Why I am now an atheist
Sent in by Jennifer V
My journey to becoming an atheist isn't really and amazing story. My brother and I grew up in a home where religion was never really discussed. It was just assumed that we were catholics like our parents were. I never asked questions about "God" or "Jesus", but believed what my parents did.
It wasn't until I was 16 and met my future husband(who is now my ex-husband) that I really explored religion and Christianity. My ex-husband and his family were devout Christians and it was expected that anyone he was dating would be also. I was preached to and eventually and was "saved". I repented all my sins and accepted "Jesus" into my heart. I didn't really know why I did it, I just knew that I hadn't heard anything else, so why wasn't Christianity correct? At this point, I was probably 19 years old and ready to get married to the guy who is now my ex-husband.
After we got married, I started taking some evening college courses and one of those happened to be philosophy. Of course I thought I knew everything there was to know....religion was right and everything else was "evil". My professor really opened my eyes to discovering who I was. She did teach me to not just accept things just because someone tells you that it is the truth. This course allowed me to explore different religions and also atheism. It seemed I wasn't allowed to do this around my ex-husband because he thought that I was "poisoning" my mind. I would always get on websites and read books, but I had to be sneaky. Needless to say, we got divorced when I was 25. I couldn't be with someone who thought that I was "evil" because I was reading and learning about different religions and cultures. Of course that's not the only reason we were divorced, but it was a big one.
I am now 26 and am still doing a lot of research on religions, but over the years I came to the conclusion that I never did believe in "God" or "Jesus", but said I did to fit in with my ex-husband and his beliefs, and his family. I feel for me that atheism is the truth.
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My journey to becoming an atheist isn't really and amazing story. My brother and I grew up in a home where religion was never really discussed. It was just assumed that we were catholics like our parents were. I never asked questions about "God" or "Jesus", but believed what my parents did.
It wasn't until I was 16 and met my future husband(who is now my ex-husband) that I really explored religion and Christianity. My ex-husband and his family were devout Christians and it was expected that anyone he was dating would be also. I was preached to and eventually and was "saved". I repented all my sins and accepted "Jesus" into my heart. I didn't really know why I did it, I just knew that I hadn't heard anything else, so why wasn't Christianity correct? At this point, I was probably 19 years old and ready to get married to the guy who is now my ex-husband.
After we got married, I started taking some evening college courses and one of those happened to be philosophy. Of course I thought I knew everything there was to know....religion was right and everything else was "evil". My professor really opened my eyes to discovering who I was. She did teach me to not just accept things just because someone tells you that it is the truth. This course allowed me to explore different religions and also atheism. It seemed I wasn't allowed to do this around my ex-husband because he thought that I was "poisoning" my mind. I would always get on websites and read books, but I had to be sneaky. Needless to say, we got divorced when I was 25. I couldn't be with someone who thought that I was "evil" because I was reading and learning about different religions and cultures. Of course that's not the only reason we were divorced, but it was a big one.
I am now 26 and am still doing a lot of research on religions, but over the years I came to the conclusion that I never did believe in "God" or "Jesus", but said I did to fit in with my ex-husband and his beliefs, and his family. I feel for me that atheism is the truth.
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Comments
"but over the years I came to the conclusion that I never did believe in "God" or "Jesus", but said I did."
I know the feeling. As I look back on my so called religious life, it was nothing more than faking belief to try to conform to the norms. I tried really really hard to believe, but the nagging doubt would never let me fully let go.
Isn't is funny how a little bit of knowledge can just sweep any hint of religious belief one might have, right under the rug.
Welcome to reality Jennifer.
You should not be required to write a Pulitzer prize winning testimony to seek the simple truth.
But perhaps you will find your own way to believe. An atheist has also his own "religion", because he can't show in an empirical way that there is no god, what he can do is only to confess this. So it is as good as believing in God. It only depends on what you prefer, and sometimes, who your friends happen to be, just like what happened with your family tradition and your ex-husband.
You know, this is a profound statement in that the vast majority of religious people don't seem to realize that the only reason they believe in their religion is because of the culture they were born into. They did not spend time examining all the other religions and come to a conclusion that only one, the one they choose, could be true. But they are convinced they have the right one. Amazing self-deception when you think about it.
Really, given a name and geographic location you can predict with a high degree of accuracy exactly which "faith" someone belongs to.
An atheist has also his own "religion", because he can't show in an empirical way that there is no god
Sorry anon, you can test for god, or at least the god that most Christians think exists. Prayer has been shown to be ineffective, claims of miracles and healings never stand up to scrutiny, and nobody has any real evidence that a god exists. An undetectable god that doesn't interact with our world is possible, but that's not what most people believe in.
Jennifer, thanks for the post. Not having to deal with the irrationality of Christianity will do wonders for your mental health.
If you "absolutely" suggest that "no" person can show in an "empirical" way that there is no god, and you also "believe" a god exists, then, your "god" concept must be based on "other" than empirical means, e.g., non-empirical.
Empirical: "1. derived from or guided by experience or experiment."
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empirical
Okay, anony, if your god concept is non-empirical, then you can't use experiences or natural reality that is subject to experiment... and, just how do you believe you are going to escape your "experiential" being in order to validate your claim that your god is non-empirical?
I confess, if you are suggesting that one must lose their natural mind, in order to find your god... than, no thanks.
Meant "...then, no thanks", but perhaps, "then, no thanks on the offer of insanity" would have done as well :0)
See how silly you sound?
Real friends come get you when you drunk-dial them at three in the morning. Real friends give you $20 when you need it and they don't ask for it back. Real friends share half of their last Pepsi. Real friends take the blankets back and real friends would surely sleep with you or help you get laid. Real friends would remove the drain rat because it grosses you out. Real friends will hug you when your day has turned to shit. And real friends would never believe that you deserve to roast in ever-lasting torture.
I enjoyed learning from your story. It just might help someone else out there struggling to let go of their irrational faith in a hodgepodged collection of ancient mythical fantasies.
I think the majority of believers deeply struggle to fight off those ever nagging doubts they have about their unfounded beliefs in a dark aged religious cult.
But most are too afraid to say it out loud, much less to dig deeper into the facts of our world's
history to reveal the schemes that enabled religious dogma to take over enitre nations and cultures.
Religious faith is assimilation. Either that, or it is death and torture forever and ever. Amen.
How unlovely.
Seeing is DISbelieving. WE can think for ourselves and still be a wonderful human being. Don't ever let the religibots make you think otherwise.
Hopefully, the masses will begin to see why their rational mind has been nagging them all along. It is for good reason.
May good reason continue to shine upon us all! Thanks for sharing a part of your life with us.
GOD ISN'T ABOUT religion ... JESUS CHRIST DIDN'T BRING religion TO US HE BROUGHT SALVATION AND RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD WE CAN NOW HAVE ... THAT SAME RELATIONSHIP WAS LOST BY ADAM BUT JESUS PAID THE PRICE FOR IT AND BROUGHT IT TO US
YOU BELIEVE ON GOD IS WRONG IT NOT ABOUT religion ITS ABOUT RELATIONSHIP
But not that sadistic bastard described in the Bible. I can do a lot better...
Athena, for Her wisdom.
Tiamat, for being a kick-ass Mother.
Shiva, the patron god of demolitions, and the lovely Kali Ma.
Freyja (hi, Mom!) and Bastet, Cat Ladies extraordinaire.
Oðinn (but I just call him 'Dad'), another Very Wise Guy.
Eris, Queen of Xaos (and fun at parties).
Uncle Loki. Little brother Thor. Eagle. Paladine, Takhisis, Gilean and the rest of that fine crew from Krynn. Blind Io, Offler the Crocodile God, and of course The Lady.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose likeness adorns my car.
The Invisible Pink Unicorn, who shares my taste in pizza (ham and pineapple).
Oh, yeah. And Me, too. (switches into Springy Goddess mode and glares menacingly at the Caps Lock key on God's Child's keyboard) Don't make me come over there...
...dont believe in God? look around at creation..
Praise Quetzacoatl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
if we can I think David Attenborough said it best
"My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough#Re