When Was The First Time You Ever Questioned Your Faith?

[FievelJ]

I always tell people I only really became an atheist about 8 or so years ago, but that's actually more when I finally let things in really.
The honest to goodness truth is, that maybe when I finally became an atheist, it really was not the first time I questioned my faith.

If there's a topic it works in better already, please don't delete everything I type, and somehow move it there.
But it would have been back in the 80s sometime. Probably around 14-years-old, when I asked someone at my current church about Dinosaurs, believe you me the answer was actually even somewhat confusing, and as I look back the reason for that is, the answer they gave me was probably an excuse to still place their god into it. Later on I asked my father about why other countries have different religions, at the end of that too, it ended in excuses as to why to believe in Christianity, and not a real answer in many ways. That was sometime between 2000 and 2005, I did find the answer I was looking for, and atheism is what I found. It does not box you in to a world that's only as large as the size of the belief. timeline as well, as Christianity's world and universe is about 6,000 to maybe close to 10,000 years old.

In any case, the simple facts I found were the universe is 13.7 billion years old, after NASA corrected us that it isn't 13.8 billion years old.
Earth itself the place we live is about 4.5 billion years old, four and a half billion years old.

Things such as the timeline like the youngest thing on it unless I have not done my research well enough, is religion not just Christianity but all of them as a whole are the first youngest thing on the time line, followed with US, the human Race. Third is Evolution of our Race.

I don't know further back really, not much anyways, but do know Dinosaurs is on there someplace in many different older things out there.
I do know that closing my mind to a single religion and not grow beyond that that I am living in a little world, which I was boxing myself in. As long as you accept the outside of that box, then you are very closed to many things I accept. There's like 4200 - 10,000 of those boxes too, oddly enough there's more people which the boxed in world is called Christianity as I have looked, and have got a number of like 2.2 billion. Like WOW, there's that many people out there refusing the real reality to things?

But anyways, I stopped living in that box, and actually when I finally did go atheist wondered some why I did not try harder at another time in my life. I did have more than one time I questioned it, just wanted to list about it.


Again, if this fits someplace else, and better, please try to preserve what I toyed.


Thanks For Reading.

 

[southernhybrid]

When I was about 7, I questioned my father as to why a loving god would send people to suffer in hell for simply being a member of another religion. He simply told me that god would explain it to us when we went to heaven. My father was a very creative man, but not the least bit intellectual. I tried not to think too much about my religious beliefs and I really hated going to church. When I was 18, I attended a fundamentalist Christian college for one semester and became an agnostic within months because it became obvious to me that the religion I was taught to believe was both cruel and unreasonable. I learned about other world religions on my own, and became a strong atheist around the age of 26 or 27, which was in the late 70s. The truth had set me free. It’s up to the mods but this might fit in better in the secular forum where we discuss how we became atheists.

 

[FievelJ]

When I was about 7, I questioned my father as to why a loving god would send people to suffer in hell for simply being a member of another religion. He simply told me that god would explain it to us when we went to heaven. My father was a very creative man, but not the least bit intellectual. I tried not to think too much about my religious beliefs and I really hated going to church. When I was 18, I attended a fundamentalist Christian college for one semester and became an agnostic within months because it became obvious to me that the religion I was taught to believe was both cruel and unreasonable. I learned about other world religions on my own, and became a strong atheist around the age of 26 or 27, which was in the late 70s. The truth had set me free. It’s up to the mods but this might fit in better in the secular forum where we discuss how we became atheists.

I actually wanted to send the same reaction you ended with, but it is not an option, but you may be right.
IDK I just was not sure where it fit best, so if admins move it to someplace else, I will not have a problem with it.

The 70s for me in age was still single digits, I didn't finally become an atheist in full until around 2015.
Yes Christianity can actually be harsh too, and it is freer to not tie myself down to any of it too.

Thanks for the response, might just see if I can fit something Nubs in my icon file.

 

[bilby]

I recall being shocked to the core at the age of nine, when I moved to a new school and had a teacher who was a devout Christian.

Up until that point, I had been vaguely aware of the existence of churches and synagogues, and that people went there to sing and tell stories; But it hadn't occurred to me that actual grown ups existed who thought that those stories were real.

I have never recovered my faith in adults' ability to think things through.

 

[Thomas II]

Maybe at 8 years old...My father announced "You know, of course, that Santa Claus is not real..."

I pretended to know...(I didn't know) "Yeah, of course..." I said

And then I asked "Are you also saying that Jesus Christ is not real?"

He answered "No. Of course not..."

"Hmmm..." I said to myself...

 

[steve_bank]

I gre up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, but it never took.

When I got away from home it just fell away.

I never had a religious s faith to question.

 

[pood]

I gre up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, but it never took.

When I got away from home it just fell away.

I never had a religious s faith to question.

Exactly the same here.

 

[Elixir]

I have long held my faith that there exists an external reality about which we can learn.
The learn part has sometimes been shaky.

 

[pood]

I have long held my faith that there exists an external reality about which we can learn.
The learn part has sometimes been shaky.

The external reality part can also be shaky.

 

[Elixir]

I have long held my faith that there exists an external reality about which we can learn.
The learn part has sometimes been shaky.

The external reality part can also be shaky.

Oh I have questioned it, but it always held up in the end. It’s so convincing that it doesn’t even matter if it doesn’t exist.

 

[steve_bank]

I went from high school to Navy electronics schools, that started me on my way to science.

I started reading scifi when I was kid, Tom Swift. Heinlein and Clark. We went to church but religion or the bible was not reinforced at home. Maybe the luck of the draw.

Eben at that a few times I felt a tug towards the RCC, it is that childhood school conditioning in the schools. An ingrained sense of guilt and allegiance to the RCC.

It really is a cult.

I can see how hard it is for believers to question what they believe.

 

[FievelJ]

I went from high school to Navy electronics schools, that started me on my way to science.

I started reading scifi when I was kid, Tom Swift. Heinlein and Clark. We went to church but religion or the bible was not reinforced at home. Maybe the luck of the draw.

Eben at that a few times I felt a tug towards the RCC, it is that childhood school conditioning in the schools. An ingrained sense of guilt and allegiance to the RCC.

It really is a cult.

I can see how hard it is for believers to question what they believe.

Thing is once you open your mind further you cannot stop it from wanting to know more. Actually grasping all of it and every detail would probably take over like 1,000 years just to grasp like 2% or so of everything.

People like their little safe world, inside of a religion they believe in.

 

[steve_bank]

Here inn the USA Jews and Muslims do not generally proselytize.

American zealot Christians are not content to dwell in their comfort zone, they think they have a gospel mandate from a god to convert the world. These Christians are a threat to my freedoms and rights.

Imposing their beliefs on everyone. Abortion, gay rights, science. Forcingliegion into public schools.

 

[Ford]

I never had a faith to question. Growing up, I went to "church" exactly twice.

The first was when I was "baptized" or "Christened" or whatever you want to call it. Basically my parents went through the motions so that my aunt and uncle could be named "godparents" and we wouldn't be seen as "weird."

The second was 13 years later when I was on a bowling team with a couple buddies, it was Steve's mom's turn to drive us there, and it was Good Friday. They were Catholic, so me, Steve, and Mike were taken to the church service on the way to the bowling alley. I had no idea what was going on, but Mike walked me through it. "Dip your fingers in the holy water, gesture like they do, and stand up and sit down in the pew along with everyone else."

Thing is, both of my parents (mom was a "non-denominational" Christian and my dad was...near as I could tell...a Deist) felt that it was wrong to indoctrinate an unsuspecting child into a religious faith they couldn't possibly understand. They weren't anti-religion, but believed that it was our job to find our own "faith" or "spiritual journey." When each one of us was old enough, they offered to take us to whatever services we wanted to explore. My sister took them up on the offer, and they dutifully drove her to the Lutheran church she chose, gave her the family Bible, and supported her exploration. It didn't take. I asked for a telescope, and my "spiritual experience" was going out into the back yard late at night and learning about astronomy. My older brother's religion was waking up early on Sunday morning and going fishing with my dad.

When I got to college in the early 80s - during the height of the "born again" movement - I discovered that I'd been given a gift.

There were preachers of every stripe on campus, Christian groups, social clubs, etc, looking to recruit young and impressionable kids into their organizations by accessing the religious indoctrination they'd experienced. Most of my friends had grown up in a religion, had been taught that "hellfire and damnation" were waiting if they ever "left the fold," and - as teenagers often do - a lot of them rebelled. Stopped going to church. Dabbled in all the sinful delights that were available in the 80s. Drink. Drugs. Popped collars on Polo shirts. It was a heady time. I watched from the sidelines as some friends were spiritually assaulted by the born again crowd. Campus preachers who were attempting to access that indoctrination they'd experienced. To scare them (once again) with the fear of hellfire and damnation. To leverage their "eternal soul" to get them to join the "fellowship of Christian" whatever lest they wind up in a lake of fire.

I'd had no such indoctrination. I remember talking to this one campus preacher outside the central library who was trying to "save" me. He assumed that I'd had a religious upbringing, tried all the usual fear-mongering of "hellfire and brimstone," and got very, very frustrated when his circular reasoning and threats of hell bounced off me with no effect. That was the day that I really began to appreciate what my parents had done.

I never "lost" my faith. I never had it. Maybe someday I'll find one, but I'm not currently in the market.

 

[DBT]

Given all of the contradictory beliefs and theologies that are based on faith, I came to realize that faith is a poor means of sorting fact from fiction.

 

[FievelJ]

Given all of the contradictory beliefs and theologies that are based on faith, I came to realize that faith is a poor means of sorting fact from fiction.

I go on that word nearly never, (Faith).

I don't even have Faith that I will wake up tomorrow, I hope I will, but if I never do, I will never realize that I am even gone.

 

[aupmanyav]

In my teens, but continued to be a luke-warm theist till my middle age.

 

[southernhybrid]

Maybe at 8 years old...My father announced "You know, of course, that Santa Claus is not real..."

I pretended to know...(I didn't know) "Yeah, of course..." I said

And then I asked "Are you also saying that Jesus Christ is not real?"

He answered "No. Of course not..."

"Hmmm..." I said to myself...

You reminded me of something from my early childhood. When I was five, I asked my mom if Santa was real. She asked me what I thought, so I told her I thought that Santa was pretend and the presents came from our parents. She told me I was right, but not to tell my sister. Maybe I was more of a skeptic from an early age, compared to my sister, who at age 72 remains a Christian. I guess some people need a Santa in their lives to be happy. I will never forget the former poster who frequently said that God was Santa Claus for adults.

Since I never told my son what to believe because I wanted it to be his decision, unlike his genetic father who tried to lure him into the Baha'i Faith unsuccessfully, it came as no surprise when he agreed with me when he was 15 that there were no gods. These days he refers to religions as fairy tales.

Those of you who weren't constantly exposed to religion and forced to attend conservative Christian churches for most of the day on Sundays, can consider yourselves fortunate. I know my parents meant well, but they robbed me of my childhood Sundays and I've always resented that a little bit.

 

[Tars Tarkus]

My brothers and I were forced to attend church related things at least 4 times a week. Sunday school and Sunday service from 9AM to 12:30 PM, Sunday evening service from 7 to 9PM, Boys Brigade (kind of a fundy boyscouts) for 3 hrs on Tuesday, Prayer Meeting for a couple of hours on Wednesday, and Youth Group and Choir practice on Fridays for a couple of hours. I was able to fully get past the indoctrination by age 20 or so once I got some distance from it.

 

[Politesse]

College. I realized at a certain point that I was capable of unconditional love for humanity, and even the most liberal projections of God portrayed a character who certainly was not. It bothered me even then, though my slide into outright apostasy was long in the future. I should not be capable of moral superiority to God, that makes no logical sense. Abandoning the doctrine of Hell altogether saved my faith for at least another decade.