Atheists & Theists: Was there a time in your life you started believing/doubting?
For atheists,
- was there ever a time in your life when you started believing, or may be gave it a chance?
- if yes, when was it?
- Why did you give it a chance?
- What made you give it up?
For theists,
- Was there ever a time in your life when you started doubting?
- If yes, when was it?
- Why did you doubt?
- What made you stop doubting?
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I'm Christian and been doubting it for a while. Mainly because the theory of God is hard for me to grasp and understand.
I still present myself as a Christian however, I like the 'community'. Plus I personally find the history pretty interesting.
As a Child, I never really cared about religion since it wasn't the focus of my life, although I did go to church sometimes(still do on occasion since it can be nice) and in primary school, we were taught about religion, even then though, I never really put much thought to it.
As I grew older however, I did doubt the possibility of any kind of 'higher power', I thought it was baloney, but there were times I wanted to believe, but those moments, I think, were rather few in comparison to how much I doubted. Until one night, I gave praying and wishing a shot, it wasn't the best night as something pretty bad happened in my life, so I asked if there is a higher power, could they set this conflict right? Not long after, only a couple or so days, my prayer/wish came into fruition and that made me reevaluate my own personal beliefs and I truly began to believe that a higher power does indeed exist. Of course, I still had some lingering doubts, but whenever something bad happened in my life, I'd always pray/wish to a higher power to stop these bad things or to create a good outcome and my prayers were answered and wishes came true.
One could say all this is just coincidence and I too still pertained some lingering doubt, until I reached a moment in my life where I felt quite sad and lonely in high school and I wished for a new friend who could lighten the mood for, not only myself, but for my other friends who needed someone to cheer them up with nice banter and not long after, there's a new kid that comes to our school and we became friends rather quickly and he did cheer allot of us up, he still does and his banter surely lightens the mood. From then on, I began to fully believe that there is someone/something or even multiples beyond that watch out for us but that's just my experience with beliefs and I'm not saying that this is proof for everyone else but it certainly is proof for me.
That being said, I believe that a higher power exists but I can't say that I believe a book dictates who the higher power is and/or their opinions over certain topics.
Was there ever a time in your life when you started doubting?
Yeah, of course. Doubt can strenghten your (un)belief, you have to think it all through with yourself.
If yes, when was it?
When I was 13, I believe. I still somehow doubt, and I don't really know if it will completely leave me.
Why did you doubt?
Simply because there were many different religions, teachings, and I had to find in myself a reason why did I exactly believe in x and y and stuff. Sometimes, a thought of no god or deity existing would come on my mind, but it never lasted for too long. I just can't believe there is no god, and I am pretty dang happy with my state with my religion. Also, living in a small town in a small country where not many people even 'believe' in things like evolution made me think twice. I still learn new things every single day, because I want to.
EDIT added : What made you stop doubting? Have I 100% stopped doubting? Nope. I think some kind of a doubt will always linger around, because we can't really see God so it's a biiiit difficult. For a full year I investigated, came across many different opinions and facts also, and I don't wanna ever stop, frankly. But the ultimate answer for me would probably be small personal experiences and the whole thing just making sense to me.
I'm an atheist, and I've always been one. I think I'm too much of a natural cynic to be anything else.
I do have a semi-religious dad, and I did attend a semi-religious school (we had to sing hymns, preform bible plays, and do other ghastly things of that nature) but if anything their attempts at instilling religious values on me had a reverse effect.
So no, I've never doubted my beliefs (or lack thereof) on the subject of theology.
I used to be a Christian, but stopped when I simply asked myself why I believed Christianity to be true rather than any other religion.
Why is Christianity true and not Islam? Why Christianity and not the Greek gods?
There's absolutely no reason to believe one over the other, and as a result I have a hard time believing any of them are particularly worth devoting a life towards.
I was raised Christian. It never took. It irks me that people say "what made you lose your faith?" As though not believing is the result of some terrible abuse that happened to me. Honestly, it was just a matter of going to church school and being like "Really? people believe this?"
A few times, yes.
A few weeks ago, as a matter of fact.
Because of ISIS. They kept destroying the world, city by city, and I thought there was no hope left for the world.
I just kept telling myself that there's still hope. But if not, God will take take me up to heaven, and I won't have to worry about any of that anymore. And I also kept telling myself that Trump will win the election :P
I used to be a Christian. I went to Sunday school, I read the bible every night before bed, because that's what I was taught to do. I was mostly influenced by my grandmother, who was very religious.
I started to question all if this around nine or ten; how little sense it made. I eventually started watching videos on YouTube about atheism, which was what strengthened my doubt in Christianity. To this day, I call myself an agnostic Atheist. Luckily my parents were never religious, so there was never any problems whatsoever there.
No, I went from being a Christian to being an Atheist. If I ever believed or thought I believe, that was before I'd realized that I actually didn't and that religion made no sense to me any longer.
You bet your life I don't need religion.
I was raised in a christian family. My grandparents are Christian and taught me how to pray, my father studied in a seminar when he was younger and my mother has always puched me to go to church. I remember believing in god ever since I was born.
My best friend stopped believing after her grandmother died. I guess her influence planted 'the seeds' that made me wonder.
Now, I just don't see any logical reason to believe in such thing. I've never felt anything related to spirituality and I'm pretty skeptical of people who claim they have. I also don't see religion as a good thing in general which makes me want to stay the hell away from it even more.
As a child, I believed in God simply because my parents did. At age 10-11 I suddenly started to be religious and even pray much more often that I did - I still don't understand why. But after about a year like this I became an agnostic because I realized that this is what I truly believe in. I don't know if there's God or not, there could be anything! So religion just wasn't for me.
In some way, Lovecraft's universe has affected me. Especially all his gods like Cthulhu, etc.
I was raised in a christian family and I was taught religion in school (they should really keep it out of school). Didn't stick with me at all, the idea of a god just seemed so unfathomable and dumb to me, so I became an atheist.
Well I was raised Christian, and have been doubting it for a long time (you know, situations in the world are getting worse, things that are written in the bible that don't make any sense etc.)
Raised in a very loosely Christian household. Started doubt in my teen years, things just weren't adding up.
Suffering some personal trauma shocked me out of faith for good, I think. I still went to church for a while after that and prayed for some kind of revelation or to find some joy in it, but I eventually realized it wouldn't happen.
Now I'm athiest and content.
I was raised Roman Catholic in a fairly religious small town in Ireland, and I'd say for most of my early childhood, I believed in God. Not because I or my main family of four were devoted Catholics, but mostly due to not knowing any different. You're just automatically taught to believe in God and the Catholic Church in school, so I never had much reason to question my faith. It was just the way it was. Not to mention, my uncle was heavily religious and when ever he'd visit, he made sure me and sister attended mass and confession.
It was really when I became a teenage, I started to look at things in another manner. I remember distinctly reading an article in the paper about much of the child abuse that had occurred over years in the country committed by Catholic priests, and the cover-up that came with it. The more I looked into the Catholic Church's abuse of power in Ireland and their hypocritical beliefs, I soon just denounced the church and it's teachings, but remained believing in God. A few years down the line, I kinda gave up with that as well and so, nowadays, I'm just Agnostic. I don't truly know if there's a God or not, but religion hasn't effected me for so long, that I just don't care anymore for it.
Though I have gone back and fourth quite often and still do...
Was there ever a time in your life when you started believing, or may be gave it a chance?
Kind of. I went to church as a child, and I asked a lot of questions. Either those questions weren't answered or I got answers that left me confused and with even more questions. Religion just doesn't make sense. So did I ever believe? I was told to believe, but I was too interested in the truth to ever actually believe.
If yes, when was it?
Not sure. I was scared of throwing of the shackles at a young age (everyone in my life besides my immediate family were pretty religious). I don't even remember when I decided I definitely didn't believe in Christianity.
Why did you give it a chance?
Because I was told it was true, and that if I didn't buy into it I would burn forever. No better motivator than fear I guess.
What made you give it up?
I decided I cared more about what was happening in reality than what other people believed was happening.
I am Buddhist with Confucius Thought , as a result since there is no god i would suppose i am atheist. I did give Hinduism for a chance when i was much younger. I gave it a chance because i was really confused religiously. I gave it up once i found out about Buddhism and ever since then i have attended teaching from monks and started meditations and studies. Buddhism just fit me more than Hinduism. Officially I went from Catholic Christianity to Orthodox Christianity to Islam to Hinduism and finally to Buddhism.
I believe in God. And the thing that is always convinced me that God exists, especially on a gut-level, is what Saint Paul, or the Apostle Paul - whatever you want to call him - said at Romans 1: "Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made. "
Now going with that thought, when I personally witness what goes on in the animal kingdom, like for example that animals can actually be better parents than human beings, well then that tells me that because we are so much smarter than they are, the only reason why they would have that ability is because of being created.
Something or someone with had to have endowed them with those qualities.
To me quite honestly the evolutionary theory doesn't make sense to me. The way I see it: how can you honestly look at all the wonders of nature, and all the amazing things that are in space, and even just simply looking at the way the human body is designed, and not think that there is a God? How do you want to look at those things and believe it they are just the happenings of mere chance?
Not to mention the fact that if we are just merely elements of random chance, then why do we have this need to believe in something greater than ourselves? Any even if we do identify as atheist, then why do we have this ability, or this need, to put Faith in something?
So these are the things that convinced me there is a being higher than ourselves. This is what convinces me that God exists.
And before I get slammed for saying what I have said here, let me just say that Faith itself does not require evidence. You don't need evidence to believe in something.
Just because something might seem impossible, doesn't mean it isn't true. In that case it just simply takes more courage to believe in it.
Or just because you may be cannot see something, it doesn't mean that it isn't real. Like for example, we cannot see air, yet we know it exists because we are able to breathe and just stay alive.
I'm not a hardcore religious guy but I do believe. There was never a time that I doubted because I don't doubt when things start going bad for me, if you believe then you believe, not just believe when it's most convenient for you.
What's not to understand? We adapted to our environment over millions of years to become what we are now, so did animals. There are tons of byproducts of evolution left over, like wisdom teeth, we have no use for them now but our ancestors used them to grind plant tissue, they had larger jaws.
???
Believing in something is not some ability, and it's most definitely not a need.
If there's no evidence then it's blind faith. Claims need to be backed up by evidence, that's how the world works.
Claiming that air exists is not the same as claiming an all powerful creator exists. One can be easily proven, the other cannot. Also we do not breathe "air", we breathe the oxygen that makes up 21% of the air.
For me, it somehow makes all living beings and the world as whole, not beautiful because natural selection hehe, more powerful. I am not sure what exact word am I looking for but the fact that I, you, the dude that made Pokemon Go, dog, a tree, came from the same ancestor feels pretty dang cool. Kinda bizarre, huh?
Oh goodie!
Or because if they did not exibit those traits their offspring would die and their species would go extinct.
I think the real question is why you look at those things and presume a god. The human body is not perfect, and was likely not "designed."
Well now you need to specify what you're talking about. If you're talking about the human body then it wasn't "mere chance" that it exists as it does now (natural selection).
I'm not sure what you mean here. I don't believe in anything on faith alone (at least not the type of faith religious faith is based on). If I do I hope someone points it out so I can adjust my beliefs.
You should require evidence to believe something.
I agree with the first premise, but the second doesn't follow by necessity. Does it require more courage to believe in unicorns and fairies? I would say no, it just requires a person to accept on lacking or poor evidence.
You do realize we can form tests to support the hypothesis that air exists, right?
Fyi, you and a tree did not come from the same ancestor.
A common ancestor, yes.
In my comment, I was just merely stating that I believe God exists. And I was just merely explaining my reasons why I believe He exist.
I didn't type my comment just to get into a debate with ones that don't believe in God. I'm not here to argue down people who don't believe in God, as I never could do that. I'm not here to ram by personal beliefs down anybody's throat.
Jesus Christ, did not do that. He merely told others about things that he had seen and heard from God, yet he did not force anyone to accept his message.
People are free to choose whatever they believe in. God doesn't force people to believe in him, and I personally have no intention of forcing anyone to believe in Him either.
I was just saying personally that I do believe in him, and why I believe in him. I didn't necessarily say that my reasons have to make sense to anyone else, but they do make sense to me.
The thing is, when people explain something to you, especially about themselves, they have to do it in a way that makes sense to them.
Sure, and I was merely explaining why those reasons are faulty. I'm not attacking you, just your rational.
That's fine. When I see someone give their stances on such subjects I don't sit idly by.
There are many things wrong with that section, but I'll just point out one: why is it you believe Jesus spoke to a god, but not Joseph Smith? Was one just a nut? If so, then why not the other? If not, then why aren't you a(n) "enter religious group here" follower?
Okay. Your god does a pretty crappy job of making a supported story is all I'm saying.
I believe in aliens because I saw a light in the sky. . . while at an airport.
Well said, reflects my own experience with religion rather well. But I don't even have religious parents or attended a religious school, so I don't think there was ever a chance of me becoming a theist.
Yes, mostly because I was raised by a Christian family.
A few years ago. Or to be more specific, when I remember myself as a 4 year old the most.
As I said before, because I was raised by a Christian family. Also because I'm being taught about Christiany at school.
That the fact that I'm not sure if "God" exists in the first place. We never saw him appearing in our lives. And all the stories about Jesus and God... they are honestly just utter bullshit to me. Until he actually appears in my life, prove me that he exists, I just can't believe at him at all, or support Christiany in general... or to be more specific, any religion at all.
I guess we technically did. Hmm.
Atheist, will always be.
I always was very interested in the Nordic mythology, might be because I am a Swed, or anything else. So the closest thing to even interest, to something I even deems interesting is the Nordic, Greek and to some part the roman gods. Even though they are basically the same as the Greek-gods.
Atheist. Never thought about a 'god', Never needed a 'god.'
Nordic mythology? Is that like Odin, Loki, Freya, Thor, etc?
Was there ever a time in your life when you started doubting? Yeah, honestly I think that if you've never doubted in your life, you're not doing it right. A true relationship should come with its share of doubt, moving through that doubt makes us stronger. At least, that's what I think.
If yes, when was it? Probably middle school, maybe a little earlier.
Why did you doubt? Watching every relationship around me fall apart, having an alcoholic father and a nonexistent mother might've contributed to it. (Don't get me wrong, I love them both and it's a lot better now. The divorce was... nasty to say the least.)I got Chron's disease in 3rd grade, almost died. And sometimes, no matter how much I love my church, I have my share of disagreements with them. Mainly on the topic of homosexuality. My parents never went to church, so I was kinda on my own in that field also.
What made you stop doubting? Friends, good friends. And a devoted relationship. I guess I realized that all doubt was accomplishing was holding me back. I still have my doubts sometimes, but I work through it.
I've nevrr doubted the existence of my father, mother, sister, girlfriend, etc.
But do they really exist?
we all came from bacteria