Atheists: Have you belonged to an religion previously in your life, or have you always been atheist?

Question

I'm not trying to attack your beliefs ( or not beliefs) but i was just wondering, have any of you tried religion and then changed? Because when I'm inside a church and i hear the choir singing and hear the preist I just feel God.

I'd appreciate it if no one called me stupid or a religious nut, or tell me that I'm young and naive or my beliefs are dumb.

Because someone always seems to say that and I was just asking a question,

I completely respect people who don't believe as i do, i was just wondering how maybe of you have "converted" for lack of a better word to atheism?

Thank You!

Answer 1

hi i'm a Christian. nice to find someone else who has faith in God!

so i guess i can't answer your question since i'm not from the atheist perspective. i know some people who belonged to a religion but then because agnostic. those people happen to be very confused about many things. i also know that some famous skeptics have turned to faith after trying hard to disprove it. God is powerful and can change hearts, you can see it and feel it.

Answer 2

I started as a Christian, of some sort when I first heard about religion, around age 5, maybe 6, I don't have a great memory of when thing s happened in my life. I had been christian until around my Freshmen, to early Sophomore year, of High School, then became a Jehovah's Witness, like my father, but only for about a month, then I found the entire Right Hand Path to be completely idiotic, ill-logical, etc. my friend, who is now Heathen, introduced me to Laveyan Satanism, I stayed with studying it, and came into studying the Joy of Satan group, just a year or so ago, I left Satanism entirely and became, more or less, free-lance atheist, after finding that the JoS are Pseudo-Satanists (false Satanists) and use Theistic Satanism to cover that they are Neo Nazis, one of the letters written my one of the members even said that by embracing National Socialism, can they achieve success, etc. but denied that they are as I claimed when I confronted them about it, and I was banned from the E-group, here on Yahoo. so since then I am no longer a Laveyan Satanist(atheist based) but more of a free-lance, though I still support it.

Answer 3

I went to a baptist church and then a utilitarian one later on until probably 10...then I thought nothing of it for a few years. Nothing changed me...when I was in highschool a friend asked me a question about it and I realized that I just didn't believe, never really did, and it didn't make sense to me why people didn't question it more. My mother is still religious and I think she is a better person because of it. My dad never really spoke about God, he attended church with the family as well, and I didn't even know he was an atheist until I brought it up when I was 20. Now I am just fascinated with how people think and religion in general even though I don't agree with it and that's why I come on here.

Answer 4

I was raised in the Presbyterian church, sent to Vacation Bible School to get me out of the house. Hung around with the Baha'i Faith for a few years. Read most of their writings and found them uninspiring. Decided that I was a Christian, that I wanted to follow Christ

Oh yes, took Jesus into my heart, confessed my sinfulness, asked for God's forgiveness. Taught Sunday school, was deeply involved. Worried about sinfulness all the time.. Took courses about the Bible but gradually, over three decades gained a historical and critical perspective on Christianity. Just couldn't believe anymore that there was a reality behind all the accretions, all the mythology. When I found that I was no longer hung up on sin, that I could accept myself in the current moment I discovered that I was happy for the first time in my life. A reverse conversion had taken place.

Answer 5

No, I was raised in a pretty secular environment. My parents never talk to me about God either way. They didn't say believe or don't believe, they said try different things and see what feels right to you.



Anyway, I live in West Los Angeles, which is really close to Hollywood, so most people around me are not religious. If they are, they are Jewish. I literally know like two christians...



Anyway, I have never felt God anywhere... I'm just agnostic, I guess. I don't know if there is a God, but I also kind of don't care.

Answer 6

I was Christian (Catholic) and I liked it. I did used to go to church and read the bible. I wasn't one of those who hated religion (still don't) or who at an early age decided to be atheist. It was a long, hard road for me and it took time. It did not happen overnight. When it did I felt grief but it went away and I realized how silly religion is overall. It did make me happy at first but as I learned more the less religious I became.



I too felt what you felt and describe. When the priest would start the adoration of the Eucharist. I felt at one, calm. But I realize that it was the feeling of the community, of belonging to something rather than the feeling of "god".

Answer 7

Yes, I was raised, and was devoutly Christian growing up. And I know what you feel...I felt it too when I was in church as a kid. But you know what...I feel exactly the same thing when I hear an extraordinary piece of music, or see an amazingly beautiful painting, or when I look at my children and my husband. That overwhelming feeling isn't "God"...it's an emotional reaction that you're having. You're responding emotionally to what you're being told, and to the people around you who are all worked up into a highly emotional and suggestive state.

Answer 8

Yes, I was a Christian formerly although many Christians will say I could never have been a true or 'real' Christian. No disrespect but what you are feeling could very well be just a reaction to music, and atmosphere. I mean girls would tear their clothes, weep, and faint at Beatles and Elvis concerts and others as well but it says nothing supernatural about musicians really but rather the emotional ability of humans to work themselves up.

Answer 9

I was raised in a devoutly Catholic family. None of my siblings stayed Catholic, although some did join other Churches.



I am not strictly atheist, myself, because I still need much convincing before I will say I'm sure about God either way.



But I do think the fundamentalist interpretation of the bible is wrong.

Answer 10

Good, you have started out on the track to enlightenment. You have opened your mind to the possibility of there being no God. I suspect you believe because, in your upbringing, it was what you were indoctrinated in, from as young as you can remember. Continue on the path of enlightement, it is a glorious discovery to find that the Universe, and all life in it, was not made by a figment of the human imagination - that which some call God.

Answer 11

I was sent to a Methodist church during my formative years, but I never believed and constantly got into trouble for asking questions.



I refused to be baptized at the age of 13, read the bible from cover to cover, and decided that none of it was for me.

Answer 12

My Mother was Catholic and my Dad Baptist.. they were divorced so I got a mixture of both in each household. I was mostly raised Baptist even went to Sunday school every Sunday. Funny thing is religion wasn't important to my Dad..him and Step-Mom would send us(Sunday school) just to get rid of us for a few hours lol

Answer 13

I tried! Heard about this 'God' thing at age five-ish, desperately tried to believe (I was convinced I was hellbound for years, for not being able to believe)... and then eventually just stopped trying. After that, I took a lot of interest researching this whole 'religion' phenomenon.

Answer 14

I was raised in a Methodist/Catholic household. Church and Sunday school every week, and Vacation Bible School every year. But I never bought it.



I've researched many, many religions, but I just can't buy into any of them as being truth. They're all too illogical.

Answer 15

The crusades led to the pointless deaths of countless 1000's of Christians and Muslims--men, women people, and infants. The Fourth marketing campaign laid waste to the Constantinople, the capital city of the Christian Byzantine Empire. the youngster's marketing campaign introduced approximately the deaths of 1000's of youngsters from starvation and exposure. Christians weren't the 1st people to stay interior the so-reported as Holy Land, so there's no obvious reason to declare that they had identify to it. interior the 2nd marketing campaign the Templar Knights left Europe with sufficient militia capability to reason destruction alongside their direction yet no potential of protecting Jerusalem as quickly as they took it. in case you desire to glorify the Inquisition and Torquemada, you should be a huge fan of George Bush's torture software. in case you have faith in witchcraft, you're superstitious and uneducated, in all probability terminally.

Answer 16

Yes, I was baptized, sang in the choir, and a deacon in the Presbyterian church and then spent many years as a Nazarene before realizing that I was an atheist.

Answer 17

I don't think you feel god when the choir sings. I think you have an emotional response which you've been conditioned to interpret as feeling god. I think that emotion is the basis for religious "experience". Emotions are wonderful things, we wouldn't be human without them. But emotions can be misleading.

Answer 18

I was raised Christian and went to Christian private schools.



When I was in my early 20's I realized that Christianity was an unacceptable belief system (because it was not only entirely faith-based, but also a morally bankrupt belief system).

Answer 19

United Christian until 13-14 years old. When I figured out nobody had ever seen a real god, but they were just saying they did, I gradually gained my freedom.

Answer 20

I was raised in the Catholic church, but I don't think I ever believed in any of it. I spent several years studying other faiths, and the messages were pretty much the same: Shut up, believe, give us money, and shut up.

Answer 21

I never was part of any religion.



I know way too much mythology to ignore the parallels. Your feeling of awe in church is exactly what the church is for. The priests had hundreds of years to perfect the rituals. Trust me, if you heard druids chanting, you would be impressed as well.

Answer 22

Sorta. I was SUPPOSED to be a Catholic but it didn't stick.



I guess I was some sort of Catholic-flavoured deist for a while.



PS: Sorry for the caps, but there's no italics here.

Answer 23

We are all born atheist, but my parents tried to brainwash me into being a Christian. And it worked, until I was 12.

Answer 24

I was a Lutheran in the old days. I started to think rationally and then I became an atheist.

Answer 25

I was raised baptist christian for 17 years of my life, ive never been happier now that im out of the delusion.

Answer 26

I used to be a soul-winning, creationist, bible college attending fundy. I converted because the more I studied the bible, the more "nothing" I found.

Answer 27

2 Peter 2:20-22 (New Living Translation)



20 And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. 21 It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. 22 They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.”[a] And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”

Answer 28

Yep.



I know exactly what you mean by feeling God there.



And you know, I now know the reason WHY I felt God there. Let me tell you, it's nothing to do with God. It's to do with human psychology. Do you really want me to explain it all to you in detail? However, I'll only bother if you don't stick your fingers and go 'la la la'.

Answer 29

Here goes:



baptized Byzantine Catholic (attended both Byzantine and Roman rites)



Wiccan/Pagan



Buddhist/essentially atheist



Muslim now.

Answer 30

Born atheist, as is everyone. I have not seen anything to alter this view. Quite the contrary in fact.

Answer 31

HI there.

I was raised a Catholic, before I became an Atheist.

Answer 32

Nice question.



I agree with the way you feel about God and experiencing His presence in the church.



laptop-what brought about the change?

Answer 33

Laptop Jesus: Where did you go to Bible College?

Answer 34

i was a cute religion hater and antiychrist from the day I remember me.

Answer 35

This can explain "feeling god".

Answer 36

i was catholic for fifteen years. I realized religion was dumb...

Answer 37

yeah.



I was a catholic.