Respectfully, why did you leave religion?

I was literally raised by a bunch of brainwashing fundies, forced to do whatever the hell an invisible man in the sky wanted, but with no proof whatsoever. They had indoctrinated me so much as a child, and had me spewing hatred of anyone different at a rather young age. Eventually, around 7 or so years old I was told "There is no Santa, Easter bunny, tooth fairy, etc" But when I asked, "Is it because I can't see them? Is god fake too?" I was grounded and made to go to church more frequently, and not given any reason why I should believe in "God" but not "Santa". I began to question my own actions. My childish brain kept quiet. I had tried to force myself to believe for several years after. "It's just real because mommy and daddy say it is, they're grown-ups" I was practically raised to be "Jr Westboro Baptist" because it was "the right thing to do"

Around age 14, I had matured in some ways and grown worse in others. I was trying so hard to believe that it was hurting me and any reasonable person around me. I was trying so hard to be straight, and saying all sorts of vile things about lgbt people because I was raised to be that way. I eventually stopped for a moment and asked myself, "How is this justified? Why am I attacking people with no real proof that what they have done is wrong? how is it hurting anyone? Why am I hurting them?" Then, I had to look for proof. Despite being a Christian in the past, the church had skipped around in the Bible only reading portions of it.
When I sat down and actually started trying to read it cover to cover I was horrified. I tried to justify all the atrocities marked as "good" but it became harder and harder as I went along. Many things made absolutely no sense, and others were flat out disgusting (Justified rape and genocide) to the point that I had to put the book down. I couldn't read any more. Sure, when you skip over every 10 pages and pick out all the "super happy fun time" verses it seems like a wonderful fantasy, but when you actually sit down and look at all of the material that fantasy quickly becomes a nightmare. I went into denial. I began judging others harder and more frequently to make up for my questioning until eventually I stopped speaking to others. My mind had opened that night, and I had cried myself to sleep. I had stopped trying to suppress the feelings. Prayer did nothing. I asked him to reveal himself and tell me why he had done such things in the past. Nothing happened. I went into a depression. I had hurt many innocent people emotionally, attempted to deny my own sexuality, believed in an ancient fairy tale just because my parents told me to, and even then still pretended to believe. I pretended to believe it was still true so my own family wouldn't disown me as trash. My own family who had raised me from a child and told me "I love you" countless times would take it all back, just because one day I asked for proof of their claims. Now, only my mother and my grandmother speak to me, and when they do they make sure to question my lack of belief. They don't even take into account how said belief may have hurt me. "Faith is a good thing, and we use it to help people" "God loves you" Then I discover the internet and see fundamentalists like the Westboro Baptist strolling around with messages of hate, making innocent people feel worthless. I learn about the Crusades. The meaning behind the KKK. The killing of people in abortion clinics. Hate crimes in the name of religion. "We use it to help people" "God loves you"
At this point I absolutely require evidence, for me to somehow believe any, much less all of the atrocities in the bible and the modern messages of hate could possibly be moral and justified. The outlandish claims of things like Noah's ark become far less realistic than Lord of the Rings. There is more proof that bigfoot and UFOs exist that "God" exists and for some reason we're basing the treating it like solid unquestionable fact. We don't teach our children "Avoid standing near the woods, for Bigfoot may take you" so why are we teaching children "Never love someone of your same gender, God will hate you"
Look no further than the absurd claims of Leviticus to find the cherry-picking at it's finest.

The book is full of how you should "Tie them up and throw rocks at them until they die, burn them alive" for thinking differently than you. and somehow "Rape is a petty crime and should be ignored, focus on sexual acts people do in their own homes because that's a terrible and unforgiveable crime." paired up with the endless misogyny and reasons why "men are better than you", more atrocities and improvable claims. My family claims I cannot have morality without the bible and "God". I'd be better spending my time scanning Harry Potter for evidence and worshipping Lord Voldemort, Sauron, and Cthulhu looking to them for morality. At least they didn't go around torturing people endlessly for petty crimes, while justifying terrible acts. Some people call this hypocrisy "morality"...
It's nearly impossible to hold a public office as an atheist here in the united states, no matter how pure and accurate your claims may be. No matter what sort of good you wish to do, people will always vote for the one who believe he's being watched by an angry invisible man in the sky to make sure he doesn't commit any atrocities. Because committing atrocities is only moral and just when you're said invisible main in the sky. The icing on the cake is that people weaponize said beliefs and have made a secular government bend to its knees. "Under god" added to the pledge, "in god we trust" added to currency and license plates. It's nothing more than a hivemind, and they willingly compare themselves to sheep. The united states has done terrible things in its past, justified by Christianity. They're a bit better now that nobody is being hung for "witchcraft" and being themselves but they still have a long way to go. Many state governments, and the big government itself are refusing ant-hate crime laws, and protections because apparently one's belief in magic is more important than another's right to live in many cases. "Land of the free, home of the brave"
And that's from a government that was supposed to be secular. Just look at how terrible any full theocracy government ends up.

To this day, human stupidity remains unfathomable. I'm proud to at least have broken off a piece of it from myself and escaped the ignorance of the masses. I'm nowhere near perfect, and in no what claim to have the universe figured out, but at least I don't claim to.

Rant over. I know the fundies likely won't come here to read this but if I help anyone then I've done more than my job. Hopefully, I haven't offended anyone and if I have feel free to state why so I may correct myself.

 

It just sounded like a story to me, it always did, even when I was being raised Christian.

A wonderful, beautiful story about a man blessed with amazing powers, the sun of the creator, with 12 faithful friends following him on his travels, until, in a dramatic twist, one turns on him.

The same goes for all other religions. They are, to me, just the same as fairy tales. And what is the world without stories?

I considered religions that focus on improving oneself through kindness, rather than through a deity or deities, but eventually, I realised it wasn't for me.

I will continue to learn about religion, but I doubt it will ever be more to me than stories and culture.
They intrigue me, inspire me, and better my understanding of others, and is that not what religion should do?

Maybe one day, I'll change my mind, or when I die, it'll turn out I was wrong, but while I'm still alive and kicking, there are enough rules to life already without adding more.

 

A lot of people use religion as a means of seeking solace. For me, it didn't really work, so I stopped following it.

 

I became an Atheist back around when I was 13. Back then, I was constantly trying to force myself into this image of what Christianity thought was "perfect". I kept beating myself up, trying to believe in god and be the best Christian I could. I kept saying to myself "I'll do better, for god". I couldn't bring myself to believe in god, the idea seemed ridiculous to me. I couldn't understand why anyone would believe in god, with no proof besides a book.

So I gave up on it, I stopped being a Christian, and stopped thinking about religion. I feel that since then I've become a much better person. I remember as a Christian, I told my friend he was going to hell because he didn't believe in god, and I regret that even to this day. I've stopped judging people based on their religion. Why should I care? As long as they're a good person, it's none of my business what they believe in.

 

Yup, same thing for me.

 

My first reason in why was rooted in contradictions and how anti-science it was. I couldn't wrap my mind around how willfully ignorant some people could be to something that's right in front of them.

My second (and main reason) was because of the morality plotholes too many faith based systems have. There's a lot of them, but a few are the common ones people bring up;

- Letting bad things happen to good people.
- How god will answer the trivial prayers of materialistic people, yet brush off the ones of those who are poor, abused, sick, and dying.
- How god is all-loving, yet commands the deaths of innocent people and promotes bigotry, sexism and overall hate, and how they seem perfectly fine with letting their followers treat people like shit in their name.
- How you could be the most selfless, thoughtful, and caring person in the world and still burn in hell for eternity because you didn't worship a certain deity hard enough or at all.

I left Christianity because I in good conscious couldn't continue to be apart of a system that hurts people, especially when too many people only label themselves as such or force themselves to out of fear of eternal punishment. I also felt no reason to continue believing in something that demands that I die for being me, and lets people get away with murdering people in my community.

 

I'm still christian, but I left church because it was damaging me more than it was helping me. People can just be so horrible...

 

I've come to stop thinking of myself as Christian simply because I couldn't find any truth in believing in a god. That an objective meaning of everything, governed by an omniscient and perhaps omnipotent being might exist has ceased to resonate with me at all.

In the words of Camus, we must open ourselves to the tender indifference of the world and the sense of isolation that brings, to truly find our place within it.

 

I detach myself from all religion because several things :

1. Although they may believe that the holy scripture is a direct word from god but the interpreter is still human that might make mistake or alter something just for their convenience and not for others.

2. They use religion as their moral conviction to discriminate and treating other people like crap just because they are different or have a different beliefs.

3. Most religion have hard liners, fanatic believers and extremist. Sometimes there are multiple group in a single religion. All of them claimed to be the right one/have done the right thing. But most of the things i see is they actually do a lot worse to humanity than the "normal" religious people do. Doesn't all religion teach respect, kindness and love? where did that go?

that's the top 3 that pops into my head

i remembered a good word from tumblr (or somewhere?)
Religion is like a d:***:ck
Its okay to have one and proud of it
But please dont whip it out in public and wave it around or shove it down my throat

 

Never made sense to me.

 

I've never had a religion, and I've been disgusted by it ever since the moment I discovered its existence.

 

LOL. :lol:

 

I have trouble believing in things I can't prove or at least rationalize. Once I stop believing something it is impossible to change my mind on it unless there is solid proof.

Because of that I would be unable to follow any religion that operates on faith alone.

 

I think it's a mixture of a few different reasons.

- Even when I was an Evangelical Christian and Liberal Christian when I was growing up, I held some very Atheistic views about religion that made me a bit of an oddity. I was one of the kids who read the Bible three or four times a week, and some of the stories in the Bible (Genesis, Noah's Ark, Jonah being swallowed whole by a fish and living in its stomach for three days, people living well into their 600s and 700s in the Bible, etc.) did not make sense to me at all, and I frankly thought of many of them as just stories or fables. I also believed at least in part the Darwinian theory of evolution, and believed that prayer did not work as a way to talk to God.

- I always grew up questioning things. I would question religious people for example why they thought being gay was wrong, and when they didn't come up with a logical answer, I didn't subscribe to those viewpoints.

- My parents were very open to me questioning my own beliefs, so I was also provided an environment that was conducive to being able to lose religion easier.

- The Internet was also another tool I used to my advantage, because one can simply go to a site like the Skeptic's Annotated Bible or some scientific site and I concluded that many religious fables (not just those in Christianity) are tall tales. I also got to talk to people who were actually Atheist for the first time on the internet, and I remember when I was around 14, their views made a lot more sense to me than religious ones. I think I was a still too afraid at that point to identify as an Atheist at that point, so I think I identified as a Deist for one year or two, then I identified as a strict Agnostic up until I was 17, and then I finally opened up and was able to call myself an Atheist for the first time.

- Honestly, the faith aspect to most religions also made me a bit skeptical.

I don't even consider myself a gnostic Atheist, because I don't think anyone can really know for sure with 100% certainty what lies ahead after we pass on. So I consider myself an Agnostic Atheist, and think that is where I belong best on the theological belief scale. I still find it healthy to question one's beliefs no matter how set you are in them, and I have questioned my beliefs even in the past year and I still come to the conclusion I came to last Summer: that I personally do not believe in a God or deity.

 

This Mostly.

 

In a nutshell, I was raised a fundamentalist Christian. Everyone that I knew thought the same way, and absolutely no one questioned it. In fact, questioning it seemed like and felt like insanity. I couldn't picture a world without a God--it would have been like trying to envision the Earth without an atmosphere.

Obviously, I was indoctrinated with all the anti-gay Christian bullshit. This made my life miserable and drove me to attempt suicide. Thankfully, shortly after that suicide attempt, I had reached out to someone I had met online. I had not long gotten access to the internet for the first time--I was just several months away from turning eighteen. He was a guy in his late 70's, and he had spent his entire life in the closet. He was widowed, living alone, his children fully grown and living their own lives. He was like a surrogate long distance father to me for awhile, helping me realize that I wasn't alone and that there was nothing wrong with me. I was so indoctrinated, I struggled to believe the last point. However, the not being alone... that made it more bearable, so I was able to live.

I realized that I had to get answers. Since the Bible had been used as a weapon against me, I had to understand the Bible better than anyone else I knew. I had to really read it to find THE TRUTH. That is what I wanted. I wanted to know the truth, whether or not the Christian God really did hate gay people. After all, I had grown up being taught that AIDS was God's vengeance on homosexuals and other deviants. We had prayed for AIDS to spread "so that God's will may be done." I believed that God was going to curse me with AIDS, and that when I got sick everyone would know my secret.

I read the Bible in a way that I had never done before. First, I didn't have someone standing over my shoulder telling me how to interpret what I was reading. Second, I wasn't reading selectively. I was actually reading things from cover to cover. This caused me to come face to face with the horrible atrocities in the Bible, the things that legitimize fucked up people like ISIS and the Taliban. They may be Muslim, but all the same shit is in the Christian Bible as well.

As I was brought up to believe God hated people like myself, seeing this destroyed my belief in God. I was brought up to believe that God was supposedly this all loving being, but what I was reading contradicted that bullshit lie. The Christian God was clearly a sick and perverted monster, that even if it truly existed deserved nothing but to be utterly destroyed. Worshiping it would inevitably lead people to become sick, twisted, and evil.

My faith was shattered. However, I panicked. I simply couldn't imagine a world without a God in it. I experienced a full on existential crisis. My entire understanding of the world, who I was, my place in it... my values... everything. It was destroyed. I realized that if God didn't exist, that being gay couldn't be wrong, and that everything I had been taught was a lie. I experienced a horrible revelation, realizing how much I had suffered at the hands of Christians. How I had been lied to by them, how I had been abused by them, how I had my childhood destroyed by them.

In the moment I ceased believing in God, the person that I once was died. Everything he believed, everything he stood for, who he was, his purpose in the world... it was dead. The kernel of who I'd ultimately become was planted in that corpse, and I entered into full out rebellion against Christianity.

In the beginning, my existential crisis led me to go religion shopping. I was trying to find a way to plug the "God Hole" in my thinking. However, every religion I investigated sounded as ridiculous or worse than Christianity. That's when I fell into the New Atheist Movement. Christopher Hitchens especially spoke to me. This also began my interest in science, something that had been discouraged when I was growing up. I didn't really know anything about evolution. I had been taught that the dinosaurs weren't real after a school trip to the Science Museum. The dinosaur bones, I was taught, were buried by the devil to confuse people. I was really curious about the dinosaurs and that is how that curiosity was discouraged, all because--though I didn't understand it at the time--the dinosaur bones contradicted the age of the Earth believed by Christians. The dinosaur bones having been left millions of years ago, meanwhile, the Earth only being roughly 10,000 years old according to the Christian Bible. Well, something had to give, and it meant the bones were just an evil trick by Satan to confuse people.

It took me years and years to actually deprogram myself, the same way people have to be deprogrammed after leaving any other cult. Then I had to slowly begin to reconstruct my identity. I had lost everything regarding my old identity, which was deeply rooted in Christian thinking. I really can't describe to someone what that is like--to essentially have your identity erased, and to have to slowly find ways to re-construct yourself. However, I did it successfully.

It took me years upon years to get to where I am today. When I arrived at EC, I was dealing with the tail end of that process. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was eventually diagnosed with PTSD. This had come about as a result of my experiences within Christianity, literally the years I spent planning out my suicide over and over again in preparation for the day that I realized I had AIDS. Because I couldn't bare the shame of anyone knowing that I was gay, I had to be prepared to take my life at a moments notice. It fucked me up in the head really bad. I spent years in therapy working on it, dealing with all the psychological fall out of being raised the way that I was raised... well, at least today my life is heading in a really positive direction.

Today, I can say with confidence that I am proud to be alive. I am truly happy with my life and the direction it is heading. I am proud of the person I've become, and the challenges that I've overcome. When I look back at who I was when I was a Christian, I do not recognize that person. It is someone completely different from the person I am today. He could have never envisioned the person that he would ultimately become, and I would change nothing about the decisions that I made.

Losing my faith and leaving behind religion was the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life. I would not change it for anything in the world.

 

I was in a cult, I learned it was a cult, left said cult.

 

A lot of reasons. Mainly because I couldn't find a religion that you couldn't punch holes into. I do retain a spirituality though, I like the concept of energy and the circle of life. But some god(s) up in the sky? No way.

At the end of the day, I don't care what you believe. But my tolerance to you using your religion as a shield to be a prick is very low. I don't care what your 'god' says for you to do, you need to take the fallout for your own actions and their consequences. Likewise shoving your religion down my throat is not something I am here for.

 

By the age of 14 I was questioning everything was especially rebellious in my thoughts about religion having gone to a Catholic school. The final push was seeing George Carlin's religion is bullshit around that time. I was sort of "almost agnostic" with slight beliefs in religion until about 18-19 when I discovered Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. For several years, religion was a non-thing for me then I went through a major atheistic phrase.

Today I'm still basically an atheist and religion really isn't on my radar. Give what Christianity teaches about homosexuality, I'm not clamoring to go back. Though joining the choir in a church would probably do wonders for my vocal chops