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How did you become an Athiest??

Discussion in 'Religion, Beliefs and Spirituality' started by shermdawg767, Nov 10, 2014.

  1. I am now an Athiest/Agnostic and I have been for over a year now. It all started with my early interest in science at the age of 13. Throughout that period I was still a Christian. By the time I was in high school around my junior I began to take a specific interest in biology.

    I soon began to notice the contradiction of science and religion. Still holding on to my faith, I still continued to follow my passion to learn about the world we live in by reading books, listening to podcasts and observing others view points online.

    So at the beginning of my senior year I became skeptical of my beliefs and their statements. I believe it was my natural curiosity to learn the truth and not being afraid to listen to other view points that lead my down the path to becoming an athiest.

    I feel like a rock has been lifted of my back and I am no longer ignorant of the world around me. I still continue to inform myself by reading online science articles, books by Richard Dawkings, Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking, etc. This decision is permanent now that I know the truth.

    Let me know how you became an Atheist and decided to follow this way of thinking.

    Stay high! :)


    "Wait! We can't stop here, this is bat country!"- Fear and Loathing
     
  2. I was raised in a strict Catholic home with 2 very conservative parents.
    For as long as I remember, I always had my doubts about the existence of god and the validity of the Bible. I was really into dinosaurs at age 4 and nobody could explain the existence of dinosaurs and how it contradicts with the Adam and Eve and Noah's Ark story, so I figured they had something to hide.
     
    However, most of my childhood until 16, I was too scared to say anything so I went to church, got confirmed and that was it for a while. I never understood the purpose of prayer because of the fundamental paradox that god gives us free will but also has infinite power over us and his grand plan or whatever.
     
    At 16, I started smoking weed with friends. My grandmother had also passed away. As a Catholic family, my entire extended family (over 30 people on just my mother's side) came over to my place for 9 days straight to pray the Novena for dead people so they get into heaven or some shit. This is pretty much what sparked my disbelief.
     
    I got a little pissed off because of all the false hope and phony small-talk bullshit I would here. You know, stuff like "she's in a better place now," and "I bet she's looking down on us, smiling." The prayer was so monotonous, almost like a cult or something from a Monty Python film. I hadn't realised it before, but everyone was just blinded by faith. It disgusted me.
     
    When I was 17, I would often get into arguments with my parents about going to church. At this point, I was still attending weekly, but I had made my intentions to leave the church very clear. Nevertheless, my father felt like he had to force me and I'd eventually change my mind. One day, we got into a heated argument and he threatened to kick me out of the house after I turn 18 if I left the church.
     
    By the time I turned 18, I had gotten into university so I moved into my girlfriend's place (now my ex, she was 20 at the time) and left the church. I didn't speak to my parents again until my other grandmother died when I was 20.
     
    TL;DR My parents are shitcunts. Christianity has too much bullshit for me to handle. Smoking weed made me think differently about everything.
     
  3. We're all born "atheist".  It's not until indoctrination raises it's ugly head that we begin to "believe" in this god or that god. 
     
    I personally denounced (didn't really know it at the time) all theological belief systems around the age of 9-10 when I realized that there was ZERO difference between the "mythological" gods I was reading about in school and the "religious" god that I was learning about in church.
     
    Now, at the age of 45, I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a full on "atheist", but more of an "agnostic deist".  I entertain the possibility of there being "something else" beyond this plane of existence, but sure don't believe that any of mankind's theological explanations are worthy of consideration when it comes to defining "what" that something else is.  Either way, I ain't sweatin' it.  I'll take the ride when it presents itself.  Or not!
     
  4. I never really believed what I heard in church when I was younger, but I stuck with it for a while because I didn't know what else to believe. Then the science classes in school really started to pick up and I finally stopped going to church.
     
  5. Be careful you don't limit your views when it comes to origins of life. The "RNA World" doesn't even come close to being able to explain how we got from RNA to cell - especially the origins of an encrypted information code that actually specifies the molecular apparatus required for expressing that code! The fact that RNA can catalyse a few reactions is a hopelessly inadequate explanation of how the first precursors of the cell came about.
     
    Things aren't nearly as simple as God vs. Biology. I'm a skeptic of religion and I'm a skeptic not of science, but of many scientists' evangelistic popularizations of conclusions that aren't even remotely up to the task of dealing with origins. Though they are routinely presented that way. 
     
    If you're going to be open minded and free thinking than do just that.
     
  6. I was abducted by aliens.
     
  7. ~Will Edit Later~
     
  8. #8 Jingo Dookstain, Nov 11, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 11, 2014
    What truly made me become an "Atheist" is my personal experiences with Christianity while growing up.
     
    For instance, as a kid, I was forced to believe in God under the implied notion that I would be struck down and damned to Hell if I didn't. I grew up and realized how moronic it was to believe in someone who never appeared to exist, all out of fear.
     
    Another memorable moment that made me question faith was when I was asked if I believed in good and bad.
    "Of course I do." I said.
    The guy inquisiting me then insisted that in order to have this moral compass, I have to be a Christian. As if it were some cut and dried equation.
    "Right. Because being a good person solely depends on whether I'm rewarded in the end." I had sarcastically said to him.
     
    But really, I've always hated being called Atheist. I think it's just a naturally negative sounding word, which might have something to do with the time period in which the term was created. Or it might just be the way some religious people say it (because, let's be honest, those same individuals are the only ones who care enough to ask).
     
    Edit: As for my belief in how we were created, or what our purpose is... well, I really don't care all that much. My goal is to live a happy and comfortable life and to encourage others around me to do the same, whatever "happy" and "comfortable" might mean to them.
     
    I like science because it is, as we know it, one unified thing; a coagulation of many different theories from many different minds. And because it is made up of theories, it has room to change.
     
    You don't have to pick which version of science you think is correct.
     
  9. By God I take it you mean, 'man in the sky'.
    Yer, your right, there is no 'man in the sky'.
    Change your definition of God.
    The Universe is God.
    After all... it created you.
    With out it, you would not be.
     
  10.  
    Sorry - I didn't know it was you.
     
  11.  
    The universe is simply the universe.
     
    My parents created me, and without them, I would not be. So which one of them is God? Lol
     
  12. #12 Dryice, Nov 11, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 11, 2014
    The things I was told as a kid started to not make sense, and then I started hearing things that made more sense. That's pretty much it.
     
    edit: lol@ Richard 'Dawkings'
     
  13. If there was no universe. there wouldn't be anything, never mind your parents ;)
     
  14. If there was no universe. you wouldn't have parents ;)
     
  15. I was born an atheist like an above poster said.
     
    It wasn't until I did mind expanding unmentionables that I realized there's another layer to our reality.
     
    So I spent sometime as an agnostic until God's presence became undeniable.
     
    Now I'm a deist.
     
  16. #16 Tokesmith, Nov 11, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 11, 2014
    I always was unsure of God and religions. As I grew up the more I learned about the world; the more I realized God was made up.

    Now I'm here.
     
  17. #17 Jingo Dookstain, Nov 11, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 11, 2014
     
    That wasn't my point.
     
    My point is that you literally just asked people to redefine two words and put them together. Two words which are fundamental, but entirely contrasting [SIZE=14.6666669845581px]ideas[/SIZE] (in the context which you used them) in a way that makes no sense, if but for the sake of poetry (which still makes no sense) lol.
     
    Sorry, had to edit this a bit, I'm so high it didn't come out correctly the first time first couple of times.
     
  18. My parents are a mixture between atheist and agnostic, my father is an atheist and my mother believes that a supernatural force may have created the universe but not a god with specific rules like most religions claim.
     
    With that background, it really wasn't hard at all to come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as an almighty god.
     
    I was raised with intellectual conversations at dinner and never attended any kind of religious venue except when going to weddings.
     
    I became even more of a rationalist than my parents since the age of 16, I don't believe in luck, I don't believe in curses, monsters, anything that hasn't been proved to exist by scientific studies doesn't concern me at all, I could literally shout the worst "blasphemy" you could ever imagine without any fear of being punished by any supernatural force.
     
    As a student of statistics and epistemology of science though, and since the universe hasn't been completely understood yet, I must admit every single possibility and cannot attribute a 0% chance to anything, I believe that there's a chance that the christian or muslim god exist, but that chance is not greater than the chance that I or any other blade here is in fact god or than the chance that flying invisible minotaurs roam the world. Again, nothing is 0%, but the chance of those phenomenons is so low, that it could be considered zero.
     
  19. I asked people to redfine one word... the word God...
    It doesn't matter what you call it, call it what ever you want, doesn't matter..
    Im talking of the omnipresent force that drives the whole universe, before you were here,
    after you've been here and will do, forever, infinitly, never stopping, always,
    That force, if you wanna label anything god..... should be that.
    Not a man in the sky waiting for your death to lecture you on all the bad things you did..
    Whats wrong with changing a definition to a sand ideology we've carried for thousands of years.
     
  20. #20 Jingo Dookstain, Nov 11, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 11, 2014
     
    Haha, man, I think we're both a little bit stoned or something.
     
    I mean, no one can just change a definition to a word or meaning of such grand significance, regardless of what they might believe... unless they're Aladeen [edit]
     
    But hey, for now, let's just agree to disagree my friend.
     

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