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deleted by creator

@Lanky_Pomegranate530
I was raised in a somewhat skeptical environment but had been drawn to Christianity by a charismatic bullshit artist.
A new girlfriend was interested in me & asked me to explain my beliefs. As the words were coming out of my mouth, I felt like such a gullible, credulous moron. Something about saying it out loud rather than just thinking or hearing it popped the illusion. Like waking from a weird dream.
Unintentional street epistemology. Still together 37 years later.

I never believed. I was raised by JW. All religions seem odd to me. And I was forced to read the Bible. That alone should make anyone walk away.

Education. When I was young I grew up in a Catholic household, in a city where being Catholic is the norm, in a country that is very religious and superstitious as a norm. And then I had the opportunity to go on a student exchange and get immersed in different cultures, and I realized “these people have their own beliefs, a different religion, but they have the same ethics as me.” So I started leaning towards agnosticism - let everyone believe in what they want, to themselves. Years later I went to college, and had my first experience of Southern Baptist religion. That one rubbed me the wrong way. There was just so much disdain for anything different, so much “believe me because I said so”. That’s where I realized I didn’t believe in God, or the afterlife - I believed in ethical behavior, and in being good to other humans. The rest just fell into place after that. I really like Penn Jilette’s point: “I have no God, and I murder and rape all I want. And the amount of murdering and raping I want to do is exactly zero.”

Truth. I know I’m broken; but I need facts like oxygen. I don’t give a wet slap if you prove a point that shows I was wrong; hell I love that… it means I learned something or at least corrected an error in my knowledge.

So I need proof and facts. And with god I never saw it. There’s nothing there that is super natural. Joseph Smith wants us to believe in the Book of Mormon? Show us the gold plates…

Seriously, gods best plan, by which he will judge and condemn us to burn if we get it wrong; was to tell some poor shepherds and fishermen in the middle of a Roman backwater…

Yeah. No. Sorry

The money-grubbing and the cultish behaviour.

Hypocrisy, all the fricking hypocrisy.

My uncle runs a Christian Megachirch and he is the worst family member I’ve ever met, narcissistic, selfish and generally concerned mostly about money. I left for college, left all the religion behind and never looked back.

I am 58, I have a vague memory of being lied too about Father Christmas , being told thays not true even though I was assured he was originally and then thinking the same thing about god (catholic family) but figured out for myself that it was bullshit. Doesnt take much ciritcal thinking, even as a kid to realise that.

I had to LARP for a bit but stopped the nonsense of church etc when I was allowed too as a young teen. Reading more widely after that you get to see some of the utter horrors caused by religion and release how toxic they are.

An example, lived in Cambodia many many years ago and a bunch of evangelicals wouldn’t let locals use a water well until they “converted”. A constant reminder of the toxic nature of religion.

An Omni merciful creator that condemns to an eternity of punishment, also just general observation about reality

hate.

specifically, there was some small LGBTQ protests that put the hatred into perspective- there were the protestors (who maybe went out of their way to be annoying and provoke things;), assholes, and everyone quietly cheering for the assholes.

it made me look at my own behavior… and I didn’t want to be an asshole (or perhaps, more accurately said: didn’t want to be that kind of asshole. I’m not a perfect person.). This prompted a slow slide from non-practicing through agnosticism into straight up atheism.

It didn’t help that it took 2-3 years before anyone reached out to me about why I left, and then it was because my mom had asked a pastor to do just that… he didn’t get it when I quote CS Lewis Mere Christianity (“That a person ought be a better person as a christain.”…) I was a better person as an atheist; because I wasn’t obligated to be an asshole.

edit to add: it wasn’t just the LGBTQ hate. that was just the nature of the incident that brought me face to face with the ugly truth. It was easy to say, for example, that West Burroughs Baptist’s aren’t real christians. There’s a lot of out-groups that christians hate on. hell, sometimes those outgroups are even other christians (how many wars have been started between catholics and protestants?) more contemporary, look at the hatred for refugees and asylum seekers.

hatred is a pervasive feature of Christianity.

I was 14 and my parents never forced indoctrination. I considered what I knew to be reality and what I had been taught about religion just didn’t fit. I put it on par with Santa.

Granted, you don’t have much confidence in your beliefs at that age, so I kept it to myself for many years (as I continue to do). If the topic comes up, I’m not shy to express views, but generally keep to myself.

(I grew up Catholic) All throughout my Sunday schooling the inconsistencies kept popping up; when I was young I would chalk them up to ‘I’ll understand later’ or ‘as I learn more I’ll figure it out’, but it never happened. By the time I was in my teens I was there just to keep the family happy; I became more aware of the underlying bigotry and hate, and my disagreements with the church as an organization piled up. I distinctly remember while on the way home after confirmation that I didn’t feel any different for having gone through it, and when I said it aloud, my father couldn’t provide any useful guidance, I sometimes think he doubts, but won’t or can’t bring himself to leave. As soon as I graduated I stopped going to mass regularly, sure that I didn’t want to be considered Catholic anymore, but still unsure of what I believed. In college I was a Classics major (these days I teach Latin), which is what finally killed any last vestige of faith I had. I spent a lot of time working with documents ranging in age from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the works of St. Augustine, and at every turn I saw just how deluded, how derivative, it all was. There was a sentiment throughout the classics department that went something like this: Studying these topics will either strengthen your faith and make it unbreakable, or destroy it utterly. Obviously, this applied most to Christian students, but seeing the way the religious sausage is made so-to-speak would have been enough, for me at least, to turn away from any faith. I never understood how anyone could learn all about this and still have faith, the cognitive dissonance just seemed so massive, yet I saw it happen with some of my fellow students. These days, except for weddings and funerals, I avoid going near churches.

Raised mormon, I think I knew for a long time I didn’t think the religion was true, but the stigma of leaving was SO high I never allowed myself to consider it might not be true. Moved away for college and without family to make sure I went to church I just started skipping. My parents asked all the time and I eventually got tired of lying. I decided I needed to know for myself and half hour of google later I knew.

I could never find an answer the question: Why is my religion the one that’s real and not all the others?