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cepheus

Good point. Anyone who's done enough drugs knows that the brain is capable of some crazy things.

To answer the original question, I was raised Baptist, and I feel sorry for anyone who has to grow up in that church.

 

causeismokedatkush42

zeitgeistmovie.com go watch it its crazy anyone who believes in god might feel like an idiot haha seriously thou this movie is weird as sh*t u gotta watch it

asphodela

I was raised as a Muslim. I was fortunate in that my parents were not extremists but they were very moderate Muslims, I wasn't forced to wear a headcover or pray, my parents' main concern was just that I believed in god and read the holy book (the quraan). However, I have been exposed to extremist muslims and I truly feel incredibly sorry for their children, I honestly think that extremist muslims are absolutely terrible people. In many ways they are often worse than evangelical christians.

For a period of time during my childhood, I would say from about ages 8-11, I was very religious and actively believed in god and prayed, etc. It was truly a terrible period of time for me, I was constantly extremely afraid of doing anything even remotely bad (such as not picking up other people's litter, thinking the word "damn", etc.) because I was terrified of going to hell. The psychological damage that religion can inflict on young children is incredible. It really was not a happy time period for me, instead of feeling as though I had a meaning or purpose, I just felt constantly scared and worried. Eventually I was able to depart from my religion, around age 12 I stopped being religious although I didn't think about it too much but now I consider myself an atheist. As another poster mentioned, I feel like I have "discovered" science instead. I don't mean to say that science is a form of religion. I just mean that I find scientific study to be much more fulfilling than religious study.

In any case, I just thought I'd contribute a little from the perspective of someone who was raised in a religion that was not Christianity. I think that Islam is a religion that affects your lifestyle more than christianity, because whereas christianity mainly mandates belief and church attendance and just generally being a "good person" as defined by the church (although different sects of Christianity may require different things), a practicing Muslim has to pray 5 times a day, fast for a month out of the year, donate a specified percentage of their income to charity (although this is in my opinion a good thing it does affect your lifestyle and is difficult for those who are already poor to fulfill), avoid eating pork which for some can equate to not eating at any restaurants or fast food places and never eating pizza (they are afraid that the food will be prepared with utensils that have previously come into contact with pork), and for many women wearing a headcover... It's truly not an enjoyable way to live, in my opinion. Despite this however, most of the people I know who were raised Muslim have remained muslim, it's not a religion that produces many atheists/agnostics, which I believe is because it takes over your lifestyle so completely and tends to foster closed-mindedness to an extent that you don't even consider the validity of the religion or what other options may be available to you.

homemadebubbler

I was raised jewish, but very loosely. Had my bar mitzvah at the age of 13, and havent been back to a synagog since. Around that time I just started doubting the exsistance of god, reading through the lines a little bit, and considering how and why religion exists. i pretty much decided at that age that organized religion and god were simply created to keep people in line, etc.

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ThePico

I was raised Episcopalian. I enjoyed it, I liked the sense of community. It also felt kinda nice feeling like someone was watching over me, or when you die you don't just rot.

Then, I learned about other religions, which made no sense, if I were a member of the one true religion, why should there be others? No matter the strength of the faith you feel, there are other people who feel just as fervently about their beliefs.

Then, while learning about these other religions, I began to realize that what they feel for their religion. I also realized I felt, nothing. I was a kid, then, it wasn't "the word of God" I liked, it was the people, the crafts, all that stuff. The words of the Bible just seem kinda hollow to me.

I may pick up a religion of some sort if I can find one that jumps out to me as the truth, but until then, I'll just continue on working on my philosophy major.(Oh yeah! I'm gonna be a teacher or wait tables the rest of my life.) I like philosophy, anyways, especially the study of religions. I like finding out what different people believe and how it affects how they think.

 

Ringwielder

Hi, I was a Jehovah's Witness for nearly 40 years having been brought up in the faith from the age of 7. I was an elder and I sincerely believed that I had the truth from the Bible. I regularly prayed to God and believed the Scriptures which says that if we ask in faith, God will answer.

I am now an agnostic. I had a breakdown in my early 40's. I could not focus on anything, I could not pray to God, but hoped that He would hear my 'groanings unuttered' Rom 8:26. I hoped He would give me the strength to endure my ordeal. What happened? Nothing at all. I was on the floor mentally and spiritually. I felt totally abandoned. I felt worthless and that God did not want me. One evening I met someone who had recently left the JWs and he suggested it may not be me but the Organization who were wrong.

Subsequently, I did some research and I discovered that the organization I thought had the truth, did not. The Governing body had massaged their history and have been dishonest in their dealings with the rank and file JWs. There are many other things I will not go into here, but I am coming to the reason why many Ex JWs lose their faith in God.

I belong to an Ex JW forum and recently we discussed this subject. We discovered that those who were BORN into the religion or came into it at an early age were the ones who had lost faith in everything, God, the Bible, religion. This is because our only experience with God and religion was as a JW. We were innocent, sincere, genuine in our faith. So when we discovered that what we thought was truth was not, it had the effect of our not being able to trust any religion, any God. Also it led most of us to examine the Bible even more closely, and for us, it did not stand up as truth anymore.

My question is, if, as the Scriptures say, God is not far of from each one of us, why did He allow us to languish in a faith for all those years and not show us the truth? He never answered any of my prayers. And like some of the other posters here have said, why are there 1000's of sects of Christianity, all genuinely believing THEY have the truth? It means the author of the Bible was not a very good communicator. I dont believe the God of the Bible created us. I am agnostic as to whether there is a Creator.

Higher Logic

Raised Christian, both in the Midwest, South, and Southwest, so everything from Southern Baptist to Lutheran to Presbyterian to non-denominational.

Never Catholic though, entirely different side of the "Christian" coin, at least from what I heard all my life and experienced. Every Christian I knew considered Catholics to be just that, Catholics, and not Christians (no need to get on a technical level here about how they're both from the same tree). Where a Baptist or Methodist could say,"I'm a Christian," you wouldn't hear a Catholic saying that, they'd say "I'm a Catholic."

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macphearsome

well, somebody who is religious-turned-atheist likely did not feel the love of God enough to make it difficult for them to decide that he didn't exist.

being raised to believe in God, and Jesus, and Angels and what-have-you, a person is likely to convince themself that they have indeed experienced and/or seen such phenomena.

When, after several years, the childhood faith starts to wane in the face of so many questions... it can be quite easy to look back and say "that was a big lie; I didn't feel the love of God, and I didn't see angels."

This is my personal experience. I used to pray every night. I used to think I could feel the presence of God. I once thought I saw an angel.

When I learned more and more about the world around me, the questions became too many, and religion was unable to answer them.

The question "why did I think I could feel the love of God?" was all too easy for me to answer. I lied to myself.

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macphearsome

I would argue that, except in the case of being raised in a particularly silly religion (FSM, Mormon, JW, etc), the propensity of an individual to lose their religion is more likely to be a result of other factors than which religion they practiced; or, I suppose, specific factors that can be related to the religion but not necessarily part of the doctrine, if you know what I mean.

1) how much of your family is religious. this one, I suppose, tends to favour some religious groups more heavily than others.

2) wealth! I believe that wealthy persons are more likely to become atheist, because they need to pray to God less and less :P

3) education: no offense, but the more you learn about the world, the more likely you are to question the ability of your 2000+ year old religious texts to guide you.

Trocisp

Macphearsome, how exactly do you define "silly religions?"

That's painting a lot of religions with a single brush stroke.