Why are you atheist?

[Fullmetal Joestar]

What drove you to atheism? Were you raised that way? I'm from a Catholic family, but luckily, we're not extreme about it. We don't really follow our faith at all. We used to go to church for holidays and do Lent. We haven't done that in years. lol We don't even say grace at Thanksgiving anymore. lol

At least I went to public school! My elementary/middle and high schools taught us about different religions. But they never made us pray or do something we didn't want to. (I went to the same school from kindergarten to 8th grade). Religion was treated like mythology.

I went to CCD after school, once a week. Dreadful. SO BORING. I mean, there were some nice people there. I knew a lot of kids from school who went there. My town is mostly Catholic, I think. But we're really not a religious town at all.

I did believe in God and Jesus growing up. But I didn't CARE about either of them. I just wanted to play and read and draw, not worship them. I didn't want to worship. I wanted to do what I wanted. I seriously believed some of the s**t they said.

Stupid quotes that I disagreed with:
"When you listen to rock and heavy metal, it invokes evil spirits." (I've been listening to rock since I was little. My parents raised me on it. And none of it was about devil worship.)

"Love God more than your parents." (I thought that was bullshit. I loved God, but love him more than my parents? NO.)

"Shhh, be quiet. When we're in church, we have to be quiet. I believe the baby Jesus is sleeping in there." (Crazy lady.)

Things that ran through my head as a kid and teen:

"If all of this really happened, why aren't there any pictures?" (Jesus's life)
"I'd rather love my parents more."
"Where is the holy bread made?"
"I don't think it's holy water, I think it's just water."
"Sorry, I don't believe in the pope. He doesn't have powers. Nobody is equal to God."
"Will listening to this song send me to hell?"
"This isn't the blood of Christ, it's just wine." (At my communion)

[blowfishABQ]

because i've seen things that no god watches over

[Fullmetal Joestar]

blowfishABQ

because i've seen things that no god watches over

Sometimes, I think to myself, "I know in my heart that God exists."

But then I think about this:
War - living hell: killing, watching friends die, losing limbs, PTSD, torture, etc
Rape - being sexually assaulted against your will
Torture
Kidnapping
Bullying
Tragic accidents
Human trafficking
Murder
Corruption
Starvation

If God is real, then why doesn't he do anything about this? "It's humans who do it, not God." Ok, true. But why doesn't he get involved?

He can't interfere with free will. Reasonable. But that includes the free will of killers, rapists, bullies, corrupt leaders, etc!

[OpheliannFallen]

I was a staunch atheist until I was 19 and then I had a religious awaking of sorts...led me down a winding path but ultimAtely became a muslim. I believe there is a god

[estupe]

i wasn't raised on any religion and i see it as a way ppl make sense of the world but i don't need that so i'm good gaia_kittenstar

[Croissant 666]

i was raised agnostic but i've always had a great desire to worship something

so most of my life felt pretty lost and empty

eventually i decided to become a christian

the religious education you describe from your school sounds like a dream! is that really how they do it in american public schools?

here in austria, the only kind of religious education schools offer is indoctrination into whatever your parents decided for you

[CodeRedFedV2]

I'm not.
I was raised in a sort of agnostic family, we never really went to church or anything.

Around 16 I became a Christian, and long story short...I teach Sunday School now.

[Squirtlefart]

bc i realised i was gay and i realised that my political beliefs did not match up to the religion i was born in and i would rather stand by pro-choice, and equal rights than believe in a god that's supposed to love me but is resembled by a group of people who thinks im going to hell for something i cant change about myself.

also humans need to believe that there is something out there for them after death

religion is a human created concept

its also ******** ridiculous how a lot of people think there religion is better than another ones.

like get your head out of your ******** a** i bet you your religion says not to look down on other people yet you are doing exactly that and you claim to be defending your religion.

sigh i could go on and on about why religion is so ******** up but i need to stop lol

[Vachemont Chouette]

I grew up in an agnostic family-- father is an atheist, mother is a vague-christiany-whatever. I'm an agnostic-atheist. I still celebrate Christmas for family, though. I fully support people who are religious-- I think that it's totally up to them. As long as you'e not using their religion as an excuse to hurt others, you're cool with me. I have close friends from multiple religions, and when I was younger and a bit more aggressive about my beliefs, I did damage some of my friendships. But now that my friends and I have grown, it's less and less of an issue as we're more accepting of each other now.

My motto is pretty much: Do whatever you want, just don't hurt others.

[BubbleGumption]

While I only vaguely believed in the possibility of god growing up, studying science has made me think it's less and less likely, though still not impossible, for a god to exist. Also, the catholic bible's god is absolutely terrifying

[Foxydoe]

Theoretical Bullshit explains it pretty well in this video:

To sum it up: If God exists, he's a d**k.

[spellslave]

help me with firestarter?

❝ I'm agnostic but, I was never raised into one religion over another. Both of my family are Church of England, but not significantly. ❞

[Marachu]

Even though i don't believe in many things religions tell us i still believe there's SOMETHING...
something that watches over the dead and alive souls... and also believe in different dimensions

[Vhaelo]

I'm athiest because things have happened to me, that if there were to be a god he wouldn't have let that happen in the first place.

If there ever were a god, he left us all a very long time ago.

[MoviesAndPopcorn]

I've bounced around from faith to faith for the past ten years or so. I was raised catholic, but didn't get religious until I was about 12 or 13. lost my faith, became agnostic, became a pagan, became agnostic again, became pagan again, and now I'm leaning towards reluctant atheism. I just can't understand why, if there was a god or gods, they wouldn't show themselves somehow. in the bible and mythology it's all about them coming down and speaking to people. sending plagues and tidal waves. creating magic and miracles. but you never see any of that. why would a god go from speaking directly to people to doing absolutely nothing? why would they let people not believe in them? why wouldn't they just come down and speak to us directly? I don't know. you could say it's a test but any god who tests people and then sends them to hell for not believe the right thing in the right way isn't a god I want to be involved with