Conversion

[Glen.Nogami]

So, reading around the forums, a lot of people seem to have personal stories of having difficult conversions to atheism away from faith, and have talked about struggling to come to terms with it. If I remember correctly, I just kinda...stopped believing. Anyone else like this? Short, easy transition period? Any ideas as to why this would be this way for some and not others?

I guess for me it could be that the parents never really pushed it too hard. We went to church, and I was told to say my prayers, but I don't recall being threatened hell-wise or anything.

Anyway, thoughts?

 

[PixyMisa]

Yep. That's how it was for me. I just said one day, oh, there's no actual reason to believe any of this. And went on with my life.

And my family wasn't religious, so again, there wasn't that pressure.

 

[lionking]

Same here, but it took me a while to move from non-believer to atheism. For a long while religion was not an issue worth bothering about. It is now an issue which bothers me and I can now confidently call myself an atheist.

 

[Taffer]

I've always been an atheist.

I guess that's no help. But I want to join in.

 

[madurobob]

Same here, and I suspect this has something to do with it:

I guess for me it could be that the parents never really pushed it too hard. We went to church, and I was told to say my prayers, but I don't recall being threatened hell-wise or anything.

I think that if you hold family members in high regard, especially parents, grandparents, etc.., then the "conversion" is far more difficult if they are highly devout. You're not just turning against god, but something much closer to home - you're denying the people you love and respect. If those people you love and respect are more open minded about religion, then its easier for you to step away from religion altogether.

 

[articulett]

Well, there was angst and questioning... but not a lot of fear... I found religion a lot more angst producing than facts. But I don't think it's ever much of an epiphany. I couldn't get it to make sense, so I stopped thinking about it (religion)--and then I looked back and realized I didn't believe any of it. And then I studied genetics and realized it couldn't be true-- but also that the "tree of knowledge" had some pretty fantastic fruit. I guess it took a while before I affirmed that I was an atheist. After, Julia Sweeney's play at TAM3, I think. I just figured I was a skeptic.

 

[supercorgi]

It wasn't sudden for me but just a general decreasing amount of belief. As a teenager, I got confirmed to make my mom happy but that was the last time I participated in church. After I stopped believing in Christianity I had a vague spiritual belief (I believed in lots of woo stuff back then). After that stage, I just didn't care anymore and used to call myself an apatheist - religion was a complete non issue for me. Now, I firmly identify myself as an altheist.

 

[sinclairmcevoy]

An altheist? (sorry, couldn't help myself)

 

[DoubtingStephen]

Despite 12 years of Catholic school, I became free of my religious affliction at about the same time as I discovered that I could, um, bring myself sexual pleasure while alone.

The obviously perverted Catholic priest teaching our high school religion class informed us that we'd burn in hell for all eternity if we reached orgasm while not having sex with an opposite gender Catholic wife. This made it crystal clear to me that the Church was seeking to use human sexuality as a yoke to control my entire life.

This started a lifelong search for any evidence of an Imaginary Bearded Sky Daddy, which obviously failed to find anything except idiotic circular reasoning based on unsupported assertions.

I may have briefly passed through a phase of agnosticism, much as I once thought I might be bisexual. It was a transition for me.

The same pervo priest once told our class of horny teenage boys that if we were not sexually attracted to girls it might mean that we had "a calling to the priesthood." I doubt if anyone in the class failed to realize it was an attempt to recruit unfortunately repressed latent homosexuals into a sickening and self-destructive Lifestyle Choice of bigotry, homophobia and self-denial.

By the time I graduated from Bishop Shanahan High School I was firmly entrenched in my atheism and I refused to attend the Jeebus-centric religious graduation ceremony.

Perhaps I became an atheist because of 12 years of Catholic school, not despite it.

Today, many decades later, I am militantly atheistic and have an incalculably enormous contempt for organized religions. My contempt for religion continues to grow exponentially as my beloved native country slides headlong into a homophobic, woman-hating theocratic empire.

 

[Cosmo]

I was born and raised Jewish. I had six years of hebrew school that culminated in my Bar Mitzvah at 13, but in retrospect I don't think I ever believed any of it. I think I was going through the motions to please my parents (incidentally, I found out many years later that they were both atheist). After the Bar Mitzvah, I went through 5 or 6 years of having religion be a total non-issue in my life. I went to my friends' B'nei Mitzvah, but that was it.

When I was 18 I discovered JREF. The rationality and logic offered by (most) forum members here got me thinking about atheism, and after a year-long period of reflection, I started applying the atheist label to myself. That was almost five years ago now; I'm turning 23 in December. Time flies...

 

[Glen.Nogami]

The obviously perverted Catholic priest teaching our high school religion class informed us that we'd burn in hell for all eternity if we reached orgasm while not having sex with an opposite gender Catholic wife. This made it crystal clear to me that the Church was seeking to use human sexuality as a yoke to control my entire life.

So, wait, did they tell you that you would burn in hell if you married a non-Catholic?

Everyone else, thanks for your answers. Really interesting stuff.

I have to say, what Cosmo said resonated best:

When I was 18 I discovered JREF. The rationality and logic offered by (most) forum members here got me thinking about atheism, and after a year-long period of reflection, I started applying the atheist label to myself.

This forum also taught me quite a bit about arguing, atheism, fallacies, rationality, skepticism and the like.

Say, I wonder if it's possible to edit a poll into this.

ETA: Heh, nope.

 

[The_Animus]

I was never really religious. At a younger age I would probably have called myself Christian, but I never went to church and my family didn't stress religion, though they called themselves Christian as well. At some point I became agnostic, reading information and trying to decide for myself whether there was a God or not. For a while it just sorta sat there. I said "I just don't know" and so stayed agnostic. I read up on a couple other religions, such as buddhism. I thought that buddhism was far more in agreement with what I believed, but it still had its issues with rituals and various realms of existance that just didn't make sense to me. And eventually I just decided there is no reason to believe in a God. So now I am atheist.

 

[DoubtingStephen]

So, wait, did they tell you that you would burn in hell if you married a non-Catholic?

Well, there was a procedure in place that would allow a potential spouse who was not afflicted with Catholicism to swear they would not interfere with the programming of any children that might ensue. But the expectation was that the non-Catholic fiancee would agree to drink the Kool-Aid.

But marrying a person not afflicted with Catholicism who failed to win this stamp of priestly approval was a mortal sin, thus qualifying you for eternal punishment from the God of Love, who died for our sins so that we could still be tormented eternally.

And since this marriage would not be sanctioned by the Church it was only a pretend marriage, and you'd be living in sin.

 

[Tressa]

Slow, over decades. Raised Christian, fundamentalist in my early teens, born again. In my late teens and early twenties I would say I was Christian but was non-practicing. Became a Wiccan/Witch at twenty-eight, became disenchanted (pardon the pun) last year, left at the beginning of this year. Haven't really decided what to call myself so if asked I just say I do not subscribe to any religious or spiritual organization or belief system (the longer story is on my myspace blog, link in sig, thought it would be over kill to repost it here). Definitely was a slow journey (and it's not over yet).