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Hope for a brighter and better future helps us get through these tough and trying times. However, some would argue, hope isn’t tied to spirituality or religion, and is an innately human experience. Atheist or not, hope is pretty much all we’ve got.

A whole bunch of internet users who grew up in religious families opened up about what made them lose their faith and turn into non-believers. Scroll down to have a read about these honest stories from real-life atheists. And if you’re feeling up to sharing a bit about yourselves, dear Pandas, you can drop by the comment section to share your own relationship with faith, whether you’re religious, atheist, or spiritual in the broadest possible sense.

Bored Panda reached out to Reverend Adam Ericksen from the Clackamas United Church of Christ in Milwaukie, Oregon, and to Reverend Patrick Gahagen from the Journey of Faith Church in Baltimore, Maryland, to talk about religion, atheism, doubts, and how it is normal to struggle with faith. "Interestingly, my sister is an atheist/agnostic even though she was raised in the church. She is an atheist AND a wonderful mother and great teacher," Rev. Patrick shared with us.

"Religion is not necessary for being a moral person. In fact, religion can make someone immoral when we use religion to divide the world into good guys and bad guys, sinners, and saints. Jesus didn't use religion that way. For Jesus, religion should motivate us to love others more boldly, not to accuse others of being sinful. When Christianity leads us to divide the world into good guys and bad guys, the most faithful response is to leave Christianity," Rev. Adam said. Read on for their other insights.

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#1

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I was raised/indoctrinated into Protestant Christianity. But once I learned about other religions, I realized the chances were small that I had happened to be born into the correct religion. Then I learned about mythologies, that they were religions that people stopped believing in. It seemed obvious that all religions were simply myths people still believed in.

This was about 40 years ago, and nothing I've seen or heard or read since has changed my mind or even made me doubt that all religions are just man-made myths.

revtim , Pierre Bamin Report

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Ka Se
Ka Se
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When a friend of mine visited he pointed out he thought it was funny I put the bibles between books of ancient myths and Grimms' Fairy Tales.

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Rev. Patrick from the Journey of Faith Church stressed to Bored Panda as well that faith is not necessary neither for morality nor hope. "If you consider for just a moment the immoral and inhumane acts perpetrated by so-called 'people of faith' throughout history. It is unfortunate but there are strains of all religion which promote violence, prejudice, injustices in the name of 'God,'" he pointed out.

According to the Reverend, doubt is an integral part of faith. "I have always believed you cannot have faith without doubt. Faith, without doubt, is no faith at all. Faith stretches us beyond the known, the comfortable, the seen to trust there is more than I know or can possibly conceive. The opposite of faith is fear not doubt," he explained to Bored Panda.

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"Faith is in and of itself a struggle. Constant. The whole meaning of the name given to Jacob in the bible 'Israel' means one who wrestles with God. Faith is a constant wrestle/struggle which is both internal and external. When we stop struggling we stop having faith."
#2

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Read the Bible. Realized 99% of the Christians around me had never read it. Then realized that the vast majority of people have no idea of what’s in its pages. American Christianity is a joke.

stayathomepop7 , Rod Long Report

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Caro Caro
Caro Caro
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

See, this is important. I understand that reading the whole bible is boring. But at least read the important books (Matthew for instance) and study the bible. The bible is full of hyperlinks and if you don't read and study then you have no idea what you're talking about. Just waffling off a few comments and verses to serve your purpose is dangerous and NOT a Christian thing to do. End of rant, need coffee. Bless you Pandas.

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#3

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers The problem of evil. If God refuses to stop evil and suffering, they're not benevolent. If they're incapable of stopping evil and suffering, they're not really God.

The universe simply makes more sense when you view morality as a human construct. A bunch of dumb animals were trying to survive and find purpose in their existence, and inevitably they created the concept of a higher power.

Anubis343 , Jackson David Report

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Ozacoter
Ozacoter
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is one of the things I will never get about believers. Why worshiping a god or gods that let horrible things happen, like covid, natural disasters or things like children dying of cancer.

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Rev. Adam from the Clackamas United Church of Christ agrees that it is "normal" to have doubts and they're something that everyone has. "People who claim to have the strongest faith are almost always suppressing their doubts. I've noticed these people tend to be spiritually toxic to themselves and others because in suppressing their doubts they lash out against others," he told Bored Panda.

"Please know that it is normal to struggle with faith. The priests, prophets, disciples, and even Jesus all had their struggles with faith. Jesus wasn't sure what he should do in the Garden of Gethsemane. He even showed his doubts when he prayed on the cross, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Have you ever felt forsaken by God and so you struggle with faith? That's okay. You are not alone. Even Jesus had to struggle with faith," Rev. Adam said.
#4

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers A priest shaming a 7-year-old me for my parent's divorce. That was a good start into rethinking all the religion.

recklessiga , Caleb Woods Report

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#5

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers When I was 10, the swami (Hindu priest) at my local temple asked me who my favorite God is and I replied 'Thor'.

He laughed and my family laughed and everyone around laughed and told me that these are imaginary characters made to fool kids and make money.

Typical-Type-408 , Kristijan Arsov Report

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#6

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Working with "Christians" and watching them adore a man like Trump. You know it is a shame and about maintaining white male power.

Final-Distribution97 , History in HD Report

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Caro Caro
Caro Caro
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's a shame and a sham. So called Christians voting for a man who is not a Christian, doesn't go to church (never), has no clue about the bible and it's contents and does not live with the Christian values. (Jeremiah 23:16 - This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are filling you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.).

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Previously, Bored Panda spoke to Rev. Patrick about hope. His church is widely known for putting up witty and spot-on signs about the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Reverend, they were overwhelmed with responses about the sign. While some people were “affirming and appreciative” of them, others were not as friendly.

Rev. Patrick gave some advice for anyone who is losing hope in these dark and trying times. “Honor your feelings of hopelessness. They're legit. But know we don't stay there,” he told Bored Panda.
#7

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers ex Muslim here. lots of misogynistic things in both the Quran and habits that never sat right w me

aelinivanov , Malik Shibly Report

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Ozacoter
Ozacoter
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same with the Bible. The abrahamic religions are pure misoginy

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#8

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Grew up and started asking questions. They didn’t like that.

goatsandwich43 , Artem Maltsev Report

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smugdruggler
smugdruggler
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They never do. Until you start asking, they can pretend that they have the answers.

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#9

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Being forced to go to church as a kid and be part of all the holiday plays. All the while getting physically and emotionally beat at home by my stepdad and praying every second of the day for change only to be let down time and time again.

I moved out when I was 13 and never looked back.

Sour_Sunrise , Kat J Report

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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's great for you! Don't let people who hurt you influence you! Great to know you didn't stay with your abusive stepdad! Cheer on!

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“In the same space where despair sits in the soul, so does hope. I have found my faith has become healthier when I have accepted the wholeness of the human and divine experience. It's not joy or sorrow but joy and sorrow. It's not love or fear, it's love and fear. But because of the Easter moment and message of Jesus' resurrection—love wins!" Rev. Patrick, from Maryland, shared.

"I believe as followers of Jesus, we need to cling more to our faith which is built around the questions of God and life and not our religion which is too defensive of our answers,” he added.
#10

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Nothing makes people anti theist faster than theists.

akugyaku , Pedro Lima Report

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#11

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Imagine telling a kid that they'll be forsaken and tortured for an eternity if they jack off or eat shrimp.

DeltaSolana , Benjamin Voros Report

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#12

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I was raised Southern Pentecostal. My grandmother was insanely religious, so I was always at church. The church I went to believed in "speaking in tongues", laying of hands, miracle healing, taking up serpents (handling snakes), and all other kinds of dumba**ery. I went with it for a long time. About 13 I went to a revival summer camp. There was a whole ceremony about pledging yourself to Jesus and not having sex. That spun into kids my age going to a microphone and confessing they had sexual thoughts or what they had done with other people. Then the pastor would pray for the kid and they'd "pass out" on the floor. Pastor comes to me and prays and like pushes me off balance so I play the game and lay on the floor. I'm laying there and just kinda took stock of the actual insanity of this service. I think I lost faith then. After going home I paid more attention to the actions of the people in the church during the services and realized how utterly insane it was. It wasn't long and people actually started acting differently to me because I wasn't doing what they were and I was asked to not return.

paythefullprice , Elliot Sloman Report

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Kat O.
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I grew up as a Pentecostal. Absolutely insane beliefs.

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Meanwhile, Rev. Adam from the Clackamas United Church of Christ, told Bored Panda that “God loves all people and invites us to work for a more just world as we share that love with others.”

For Reverend Adam, inclusivity, acceptance, and tolerance are very important, as is social justice, and “quoting the Bible in a life-affirming way toward immigrants, along with our LGBTQIA and BIPOC siblings.”

Adam told Bored Panda that the last few years “have increased faith for many.” However, he believes that this definition of ‘faith’ isn’t one that his church has been used to. This interpretation of faith is more akin to the need to belong to a community.
#13

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Listening to Southern Baptists and their lame arguments about why women should submit to their husbands and defend slavery and watch them acting and speaking the opposite of what Jesus actually preached.

NotMyRealName814 , pixabay.com Report

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Ian Goldby
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A Christian is known by their fruit. Bad fruit = bad Christian. Try listening to the good Christians instead.

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#14

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I was 11 or 12 and knew a toddler that had contracted HIV from a surgical procedure in the 1980s when AIDS hysteria was at fever pitch. Soon afterward, I heard a pastor say that AIDS was God's way of inflicting punishment upon sinners, and those who contracted it deserved it.

I knew the preacher was an idiot, but that didn't do it for me on its own. It was after the sermon when everyone was getting their coffee and donuts when I heard all the parishioners were saying how refreshing it was to have a preacher who was not afraid to speak the truth and tell things the way they really are (it was language eerily similar to that used by people to describe why they liked Trump more than three decades later).

I figured that if there was a God, he'd figure out a way to set things like that straight. I suspected that religion was less about salvation than it was about control.

reddit , Mitchell Leach Report

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Samantha Lomb
Samantha Lomb
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah that was just homophobes being assholes. But yes there is no god.

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#15

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers If you should "come as you are", why are we getting all dressed up to the nines? If it isn't for God, it's definitely for fellow churchgoers. Every time I went to church people would have this fake smile plastered upon their faces. Shake each other's hands and sing grace. They'd turn around and get drunk at the bar and run cars into buildings and people. One of the Sunday school teachers molested one of the kids. Besides, religious people use God as a reason for everything, including a scapegoat when things go wrong. "God, if you do this for me I'll never do wrong again".

If I were God, no child would have cancer. God does not work in mysterious ways. No lesson can be learned from giving a kid cancer and letting them suffer until they die.

God's forgiveness: "accept me into your heart so I can save you from what I will do to you if you don't"

ReaperDanny666 , Gabriella Clare Marino Report

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Ozacoter
Ozacoter
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Exactly. Inocent people having horrible diseases or children being molested is proof that there are no gods

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"For example, I find that people of different faiths and even people of no faith are looking for a sense of community. Faith is moving much more towards what I think Jesus had in mind—a trust in something bigger than yourself,” he said.

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“Sometimes, we find that trust in community, realizing that all communities are flawed and make mistakes, but that participating in something bigger than ourselves makes life worth living. I think people are finding that especially in these most difficult times, faith within a community is something we need more than ever,” Adam said.

The Reverend's congregation believes in defending equality, dignity, and the rights of all people under God. “We are open and affirming of our LGBTQ siblings and believe God calls us to love all of our neighbors, including those who are black, brown, white, rich, poor, religious, atheist, documented, and undocumented,” the Clackamas United Church of Christ proclaims.
#16

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I read one of Steven Hawking's books and became terrified I was going to hell for opening it. I was 12. Some years later I realized that it was all bs, went back and finished the book and that was that.

i_like_cars_alot , Quinton Coetzee Report

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Pa4040
Pa4040
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Going to Hell for gainimg knowledge of how the universe actually works. Sounds about right

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#17

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I read the Bible & also because they couldn't answer any of my questions. Do animals have souls? If yes, isn't that murder when we eat them? If not, then what keeps them alive? The bible says slavery is okay??? But it is NOT? The bible says women should remain silent & never be teachers but my pastor is literally a woman? And don't mothers TEACH their children? If all the old testament is wrong or the old rules or whatever then why did God include it in the first place? Why was God so cruel to Lucifer when all he asked for was understanding - God admits humans are flawed, Lucifer says why love such a flawed thing, & then yeets him down to damnation?? Did hell already exist without Lucifer? And if Satan wants us to commit sins then why would he punish us for doing what he wanted??

And then there's the whole "end times" battle where Satan is a guy covered in light & God has gouged out eyes & is wearing blood-drenched clothes - like??? Surely he understands human FEAR?? We SUCK at judgment calls! And if God can turn water into wine so easily he can't grow fruit trees for the starving people all around the world??

Evolution just makes way more sense.

WerewolfHowls , Eugene Zhyvchik Report

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#18

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Second grade teacher told us we'll go to hell for swearing. Once. Imagine the kind of person telling second graders they are all going to hell. (And we didn't have religion taught in school. That teacher was a nut that probably hated children)

[Kid: "Well s**t, if I'm damned to hell for just cursing one f**king time, then I guess the a** is out of the stable, isn't it? No f**king reason to hold s**t back now!"]

Hedgehog_Owl , Taylor Wilcox Report

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#19

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I read the Bible in-depth. I asked questions in bible study and was punished for not blindly accepting. The final nail in the coffin was the minister who performed my wedding had been moved from a previous parish for having affairs with the women parishioners. He was having affairs here and was moved again to a new parish where he did the same.

He droned on and on about fidelity and trust in marriage while unapologetically having affairs and the church just moved him knowing what he did.

The rampant hypocrisy sickened me.

Magnus_40 , Josh Applegate Report

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Ozacoter
Ozacoter
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This was the case with my father. A priest teacher tried to molest him when he was a teenager but he punched the disgusting pedo in the face. My father was severely punished but the priest was just send to another school to keep molesting children

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#20

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Well, spending my earliest childhood years in a literal cult in the 70's, then being gay in a family of right-wing Evangelicals was kind of a perfect storm to turn me off of religion for life. My parents are gone now and my oldest sister has gone full QAnon, further validating my own position that it's all a steaming pile of crazy.

David Grove , Joshua Stitt Report

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navneethkrishnan09 avatar
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't worry, things will take a deep turn and become better!

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#21

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers It just didn't make any sense to me, and I was tired of being told that I'm going to hell.

DeltaSolana , Jon Tyson Report

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#22

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Ex muslim.

I struggled understanding how I will inevitably go to hell (even if just for a little bit) because I am unable to perform prayer on time, especially the sunrise {fajr} prayer on time.

I have ADHD, and was unmedicated till my late 20s. Doing anything in time was an absolute uphill battle compared to other people. Ireally struggled to wake up in the morning all my childhood, my teen and my adult life. Looking at 23andMe, It’s almost like my genetic formation is destined to go to hell.

Also, I felt like being native in Arabic gave me an insanely unfair advantage over any non-arabic speakers. Even the most religious muslims from countries like Pakistan were inferior in understanding a lot of what came insanely easy to me.

So it didn’t really feel so fair of an ask.

Finally, some rules in the religion didn’t sit right at all and were basically the last nail in the coffin.

That being said, I still viciously protect the right of religious people to practice their religions without being looked down upon or discriminated against.

iRimmIt , Levi Meir Clancy Report

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Caro Caro
Caro Caro
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love the last sentence. Leave people their religion, their freedom to worship. As long as these people leave the atheists alone and don't judge.

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#23

When I asked a religious education teacher what Noah and his family fed the carnivores on the ark and the 'teacher' stared at me like I was a cockroach. She then came and stood over me and said "Little girls should be seen and not heard." Until then I had always been encouraged to ask questions by the adults in my life. Decided that God wanted me to ask if I had the question and told her as much.
Yeah..... She asked me not to come back.

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#24

Went to college, started thinking for myself as opposed to blindly trusting who I was told to trust.

I used to think that religious folks had good intentions, at least, just misinformed. Now I know that to be wrong. Religion is a plague among the dull-minded.

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Samantha Lomb
Samantha Lomb
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And now you know why the religious right hates higher education.

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#25

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I was never big on it though I was raised Catholic. One day I remember thinking "Why does an omnipotent, omnipresent entity need me to go to a church and listen to a priest? Why tell him (the priest) my sins? Surely God would know what I did and if I'm truly sorry... Then I started realizing what hypocrites the supposedly "pious" were in day-to-day life. Then our Bishop came up as a kiddy diddler...

Ryan Kristoff , Romain Dancre Report

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#26

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Family are Jehovah’s Witnesses. They had me at “144,000 people will live forever in a land of all good, just like the garden of eden was, but everyone else is sol and will simply not exist” what makes them better than me? Why does this god creature only love 144,000 out of billions?

I always asked questions that were answered with bible scriptures irrelevant to what I asked.

My grandma, my mom, and aunts and uncles were shunned from the Kingdom Hall after my grandma had an affair. He was straight up considered dead and my grandma and had children still went to the Kingdom Hall but no one was allowed to talk to them. They had to sit at the back of the hall. They had to come late and leave early so there was no contact with other members of the cult, I mean congregation. My mom and her sisters lost their friends.

closetedho , Mikey Report

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#27

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Constantly being told that I was going to hell just for missing church once in a while was the start of it for me.

But if they actually believed that then they are in hell too for judging me.

Affectionate_Pea_811 , Virgil Cayasa Report

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#28

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers When I had to put on my private school bible final that the earth was 6000 years old I really started to dig in what the hell I believed. The whole Abraham sacrificing his son on a mountain is just so f**ked up too. It started with “Even if he was real I wouldn’t want to worship him.” It snowballed from there. Great moral teaching book though for the most part.

Princess_leia1993 , Tim Wildsmith Report

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navneethkrishnan09 avatar
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ahahaha if dinosaurs existed 250 mil years ago, megalodons existed 3.6 million years ago, leedsichthys problematicus lived 165 million years ago, WHAT THE HELL IS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE THAT THE EARTH IS 6000 YEARS OLD

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#29

I was always told that If I prayed, god would answer me. My parents fought a lot, so I prayed every night that god would make it stop. He never answered.

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#30

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I hated the judgment. I can think of one example that turned me off religion: I remember there was a sermon made by a pastor around Christmas time. I don't remember what it was about, only the guilt I felt afterward.

eschuylerhamilton , Stephen Radford Report

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Kat O.
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is how they suck you in. You feel so guilty that you have to make up for it.

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#31

When as a kid a religious classmate told me that if you believe in Jesus you go to heaven, and when I asked "even killers?" and his answer was "yes if they believe in Jesus". My kid brain just shut down right there and then. The legions of people who backstab and gossip about others but still go to church every weekend thinking it's a Sin Washing Machine made me realize they have no f-ing idea about the Bible at all.

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Martin Blaney
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

HAHAHA yes indeed, the sin washing machine AKA the Sunday morning "reset" button.

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#32

I am tired of hearing things like god is absolute good and all powerful, everything god does is for good, god loves all. But when I read history, religious war, tortures, brutality and stuff, my brain asks 'damn, where's the love'. Get to watch the news and read stories of murderers, pedophiles, and so on. Also, religion doesn't make any sense. All the religious people are quite scary, when some of them fail to turn me into religious, I see the irritation and anger there (even my mom). Plus all the religious conflicts still going on, it feels bad for the powerless innocent people who suffer because of it. To get into imaginary heaven, people are destroying themselves and others even though we call ourselves intellectual beings

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Olga Dremina
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To get into imaginary heaven, people are destroying themselves and others even though we call ourselves intellectual beings. THIS

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#33

I realized the most morally corrupt people were the ones that were always at church. Like they took the word ‘repent’ and show up for an hour service to cleanse themselves of a week of bulls**t. I don’t like being around them.

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#34

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers Read it once around age 14 to prove to myself god existed. That backfired. Read it again in my 20s but skipped the “begats” that pretty much sealed in my atheism.

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Fen Wolf
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This happens a lot, and happens more if you read a pre-King James edition. There's a lot of changes.

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#35

Catholic school

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#36

Studied 'history of the Enlightenment' at university for a year. Was cured within two weeks or so.

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H Edwards
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is why the right-wing nutjobs don't want to send their kids to college.

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#37

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers After a lot of things I started to think why it is happening, why god isn't doing anything about it. In this process, I also read a lot of books on philosophy, self-help, psychology, etc. So I slowly moved from religious to agonistic and then atheist.

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Good for you, you do you and don't let no one change ur opinion if u want to continue this!

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#38

The idea of a single entity in the sky never made sense to me as an older kid, and as a pre-teen/teen, I started to believe that god wasn't a 'person' but was conscious in everything around us and existed without form/all form. Had adults at the church (catholic) laugh at me and encourage my peers to make fun of me too, and used every chance they could to mock me. As an agnostic atheist now, I find so much more peace sitting in nature and enjoying that it is 'just beautiful and moving and alive' than I ever did while believing in their god.

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Tuna Fish
Tuna Fish
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Same. I always thought that God was nature and that's why it makes so much sense. While believing in a dude in the sky that grants wishes to some and says no to others was just crazy. I was often punished and ridiculed for my opinion to the point where I just started keeping it to myself.

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#39

I started reading the Bible.

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#40

Religion has ZERO evidence to back up its claims. Science has a plethora and continues to add it to.

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Brian Bennett
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My very religious cousin sated about COVID "I do not believe in something I can't see. I asked her if she believed in God - Yes of course - I said Think about what you just said. I think most religions are based in fear!

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#41

Someone Asks Atheists From Religious Families What Made Them Non-Believers, 30 Give Honest Answers I knew by 8th grade that religion was not my thing.

I do think that Catholic school was partially responsible for my femdom thing though. So not a total loss.

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#42

I started putting people above doctrine and religion.

Christianity forces you to believe that all gay people and all non-Christians will be tortured for all eternity. There is no way around it, and no amount of cognitive dissonance will make that ok. Any Christian that tries to be loving, forgiving, or progressive knows nothing about their own religion

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Caro Caro
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, that's NOT what Christianity teaches, it's the hypocrites who teach that. There's a difference.

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#43

I had a lot of bad things happen in my life and if there is a god why would he let this all happen.

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#44

A friend from grad school was deeply religious and I attended some services with her and had conversations with her and some classmates from time to time. I would best describe myself as a Christmas/Easter Catholic at the time and had already been leaning towards religion not being my thing. I don’t think I realized how different branches of Christianity were until experiencing her church. We went during the week once and she was excited for the speaker (it was more like a lecture than a service, there wasn’t communion) and I sat there horrified as he complained about nuns/women speaking/teaching at a conference he had bee to and that services used instruments to accompany their songs and some anti abortion and anti gay rant for good measure. Horrified. I leaned over to her and said I didn’t want to embarrass her and if she wasn’t my ride I would have walked out. We had a conversation about it after and throughout the course of grad school it would come up, but she believed that women were basically second to men. She was allowed to teach Sunday school but not to the older kids. I was just beside myself that someone with an education degree and studying a male-dominated engineering field actually believed she shouldn’t be able to teach or influence and was second to a man. I was staying with her and her family for a few days and when the Sunday mass came up I declined and offered to meet her at the church after on our drive back to campus.

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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The particular denomination and church you attend has a big impact on your opinions. I belong to the Uniting Church of Australia which is a very progressive church and has a large focus on social justice. There are female ministers and gay ministers, we have instruments (if there is anyone in the congregation who plays) with some hymns, we fight for refugee rights and we welcome anyone. I have attended churches of different denominations but the one that fits my views and beliefs is the Uniting. There is nothing really wrong with the others but they do have some rituals that I don't see the point of and they just have a different style of worship.

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#45

Being told DnD was demon worship. Sure you can go full Evil but i love playing gray. Chaotic Neutral is my jam.

You kill Satan in some of the modules.

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Ceph Alopod
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Necromancer here, life's more fun when you sin against man, gods and nature

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#46

It started with actually reading the Bible for the first time, instead of just getting passages given to me. It was nothing like what I was taught. Jesus turned out to be exactly like all the “crazy fundamentalists” who I previously assumed made the faith look bad.

That lead to learning about how the faith developed, which required learning about how Judaism developed. The entire history of Abrahamic religion was simply not what the faiths teach it is. That killed my faith.

I tried to hang on, turning to apologetics. There is no one more dishonest than professional religious apologists. They will proudly say demonstrably wrong, have it corrected by an expert in that field, acknowledge that correction, and continue repeating that same wrong statement over and over for new audiences. Some they seem to love are “atheists say there was nothing, then nothing exploded and made dinosaurs”, and “if evolution was true, why are there still monkeys?” Then there are their completely fluid and inconsistent reinterpretations of their scripture. With apologists, any given passage will mean opposite things at any given moment, depending on what they want it to mean at the time. There is so much “When Jesus says ‘Truly I tell you…’ he really means ‘Metaphorically, I or a metaphor for someone, tell you or a metaphor for someone…(insert thing that has no relevance to the text).’”

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Olga Dremina
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle. “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people. Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. Tell me how is that good and teaches you good?

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#47

I grew up in a religion that many would consider a cult. I was so sure it was true. Once I came to find out it wasn’t true, I applied the logic I used to leave my religions to other religions, I came to the same conclusion, all religion is man-made. At this point, I just think we are the universe trying to experience itself.

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Jaclyn Levy
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"I just think we are the universe trying to experience itself." That is beautiful. I'm writing it down!

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#48

I was raised in the church and catholic school. But it never really seemed to be part of the culture, just my surroundings, if that makes sense. Some students, teachers, families were religious, some weren't. I didn't really absorb the religious teachings but tried to take it seriously at some point in high school just to think for myself... And it never really stuck. It was just a private school, but also the church.

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#49

I never really believed it from the start. I joked about it once, and my mom yelled at me. I'm still keeping it a secret.

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Adrian
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Do I believe in God? But what is belief? There are kangaroos, I believe they exist. So does the question ask whether I believe in His existence? or that I support the rules the priests laid down in His name? If the former there is no way to prove one way or another. If the latter then the rules may or may not be correctly interpreted.

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#50

When I was in 5th grade a classmate said she was atheist and I asked why. She said none of it made much sense. I thought about it and agreed.

Honestly God was the default view and it never occurred to me to think otherwise and literally the second I gave it any real thought or challenged it I was like oh yea none of this really tracks

I didn't really have any sophistication or understanding about how clearly manmade and a reflection of our own anxieties God is - that all came later. At that moment it really came down to I was told gods were real but was never truly made to believe it because it wasn't made to feel real.

It's actually weird to me that this doesn't happen eventually to most people. Like you live your life in the real world enough that at some point it becomes clear that none of this religious stuff makes sense as anything other than a way some humans concocted to control others and sometimes themselves

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Stephanie IV
Stephanie IV
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That is so weird. It was the other way round for me. Born with faith I couldn't express. Heard the word GOD. Asked about it. Parents (Agnostics) explained. Things clicked. I can feel God's presence at all times. To me, everything is like a song of God's love for creation. It's a naive faith. I have tried to reason it away for decades. But it would not budge. So there it is.

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#51

I just gradually ....stopped.

I kinda always knew it was BS, but imprinting is a thing and it stuck with me for years. All those endless years of church and bible camps, the rantings about hell and the devil, it stays with you.

Social control....

But now, nothing. I want proof, not the bulls**t from some "youth pastor" that just says believe.

Until I see actual proof, I'm an atheist.

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#52

My parents and religious teacher started arguing through me over whether the devil is real or not, and I realized that nothing of it was certain

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Tiffany Wilson
Tiffany Wilson
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

From what I've gathered from light and dark workers, those that have been on the other side... the devil was created out of Christian fear and only affects them. Make sense to me.

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