My path to atheism: Yours? Rebuttals?

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I'm a third-generation atheist, so I had no trouble with my family attempting to fill my head with fairytales. When I was seven, a kid about my age began to tell me about this fellow named "God" who lives in the sky and can see everything we do. I thought it was a remarkable story that he had invented, and I laughed appreciatively.

But he didn't appreciate my laughter, which confused me terribly. When I got home that afternoon, I told my mother about the encounter. She got a very sad look in her eyes and asked me to sit down.

She told me that most adults grow up believing in this particular fairytale. I was right on top of it, and said, "But you told me the truth about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Didn't these grownups learn the truth from their parents, like I did?"

At this point, her face became even sadder. She told me that most people grow up believing that God is real, and if I ever tried to explain to someone that God is not real, they might actually start beating me with sticks and bricks.

Fortunately, I understood that part of the conversation, so I never tried to talk a religious person out of his religion--well at least until the late 1960s, when religion was out of favor.

And by now I understand that you simply cannot get a religious person to understand logic and science. They're morons, so the best you can do is to treat them like morons.
 
I had doubts ever since I was a little boy.

I was didn't like conforming to the youth group mold and robotic dressing up every Sunday to rush last second to wave my arms around and close my eyes and listen to a droning, rehearsed sermon. The beliefs seemed silly to me. I always had a deep love for nature, and I began to contemplate things like the "ark" and talking snake stories.

In my house growing up, the parents always taught that evolution was wrong and very sinful to even consider. So for awhile I strongly adhered to that brainwashed notion. Finally around college I started to realize how real and wonderful this biological process was in our world and realized we too evolved from a common ancestor. This and other arguments Christians couldn't rationalize, like why God lets some kids die horrific deaths while others are somehow (and in disproportionately lower numbers) "saved" ---er, made better by medical care.

I finally started to get comfortable being non religious in my 20's, maybe around 23-24. I'm 27 now. It is freeing to be fully comfortable in what you arrive at as truth. It's sad that being atheist/humanist or just plain non religious is so explicitly taboo in our country... But it's changing. Slowly but surely.
 
From DaveC426913 Post #7
How did that ultimately result in not believing in God?
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I considered the request for Abraham to murder his son to be demonic, not a request from a god worthy of worship.

When I mentioned my view to a Sunday school teacher, she tried to justify the request. This led to some arguments/discussions.

The result of the arguments/discussions was my concluding that the Abraham story was some evidence of a demonic god.

Later, the story of Job seemed like more evidence that the god of the Bible was not worthy of worship. Job’s family was slaughtered to test Job’s faith & win an argument with Satan. The perpetrator of this act does not seem like a good entity to me.

The above were the thoughts that led to my becoming an atheist.

BTW: The Job story indicates that old testament beliefs viewed the offspring of a patriarch as his property, rather than as human beings with rights to life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.
 
I always hated going to church, so that probably contributed.

As a teenager, I tried to prove that the stories of Creation and the Flood were scientifically correct. That was in the days before the deluge of creationist propaganda but I soon realized that it couldn't be done.
 
Abraham was a flipping nutjob.
(or a conman?)
However
That ain't the only path to "GOD", aka, the tao, the path, the great driving wheel of the universe.

If a church fosters community, then it has done good.
(That ain't always the case)

I could well be without Abraham, without feeling the need to be without god(atheist).

.................................
................................
I liked church, but mostly because I liked and respected the shepherd of that flock, the right honorable Reverend Zinn.
 
timojin said:
Not all , there are some metaphor or parables to make clear to the people to understand. Was there in the
past a king David , Cyrus the great, Herod the great, Moses, Abraham, Noah, and many more.
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What you don't seem to be getting is that it doesn't frickin matter to a ten-year-old modern Christian what excuses of time and culture the people
in the bible stories may have used for their barbaric practices; it doesn't matter how many other primitive cultures practiced the same barbaric rituals;
it doesn't matter whether the stories are historical, metaphorical, allegorical or mythological -
all that matters is that they depict the horrible god of nasty people
in the context of a 'holy book' that the modern children have been told is about the loving god of his chosen people....
and whatever horrible things this loving god may decide to do to you
is all your fault

The only choices we have are:
1. to worship a horrible god 2. pick out the nice bits and ignore or make excuses for the rest or 3. stop believing in any gods at all.
Some of us find option 3 the most consistent with continued sanity.
 
I don't know

Never went to church with any family

Did go to church around Christmas time as a student of Wilson's Grammar School London - all boys

Age about 12 to 17

Never any option to not go

There were a few combined services with a close by all girls school

Memories - singing

While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks by Night

which sounded like

While Shepherds Wash Their Socks by Night

Before that say age 6 to 8

Sunday school won a book Pilgrims Progress for attendance

Some sort of religious evening program

Came home one evening proclaiming god was everywhere

Grandmother looked at the ration book on the table and asked Is god there?

When I said yes

She said Tell him to put more stamps inside

I don't know to today and don't think I ever will know something clicked and I never believed again

I didn't say anything then and never after but strange all Sunday school and evening classes stopped

Weird

:)
 
On my way home from school some people was givin away free cool aid an cookies an said ther woud be more for anybody that showed up for sunday school... well i started goin an rarely missed... an then we was told that whoever went 6 weeks in a row wit-out missin woud win a little white bible wit gold on the edges of the pages an a little gold strang that hung down which was a bookmark... well after i won my bible i never went back cause durin that contest i learned that the sunday school teechers was Azz-Holes... an over 60 years later i still have ther little white bible... LOL.!!!

That was a Baptist church... i then moved to a Methodist sunday school an had a good run thar wit more free cookies an cool aid.!!!
 
cluelusshusbund said:
That was a Baptist church... i then moved to a Methodist sunday school an had a good run thar wit more free cookies an cool aid.!!!
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You were a cheap date. I'd rather sleep in or play soccer on a Sunday morning. Kool-aid is the beverage equivalent of those disgusting orange
tooth-extractor candies people used to fob us off with on Halloween. Hardly worth the bother. Probably stale Girl Scout cookies, too.
I got a big red illuminated & gilded bible at the Salvation Army thrift store, free. Have to wonder who gave it away. And why.
 
Jeeves said:
You were a cheap date. I'd rather sleep in or play soccer on a Sunday morning. Kool-aid is the beverage equivalent of those disgusting orange
tooth-extractor candies people used to fob us off with on Halloween. Hardly worth the bother. Probably stale Girl Scout cookies, too.
I got a big red illuminated & gilded bible at the Salvation Army thrift store, free. Have to wonder who gave it away. And why.
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Mom an dad worked 6 days a week but we still didnt sleep in on Sunday... it was always in bed by 10pm an up early... an Sunday meals was a feast (mom did the weekly shoppin on Saturday after work)... an breakfast always included some sort of desert such as blueberry muffins... an my favort was All-Bran muffins... an sometimes a nabor wit no teeth woud come by for dinner an eat corn on the cop... ah... good times... lol... an i coud play any time i wanted but free cookies an cool Aid was to good to pass up... an them church cookies was usualy homemade sugar-cookie type stuff (perty good)... i dont thank i ever ate a girl scout cookie... to expensive... but i was in the scouts for a while an made it to "Bobcat" (i still have my Bobcat pin)... but after several scout meetins i found out the hard way that the treets at the scout meetins wasnt provided by the scout teecher... they was provided by the scouts who took turns... an on the day that was aparently "my turn" i didnt brang no treets so the teecher brout some of her own food to the basement for us... but anyhow... ther was always somethin that woud come up that cost to much money so i quit.!!!

That free salvation army bible might have come from a dead person... just like sombody can have my little white bible after i die.!!!
 
I'm okay with a dead man's bible. Hope he went to Heaven, in spite of hardly reading it at all.
 
timojin said:
Not all , there are some metaphor or parables to make clear to the people to understand. Was there in the
past a king David , Cyrus the great, Herod the great, Moses, Abraham, Noah, and many more.
Click to expand...
Indeed. The world is rife with fictional stories of real people.
The fact that they existed doesn't necessarily mean the stories were real. There's surely some truth to them, but that is as likely to be an interpretation by the authors and the people of time.

And that is why the scriptures have to be taken with a large grain of salt. They were written with an agenda in-mind "to make clear for people to understand [whatever it is they want people to hear]", so their historical accuracy is in question.
 
Dinosaur said:
When Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, I considered it a demonic request. I considered Abraham to be evil when he agreed to the request. This started me on the path to being an atheist.

I was born when my father was almost 5o years old & semi-retired. Compared to the fathers of my classmates & friends, he had more time for me that most fathers.

The story of Abraham & Isaac was taught to me in Sunday school when I was circa 7-8 years old. It resulted in several discussions with my Sunday school teacher.

Perhaps those less bonded with their father or maybe those with more respect for Judaeo-Christian beliefs would not consider it a demonic request.

I was convinced that my father would refuse to comply with a request to sacrifice me and when/if I had a son I would similarly refuse to comply with such a request.
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This is all fine and dandy, but why not be a Christian despite this belief.
 
Jeeves said:
Because it's impossible. The whole concept it's based on is loathsome and unacceptable to a moral being.
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When i was in 9th grade i had 2 buddies that beleived that each other was goin to hell cause they went to the wrong church... one was Church of Christ an the other was Baptist... an to me... that stoopidity was just anuther unnecessary nail in Jesus's Cross.!!!
 
I can't imagine Jesus would have liked most of his self-professed followers. So it's just as well he's imaginary himself.
 
Xelasnave.1947 said:
For me it was one thing after the other.
I recall thinking about the supposed flood and how cruel god was to kill every human and animal except those on the magic boat.
The story seemed phoney to me as I could not see how one could gather two of each animal from all around the world. This seemed impossible because of the vast distances between the continents. I also could not work out how the whole planet could be covered in water or where it drained away to when the rain stopped.
I recall that after the deaths of a whole family by fire in our small town wondering why god with all his power did not save them. The parents were good people and the children did not deserve to die in such a horrible way.
I could not understand why god let people suffer and die if he had the power to do everything.
I began to think god was just made up and used like a bogeyman by the church to get people to go to church and give them money. There were many poor folk in my little town I could not understand why they had to give money to the church when the church in Rome had so much treasure.
And seeing folk say grace always got to me. They thanked the lord for their food when clearly it was the farmer who did all the work to grow the cattle and vegetables and god certainly did not cook it.
I always thought it should be the farmer and the cook who should get thanked.
I then started to think folk who believed in god must be stupid because they never woke up to the fact they were being conned.
Alex
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Ditto to all that & to Dinosaur's reaction to the horror of Abraham agreeing to & preparing to kill his son.
Your comment about farmers reminds me of people whose lives I saved thanking their imaginary fiend instead of me.

<>
 
You know the joke about the Christian in the flood, sitting on the roof of his house, praying to be saved?
Boat comes along, offers to take him on board, but his faith is strong; says: "The Lord will save me." and keeps praying.
Rescue helicopter hovers over him, throws down a rope ladder. With unshakable faith, the guy sends it away: "The Lord will save me."
Flood keeps on coming; guy drowns. Standing at the foot of the big throne, guy asks: "Oh Lord, my faith was absolute. Why did you not save me?"

The real punchline was: Ì sent you a boat and helicopter, what were you waiting for?" - So God also takes credit away from the rescue workers.
The punchline I prefer is: "I did. Here you are."
 
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