for reading, and have a beautiful day! ^_^

 

I was never religious when was member of the church, so I decided to leave the church. I my country you pay for the church tax automatically if you are a member of the chuch. I think that is wrong how the church is allowed to tax you straight from your pay check. No other organisation can do that. So I decided that if I wanted to give my money to some organisation, it should be something that I cared about.

 

My family were Wiccans, and I was raised as a Witch.

I simply no longer practice the religious aspects. Less of breaking away, more of disbelief in the "God and Goddess" concept.

I do believe everything has energy, and that energy is genderless. If I were to personify this, it would not be in the form of a man and a woman, rather, it would be in the form of a balanced being.

I suppose I could define myself as "spiritual but not religious".

 

To me i draw the difference between spiritual and religious here. All of us can have spiritual experiences But this doesn't require a God/God's. Nor indeed Anything incorporeal.

 

I discovered there was something wrong in catechism class in 8th grade. Lutheran. I asked questions and got answers that didn't make any sense. The one I love the most, "Well, it's a mystery, son."

So I began to search on my own and began to discover . There were a lot of dead ends but there were a few that hit the nail on the head for me, and it set me free.

I believe it's the dogma within organized religions that causes people to doubt and search elsewhere.