How many of you have never been religious and/or never had a belief
in a god or gods?
I would have to say I was never religious, since the only time I accepted the notion of a god, it was in the same way that I accepted the notion of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I gave up on Santa when I was 3 (caught my parents in the middle of the night). The Easter Bunny went with him, along with the Tooth Fairy, and anything else that might have been mentioned. I would have to say that's probably when I first doubted the god thing. I didn't make any firm decisions for a while because unlike with Santa et al, the adults were very serious in saying their god
existed. I was still of the opinion then that adults knew a whole lot
more than I did (which I know now to be merely in quantity from more experience, not related to truth).
I remember one time when I was maybe 7 or 8, I was talking to a friend and mentioned the god thing. I followed through with what I was taught,
making him omniscient and omnipotent. He was making us say everything we were saying, even the discussion about him. Every action we made was directly caused by him. At that point, I would think, I first decided
that what I was saying was nonsense. From then on, I became very
skeptical of religion, finally deciding before I was 12 that it was absolutely full of shit.
I spent the next six years believing that everyone was stupid, that I was the only one who could see how ridiculous this religion thing was. It wasn't until I was 18 that I got the first clue that I was not at all
alone in my way of thinking. Every year since then, learning more and
more about what religions has done over the ages, I am more and more affirmed in the truth of what I decided. I see now that religion is not only ridiculous, but evil, something I didn't consider at all when I
became officially an atheist (before I knew the word existed, incidentally). This is, of course, using the definition that "evil" is something that works to the detriment of humanity.
So, no, I was never religious, and consciously chose atheism over the
noise of religion that I was being inundated with while growing up. I
knew no other atheists until I was 18, so there can be no question of the view being forced on my by someone. It was forced on me by reality, and nothing else. (Mike Ruskai #1106)
My sisters and I were always excused from religious instruction conducted by the itinerant bible thumpers that roamed the countryside in those days, and I was the first student in my high school to protest being forced to stand during daily P.A. recitals of the Lord's Prayer. We were viewed as oddities, but there was no ostracism that I was aware of. Had we lived
in the U.S. (or at least certain sections of it) I'm sure our experiences would have been somewhat different :-(
During early adulthood I dabbled in Zen, and the I Ching as well as the philosophies of Carl Jung. They were interesting, but once you've had
your protective coating of spiritual Teflon applied, nothing sticks :-)
Now my two nieces are atheists as well. Fortunately, most of their
friends are atheist or agnostic, so it's just not a big deal any more. There's evidence of evolution for you! (Paul Chefurka #1029)
Before that, when I was about three years old, I was taken by my mother
to see a friend of hers, who had a son who was suffering from muscular dystrophy. He was in a wheelchair, and very thin, and very pale.
Allegedly, when we got home I asked my mother if he was God. I haven't a clue what possessed me to think of such a thing. My mother told me that
he wasn't God, and I was too young to think of asking, "But how do you know? He could be, couldn't he? That's no more ridiculous a hypothesis
than the one about the white-bearded old man in flowing robes sitting on
a cloud surrounded by angels playing golden harps." That was also round about the time I stopped believing in Father Christmas (we didn't call
him Santa Claus in those days).
When I was twelve my mother finally found a religion she liked: the Society of Friends. She
and I went to Quaker meetings for a few years, and I went to Quaker summer schools. At one
summer school there was a debate about the existence of God, and a vote. I was a "don't know",
but I was surprised to discover that the majority of the twelve-to-seventeen-year-olds there
did *not* believe in God, despite having Quaker parents. This got me thinking. When I was
sixteen I finally admitted to myself that I didn't believe in God either, and plucked up the
courage to call myself an atheist, which was what I really had been for some time, if not
always. Now my parents call themselves atheists, too. My sister married a man who had a
Plymouth Brethren upbringing, and is now a non-specific Christianish theist. (Eveline Bron
#1147)
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