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What eventually lead you to your non-belief in God?
- Thread starter doodlyy
- Start date
I guess I have always been an Atheist, although it took a while for me to fully accept that. The social pressure towards "believing in at least some kind of energy" is quite overwhelming.
This sounds about right. It wasn't one thing, but the accumulation of many things so that at some point, you just say to yourself "so why do I believe this again?". The original blow was also probably the biggest blow for me, and that was losing my faith in Christianity.
tomteapack
tomteapack
Well I grew up in a good protestant family, church-going, bible-believing and decent people. I attended Sunday school and all the other various church activities and they never made much sense. When I was around 9, I was removed from the Sunday school class and told I had to attend only with my parents from now on. The reason for that was that I kept questioning how the total murder of everyone in Jericho could be a good and godly thing.Just interested in things that may have lead people to stop believing in God (if they ever believed in a God in the first place). Wondered if there was a common denominator for people
For a few years I thought I might be an agnositc, until I learned that an agnostic was a person that questioned knowledge, and knew that I had no questions, that is was as obvious to me as the sun rising in the east that no god or gods exist--then I knew I was an athiest. That was about 60 years ago and I have never needed to reconsider.
Tor_Hershman
Member
Seeking the truth.
I began at age five after my father died and people told me, "God needed your father in heaven."
It took MANY years.
I began at age five after my father died and people told me, "God needed your father in heaven."
It took MANY years.
Found out Santa was not real and was just a lie to make kids behave, then questioned if God wasn't real and was just a lie to make adults behave.
I seem to grow more uncertain about everything the more I learn, even when it comes to science (I'm not at the level of the extreme post-positivists by any stretch of the imagination, but neither do I reject all of their criticisms). As for religion and the catholicism I was raised believing, I just gradually realized I don't have faith.Just interested in things that may have lead people to stop believing in God (if they ever believed in a God in the first place). Wondered if there was a common denominator for people
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
I decided to apply the label atheist when I realized that reality does not require god. In my worldview, if such a being is proven to exist, it's just icing on the existential cake. I know that I exist, but I'm no longer arrogant enough to tell people that I know "god" exists. So, I am an atheist because I can no longer support the various god concepts. Personally, I can hardly wait for the last person to put ideas of god in the dust, from which they arose and where they have belonged for far too long.
dyanaprajna2011
Dharmapala
To put it simply, there was no logic or reason in believing in any god. The Abrahamic god is too illogical to accept with a straight face. And the pagan gods were too human to take seriously. I spent 30 years as a Christian, and then converted to Buddhism, where religion and spirituality made more sense. It is spirituality from a more logical and rational standpoint, without all the superstitions.
Beren Erchamion
New Member
As a committed Christian, I was always troubled by the pull between the pietism of Paulinism and the universal love and brotherhood of the Christ. It was only after reading Tolstoy's writings on religion that it struck me that it was possible to separate the Christ's teachings from the Paulinist Church. I am not a Tolstoyan, of course; Tolstoyan remained a theist, and also identified the Christ with Jesus personally. I hold neither of those positions. But his thoughts on Paul were heavily influential in my own subsequent development.
To make a long story short, I eventually concluded that:
1. The Christ is independent of the person of Jesus; Jesus was not the Christ but only an imperfect manifestation of it; therefore
2. Christian teachings are not necessarily the same as the personal teachings of Jesus. Instead, we must use the teachings of Jesus and other Christ-seekers, along with the basic purpose of the Christ altogether (to save mankind) to tease out the actual teachings of the Christ; therefore
3. The Christ is but an ideal, an abstraction embodying the all the goodness of the Christ's teachings
4. The essence of those teachings is that the Christ saves us by showing us how to live without destroying ourselves, thus creating a better world on Earth
5. There is no evidence that supplications to a deity have actually helped to make a better world here on Earth, and plenty of evidence that those supplications have actually sucked time and effort away from activities that actually do make a better world here on Earth; therefore
6. Belief in a god is incompatible with Christianity.
Thus, I rejected god because I believe in the Christ's teachings.
To make a long story short, I eventually concluded that:
1. The Christ is independent of the person of Jesus; Jesus was not the Christ but only an imperfect manifestation of it; therefore
2. Christian teachings are not necessarily the same as the personal teachings of Jesus. Instead, we must use the teachings of Jesus and other Christ-seekers, along with the basic purpose of the Christ altogether (to save mankind) to tease out the actual teachings of the Christ; therefore
3. The Christ is but an ideal, an abstraction embodying the all the goodness of the Christ's teachings
4. The essence of those teachings is that the Christ saves us by showing us how to live without destroying ourselves, thus creating a better world on Earth
5. There is no evidence that supplications to a deity have actually helped to make a better world here on Earth, and plenty of evidence that those supplications have actually sucked time and effort away from activities that actually do make a better world here on Earth; therefore
6. Belief in a god is incompatible with Christianity.
Thus, I rejected god because I believe in the Christ's teachings.
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Ben Dhyan
Veteran Member
What eventually lead you to your non-belief in God?
Well one time I was wondering about question of God and it was as though my mind was suddenly being shared with some omniscient source. The conscious presence responded to my queries as they were being framed in my mind, which in no time at all (probably about five minutes), left me in such a state of awe concerning the actual reality of a non-material entity transcendent to the normal human senses that I have never since then need belief or faith in God,...I know!
It took place in a public area with people chatting around me and I did not lose my sense of being in normal time and space.
As a result of this experience, my life was never the same and my understanding has unfolded in time.
Fwiw, as to how such a process might occur, my own understanding is that God is just another name for the Cosmos, and the whole 'thing' works according to ever compensating cause and effect as in binary computer one and zero logic at the micro levels of zero point energy at infinitesimal wavelengths up to and beyond Planck length.
Which is supported by my own reflection on these sometimes spontaneous events as my mind goes into a state of quiescence and seems to be one with or in some sort of unified quantum expansion of consciousness.
Think of your conscious mind as normally being like a stand alone computer, and that the mental environment in which you function is a 'cloud' containing all the cosmic binary transactions relevant for a pure state of equilibrium, what happens if your mind could establish at the micro level the appropriate protocols for data exchange with it?
From a computational pov, your mind in effect becomes one with the 'cloud' and since the main purpose of that Cosmic computational process is to always change in a manner that mitigates against destabilizing the equilibrium, your mind becomes quiet and peaceful.
Some would call it a peace that passes understanding.
:namaste
Well one time I was wondering about question of God and it was as though my mind was suddenly being shared with some omniscient source. The conscious presence responded to my queries as they were being framed in my mind, which in no time at all (probably about five minutes), left me in such a state of awe concerning the actual reality of a non-material entity transcendent to the normal human senses that I have never since then need belief or faith in God,...I know!
It took place in a public area with people chatting around me and I did not lose my sense of being in normal time and space.
As a result of this experience, my life was never the same and my understanding has unfolded in time.
Fwiw, as to how such a process might occur, my own understanding is that God is just another name for the Cosmos, and the whole 'thing' works according to ever compensating cause and effect as in binary computer one and zero logic at the micro levels of zero point energy at infinitesimal wavelengths up to and beyond Planck length.
Which is supported by my own reflection on these sometimes spontaneous events as my mind goes into a state of quiescence and seems to be one with or in some sort of unified quantum expansion of consciousness.
Think of your conscious mind as normally being like a stand alone computer, and that the mental environment in which you function is a 'cloud' containing all the cosmic binary transactions relevant for a pure state of equilibrium, what happens if your mind could establish at the micro level the appropriate protocols for data exchange with it?
From a computational pov, your mind in effect becomes one with the 'cloud' and since the main purpose of that Cosmic computational process is to always change in a manner that mitigates against destabilizing the equilibrium, your mind becomes quiet and peaceful.
Some would call it a peace that passes understanding.
:namaste
LeannaBard
Agnostic Atheist
I wanted to know what kept atheists from believing in God (YHWH), so I read some atheist books and arguments in an attempt to see it from their perspective. I intended to find a refutation for their objections and arguments, and hopefully be prepared to convert any atheist who I talked to. Instead, I ralized that once I critically examined my beliefs the same way I would any other religion, I realized my beliefs were unjustified and rooted in false beliefs. Once I knew how unstrustworthy the history of the Bible was, read some of the comlpletely scientifically inaccurate parts of the Bible that I had ignored all my life, and paired those things with the complete lack of any evidence that could lead one to believe there was any creator in the first place, I didn't believe it anymore. I realized every argument I'd ever heard for God was fallacious. If I had a poster of every logical fallacy, I could easily stick every religious, apologetic argument on there somewhere, often in multuple categories. Until the day I find an argument that doesn't commit a fallacy, I cannot believe there is a God. I have no reason to believe it.
One day when I was like 8 or something, I was sitting in my room pondering my thoughts because I was bored. "Hmm, now that I think about it.. the whole idea of Santa doesn't exist, my parents even put their names on the presents! Well if Santa isn't real then God probably isn't real because I haven't seen him either!" Then I went to my Mom and asked her if God really existed, she said yes he does and I asked how does she know? Oh well you're supposed to have faith that he's there. At that point I was devastated that I found out Santa wasn't real and had lost my trust. Why would I have faith in God if I was supposed to have faith that Santa exists and found out he was just a lie? I told my Mom I didn't believe in god and she didn't really care so I went back to playing with Nintendo 64.
How did that go about? Did your balls drop one day and you just instantly thought "God isn't real!"?
Uberpod
Active Member
My brain grew and I had a new idol to worship.
What was the idol? Call of Duty and Mountain Dew?
Uberpod
Active Member
You ever try the combo? My status as a gentleman precludes me from revealing my idol.
Rick O'Shez
Irishman bouncing off walls
I was brought up as a Roman Catholic but realised at quite an early age that it just didn't make sense.
NewGuyOnTheBlock
Cult Survivor/Fundamentalist Pentecostal Apostate
I empathize fully. I find myself befuddled from time to time, realizing that many beliefs theists hold as truth, I once shared their beliefs; but for the life of me, I honestly can't remember how I believed! It totally mystifies me that I once did!
My journey began in 1988; but it wasn't until 2012 that I was finally able to remove the last remaining, lingering beliefs in superstitious nonsense. It started when I came to realize that I had a compulsive disorder that I had to address in my life. Prayer didn't make it go away. So I decided that I needed to do something, but God would help. Then I realized god wasn't helping, so I decided I would do what he wouldn't do, and he would do what I could not do. Then I realized he wasn't even doing that; but decided that him not helping me was making me a stronger person, so he was still taking care of me. Then I discovered, through a discussion with another, lies and fabrications taught me by doctrine. And my journey continued ... but the two key parts was failure of prayer and dishonesty of apologists.