How did your religious beliefs (or lack of them) come about for you?

[Ether's Bane]

Basically, how did you come to believe in the religion (or non-religion) that you do today?

Here's my story.

I was raised in a mixed-religious household. My father and grandmother are Christian, my grandfather is Buddhist, (yes, my grandparents live in the same house as me) and my mother is a general theist who doesn't follow a particular religion. I was not raised with a religion. Virtually everyone on my dad's side is a Christian, and one day when I was 6, one of my aunts (on my dad's side) took me to the Sunday school at her church. After that Sunday's session, I asked the Sunday school coordinator who God was and what he does, and she explained it in all the usual stuff. I thought of it as a load of bullcrap and closed the door in my mind to that belief, and until I was 10, I was a very strong atheist.

Then came that day in school. It was Ethical Studies period (that's a school subject in Malaysia), and we were learning about how religion makes everything better and stuff like that, and I mentioned that I didn't believe in God, as did one other girl. The teacher kept us back after class and "set us straight" about God. (Our teacher was a pretty serious Christian.) From what I can tell, that other girl remained an atheist, but in my mind, I felt that the teacher was always right, and I started believing in God.

When I went to secondary school, I went to (and still am in) a Catholic school. There, Christianity was presented in such an appealing way, and before long, I started accepting it, and soon, I was taking it fairly seriously - frequently going to church and all that, and I considered myself a Christian.

Then came the first bombshell.

One day, the pastor's message was basically a 90-minute anti-homosexuality tirade. Then, I thought to myself, "Okay, I'll just forget about that part and follow the rest of Christianity", not realizing that what he had said was hateful and bigoted. About a month later, I realized that the creation story in the Bible couldn't possibly be true, since there was so much proof for evolution, which I knew about. Despite these, I still considered myself a Christian.

Cue April 2010.

I was alone in my room, thinking to myself about things, when I wondered about my religion. Soon, I realized that there was no real reason that I believed in what I did. In the months that followed, I became a general theist, then an agnostic, and finally, this October, I became an atheist. I'm not as strong an atheist as I was when I was 8 or 9 years old, but I'm still one all the same, now.

 

[Harlequin]

I was born. Nobody told me to believe in fairies or magic. I didn't. Fast forward some years. I still don't.

 

[Abwayax]

I was born. Nobody told me to believe in fairies or magic. I didn't. Fast forward some years. I still don't.

This, basically. Never saw the value in believing in some higher power, especially since the believers of this higher power can't quite agree on how to worship Him. You'd think if He really cared, He'd set them straight. I mean, He did in the Old Testament... Besides, if He really did exist, I don't think He'd be worthy of my worship anyway.

Although at least one time, someone asked me if I believed in God. I told them I didn't. They assumed the opposite of "believe in God" is "believe in the Devil."

 

[Tailsy]

Um, I was forced to be indoctrinated into the Catholic church because my family is Catholic and that is What You Do. And then I realised that God is a stupid concept and that I'm not actually interested in whether it exists or not, because I've got better things to do.

And now I'm an atheist. Yay!

 

[allitersonance]

I vaguely believed in God because it was part of the "This is how things are" that I learned alongside science and history and everything else. Around 14 years of age or so, I realised there was no real reason I believed in it other than it was what I was told (and started seeing why we always had to learn how someone formed a theory or something during science classes), so I stopped. TCoD might have helped a bit since it put my thoughts into words (and added pages and pages). Not a major change - faith was never that important, and going to church always felt annoying and pointless. I more or less dropped the label of "Catholic" as soon as I realised atheism existed.

It was only around 17 years of age or so that I reasoned it out more (I still don't believe it's necessary but it's nice to have, I suppose) so I could potentially argue on the issue. If my brain and vocal cords didn't flee at the prospect of social interaction.

 

[voltianqueen]

Like four eyes zero soul said, religion (Christianity) was just one of those things I learned about when I was younger... But I don't know if I actually BELIEVED, because it never really made that much sense to me. Like a belief without belief or something. Around 12-13ish I started wondering more..and just kinda started to forget all of it.

Then I came to TCoD's debate forum, and that was that ;)

 

[shy ♡]

I vaguely believed in God because it was part of the "This is how things are" that I learned alongside science and history and everything else. Around 14 years of age or so, I realised there was no real reason I believed in it other than it was what I was told (and started seeing why we always had to learn how someone formed a theory or something during science classes), so I stopped. TCoD might have helped a bit since it put my thoughts into words (and added pages and pages). Not a major change - faith was never that important, and going to church always felt annoying and pointless. I more or less dropped the label of "Catholic" as soon as I realised atheism existed.

It was only around 17 years of age or so that I reasoned it out more (I still don't believe it's necessary but it's nice to have, I suppose) so I could potentially argue on the issue. If my brain and vocal cords didn't flee at the prospect of social interaction.

Rly, you seemed pretty concrete on the issue at 14.

Anyhow I was raised Jewish and was very avidly so until like, 13 or something, around puberty. Then I realized it's a pile of shit and that was that. :v

 

[Tarvos]

I made a blog post about it somewhere, but I'm very, very happy with how I was raised on this front. The thing about my upbringing is that my parents were raised Catholics but have never shown any inclination to believe in it (my mother's definitely atheist and my father... doesn't seem to care). I was hence not baptised unlike many of my cousins. My parents always encouraged me to learn about religion, but they never forced me to believe in anything. However they did this the same way my father encouraged me to learn about mathematics or physics. My parents never cared so much about religious education as they cared about me learning and going to school and being academic. They put me on a public school as a child. I went to a Catholic high school, but it wasn't very Catholic. It was "open catholic", which basically means as much as "we're catholic in name and pretend we're founded on those principles because it gives us extra cash from the government, but we don't care if you are". Reason I went had more to do with them offering a bilingual track rather than religion.

I didn't really consciously think about religion as a kid, and when I turned 14 or so I started thinking and really delving into religion. The only ethical thing I found I remotely could agree with was Buddhism, and that I rejected. So I became an atheist because I didn't see the point of religion, and then I read some more science books and went into science, where everyone is an atheist except some crazy people. So :v

 

[Minish]

I was raised in an utterly non-religious, non-spiritual, non-caring family. I heard words like "God" and "Jesus" at school, but they meant virtually nothing to me. Religious was just some thing that other people were, far away, just like how Chinese people and my dad's side of the family were also far away. In highschool, I learnt that people were actually religious, but nobody around me was. Where I live, being Christian is considered a novelty, and there's about one in ten or fifteen people who actually are, even less who are willing to talk about it.

All throughout highschool I've been agnostic, until a few years ago I realised I was a pantheist/soft polytheist, but that's... just the way I am. I've always had odd spiritual ideas that didn't really go with "religion". I still don't really consider myself religious at all, although that might be because if I told my family I was in any way religious I'd be treated even more like a freak than usual.

 

[Teh Ebil Snorlax]

I was raised in a loosely-Catholic household, i.e. my mother is Catholic enough and my dad was atheist but didn't interfere when my mother indoctrinated us. I can't actually remember if I ever really believed what I was raised to believe, certainly, by the time I was ten, I was atheist, simply because logic, science and reason > religion, but that didn't stick well with my peer group, so I pussied out and went through the motions of Catholicism for two more years before saying "fuck it" and telling anyone who asked that I was atheist.

 

[Stormecho]

Ehh. My family was Catholic, I was born and raised a Catholic but... we didn't do much. I read the Bible for enjoyment when I had read everything else in the house, and didn't pray or go to church. At about 7th Grade, I started getting migraines from stress and I missed so much school and meetings for Confirmation that I wasn't confirmed or anything of the sort. Later, I stumbled onto TCoD, my friends came out to be many things other than straight, and I realized Christianity kind of sucks with some of it's rules. :/ And that I had just been part of it as a habit, and that wasn't what I wanted.

...So yeah. Now I'm searching for a religion, and a little bit biased against Christianity as a whole. This year my religion teacher tried to convert me, so I notified the chaplain and switched out to Anthropology instead.

 

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

My mother was raised Catholic and my dad's entire family was/is atheist. They didn't baptize me or anything and told me I could choose my belief. My grandmother tried a few times to make me believe but to be honest I never actually remember thinking any god was real. Embarassingly, I believed in Santa until I was about seven.

So yeah, hooray for no indoctrination whatsoever \o/

 

[goldenquagsire]

My parents (one lapsed Catholic and one lapsed CoE but both currently atheist) never made a big deal about religion, probably because they had enough trouble on their hands raising two obnoxiously difficult children. Growing up I couldn't really comprehend the idea that there was anything in the world except for what we could identify with our senses, and I still find it difficult to understand how people can have faith.

Oh, and I never believed in Santa. Again, I think it was because my parents never encouraged the belief and preferred that I'd be grateful to my relatives for giving me presents, rather than a pretend person. :P

 

[Music Dragon]

I was born. Nobody told me to believe in fairies or magic. I didn't. Fast forward some years. I still don't.

This. I find it utterly fascinating that people are even capable of religious faith in spite of the obvious absurdity of it.

 

[surskitty]

Raised catholic whenever my mom was living with her parents (so probably from 5 to 7) but didn't really ... care. I just thought some of it was interesting as far as stories go :/ I still have a bible-themed Where's Waldo in my room.

Most of my family expects me to be more of a lapsed catholic but haha atheist. Possibly vaguely buddhist. ... I certainly go to temples more than I do church.

 

[Flora]

My mom was Catholic and my dad converted to Catholicism due to my mo, so I kinda got raised on that. But after a while my mom got pissed enough that she stopped going to church and kinda gave up on Catholicism thanks to its stupid beliefs. I followed her on that and now identify as a non-denominational Christian. Actually, the only reason I go to Chruch is cause I'm forced to.

 

[Zuu]

mental illness, probably.

 

[Clover]

Part the first, taking place some day soon before ninth grade:

<Midnight> beh. this biology book has an evolution chapter.
<opaltiger> ... and?
<Midnight> well, ah, not everyone believes in evolution...
<opaltiger> ... [proceeds to explain evolution and answer any and all of my questions]
<Midnight> oh. that all makes sense now. thank you!

It was kind of like how I stopped believing in Santa -- first I realized the tooth fairy was kind of ridiculous and asked my mom about it, then continued "so I guess that means the same for the easter bunny ... and santa claus?" Now I kind of wish I had continued "and god?"


Part the second: There was a huge blowup three summers ago when I commented on one of brother's Halo maps titled "Noah's Ark". It basically went like:

me: "'Noah's Ark' is kind of weird, huh? Where do you think they put all those animals and their food and stuff?"
brother's friend: "Well, God took care of it."
me: "What about the water and stuff, where did it all go off to? I find it hard to believe."

and mom, from her bedroom, yelled "WHAT" and stormed out. "YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD?"
"well uh that's not exactly what i said but"
"GO TO YOUR ROOM"

and there was crying and yelling over the next few days and very tense feelings for the next few weeks. so we don't tend to bring it up, but it is known that I am not a Christian. We don't even ever go to church on Easter or Christmas, so I seriously never expected it to be that big of a deal.

Yeeep.

 

[Noctowl]

I don't really know. O.o My parents are not religious, so I suppose I got it from them. Though I faintly remember reading science books about all these religious people not listening to science and getting all grumpy at religion in general.

 

[Espeon]

I was brought up as religious and slowly fell out of it, completely rejecting the possibility of any religion by the age of 14. The majority of my friends were also atheists and encouraged their non-beliefs. However, by the time I was 17 I realised that I'd just let other people dictate what religion I was. As such, I'm currently an agonostic because I believe that any form of religious and atheistic extremisms are just as bad as each other and that I should take control of my own beliefs rather than having other people telling me what I should believe. Currently I'm just waiting for some form of event, though not necessarily physical, to happen which will aid in defining what I think.