Who used to be very religious who is no longer religious at all?

Seattle

Seattle

Valued Senior Member
I would like to hear from someone who was religious (maybe fundamental Christian) who is now an atheist. It would be interesting to hear how you went from being certain there was a God to being certain there is no God.

I saw a video on YouTube where someone says that they used to be a fundamental Christian (for years). Now they are an atheist and are very articulate and well informed and you would never know that they had been a fundamental Christian.

This is why I think of religion as being a disease or a cult. This same process occurs with cultists. They seem crazy when they are in the cult and if they get out and you talk to them years later they are normal, rational, intelligent people for the most part.

Have any of you gone from being a delusional fundamentalist to an atheist? I'd like to hear how you because so indoctrinated in the first place and then how you were able to make a full 360 degree turn in your thinking.
 
Indoctrinated into anything when you are young isn't easy to fight against since it is your parents that told you or took you to their own church or discussed their own beliefs. To talk back against your parents wouldn't be done for if you did you'd be punished by them for not complying. When you're young the only people that you trust are your parents so you really don't know anything else since you've not been exposed to anything else. I was brought up in a family that said to me never discuss religion or politics when around other people so I never did. It wasn't until later in life that I found, through school, that there are a myriad of different things I knew little about but became educated through my own readings and discussions with others.

I was not delusional when introduced into religion for I thought everyone was that religion at first but later found many different religions that my friends had and they weren't delusional either.
 
I was into Christian religious faith, but not really fundamentalism, to a large degree, depending on the god of my belief for my survival, as I saw things. If something good happened, then I figured God was behind it. I hadn't really figured out that if God was behind good things, where was he the other times? About high school time, things began to not make sense to me about my religion, or anyone else's that I knew of. It seemed too much like things in the universe just went along as though on autopilot, and that the supernatural basis of religion was, and still is, imaginary.

Once I had access to the Internet then I was able to wonder less about religion and actually check out other people's ideas on it without having to be open with people that I knew about what I was doing. It didn't have to come up in my physical life except with people that I was in constant contact with on a deep level.

I found out how religion most likely developed ages ago in times of little knowledge about the universe to explain the world and as a way to deal with fear. Actually, I confirmed that, which I had learned from Carl Sagan in the late eighties. Religious belief helped more than it hurt general survival, and so it was naturally selected through evolution. That is one reason why people have a strong tendency toward religion and superstition still to this day.
 
Once you have found "GOD" religion is like going back to kindergarten after getting a phd.
 
I was a hardcore christian believer from like the age of 13 until about 20. I totally bought into the lie that I was a sinridden creature who needed to be washed in the blood of Jesus to be accepted by God. I also kept track of modern day events as signs Jesus' second coming was near. This religious faith of mine wasn't so much imposed on me by my parents as something I just developed on my own. Noone else in my family besides my mom was particularly religious. I was sent to a church school and fully reaped the benefits of an inadequate science education. By the time I reached 21, I was already questioning everything. My interest in philosophy lead me thru a sequence of thinkers from Niezstche to Whitehead to Jung to Heidegger and Sartre. By the time I was in my late 20's I was living out my gayness in Austin Texas partying every weekend. Religion came to symbolize everything hateful and superstitious that I had liberated myself from. To this day I am very opposed to the influence Christianity has on our society and its attempts to enslave minds in fear, guilt, and false hope. But I am a living example that you CAN free yourself from its delusional programming.
 
Seattle said:
Have any of you gone from being a delusional fundamentalist to an atheist?
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Do you actually expect respect for harassing people with religious beliefs by calling them "delusional fundamentalists"?
 
I was raised and educated as a good Catholic boy, and was also an Altar boy, but got the flick when I was caught with another, drinking the altar wine behind the altar. :)
 
youreyes said:
Do you actually expect respect for harassing people with religious beliefs by calling them "delusional fundamentalists"?
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The purpose of my post was to seek respect and since I was asking the question of people who had gone from that state to become atheists I didn't figure it would be problematic to its intended audience.
 
It seems that maybe a common theme is that those that get out do so by disassociating themselves from that environment (family, church group, small town culture) and after that with the passage of time (and intellectual curiosity of course).
 
Seattle said:
I would like to hear from someone who was religious (maybe fundamental Christian) who is now an atheist. It would be interesting to hear how you went from being certain there was a God to being certain there is no God.
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At sunday school one time... we was told that God is always watchin us... an i believed it so much that i was uncomfortable in the bath tub that night thankin that the old bearded God-man was watchin me take a bath.!!!

My parents gave the impression that they thout God was real... but they didnt go to church... or even own a bible that i know of.!!!

Below is the little white bible i won for perfect attendance at Sunday school... which was perty easy to win cause they had free cool-aid an cookies.!!!

410512054.jpg


Its around 55 years old an looks it on the outside... but the inside is like brand new.!!!

Anyhow... i ant certan that Bible-God dont exist... but if he does exist hes a monster.!!!

A-Man.!!!
 
StrangerInAStrangeLa said:
That seems to be the common consensus but I strongly disagree. Religion has hurt much more than helped.
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I don't think he was arguing that religion has done more good than harm. I think he was talking about the evolutionary basis as it applied to survival among early man.
 
StrangerInAStrangeLa said:
Survival of who?
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Let me take another tack, our brain sees patterns where there are none. It's not accurate but it had a basis for this as we are social creatures and it's more important for us to recognize our family and friends even if sometimes we see faces in bushes, clouds, etc. This is (perhaps) an evolutionary element for this inaccuracy in our brain.

It (religion) may have helped in social cohesivness among early man and there may have been little harm. As societies grew larger than just people you could know then what may have been a positive thing (with regards to survival) may not have been so positive after that.

That's just a theory. I don't think that's the same thing as saying (as some do) that overall religion has done more good than harm. In any event I wouldn't agree that religion has done more good than harm. I don't think it has actually done any good nor do I think it can be the basis for good. It is the basis for subjugation of man to God and that's it.
 
Seattle said:
Let me take another tack, our brain sees patterns where there are none. It's not accurate but it had a basis for this as we are social creatures and it's more important for us to recognize our family and friends even if sometimes we see faces in bushes, clouds, etc. This is (perhaps) an evolutionary element for this inaccuracy in our brain.

It (religion) may have helped in social cohesivness among early man and there may have been little harm. As societies grew larger than just people you could know then what may have been a positive thing (with regards to survival) may not have been so positive after that.

That's just a theory. I don't think that's the same thing as saying (as some do) that overall religion has done more good than harm. In any event I wouldn't agree that religion has done more good than harm. I don't think it has actually done any good nor do I think it can be the basis for good. It is the basis for subjugation of man to God and that's it.
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It (religion) may have helped in social cohesivness within a tribe but it would've usually had the opposite effect between tribes. Often this type of thing is discussed concerning the individual, the family & the tribe but tho tribes often fought for various reasons (mostly relating to fear), they often needed each other. Rarely was there any overpopulation. Religion mostly made a bad situation worse.
 
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Seattle said:
Let me take another tack, our brain sees patterns where there are none. It's not accurate but it had a basis for this as we are social creatures and it's more important for us to recognize our family and friends even if sometimes we see faces in bushes, clouds, etc. This is (perhaps) an evolutionary element for this inaccuracy in our brain.
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I & others often see what looks very much like faces, animals, cars, buildings, etc in clouds, bushes & ceilings. The problem is what some people try to make that mean. Not that people never hallucinate but often people accurately see what is there then assume it must have been designed by a conscious intelligent being rather than being quite natural configurations.
 
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