Did you change your religious views during your life?

[Skeleon]

Well, my nuclear family already was atheist when I was born as far as I know. But my parents let me decide what to do from a very young age (pre-elementary school), so I first attended Catholic lectures in elementary school, then Protestant (part of high school) and finally Ethics (rest of high school). We also learned about all the other major religions in these subjects (such as Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,...).
I guess I started out as an agnostic, not knowing nor believing either way; I listened to the various explanations about religions, philosophy and ethics and finally ended up as an atheist.
As for your question, I guess they didn't really differ. My parents never forced me into either direction (seeing as they let me participate in Christian classes as well as sermons and whatnot) but I was raised by them without religion. We only visited churches as tourists or for our more religious relatives' sake; quite magnificent buildings, some of them, no wonder they inspired awe of god.
I never felt any need for it personally. It always fascinated me as a phenomenon, though, as did other mythology (especially Egyptian).

 

[Low Key]

My dad went to catholic school growing up and hated it so he never really pushed religion on me. I was baptized and confirmed, but after some personal stuff happned, I lost interest. It didn't help that anytime I went it service it would be like 7am. I do still wonder about a higher power, but if going to hear some guy recite the same shit every sunday is the only way I'm getting in to heaven, I guess I'm just not devoted enough.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

Yet another Christian-turned-Agnostic tale comin' up.

At first, I went to church for a while, but then, like pretty much every other kid, I got bored, and my family soon ended up not going anymore. In my early teens, I became something of a zealot, minus the pushing beliefs down people's throats, and started going to church, praying the rosary and whatnot.

Part of the reason why I went to church was because I didn't want to be like those kids who didn't go to church not because they didn't believe in the religion, but because they found it boring. I felt I was fulfilling some arbitrary sense of duty and showing maturity by going to church.

Then somewhere along the way, I got tired of hearing how I'm a worthless evil bastard who deserves unending torture, and am only going to be saved from this fate because the dude who created everything is uber magnanimous and will forgive everything, as opposed to simply weighing the good and bad I've done and judging accordingly. That, and the whole stuff contradicting each-other thing. But I'm fine with religion as long as nobody's trying to shove their beliefs down my throat.

 

[RatsInTheWall]

As I grew up we never had any religion in my famil. All they said was that they belived that there was "something" out there.
Me on the other hand... I do not think that god or anyother exists.
If anything I hope satan exists because he is kinda kick ass you know. Red, horns and flames.

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

I was raised for the first few years as a protestant, but then I decided it wasn't for me, and became Athiest.

 

[NotAProdigy]

I went from, Atheist, Evolution, Slightly believing in god, then to evolution, then to The Big Bang Theory+Evolution, Atheist and then finally, Norse Mythology. Because believing in a guy with a mystical bad-ass hammer, that controls thunder, and what the ban-hammer is based off of, is totally kick ass.

Which is now.

Evolution isn't a belief, it's a fact. It can be empirically observed and recreated, to a certain extent.

 

[raxer92]

What I'm asking is, have your religious views differed from your families as you grew up?

For me, my family are all protestants but I'm a non-religious person. I've been baptized, confirmed, and even took part in my churches Christmas plays. I started to ponder Christianity while in the process of confirmation; when our first assignment was to read the book of Genesis. When I was finished with it I just kinda said; no, that doesn't seem right to me. I had to go through the entirety of my confirmation and still have to go to church. Since where I live people who don't believe in god are thought of as "rebels." And usually are outcasts that no one talks to.

Lastly, I don't want this to turn into a flame war. If you are just going to argue, then don't even post. I personally don't care if you grew up in a family of hardcore atheists and converted to Catholicism. I want this topic to be friendly discussion, not insults.

I was a pretty moronic teen who actually believed in the jewish zombie till life gave me a cold slap of reality and basically made me realize that,

http://media.photobucket.com/image/jewish%20zombie/lunchmonkey/CosmicJewishZombie.jpg

religion is bullshit, rely on yourself and what you can do, and never believe in miracles

 

[ben---neb]

Well I was brought up in a CHristian home but never really accepted their views or understood the full truth of them until I was about 14. Got baptised a few months ago so as to publically announce that I'm a born again Christian.

And I would like to say that at no point did my parents or anyone in my CHurch ever put pressure on me to become a Christian. Also although they would dissaprove of it if I had followed athiesm instead they still would have accepted it as a personal choice.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

I did. I was Christian, but as I grew older I started using my logic and came to the conclusion that God does not exist. If he was really the powerful being then you'd think he would interfere and stop the bullshit that is going on in the world.

Prove me wrong, God.

Oh right, I don't have a religion, I think it's stupid.

 

[Le_Lisra]

What I'm asking is, have your religious views differed from your families as you grew up?

For me, my family are all protestants but I'm a non-religious person. I've been baptized, confirmed, and even took part in my churches Christmas plays. I started to ponder Christianity while in the process of confirmation; when our first assignment was to read the book of Genesis. When I was finished with it I just kinda said; no, that doesn't seem right to me. I had to go through the entirety of my confirmation and still have to go to church. Since where I live people who don't believe in god are thought of as "rebels." And usually are outcasts that no one talks to.

Lastly, I don't want this to turn into a flame war. If you are just going to argue, then don't even post. I personally don't care if you grew up in a family of hardcore atheists and converted to Catholicism. I want this topic to be friendly discussion, not insults.

I had a kind of similar experience, but my family was sort of protestant by default. No one really thought about it, it was mostly something social, not religious. I usually read books during service and nobody complained. Then, during confirmation, I had a lot of discussions with the priest and that planted severe doubts. A while I was determined to be christian and enlightened but it just didn't work out. So many inconsistencies, so many things I just couldn't believe, and so many things that are plain horrible.
So I turned away from faith and haven't regretted it. I'm now strongly agnostic but leaning towards complete atheism. While I aknowledge we can't prove the non-existence, I'm convinced there is no god. Faith now bewilders me. When I watch people in church being really "into it" I just stare in confusion. It is really beyond me now.

 

[Odude]

I was raised Christian at a famous church before it was big (Rick Warren ring a bell to anyone?). Both my parents are Christian (mom was raised catholic, dad baptist), and I've been baptized. I absolutely hated the hypocrisy of the people that went there, many of whom were exceedingly rich. They would flaunt their "godliness" while committing every sin imaginable.

I got away from all that and started to study world religions and mythology. Once I saw that all modern religion are just blendings of ancient ones, which are considered absurd even by those of those of the derivative religions, I could no longer believe.

I became interested in the sciences, logic, and philosophy. I am now an engineering student and a follower of New Atheism. I am also considered to be the Antichrist by the local cult religion because because several of their followers became agnostic after trying to convert me.

So yeah, I'm a strong Atheist.

 

[Threesan]

Raised Catholic/Christian. Back then, I didn't understand my faith: it was just natural. Went through with confirmation as path of least resistance, but my faith had already started to crumble away. Now I'm Atheist Lite.

Scares me a bit that if you're losing faith, you're supposed to talk to someone. I shudder at the thought of my younger and (more than average) impressionable self (unsure, not having finished thinking this all through for myself) being talked to by one or more formally trained clergy, trying to convince me to stay in the fold. I fear at that point they may have succeeded, possibly even with those stock purportedly-logical arguments (prime mover, watchmaker, etc).

 

[Gebi10000]

I was broughtup as an german lutherian evangelical christian. i was confirmed, i prayed evry day, but i still recogniesed evolution and paralel universes,ect.Then I read the bible further, and read some of theworks people wrote about the new testament. and suddenly i realiesed, jesus wasn't god's son. he was a mortal being, that the church had hyped up to be a god.jesus still was pretty awesome, but now for me in a more of a mahatma gandhi way. I went from being a christian, to being a strong athiest.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Raised sort of Christian.
But I don't believe in God.
He didn't give me whatever I asked him.

But I once met some crazy shaman dude, who said that I can have a wish.
So I wished for Mechwarrior IV.
And I got it a week later for no apparent reason.

 

[Crayzor]

For a long time I was a complete atheist. Despite going to a church school, I never bought into religion. I recently changed my view to rational skepticism, so I will believe something that can be backed up with solid evidence. Having said that, I am leaning towards the watch maker theory as well. Our existence is based on too many coincidences for me to reject the idea of intelligent design.

 

[Flamezdudes]

I never really thought much about Religion as a child, my parents and the majority of my family are catholic and went to church every sunday. But i started questioning it a year ago and since then have made up my own mind and consider myself an Athiest.

 

[Semitendon]

I was raised in a Non-denominational Christian home. ( given the posts by many others in this thread, thank God it wasn't Catholic)

Anyway, in my teens, I became disgusted by the actions of so-called "Christians" and began to question God. I studied other religions, and was impressed by some of them, namely Buddism. But, I never progressed to the point of believing in Buddism or any other religion. I looked into the possibility that Science ( Evolution) could provide the alternative to religion that I was searching for. Being a person of logic, I quickly realized that human existence without a creator or designer was severly flawed, and impossible. Science was not the answer, Other religions weren't the answer, so, I once again looked into my family's religion.

I couldn't understand WHY God could allow the things he did, and HOW the supposed "Christians" of the church I attended could be so downright disgusting.

I questioned God, and after coming to the logical conclusion that he must exist, I had to find the answer to my questions about the "Christians" and the evils of the world that happen on a daily basis.

After talking with Christians and non-Christians alike, I realized that the bad events of this world aren't God's doing. That evil happens without design or prompting by God, ultimately being the result of the free-will concept so vitally important to the relationship that God wants with human beings.

My concerns over the hypocritical and disgusting actions of Christians have only recently been resolved. The idea that someone who is a Christian, would actually live up to the philosophy and message of Jesus is impossible. Instead, realizing that Christians are flawed, damaged, and disjointed like ALL humans are, has given me a tolerance for being around Christians.

Now that I am older and a little wiser, I realize that as a teen, I was expecting the impossible from God, as if somehow, God owed me something. I still have questions about things, religious and natural, but my belief in Jesus is now firm. No other concept has answered so many of my questions, so perfectly.

 

[Ciarang]

nope.. although i was forced to go to church until i was banned a year ago. (i yelled at the band to play freebird)

That is the most amount of win I have seen in a forum ever xD