People who used to be religious but no longer are, what made you change?

167

I realized that I had no reason to believe apart from being told it was true from childhood, and that’s a terrible reason.

91

u/LadyoftheFjords 22d ago

Started learning about cults, saw a lot of similarities.

72

u/AMarmaladeSandwich 22d ago

I got my first job, and instead of congratulating me, my loving, Godly friends immediately said I had to pay tithe or leave the church. So I left.

52

u/PaperbackBuddha 22d ago

Really, I just started asking questions. And not settling for the pat answers.

Finally reached a point where I realized that besides the “love each other” part, none of it made any sense. We have innate morality and don’t require supernatural beliefs to enact them.

40

u/PayMeInPetals 22d ago

Being forced into it. My mom forced me to get confirmed at church when I was 13. I had to take vows I did not understand in order to "save my soul". You get a big party and new clothes as a bribe if you go through with it. I stopped going to church after all that. I realised I made the right choice after I had my daughter 3 years ago and my mom called me a Satanist for refusing to have my kid baptised.

40

u/Nobody-17 22d ago

I noticed how god was never been there unless something good happened, but when you get sexually assaulted and bullied it's suddenly something you did wrong, even though i was deeply brain washed i felt discussed because i thought we should throw gay people from high mountain, it just felt wrong even though i believed that God knows better.

One day i started reading from non religious people and from the first time it felt right, and made alot of sense and the rest is history, once you remove god from the equation, most religions have no ethics and questionable morals hiding behind few versus about peace.

35

u/Ask_me_4_a_story 22d ago

Believe it or not Donald Trump had a big influence on my religion. I always thought religious people are good and moral and they use religion for good. But then I saw how easy he manipulated religion for evil and it opened my eyes. If you watch a show called Explained on Netlfix about Monarchs its the same thing. The monarchs were desperate to stay in power and many of them were cruel and awful, it would be easy to overthrow one family. But they had everyone convinced there was a God who put only their family in power and this was happening all over the world. Its easy to use religion to manipulate people into believing you are the chosen one. If Donald Trump could do it, anyone could do it. I looked around and saw how religious leaders used it to manipulate young people to have sex with them and politicians could use it to manipulate people to vote for them, it seems like religion is a tool for the powerful and not a way to live your life.

89

u/Buwaro 22d ago

Actually reading the bible without the translation/cherry picking of the "good parts" of scripture from my pastor. It started with doubt and wanting to leave Christianity which was met with confusion and anger by anyone else part of the church. None of my questions could be met with real answers past "God works in mysterious ways." or "Doubting the word of God is the work of the devil." or some other form of "Just follow and don't question things."

This all lead to Agnosticism and eventually full blown Atheism. Most people in the church have absolutely no idea how to respond to someone thinking about leaving the church or questioning their faith because they would never think to do such a thing.

67

u/Notfakou 22d ago

Realized no one was there when I needed help the most.

71

u/not-me-but 22d ago

when i had first gotten ill with a chronic illness, i sought out god for help and remission. i was in relentless pain. he never answered despite my prayers each day and night, so i gave up. i was hopeless, and i turned towards myself for healing rather than some imaginary overlord. i am doing better now without religion, and i find myself more free and less stressed.

19

u/Dangerous_Effort3355 22d ago

I realized I didn’t actually believe any of the things I was being told. I would recite bible verses for candy and sing songs that had been drilled into my brain since childhood. My church was just a bunch of fear mongering hypocrites.

56

u/Hobo-King-Niklz 22d ago

I just started asking for proof. None of it holds up to even light scrutiny. The fedora euphoria meme is used to disincentivize that kind of thinking but it's blatant, no proof is ever shown of anything religions teach being true.

55

u/timeturnsintoplastic 22d ago

I was raised Catholic. Went to catholic schools. Even was an altar boy. The hypocrisy of all the extremely religious people in my family sparked my departure. Although they attend mass and preach about their faith, they don't "walk the walk". It is appalling how racist, divisive, unaccepting, and misogynistic they really are. To that, the horrible crimes committed by Catholic clergy over so many years is almost unbelievable. I have a science background. The history of the universe and evolution make sense to me. What does not make sense is no women priests, the long history of corruption of the Vatican, pedophile priests, inconsistencies of the Bible, self-righteous people that consider themselves choosen, the Israel-Palastine conflict, Sharia Law, and all the violence and people that have needlessly lost their lives over hundreds, thousands of years in the name of religion. For me, religion is a man-made construct fabricated to answer questions of the unknown.

45

u/Satanus616 22d ago

Grew up Mormon and everyone made fun of my "silly" religion. Made me think hard about my beliefs. I came to the conclusion that everyone's religion is just as "silly". Mine just appeared later.

14

u/funkyjunkiee 22d ago edited 22d ago

I went to church ever since I was a kid, growing up in Alabama you're kind of forced to go. But around age 12 I thought it was bullshit to have to wake up early every Sunday for this. That's when it started, and then I just kept asking myself questions. And then someone showed me a picture of a child with Harlequins disease, and I thought that God is an asshole if he let's children be born that way.

I'm not an atheist, I just believe that no one for sure knows and never will, so I just don't bother myself with it. I guess if I had to pick, I'm agnostic.

Edit: typo

14

u/john5427 22d ago edited 22d ago

I changed when I was around 7-9 because I always thought to myself what does doing this prayer accomplish? And my mother kept telling me everything I have is because of god so I just didn't pray for a long time and nothing changed so I just stopped and pretended to do it, I later realized how much restrictions I had in my life, I had to pray every 2 hours or something 5 times a day which meant I couldn't sleep well, I had to wake up at 3-4am for fajr prayer, I couldn't eat with my left hand even though iam left handed, I couldn't sleep facing down, women had to wear alot of clothing throughout the year even in summer where temperatures reach around 40C and my mother would always be sweating and dying of heat while men wear normal clothes, women are also heavily encouraged not to get jobs so they don't work with men, music is also not allowed so I couldn't listen to music or learn an instrument, also had to say alot if prayers 2 times every single day that took around 20 minutes to say all of them (some of them have to be repeated 100 times) and generally felt like I had no free time to practice my favourite hobbies ,one time my father said his hard work finally paid off in his job and so my mother got angry and said he did nothing and it was all gods doing, seeing religious practices through an unbiased view really makes you wonder, why? Why do people have to fight wars and restrict their lives Just for some religion they never chose to enter?

40

u/-Kobart- 22d ago

I realized I was gay and decided not to spend my life hating myself

13

u/TetriumSoul 22d ago

lots of things led up to the change, but it all culminated with the realization that religions are all invented by people. no matter what their intentions or what good their group does, it's still just ordinary people with no "divine being" to ever back up anything they preach.

we don't need a "God" to be kind to each other, and if supernatural rewards or punishments are your only motivations to treat others with common decency, then you need to reevaluate your life.

and don't get me started on how utterly useless and contradictory all the various claims about the "afterlife" are. even people who were legally dead and then brought back to life can't seriously be considered as reliable witnesses. brains and consciousness are complex and still not close to being understood. it is detrimental to assume that those experiences mean anything more than a bad trip on drugs.

people want to believe all sorts of things about life and the universe, which is exactly why we need to be even more skeptical of our own subjective experiences and use the scientific method to test reality against our biases.

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u/Pastaybasta 22d ago edited 22d ago

1 - That anyone LGBT+ is taught to hate and self-loathe.

2- The condoned raping of children by priests.

3 - The kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of Indigenous children, and not even having the empathy to let their parents know they had died and been buried in an unmarked grave in the yard like an animal.

10

u/ozzie1985 22d ago

Donald Trump and every fucking religious conservative who was willing to excuse his behaviors and business practices because he was good for the country.

10

u/FourFurryCats 22d ago

For me, it came down to this:

“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

9

u/moonkatfrog 22d ago

Ex-christian, now atheist here! I realized I didn't actually believe in God, I was just hiding behind religion because of fear, I wanted to feel like nothing was my fault it was god who made me do it, I used to go to church every day, pray every night and spray myself with holy water before I went to bed etc, so I guess what made me change was... overcoming my fears and loving myself :)

39

u/Speak_Of_The_Devil 22d ago

When you start looking at it objectively, it becomes very illogical. Consider the Holy Communion for a second. The priest takes bread and wine and transubstantiationize it into the literal flesh and blood of a god. And what do you do with the literal body and blood of Christ? You eat it. Like zombies, you eat your God's body and drink its blood. And like the curse of Prometheus, this action is repeated every seven days... How is that not demonic?

7

u/YouveBeanReported 22d ago edited 22d ago

TLDR: I want to make the world better. Not worse. Also I was that annoying kid who said why consantly.

So, part of catechism classes is about helping people, usually by volenteering.

Being about 13, this was hard to set up and the church did not have any options through them.

A big thing I noticed while trying to set this up was we absolutely refused to help. The church actively worked harder to exclude people, hurt them and kick them when they were down. We had after church coffee sure, but only proper Catholics were allowed not those unmentionables who probably needed food and coffee. People who had families struggling were mocked and belittled, not helped. Set up a protest against gay marriage our church could do, but allow anyone in who didn't look right, offer rides, food, comfort? Treat anyone as human? There was nothing. Just bible study and occasionally patting on the back.

And this was the better church we switched to!

Another part is I was only allowed to write about female saints for my final project and I thought that was dumb and sexist. And then got told off again for cross-referencing multiple books. It was probably for someone not being Catholic but to a hyper focused on spite writting the best Joan of Arc essay ever, it came across as we don't care what happened or the history of this narrative, just say what we want you to say.

I did eventually get talked to by the priest, who explained this was an expectation and how things worked. He was adamant God did help, but didn't seem to understand my complaint of basiclly that doesn't mean we should stop helping.

I ended up telling my family I wasn't going through Confirmation. I would finish the class, but I didn't feel like commiting to the church when it did not match my beliefs. Everyone was pissed becuase I wasn't following along, not so much religion just they had bought presents and expected cake.

My Mom gave me an ultimatum to look at other religions until I was 18, I wasn't allowed to be non-religious. So I talked to friends, went to some other churches and temples, bought books, looked up religions I was banned from understanding out of spite and got a brief overview.

( Not surprisingly, this annoyed my extended family even more but at that point I'd already become obviously some kinda heretic for believing birth control bends was good. )

So basiclly my idea of what made a good church was more inline with tikkun olam in Judaism. And Catholics do not like the implication you gotta do stuff. Or questions for that matter.

I'm unsure if God exists but I doubt that it matters. If he does, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to punch him. We are here, and have an obligation to each other to support each other and be kind because the world is not. I don't need contradictory dogma for that.

7

u/Solon1212 22d ago

Honestly I just didn't really care for my religion. I stopped being religious when I found out it was against the LGBTQ+. (Im straight)

5

u/pinktaco71 22d ago

Rape

6

u/oisinuresmaher 22d ago

I've always questioned God, and Ireland is/was quite a Christian country, so I made my communion for the sake of the 6 or 700 euro you can get and not having the argument, that's it. When I got to 6th class and was meant to make my confirmation, it seemed to be way too much effort for the money. I told my great nanny that I didn't believe in god (she's extremely religious) and she wasn't happy. Nothing made me stop believing it, apart from my 7 year old self thought it was was all bs

6

u/Rem9612 22d ago

It was shoved down my throat growing up and when I started to question things it was shoved harder. I didn’t like most of the people at my church or other churches they were extremely rude and thought they were better than everyone because of what they believed. I completely dipped out of the church and religion before I truly knew if I believed it or not and took time on my own to figure it out and just realized I never believed it to begin with. Also no one was there to help when me and my family needed it.

5

u/Renmauzuo 22d ago

I grew out of it. Realized I was only religious because it's how I was raised, but when I actually thought about it none of it made sense.

5

u/gaylurking 22d ago

It’s the religious trauma :)

5

u/flpacsnr 22d ago

I was through my childhood, but around 18 I realized how hypocritical many of the Christians at my church were. The big thing was I don’t want to worship a god that sends good people to hell because they don’t believe in him and vice versa. Currently agnostic.

4

u/Meinakookie 22d ago

I still believe in god but I’m gay and don’t wanna hate myself so yeah

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u/Practical_Strategy_1 22d ago

Being forced into it from a young age, insanely religious people around me that didn’t follow a single teaching, and got no answers to the questions I asked besides “stop asking and just obey” in various colours.

4

u/MisanthropeAtbest 22d ago

At some point I faced the fact that I couldn't reconcile science and religion.

3

u/Comissar_Svetlana 22d ago

Orthodoxy was shoved down my throat back in the 90s, When I needed help god was never there, after that I realized how many crimes were committed in the name of god during the war and after that I just stopped believing.

5

u/usuallydead404 22d ago

Prayer doesn't work.

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u/Midas-and-his-finger 22d ago

It was a combination of things. I suffered from major depressive disorder and anxiety from a kid until now. I was constantly asking god for help but things never got better. I kept seeing how religion was being used to hate and kill. I was catholic and my wife was mormon and we decided to let our kids decide if they wanted to get baptized when they got older. I got tired of people telling me that since my kids weren't baptized, they would go to hell if they died. Why would I worship anything that would do that. Oh and there is no way Noah got all those damn animals on the arc.

4

u/squatgoals9 22d ago

Went to church every Sunday with the family. Starting at age 12, I used to pray to God every Sunday to make me straight/send a guy I could meet and marry one day. God didn't answer my prayers.

4

u/LilLostPuppy 22d ago

I hated how cherry picked the bible is by so many christians, I've seen so much hate towards atheists, I just don't feel like I want to worship something with no proof

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u/user1284618871 22d ago

grew up in the catholic church the minute I was born. church every Sunday and Wednesday (perks of catholic school), the works. my mom always gaslit me into going with her. i was diagnosed with depression and anxiety in middle school, but she always dismissed it and told me I needed to pray. never got therapy or meds because of my mothers view on mental health. this fucked me up, because no one was there to help me - not even god. starting losing faith early on after questioning a lot of shit. i was forced into being confirmed. there was a time she tried to wake me up for church one morning and I had been up pretty late the night prior, so it made sense I was still in deep sleep. I woke up to her crying and going through my closet, finding clothes for me, and throwing them on my bed telling me I better wear it and join her or shes taking my phone. i didn't want to go, but I guess she couldn't accept it. my religious experience was kind of traumatic for me. glad i left and realized how fucked up everything was.

4

u/GroundWarrior1984 22d ago

Education. I was so devout and caught up in Christianity that I majored in practical theology and planned on becoming a pastor. Somewhere along the way, I had to take a course on world religions. It’s there that I realized Christianity was just a carbon copy of other religions. They are all pretty similar and are all used as a way to control the less educated populous. I am convinced that if my education had not turned me away from it, the people would have. I have never experienced such a staggering amount of hypocrisy as I did when I was involved with the church. Having said all that, I get why some people need it. I envy them. Everything is black and white.

3

u/DogLegJournalist 22d ago

r/exjw freed my mind from the matrix. I don't sub anymore, but I will always have fond memories of my awakening.

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u/WaterCluster 22d ago

I read the book Ordinary Men at the age of 20. A god who is both good and powerful can’t exist in the same universe as the Holocaust or kids with cancer.

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u/calmhike 22d ago

Listening to an entire sermon on how I am incapable of doing things because I am a woman. Literally, God says you can’t lead, preach etc. It went on to be a fair bit of the preachers personal opinion too. The juxtaposition of that and being raised by my father to be independent, outspoken and strong willed was the final push for me. I went with my family until I moved out but I no longer found comfort in it.

3

u/SqueezleStew 22d ago

Fellow Christians.

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u/Sardonnicus 22d ago

I grew up as a Nazarene christian and over the years I came to realize it was nothing but shit and a scape-goat religion which gave its followers a loop-hole to do whatever they wanted.

My maternal grandparents were preachers in the midwest bible belt. They were heavily into the belief that the rapture was going to happen "any day." Jesus was coming and boy... he was pissed at everyone because we didn't pray enough. My siblings and I used to get "rapture" themed birthday cards from them with pamphlets about what to do to prepare your soul for the rapture.

They came to visit us once and we went to the Holocaust Museum in Wash, DC. They got removed by security for telling multiple people that "The jews got what they deserved because they don't believe jesus is the son of god."

Fast forward about 15 years, my grandfather had passed away a few years earlier, and my parents are in the process of getting a divorce. My brother then suddenly passes away at the same time. At the funeral my grandmother says to my mother: "jesus called your son to heaven as a message to you that divorcing your husband is wrong." Well... that was the last straw. I lost it. I got up, screamed in her face about what a fucking piece of shit she was and that she used the bible to intimidate and control people and that I would never forgive her for saying what she did. She was about 70 years old when this happened. I dragged her out of the funeral, called a cab, put her in it and told the cab to take her to the bus station. I heard from a family member that she got a cab abck to her hotel and got her stuff and flew home. I never talked to her again, and I didn't talk to her again or give her another thought until I heard that she died back in 2013. I went out to her funeral to be with my mother and other family members, but I remember my mom saying something like... "It's over. Finally."

My grandparents believed that they were the model definition of what a Christian is. But they overlooked the simple and basic teachings of Jesus. They were judgmental, rude, intolerant of others. I am not religious but I am very familiar with the teachings of Jesus and always go out of my way to be tolerant and helpful to my fellow humans. I believe those ideals transcend any definition of a religion and I do not need the fear of pain and suffering in the afterlife to live a good life today. So yeah... that's pretty much it.

Remember... be cool to each other and as always... "The Dude Abides."

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u/CuriousRelish 22d ago

"We don't ask questions like that here".

I was 15 and that was the beginning of me leaving. I then read a significant amount of the Bible. Youth are not taught the actual content of the Bible for obvious reasons. It's fucking horrific and no decent person would follow that religion if they actually knew the contents of the Bible.

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u/Sufficient_Hawk_2447 22d ago

I always felt forced into religion because my family was religious. I never really approved of some things the bible said and what people told me and how they reacted when I said I didn’t approve. After tolerating this bull for years, it was only when I made the connection that God CAN’T exist if nobody is perfect. The bible describes him as a perfect being, but if nobody is perfect doesn’t that make God either a nobody or nonexistent? And if he really exists, then does that mean Satan is God’s bad side? If that’s true, then God gave up his impurities. But impurities is what makes you who you are, meaning God isn’t God. And since everyone makes mistakes, then God could have messed up some of his prophecies or way of doing things. This then further proves that God isn’t perfect because he’s made mistakes.

I also felt Adam and Eden got punished too far by God. It was like “Hey don’t eat this apple it’s full of my impurities”. But they ate the apple because curiosity got the better of them. But they got punished harshly for a mistake when, in fact, God was getting rid of his own mistakes.

So is God really trying to help us or save mankind? I don’t think that. I believe that God is trying to create a perfect world. And as a matter of fact, lots of wars and conflicts that were started are connected to religion. Whether that be conflict between two religions, interpretation of the bible, or ways to do things. The Salem Witch Trials stem from religion. Marriage contains from religion. World War 1, The Crusades… I’m too lazy to list more.

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u/excusetheblood 22d ago

I was born and raised as a JW, for all intents and purposes, a cult.

A few things got me out and now I am agnostic, vaguely Pantheistic.

One of the big things is just widening your perspective. Whatever is true has to be true for everybody. It has to be true for Catholics growing up in Mexico, for Muslims growing up in Iran, for Atheists growing up in China, and so on. People rarely convert to a new religion later in life though. The vast majority of religions are kept alive only through childhood indoctrination.

Another big thing is just realizing how good people basically are. At their core, people in general want to be happy, peaceful, and compassionate. But in Christianity and Islam, it doesn’t matter how “good” of a person you are. What matters is believing the correct thing, and if you don’t you get tortured for all eternity. That is an unconscionable belief. No one, and I mean no one, deserves to be tortured, not even for a second, let alone eternity.

Our lives here are short and confusing. We are never going to find “the answer” because there isn’t one. The only thing you can count on is that the longer people live, the more they learn and grow. So if there is some sort of afterlife, it has to accommodate this growth process. Even the most sadistic of serial killers can become compassionate loving people given a hundred, a thousand, or a million years of mental therapy. As such, if there is an afterlife, it is logically impossible that divine judgement is involved in any capacity.

EDIT: for more resources, visit r/exjw, r/exmormon, r/exchristian, and r/exmuslim

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u/Mme_Rose 22d ago

I lost the person I love the most during one of the worst years of my life (was being severely bullied at school), 6 months later became epileptic and had cancer. Don't tell me God works in mysterious ways and that he doesn't throw at us things we can't handle. I realised then and there that god doesn't exist and if he did he's an ass and I don't want to worship a fictional being that doesn't give a fuck about me.

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u/FinestTreesInDa7Seas 22d ago

It's pretty impossible to believe when you learn the true origin story of the Christian/Jewish/Islamic God.

The tribe of Israel used to be part of Canaan, and as such they followed the Canaanite religion, which was a polytheistic religion, with a large tiered structure of many gods.

At the top of their pantheon, was the main god "EL". The Israelites worshiped El, along with another god that was a few tiers lower, called Yahweh.

After the tribe of Israel broke from Canaan, they started preventing themselves from using Yahweh's name, claiming that it was not permitted to call him by name. They also started pretending that El was not infact a different god, but rather just a word for "god". So they commonly used the name El to refer to their god, Yahweh.

The Christian god is just a lower-tier god from another religion, and they essentially tried to erase their polytheistic past by pretending that their former "main god" didn't exist.

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u/Bittersweet_Spirits 22d ago

Jesus promised to rid the world of sin.

Sin still exists.

Odin promised to get rid of all the ice giants.

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN ICE GIANT?!

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u/EnvironmentGeneral 22d ago edited 22d ago

I lived my life by the bible, very specifically in the whole ‘good christian charity’ thing. I let my Aunt and Cousin, as well as my cousin’s son and girlfriend, move in with me, i was in my late 20s. I had taken care of my mom and brother since i was 18 and they had just moved out. Over the next year my cousin and his girlfriend would scream at each other at all hours, smoke weed and cigarettes in the bathroom. The promised rent never came and my entire savings was depleted. I prayed every day for the situation to resolve, i tithed and prayed, went to church several times a week. When i got the courage up to give my cousin notice to move out (i was giving him a few months) he threatened to have his friends jump me and put me in the hospital. I finally was able to get my family to intervene and get them out, but it was too late for my faith. I had extended support to my family (all christians) for years, i had tithed, attended church, never lied, never partied, and never had sex. Nothing in my life seemed positive, I couldn’t believe that God would allow this, i was doing what he said, and while I wasn’t perfect, never considered myself so, I just couldn’t understand why i was constantly being taken advantage of, why the medical issues I had (insomnia, bladder issues, and chronic back pain) weren’t being healed, why tithing never made ‘miracles’ in my finances. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to walk away. My family had decided before i was born that I would be a minister, i tried to live up to that expectation, and all it ever brought me was pain.

The other thing that was always a seed of doubt for me was ‘honor thy father’. My father was a drug addict, never moved out of his moms house and dodged child support. My step-father was physically and verbally abusive. Was I really supposed to ‘honor’ these men? I asked my pastor and i was told “the bible is clear on this”

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u/NubzyWubzy 22d ago

I grew up as a fairly brainwashed catholic. In my adolescence (starting around age 12) I was sexually assaulted multiple times by boys at my catholic school.. I was too scarred to tell my parents, but youth group leaders and other adults in the community convinced me that it was my fault because "I must have upset Jesus" or some bullshit like that.

Then I moved out of my parents house for university where I learned more about the real world. I have held a grudge ever since..

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u/cat-astrophicdecline 22d ago

I was assulted in a church parking lot for being gay, I still talk to the priest as he's a good guy but I decided that day I don't want to be part of anything that people feel gives them the power to do that. I wasn't seriously hurt as I had a good 30 lbs on the guy and a lot of self defence training and ended up breaking his nose but still.

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u/DoubleCry7675 22d ago

Started learning about other religions and ancient civilizations. It was funny to read about the shit others' believed. Then it dawned on me that I subscribed to shit ideas too.

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u/rabidfrogs 22d ago

COVID. After we went into lockdown, I noticed how calm I was without the constant responsibility of having to go to Church or be around really religious people. It was the first time I'd felt like that in years, so I decided to leave for good. So far, it's been great.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

[deleted]

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u/SomeOnInte 22d ago

I got bored. Also quarantine knocked my family out of the routine of going.

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u/endriago97 22d ago

I watched some youtubers with atheist views and somehow it stopped making sense eventually

also, I didn't like my confirmation time

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u/General_Beyond_4530 22d ago

Me not being consistent with it and chafing habits making it hard to pray in the sense of shamefullnes or just ashamed and embarrassed to present myself to god/whom ever I’m praying to as the being I am now

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u/CollegeAssDiscoDorm 22d ago

I became super religious.

2

u/pink_mink 22d ago

Parents that kept forcing it upon me.

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u/groovy604 22d ago

" god does not live in buildings made of stone" , " all sins are equal in the eyes of the Lord". Basically, I don't need a church to find God, I think the real world is much better church for learning how to be a better person and learning lessons about life. And since all sins are equal, why would I focus on any one in particular like religion tells me I should? I found religion focuses on verses and sections of the Bible and kind of misses the overall theme. People who have hate in their hearts will cherry pick verses to support their bigotry. They totally miss the themes of love everyone unconditionally and practice forgiveness. So many people who go to church have learned FUCK ALL about morality or how to be a better person. Some of the worst people I know hide behind a veil of Christianity.

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u/DemocraticRepublic 22d ago

Too many inconsistencies handwaved away without good answers.

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u/begusap 22d ago

Just thinking about it in any real depth. If you’re born into it you tend to just go with it as thats what you know. An ex of mine was a staunch atheist. Anytime i’d do anything he’d genuinely just ask ‘why’ and when I gave him a response he often had a very reasonable response as to why it didnt make sense. I guess I started questioning the ‘whys’ myself. At best i’d call myself a deist now.

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u/littleargent 22d ago

Coming to the realization that it is a cult and a sham that has pulled the wool over the eyes of several million people and took so many years from my life. The evidence just kept piling up.....nothing could explain it away.

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u/SID1410 22d ago

I am now agnostic. I changed my mind because a few events in my life made me not believe in god but think there some supreme power.

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u/[deleted] 22d ago

Afghanistan .

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u/HugoBDesigner 22d ago

I needed God to give me a sign, any sign, that he was there caring for me in my darkest moment. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Either God didn't exist, or the "all loving God" couldn't give less of a shit about me. It was actually the best thing that could've happened to me, since it was the first step in my life towards self-discovery and self-acceptance, which ultimately led to healing and contentment, now that I didn't depend on an arbitrary entity's approval.

But also, partly, due to a fundamental lack of faith. For as much as I went to church, did my prayers, and followed through on those traditions, it almost felt mechanical. There wasn't much of "I'm doing this out of my own drive and faith". Rather, "I have to pray because everyone prays", or "I have to go to church otherwise my mom will complain", or "if I'm gay, I'm going to burn in hell". Really, abandoning the church wasn't a difficult task at all. I didn't have second thoughts, I didn't feel bad or conflicted about it, I didn't have to "adapt" to an atheist/agnostic lifestyle. It suddenly all clicked, all made sense, and I was as comfortable and relaxed as I could ever be!

So TL;DR: God didn't help me, and also I never truly believed in him anyway.

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u/sammydinosaurking 22d ago

realized that i dident really belived in any of that crap, my parents just raised me forcing their religion on me, but i never got to say that i dient believe in any of that

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u/yellsatrjokes 22d ago

When I was 12 or 13, I went through confirmation class. At the end, they ask if you believe. When I thought about it, I came to the realization that it didn't matter whether I did or not, I had to pretend like I did, because my dad was the minister and I was not prepared to deal with the possibility of "no" at that point in my life. So I kept a passive belief.

Later, after college, I actually thought about it when presented with the possibility that god doesn't exist, and that was the end of my conscious religious belief.

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u/MJohnVan 22d ago

Well , I don’t benefit from that anymore

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u/litromenger 22d ago

I'm from India and a hindu and there's no proof of any of the religious gods and stuff and in hindu culture there's a lot of ritual for almost everything weddings, making a baby, for being pregnant, naming a baby, building a house or just to live we need to conduct various rituals and it's soooo resource exhaustive, it almost makes so sense and I tried to ask people about why they do it, nobody knows why they do it, people are like mindless sheeps here and most of it or all of it relies on astrology and astrology is nothing but a sky map so in conclusion I stopped believing in my religion although I don't no consider myself an atheist because if this universe has come into existence someone must have made it, right?

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u/Grape_rape_rate 22d ago

I realized that I didn't love god, but I was in love with god.

After that realization I left religion to become a professional hooker fucker.

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u/Evenkeeler 22d ago

The biggest thing that sent me down the path was wondering why revelation happed once 2000 years ago and we are just hanging out until then. Then there is all the contorsions to explain why bad things happen and why you cant do some things, it all just stopped making sense. Im not an atheist, definately agnostic, but do not beleive christianity has a strong handle on whats going on if there is a god.

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u/Sprawcklo 22d ago

Relatives deaths

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u/JerH1 22d ago

Ockam's Razor. Adding "because of God" is an unnecessary addition to any explanation of how things work.

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u/YungCloudGawdftm 22d ago

The anti LGBTQIA rhetoric from the pulpit

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u/Zacpod 22d ago

When I figured out that Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny weren't real I carried that lesson over to God, too. Never looked back.

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u/worldpeacebringer 22d ago

Grew up going to church every week. We would always thank god for the food. I asked: but why don't we thank the farmers for our food? Never really prayed again since.

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u/Quenin1 22d ago

Logic

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u/Theo2018 22d ago

I grew up

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u/IPromiseItWorks 22d ago

My entire dads side is Catholic, I just couldn't believe any of the none sense they were preaching. There was too much that didn't make any sense.

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u/YuriPugnant 22d ago

“The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible."
- Mark Twain

The more I read, the more questions I had. I sought out answers in cultural context and language differences, but often those made the questions even more troubling. And when you're fighting hard to keep believing in something eventually you've got to wonder if you've just invested in being wrong.

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u/Theearthhasnoedges 22d ago

Started dating someone who used to be religious and then we were pregnant pretty quick. They found religion again and wielded the relationship, my child and my insecurities like weapons to get me to live that life. After a few years of trying to live the lie and losing everything and everyone I had I had to finally admit I couldn't live like that any more.

Left with a trash bag full of clothes and no paternal rights. Took a few years, but things are really good now.

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u/StructureAny7816 22d ago

I’d always been told that if you pray regularly God stops you from commuting sun such as lying or being rude to others etc. But then my dad is a devoted religious man who prays very regularly no matter what. Never seen him miss it and he was so abusive, still is that I can’t even. This is just one reason why, of course I know there are many others, personal research. Reading the translation myself I found that i didn’t identify with anything but yes my dad being extremely abusive did have an impact

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u/A_Handsome_Duck 22d ago

I never really did believe it although i was raised Christian. But its the way i see religion. For me religion is a coping mechanism for how bad life can be, some people like that no matter what happens, someone has your back, and i support that.

It also helps people who are afraid of dying. Death is pretty scary so religion tells people that they could go to heaven and eternal joy and peace.

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u/Titanic_122 22d ago

I was raised Christian from birth, but but many things that they taught me made no sense. there were also contradiction in the same church, was Jesus God in human form, or the son of God. Religion and Science were often in direct contradiction, the thing is, Science had evidence, the only evidence in religion was some old dudes writing stuff down in a book, that has been rewritten a lot. I believe that most stories happened in some form or another. I believe there a dude named jesus, but he was just a normal person, maybe he just convinced everybody he was God as a prank, but eventually it was too late to go back. there probably was a huge flood, that inspired Noah's Ark. a tiny person probably did beat a big person in battle, just exaggerated a lot.

I do believe that the morals that the Word is trying to teach you are right, but if you disagree, I think your wrong, and i will judge you for it, but IDC.

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u/virgilreality 22d ago

Critical thinking. The whole idea of religion can't even stand up on its own.

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u/Harvard-23 22d ago

Tired of the catholic culture and the damnation of everything you do. That and it is so out of tune with the rest of the world

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u/2inthepink3709 22d ago

Raised Catholic and even attended Catholic Schools K-8. I first started questioning at a young age going to school and seeing the way I and others were treated if you didn’t have the right shoes or clothes or parents didn’t have enough money. In my later years having seen so much evil in the world, knowing Children and babies are raped, tortured, kidnapped and made sex slaves, murdered in horrific ways…..How can there be a God? In what world would you want to live where there is a God who allows such things to happen to anyone least of all innocent babies?

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u/Adventurous_Ad_5337 22d ago

Frat parties my freshman year of college

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u/nosnowtho 22d ago

I couldn't put up with the duplicity of claiming to "believe" in stuff that was clearly nonsense. And I'm glad I no longer have anything to do with a group that included, supported and did nothing about child molesters.

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u/Red_Fae_88 22d ago

When I found out the Bible had multiple conflicting translations and bits had been taken out and added over time, it was all over for me.

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u/obsequious_cuck 22d ago

I was raised independent fundamental Baptist (the culty one) and I blame my parents' cerebral approach to theology and literalism. If being a Christian enriches your life, makes you a better person, or gives you a higher level of consciousness or whatever, Biblical contradictions are easier to brush aside. But when your faith is literally just a collection of supposed facts designed to stunt your growth as a person, there's no coming back from a crisis of faith. There's nothing to fill the holes in your worldview besides more beliefs, and with those beliefs come more holes. Pretty soon it's all holes, with very little substance to separate the holes, like a trypophobic nightmare.

It's almost as if, by telling me to "seek the truth," to not blindly follow what the "corrupt Christians" were doing, and to study the Bible feverishly, my faith had the seed of its own destruction. Or many, many seeds, arranged in a cluster of holes, on a lotus seed pod.

Usually, people like me keep their black-and-white worldview and become angry atheists. I'm trying my hardest not to be, but it's hard sometimes. The allure of absolute truth is still overwhelming sometimes.

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u/Forg1vemystupidity 22d ago

Raised as a Jehovah's Witness. I left because both my younger sister and two of my close female friends were sexually assaulted by adult men in the congregation, and the elders tried to cover it up, and in fact held the power to basically ruin my family's reputation, so my parents were too scared to press charges against the person who groomed my underage sister because he is the step son of a well liked and respected elder. Was even more surprised when I discovered that this apparently happens all the time in that organization, and their governing body basically pays people off so the press never gets a hold of the information when it's taken to trial

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u/twitchy_taco 22d ago

I'm not sure if I'm no longer religious per say, but covid really tested my faith. There's also the fact that I've been studying indigenous beliefs a lot more. Beliefs that were stolen from us by conquerors. Then we were forced to worship their God. I don't know what I believe in right now.

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u/jettyandthebets 22d ago

I found an old paperback in the computer lab that was about a psychic. At first, I was super into it because I thought it was great how this guy brought closure to people’s lives and made praying the rosary make sense (he basically said it levels up your dead loved ones so they can get closer the god). I looked him up online because I wanted to see what good things he had done in the years since that book was published, and came across several articles debunking him and other psychics. That led to me spending Sunday mornings thinking I needed a less biased perspective to find the ‘right’ religion, so first I needed to separate myself from Catholicism. Then I read the da Vinci code and became depressed.

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u/Background_Act_7364 22d ago

(By being religious I understand the devotion towards God or a God centered religion. I am talking about religion in a comparatively narrower sense)

I believe 'documentation' plays a big role in the fading of God centered religion. God or religion always got it strength from miracles and greatness of the past. But as after the industrialization, the printing revolution and the internet revolution, the world is flooded with answers and with that comes a ton questions. While answering these questions, the existence of God too comes into questioning which in turn impact the religion, weakening it. Although I feel 'Religion' in itself is very much alive and the religion in a broader sense have many different definitions.

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u/cnapualani 22d ago

Singles Ward.

I was raised Mormon, but my family didn’t attend church often. But when I turned 18, the LDS missionaries came by to get me to go to Singles Ward. It’s how young single Mormons meet other single Mormons so that you can ultimately fulfill your Mormon destiny as a baby machine. That’s when I went, “Oh. This feels like a cult.” Then quit. Never looked back.

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u/mrjoepeck 22d ago

I was raised Mormon. I went on a mission to Venezuela and I started to see how the religion that I believed was for everyone was clearly created by white Americans for white Americans. A lot of the “laws” of god didn’t make any sense in this part of the world. Also, while I was there the Mormon prophet released a statement against gay marriage that seemed so hateful and bigoted. That was the beginning of the end for me. Since then it is amazing to see that I found the happiness and peace that they promised outside of the church. And they claimed that it could only be found in Mormonism. I’m thankful every day that I woke up.

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u/Autunm-7 22d ago

I realized that it was a book club (I don’t like to read)

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u/automaticdreams 22d ago

Because I noticed religions were opposed to self expression (like not saying curse words or wearing certain colors) not being able to be myself basically. Plus the fact tht I grew up depressed in a religious family and instead of taking me to a psychologist they took me to churches and new age shit cause they thought I was "posessed".

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u/AshIsAnonymous 22d ago

it sounds completely fiction and there is no proof along that the only reason i believed is that i just got told in my childhood that it is true but is an awful reason to believe

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u/Own-Paramedic-4206 22d ago

We changed "bible study time" for "hey we just got a new home theatre system, let's watch movies". I liked the stories when I was younger. Didn't feel right to cut out the only part that felt like church, especially when i could watch movies at home. Then later on I realized how much more I could learn of theology from an outside perspective. Still atheist but a lot of those stories have concepts that I like to play with.

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u/aaaaaaaaaaawilby 22d ago

My mom raised me to be christain and then i realised i only believed in god out of fear that he would hurt me if i didnt. Kinda fucked up aint it?

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u/IamNotMike25 22d ago

I think the final argument was when I looked at the evolution of religion.

How each takes part from the previous one, and then builds on top and changes some stories around. (or copy paste with just different names).

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u/shelf_caribou 22d ago

Brought up RC. Started getting bored in mass & skipping church. Over course of a couple of years stopped going altogether. A couple of years after that I started actually consciously thinking about it. Realized it was clearly nonsense & moved on.

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u/prodigalpun 22d ago

I got a biology degree.

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u/ramen_addict_enby 22d ago

I'm not gonna say here in what religion I was raised when I was younger because my family is still deply involved in it but there were 2 things that made me change

1) I got told everyone outside of our religion was a bad person growing up. At the age of 10 I meet a certain person in school who wasn't from my religion. We started being friends until my mom asked me one day if my friend was from our religion. When I said no suddenly it was as if I was telling her that I was friend with a demon. She told my father and all my family, I got grounded for 3 months. She told me I was betraying our religion for doing that. I thought at that time "that bullshit".

2) I'm bisexual. I discovered that earlier in life, when I was 12/13 years old. I didn't say a thing because I knew from the beggining that I wouldn't be acepted because of it. When I was 14 ( and stupid) one of my searches on the internet revealed my orientation. Everyone at my comunity knew about it the next day. Some of them told me I was going straight to hell and that I had no salvation, several others compared me with some mass murderers, some others told me that I was beyond salvation and that I was doing worst things in the eyes of god than mass murderers because I wasn't ashame of what I was. Needless to say, I was done with religion at that time.

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u/joejoeyaes 22d ago

Im still figuring it out, but I dont consider myself religious right now because I don’t like boundaries made by and obligations to something that Im not 100% sure exists.

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u/Nile-Lism 22d ago

The realisation that I was only Christian because of an accident of birth and upbringing, and if I was raised somewhere else I’d be something else. Coupled with learning about the scientific method and rationality.

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u/Hello_Im_Dutch 22d ago

So Christians aren’t allowed to kill right? Well then IDK about how the one consistent thing about Christianity is that it spread with war. The whole religion passing down through family members who eventually start to believe they are the “true” believers of the “right” religion in the “correct” way. The branches are just so incredibly complex too and although it makes for an interesting History project, it’s not so much something I’d wanna associate with. And most of this goes for most religions, as well as me just not liking the thought of an all knowing guy just watching me 24/7, it creeps me out to no end.

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u/MrBerlinAlexander 22d ago

The only way I can describe it is like a lake going dry. For years, I used to see God everywhere. God, as in a profound emotional conviction as to the existence of the divine. Then, one day, it just stopped.

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u/p38-lightning 22d ago

I realized that ALL religions boil down to just "good feelings." The Christian feels good about his, the Hindu feels good about his, the Muslim, etc. But nobody can PROVE anything. And the more religious they are, the more narrow-minded and intolerant they are. If they are "right," I'd rather be wrong.

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u/PixelBit92 22d ago

1) Felt pretty pressured into going to church so I didn't really go in with any beliefs which only lead to me questioning the validity of the religion as a whole

2) My friends that went to my 2nd church with me either moved, stopped attending youth services, and are only there every other Sunday, so where's the fun in going most of the time

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u/msarama 22d ago

Raised pretty hardcore Catholic (schools, summer programs, alter boy etc..), was still a kid when the Boston pedo priest stuff exploded... At mass when that broke the priest asked for the congregation to raise contributions to help with legal defense of the church from the accusations.

My father turned to my mother and us and said we are never coming back here again.... and we didn't. Pulled out of all the Catholic specific activities.. Started just being members of humanity instead of catholics...

I think that was a great call.

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u/DarthDregan 22d ago

Life. I wasn't religious for long but enough happened in a short enough time and it left me with the realization that either the Christian God everyone is talking about doesn't exist or is an absolute piece of shit, and the only middle ground is incompetence.

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u/darrevan 22d ago

My combat tours in the Army followed by my college education. No way is any bit of it true.

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u/LessConfidence 22d ago

Went to a religious camp. Had just figured out my sexuality, but someone asked one of the leaders if LGBT+ people go to heaven. She said no. I wasn't even really that religious, to begin with, but that was the point I just kind of went "This isn't for me." Why bother living by the rules of a religion that wants me to go to hell anyway?

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u/Derick_Ruhl 22d ago edited 22d ago

Death in person.... Oh and too there is this one video. That one video I was talking about just before. Remember that? Click on it..

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u/Kingofthekaiju1954 22d ago

I just couldn't trust a God who has a kill count in the billions by half of his book

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u/cariethra 22d ago

The religion was toxic and was the reason I was easily abused for over a decade. I didn’t want my children to grow up with that, so we stopped.

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u/SmokinOakland 22d ago edited 22d ago

Reaching the age of rationalism...I mean who believes in fairy tales?? They are the same type of stories as the 3 pigs and goldilocks. Motherfuckers didn't even know where the Sun went at night and prayed for it to come back the next day...and these are the people we are supposed to base our moralities around?? No thank you I'll stick to science and knowing that seeing is believing. I've talked to "God" many times and he has never said anything back. At least Satan puts voices in my head to try and give me something to fight against

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u/magikaaaaaarrrp 22d ago

Well, it's been a long process to get me to where I am now, but it first started with the homophobia that's quite apparent in the church. I was taught being gay was a sin from a young age, so admittedly I was homophobic for a lot of my youth. That changed when I met my friend Shae. We became pretty good friends, and after a while she came out to me as Bi. I never really understood it, so I asked her questions, and I came to realize being gay or bi or whatever sexuality doesn't change anything. So I questioned why would God be against something that doesn't make a person a worse person. That's when I was thirteen.

After that, I started to realize I don't really like the majority of the people in my church. They just tended to look down on you for doing anything out of the norm, and ignored the issues in their own life. Which I learned the hard way after learning a person in the church, who I talked to every week, cheated on his wife with my mom when I was a kid, which lead to my parents divorce. I learned this when I was 16. For those 16 years, I wasn't told what happened, and they just talked to me like normal. I wasn't asking for an apology or anything, since my mom made a mistake too, but I wanted them to at least acknowledge it. They never did.

Finally, when I truly stopped following it was when I was 18. That's when I started drinking and doing shit the church hated. I felt incredibly guilty about it, but that only made me realize how much the church has chained me down. All it did for me was give me fear, and keep me from doing things I want to do. Which aren't bad things at all. I started to question things, but only got frustratingly vague answers.

Even with all of this though, I wouldn't define myself as Atheist or anything. Honestly, I'm tired of defining myself by a belief system, so I just won't anymore. I still go to church on occasion for my dad's sake, and I do still pray sometimes since it does give me a bit of piece. However, I don't want to be a huge part of it anymore.

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u/MandingoBBC4U 22d ago

When I found out couple of my best friends were raped by our community priest... in the ass!

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u/vile_silance 22d ago

My family didn't go to church too often when I young but then I hit 7 and my mom now always goes Sunday and sometimes Wednesday. And this is one of those churches you spend almost all day at.

Being a kid I found it super boring, then add to it that it's in Spanish and yeah, no way I'm going to pay attention. (Didn't understand Spanish) I'd rather play with toys, play videogames or draw than just sit around.

Then as I get older I learn I piss off my mom if I don't go or don't do what she wants. I'm supposed to feel something but I didn't feel anything other than my knees begging to sit after all the standing.

Then add to it that many people in the church sperate into cliche groups and hardly reach out to others.

So yeah no fun, pissed mom and no connection to others pushed me away quickly

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u/seaweedisgrossaf 22d ago

I studied with the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Realized it was all bullshit a few days later, but pretended to be interested for a year so my husband could fade away from the organization. We are now out, and every time I questioned “why does god only save some people and not everybody”, I was met with jumbled words and non clear answers. I ain’t worshipping a God who wanted a dude to sacrifice his own son to test loyalty. That sounds like some controlling psycho shit. Lol

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u/Vulcunniko 22d ago

I was religious at first, but I got tired of it over time. I even stopped praying before going to bed. I still attend church because I have to. For me, it’s boring and I don’t really care for the teachings.

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u/Iv_rose 22d ago

honestly am not even sure, it just gradually faded away throughout the years

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u/mamajamz 22d ago

Honestly I think just growing up. As a child I only listened to my parents and church, but as you grow older you get exposed to more experiences and people and if you have an open mind like me you sort of start connecting the dots. Nowadays I keep my Christian roots, but I always look for different interpretations, it’s kind of exciting looking at things from a different point of view.

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u/TheNotoriousBigB 22d ago

I have a story that made me religious.

As I type it out, It’s so cheesy…

The first time I got drunk, I woke up in the morning with a terrible hangover. Fast forward to getting home in the morning, and I’m keeled over the toilet begging God to make the hangover go away, and in return I’d never touch alcohol again.

I’m not kidding when I say immediately my nausea and headache went away. Like at the snap of a finger I was all of the sudden fine. From that day forward I knew God was real. That moment has always stuck with me and is the life event that really made me believe in God.

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u/reapapyrus 22d ago

There is no real proof god exists, the bible exists, but it’s not enough to proof he exists. And I also was a dumb child that believed every lie back then.

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u/carnsolus 22d ago

ex-calvinist

calvinism has the 'tulip' acronym: total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints

basically, you're fully evil (total depravity) and you're only saved because god chooses to save you (irresistible grace)... and others he chooses not to save. Calvinism also teaches god chose before creation who to save and who he wasn't going to save (unconditional election), instead of the more passive teaching others have that says god simply knew who would believe and be saved. Limited atonement means jesus only died to save those who god always intended to save. He didn't die for the 'reprobates' who god let come into existence just to watch them slide into hell

I had issues with a good bit of that, but my parents and everyone i knew told me 'santa' was real so i believed

the problem was the last one. Calvinism also teaches that if you are saved, you'll feel it, you'll feel 'assurance of salvation' (tied in with perseverance of the saints). I never felt that

i knew for a fact i was going to hell since i was 9. I had nightmares about judgement day all the time (you wake up just before you die; I woke up just before it's my turn to be judged). The ministers also loved terrifying me with 'nobody knows the day or moment' and said 'it could be right in the middle of this sermon!'

so, since i didnt have assurance, i already felt i wasnt a christian, but i still believed it was all real. I eventually went to college and met people outside the calvinist bubble, for whom these ideas were complete nonsense. There was a whole world outside the bubble

I accepted being an atheist about 2 years ago

-

one thing that really helped me transition from terror of god into 'god's not real; he can't hurt you' was the study of ancient judaism and how the idea of this allpowerfukl god came to be. He wasn't allpowerful in his origin. He was just one secondtier god, who moses adopted as israel's tribal god. He's on the same level as chemosh, who even defeats him right in the bible. AND he's almost certainly a completely different entity than El, the creator god and god of abraham

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u/Hefty-Counter-7297 22d ago

I was very religious. And had very strong faith. I was taught to endure to the end, pray, and follow God and God will make everything ok after I die.
My husband was abusive and I thought I had to endure this life and would be rewarded after death. My husband would see his wrongs and we would be happy, everything would be made right .
That was until my children started growing up. They started acting like him. When I had my last child and my ex’s behavior was escalating I couldn’t bare thinking of my baby daughter getting treated how he was treating my oldest teenage daughter. After seeing a therapist and talking with a close friend, I realized my ex’s issues and he wasn’t ever going to change. I realized if I endured to the end, my children would suffer, be treated poorly, taught dysfunctional behaviors etc. the cycle would be passed on. This conflicted with what I was taught in my religion. Then I started noticing many other logical things that conflicted with what I was taught in my religion. My eyes slowly opened and Over the course of several years I realized there were multiple things that I don’t believe that our church teaches. Also things I don’t have an answers for.
I no longer believe many traditions that my church promotes. I finally got the courage to file for divorce.
While I am in a state of uncertainty about many things now, I choose to believe in basics of ChristianIty and believe there is a God, that we should love others and treat all things kindly. I choose this Because I can see my life better and happier when I have hope in life after death and of a loving Spiritual Father. ( I consider myself spiritual not necessarily religious).
I live in a community where the religion is intertwined with the culture. I still take my children to church because I see good come from it. My church strongly encourages family, serve and loving others and I can see it’s good for them to be around others who are doing positive things. I don’t force them them go, I don’t tell them they have to believe.
I hear people say things that I question or flat out disagree with but hold my tongue, because the truth is...who really knows?? It is just a beliefs.

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u/Decent-Village801 22d ago

I was religious for a most of my life til about 5 years ago I lost my nephew in a horrific way then like 2 years ago I lost most of my custody over my oldest child just because the judge was friends with my ex’s father is friends with the judge

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u/zoombotwash3r3 22d ago

Former Lutheran. I became atheist after my first heart surgery. I realized that if god truly loved me I wouldn't have suffered through the hell I did with the surgery. I further became atheist when I realized how shit the world is.

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u/HitEmWithDatKTrain 22d ago

I actually read the Bible and realized that it’s clear that people were just making it up as they went. Yahweh’s presentation changes from a nationalist warrior deity to part of a regional pantheon, to the chief of that pantheon, to the one true god and whatever the hell else reflects the hopes of the people worshipping him at the time. There’s no real justification for Hell, there’s barely one for the existence of Satan as normally depicted, there’s nothing even foretelling Jesus as the son of God or whatever and what is there is a bunch of stuff he didn’t fulfill.

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u/Sandpaper_Pants 22d ago

If God is real, he'll appear as anything else in the universe; undeniable. He ended up being as invisible as the non-existent is.

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u/FR3NC13 22d ago

Feeling myself becoming a person I never wanted to be.

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u/autisticprincess 22d ago

gestures at everything

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u/3dGuy666 21d ago

Honest conversations with people.

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u/Bit-Weird 21d ago

The hate that people can have when they think they're right and holier than thou. The whole Southern baptist thing about them hating the LGBTQ+ community is ridiculous. Sure, your beliefs say being gay is a sin, but they also say lying, hating, unforgiving, and not living thy neighbour are also sins. I still believe in God, but I've opened my eyes to see that we were all made for a purpose, and that we all don't have the same path to walk. Love not hate will open hearts and minds.

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u/_Solinvictus 21d ago

Used to be Muslim. Read the Quran one day while actually paying attention to what it said and realized that I didn’t agree with some of it. If its all supposed to be true and “Gods words” then if I can’t agree with some of it then why should I believe/agree with the rest?

Also please no DMs. Anytime a muslim hears that I am no longer a believer they try to convert me back