Wait... you made a conscious effort to become not religious?
You're an American I take it, wearing atheism as a badge to rebel against your parenting...

I was being bullied at school and my mom told me to say bismillah or something and it'd give me strength

it didn't

my dad was already an atheist, and that didn't help.

>I saw how complex they and their society was and just couldn't see how there could be any creator.
1/10

>>4846670

English with non religious parents

>>4846670
I don't get what the fuck are you on about. OP clearly said that he started to have doubts because he started to think logically as a kid and the concept of God didn't make any sense for him, not because he was so HURRRR REBELLIOUS.

I'd contribute, but I don't remember anything.

I never "Considered" atheism, it's just what is or isn't.

I think I really understood it all though when I actually caught myself wishing there was a God with all my might, but realizing it was just impossible to make myself believe it. You absolutely cannot lie to yourself.

As far as I see it, if you aren't wishing you were theistic or agnostic or that there was SOMETHING you could blindly put your faith into without having to confront the truth, you don't really understand the scope of what atheism is.

>>4846682
So you were more considering whether god could exist rather than why he didnt exist? Also, then, why did you embrace atheism rather than becoming agnostic?

>>4846704

Because i never found a reason or proof that a god did exist

>>4846702
I was getting at that he implied he had religious beliefs before hand and I know alot of Americans that go through this because they simply want to rebel against parenting. Advocating the complete opposite and spouting that god doesn't exist etc is one way of doing so. See my follow up question - >>4846704

>>4846718
There's also no proof they don't exist or never existed.

Went to a catholic primary school, realised it had to all be a load of shit when I was 12. God existing just didn't make sense and the fact that Catholic God was perfect yet made imperfect people and sent them to hell just sounded retarded. For me God was like Santa Claus, just another thing I grew out of as my childhood progressed. I'm not an Athiest but I'm a Nihilist, still think thiesm is bullshit though.

I was born into a baptist family (from northern IL, so not southern, at least). Spent my preschool years going to a baptist preschool.
Attended AWANA. Sunday school.

Later left that church and started going to a nondenominational church. At LEAST three days a week. Volunteered all the time. During the summer would go away for weeks.

When I was a teenager I drove myself and my little sister every Sunday to service. Then one day I listened to a service and was horrified and disgusted at what was being preached.

I left and decided to never go back. I started thinking about what else I could go to, what other services and churches were available to me.

Then it dawned on me that I had never really believed at all. I didn't believe in anything, and not believing didn't bother me, so now I identify as atheist and am comfortable with that label.

>>4846729

There is no proof the tooth fairy doesn't exist but that didn't stop my parents putting a coin under my pillow.

(Disclaimer: i knew the toothfairy and santa where pretend very young but the acts of both played by the parents are a bonding thing)

>>4846704

Look, agnostic is not some awesome middle ground where everybody's open-minded and shit, it's a school of knowledge, which differs from the schools of *belief* that are atheism and theism.
They're not mutually exclusive, either.

>>4846765
>atheism
>belief
try... contain... 100 post trolling...

>>4846758
The proof they don't exist is that your parents do those things. Their "existance" though may have been based on realities. Such as Saint Nicholas becoming Santa.

>>4846765
Indeed, my question is still valid though. If you find no proof either way, why label yourself at all?

>>4846771
But atheism is a belief, stop with the "HURRR IT'S DISBELIEF" bullshit. Sure, it's not a religion, but calling it a belief isn't trolling. You believe that there's no supernatural force ruling this world; i.e. you disbelieve that there is any such force.

I have a genetic defect. I wet the bed until I was 15. When I went school and the school trips started (which lasted more than just one day), I noticed how shitty that is. Later I became more and more embarassed and I couldn't go anywhere. I started praying, meditating, let my mother take me to a hypnosis session and all that superstitous stuff she's into, and nothing helped. That was when I knew there was no god and the other stuff doesn't work either. That was at the age of 8 or something.

>>4846682

Actually that's not 100% true my dad was atheist and my mother was baptized roman catholic and had a spiritualist mother.

She denounced any god when her highly religious dad was pretty much eaten by cancer.

Also she came from a large family and all where baptized young she felt that it was wrong to do that and gave me and my two brothers the choice once we where old enough to be baptized or not and all three of us said no. I think that is a really noble thing to do and even though I am atheist I will give my children the freedom to choose. Forcing my kids to be atheist is just another from of indoctrination.

born in an atheist country. back then I thought all western nations were also essentially atheist, because they practically invented science.

oh how naive i was.

>>4846771

What I meant by "schools of belief" was that you can either *believe* in god or not *believe* in god. Either way, they both require some position on the issue of god.
Agnostic is a stance of what you know or don't know, having nothing to do with what you actually believe.

>>4846800

I believe there is a cup of coffee sitting on the desk in front of me because i can see it and it tastes good.

If it wasn't their i wouldn't be agnostic to the belief of a coffee cup

>>4846822
But you would believe there once was one there?
So maybe there was a "god", just because you can't see him now, it may not mean he never existed.

I thought religion was boring and irrelevant and that atheism was progressive.

But then I started reading theology and finding out about religion by myself, and I'm not an atheist any more.

>>4846808
I want to add that I'm not an atheist now, because at some point I realized there are people who take this as serious as others do religion. It doesn't make sense to me, but I really really do not care about it and wouldn't want to argue with anyone about it. I guess that can be classified as "agnostic".

Basically I'm fine with everything as long as they leave me alone with it. Because I definitely will.

I remember sitting in church when I was 9 or 10 and trying to figure out why people believed all this. I so desperately wanted it to be true, but I couldn't find any kind of evidence for it beyond some old book and the word of a dude in a dress.

It took me another 10 years of searching and dabbling in various alternative spiritualities before I finally came to terms with the idea that there was no god and no supernatural, but the seeds were there even then, and through it all deep down I always knew it was BS.

never had to consider it, it should be the default even in the US. i have no belief in absence though, just absence of belief.

the people who would believe there is no god even if it's somehow proven he/she exists, those are the atheists.

>>4846703
This. I was never really religious. When I was young I remember frequent church hymns and alot of church trips. but I never believed in god. it was just what I knew. Believing in god, and wishing in the existance of god are two different things. I was allways skeptical of the bible, god's decisions, parodoxes within the idea of all powerful. I also watched hurcules alot and then eventually questioned, "why does no one believe in these gods today?".
Eventually, I just stopped believing, then I saw that a god has no need for followers, if he is all powerful then he shouldn't be followed for constricting us in so many ways. If he isn't, he doesn't deserve to be followed.

Then later after contemplating on starwars, jedi and the force. I eventually came to view that religions should be no more than moral guides, and that jedi was the best choice. I also believed that the Force could actually exist as simply a metaphor for all things, pretty much just energy and matter. (i'm not saying I can move objects with my mind).
Recently I'm not too sure that the Force is actually a Deity, and could infact be nothing more than "a force" like gravity. And if either have a will. does it have any right to affect the universe?

I grew up without God and when I first heard about it I thought it was totally ridiculous. Never really had one of those crises of faith so many people seem to have.

>>4846837

Just like the idea of gods the coffee was man made so even when it is not their i know where it is probably sitting in the washing up bowl because i have control over it.

Just like you could find a point in time where someone invented the idea of a god/s

The fact humans are intelligent is a curse in itself as we constantly feel the need to explain why we have this intelligence and the only way most think we could have got it is from an even higher intelligence.

Horses don't sit around wondering why they got their hooves or contemplating some hoove giving horse god.
They just trot around content with their place in the world

>>4846819
Still wrong. By the logic of your graph, everyone's agnostic, since every reasonable person acknowledges that there's a possibility of them being wrong.

Agnosticism is more of a position stating that any claims about the nature or existence of God are not verifiable and thus, you shouldn't take a stance. And no, science does not make the existence of God any less probable.

I more like the word 'agnostic' when I understood it as someone who belieeves in the existence of some ultimate, conscious cause, but does not make any claims as to its nature.

I started considering atheism when I was about 10... I was the most anti-establishment punk kid in the neighborhood, yo. Luckily I grew up.

For ease I could call myself atheist, but it's not like I ever really sat down and thought about whether I believe god exists. It was as simple as this;

Being a practicing christian, or anything, is a hassle. I'd rather just be me.

I'm not really decided on Jeebus and Buddha and the invisible sky wizard, and I don't really care to be decided. On /r9k/ I'll argue against whoever I perceive as being douchebags in that particular thread, but I'm not committed either way.

>>4846897
>every reasonable person acknowledges that there's a possibility of them being wrong.

Well, duuuhh. Of course any reasonable person would have to be agnostic. I don't see what's wrong here.

I think every single person in this thread is an utter retard.

>>4846942

By definition, that means, you sir, take special-needs education.

>>4846822
This. The absence of any tangible and verifiable evidence to the presence of that almighty bearded coffee-cup in the sky does not make a believer in its absence. It just isn't there. The "belief" has strong connotations with spiritual belief systems; in my experience, a believer is someone who beliefs in the *presence* something that cannot be proven by science, not the *absence* of something.

>>4846620
I went to a Catholic elementary school, but my parents are not religious (one somewhat agnostic and the other atheist). It was just a good school in the neighbourhood. The whole religion thing always seemed like something others believed in. It was useful to learn about the whole Christian thing though, it helps to understand how religious people view the world.

>>4846895
How do you know what horses are thinking? Remember, mice built this world.

>>4846942
Wait, I retract that.

I BELIEVE every single person in this thread is an utter retard.

>>4846897
Interesting how the concept of atheism seems like a rebellious thing to Americans. I think most of the people in countries like the Netherlands or Germany would see atheism as one of many conclusions you can come to after pondering the whole religion thing. It is far from rebellious.

>>4846931
I don't know one person ignorant enough to say that they're 100% certain (minus the trolls who would say that just to see you raging). There's no 100% certainity in anything.

Agnosticism, as I understand it, goes further than stating this obvious fact and claims that any claim about those topics could be true, but is to be discarded anyway, as we can't verify if it's actually true.

Having been brought up a catholic I have visited many of the hallowed shrines were miracles occur or have occured. Im wondering have any other robots been to such places. Im talking in relation to catholicism as it seems to be the only major religion which still relies on miracles and recognises and investigates them as a means of self justification.
Anyway I visited a saint's house in southern france and toured his small home. He was said to have suffered attacks from satan on a regular basis and his bed burst into flames when he was sleeping in it. The bed is still there ,albeit in tatters with no damage to the surrounding floor or walls.
Also this saints body was in a nearby church 100% preserved although he wasnt embalmes and died 200 years ago.

Weird stuff but Im still sceptical of religion

>>4846990
Catholics are a bit weird though. If you gathered all the holy relics taken from, say, Saint Nicholas from churches and monasteries all around the world, you would end up with a skeleton with five arms and twenty-three toes.

And you could build a rather large barn out of all the bits of holy cross..

>>4846989

There are definitely people who ARE certain that their beliefs are correct, I know you and everyone else can think of a few examples from religious extremists and such.

But anyways, calling yourself an agnostic is useless, as you are probably living under the assumption that there is no god, as I'm guessing you don't do religious rituals or anything else *just in case* there is a god.

Being agnostic is catering to religious groups, flattering them in their belief that they're the only enlightened people in the world because an invisible force courses through them. I, for one, have a distaste for fantasy literature, and even the more so for flattering ignorant fanatics.

I'm going to go play anno 1701 now and build churches otherwise my civilization will not progress

>>4847020
Well relics can be 'made' by having contact with a saint ,holy person or site. There are several in my parents home. Pieces of cloth which have been touched by padre pio or even his corpse for instance.

>>4846620
I went through 13 years of hell at a batfuck insane fundamentalist Christian school where the staff weren't sane enough to be allowed work in the states.
Knowing how insane the christfags seemed to me from the start, having friends who were brought up in a multitude of different faiths, and growing up in a non-religious home I never saw how those stark incongruencies between what different people believed allowed for any religion to be legitimate.

My parents are what you might call agnostic, but I grew up in an increasingly divided society (between ex-communist and catholic), my family falling to the former side. Religion has always been a political, not rational or experiential choice for me. To me, being religious means betraying the progressive cause and taking sides against the advancement of western civilization, and I cannot allow myself to leave open the possibility that these enemies of civilization could be right. Of course they couldn't, this should be clear to anyone who has read Freud on the paternal archetype and libidinal bonding.

>>4847031
The best "religious" act you can ever do is enjoy life and treat others well.

To be fair I think if any religion were to be true I would prefer it to be christianity merely because the crusade were so damn awesome and that buddhists seem to me to be the religious equivalent of stoner hippies

>>4847042

Man dude, you're pretty hardcore. Can I suck your dick?

It makes me lol to think that since a blasphemy law was passed in my country yesterday (Ireland btw)
I can have someone who has the 'intent' to cause offence to me regarding my chosen faith arrested and shoved in the dock.

>>4847083

But they lost the crusades that's like the Nazis saying ww2 was complete success

>>4847079

what if the god doesn't like good acts? what if he/she/it really wants you to just stab someone in the neck for no reason every day? I can't prove it, you say? well, you can't DISPROVE it so nyaaa

>>4847102
I'm not interested in exchanging banter with teenagers. Go skateboard or something.

>>4847108
He would be an "evil" god, which I'm sure exists if a good one also exists.

>>4847083

wut? you think that if christianity were true, we'd suddenly start dressing like knights and kill saracens in the name of the pope and christ like olden times?

I don't get it, man

>>4847106
nobody lost the Crusades, all sides involved profited from them, that's what made medieval religion so awesome.

>>4847108
Well its a given that the uncommon is more desirable than the common.
Diamonds are uncommon as is gold ,both are highly valued by are race.
Similarly if a god were to exist he would most likely look more favourably upon the less common human traits such as benevolence ,obedience and kindness.
These traits do of course exist in many but are arguably a long way from becoming the 'norm' Therefore good behaviour will continue to be viewed as a 'virtue' until it becomes the norm and stagnates ,resulting in bad behaviour being rewarded .Thus the cycle continue and I've just wasted precious moments of your life in making you read this pointless diatribe.

Everyone who calls themselves an agnostic is really an atheist. The active belief that there is nothing is referred to as antitheism.

Also, I went to a Sunday school-ish thing as a kid, but I was never really into it and I managed to terrify my instructor by saying that A: if God is good and if God created everything, than evil must be good, and that B: we were created from the stars (a misquote from one of the science books I loved back then). I also said that I felt sorry for Lucifer because I thought God was being unfair to him. Thankfully, my parents didn't mind any of this.

I also hypothesized around that time that "God is the shadow cast by the universe." So... atheist, or close to it, from around age 8 and up.

>>4847138
Diamonds are plentiful and cheap if you look in the "right" places. The market is over valuing them because the people with them are few and limit supply.

My friend proposed the theory that the univers is made up of black holes which aer constantly moving /assimilating one another. When the last black hole has been consumed then the one remaining will explode and the universe will 'begin' again.
There may be a proper name to this theory but it makes some sense to me.

>>4847138

By that logic, the creator of the universe would want everyone to be psychopaths and sociopaths, since you know, they're so ultra-super-mega rare like fucking yugioh cards.

done with this fucking thread

>The crowning moment was when I was maybe 9 or younger and watching ants in my garden. I saw how complex they and their society was and just couldn't see how there could be any creator.

If only their women were prettier...

When I was born I guess,
my parents where atheists so naturally I was raised one,despite that I've never really understood some people's hatred for religion.

I always have been atheist, you should have made your question "When did you first consider religion?". We're all atheists before some lunatic puts that shit into our minds.

I had my first religion vs. atheism fight when I was in preschool. Actually the "debate" was more about the existance of god though.

>>4847188
misspelled the where in that sentence,
was suppose to be a were

I saw a ghost when I was 16 and no onell convince me otherwise.
I was fucking scared for weeks .

I believe there is some type of higher power maybe a god, maybe a higher form of intelligence that created us. I used to think there was no higher entity but realised you can't make something from nothing at all. But practising some batshit insane rituals and ceremonies to a God that some guy from 2000+ years ago told us to do is just as stupid as saying the world is flat. Personally I find the whole God vs. No God redundant and almost as pointless as arguing over which rock band is better.
I just can't wait until people stop trying to convert others and work on something that is actually worth while like raising money for cancer research instead of donating to the church.

>>4847255
hear hear.
Im still a bit religious but find the whole arguing thing extrremly pointless,aggravating and embarrassing for both sides. Its essentially people trying to guess whats inside a box which will never be opened

>>4847188
>I've never really understood some people's hatred for religion.
That mostly doesn't happen until someone tries to force religion on to you.

That happened to me at primary school: my parents aren't religious so i'd never really had much to do with it.

But the difference in teaching at school between christianity and *anything else* was staggering.

christianity was forced down your throat and any questions were essentially deflected with "don't question this, just accept it"
Whilst for anything else they'd happily explain things and try to explain 'why' things were.
what clicked it for my young mind way the way they taught about greek gods as mere stories, while chrstian gods were bedrock truth, even though they were the same thing as far as i could tell, that set off huge warning bells in my head as to why they'd do such a thing.
Attempting to teach about the idea of hell is what sealed it to me as it being an evil thing.

Because the human beings, they believe everything is alive. Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone. And also the things from them, like that hair. The man from whom this hair came, he's bald on the other side, because I now own his scalp. That is the way things are. But the white man, they believe everything is dead. Stone, earth, animals. And people, even their own people. If things keep trying to live, white man will rub them out.

>How did you become atheist?
huh. everyone is born atheist by default.
and i remained atheist to adulthood since i never had any interaction with believers (other than those annoying jehova's witnesses)

I was a selfish little kid and figured that since god wasn't answering my prayers for a new toy or whatever I wanted at the moment he just wasn't there.

But as I grew older religion looked legitimately more and more ridiculous. I was raised in a household with parents of two different religions; and went to the holy places of both on the high holidays. Each said the other was wrong; so I believed both in that regard. Never enjoyed Hymns, and never bothered learning the language necessary for the other religion. I felt uncomfortable in both places; as I wasn't fully either religion.

I always had a huge enjoyment of science (I got a textbook on black holes as a 12th birthday present from a friend), and the more complex things get the sillier the good book seems, espousing simple answers.

Atheism in the States is seen as a rebellious and taboo thing; I've seen people rejected by their own families; so I just kept my fucking trap shut and said I was agnostic or sided with whichever parent I happened to be with when asked.

Eventually one parent left one of their houses of worship to go to a stricter, more conservative one, whilst I was in High School, and this one alienated me completely; despite actually having more people I knew going to it. I'd never before been to a place where women had to sit in a separate room, despite the ancient roots of the religion.

>>4848132

Con't

But ultimately I realized that both religions sicken me. They dull the minds of their followers. They promote ignorance. Both places were hardly centers of orthodoxy; in fact they were welcoming and inclusive to all. But even so; the core of a rotten apple stays the same. One was a form of modern social control, the other was a shell of arcane social rules tattered together from even more ancient religions designed to control its populace in a time of hunters and gatherers.

Years of living away from home has changed me to be less quiet about it; but my parents themselves have changed. My father's become more pious and my mother's become less so; and I see the affects as damaging to themselves. She's full of self-loathing for being a bad X, always thinking she should go back more often to her house of worship and pray more or that she'll wind up damned, and he follows silly rules that do nothing more than comfort him.

I'm not atheist to be hip or because I hate religion. Most atheists like to deny it but lack of religion leaves a hole in ones life where a community used to reside; and reality's far bleaker than fairy tale. But that's no excuse to delude yourself.

Born in the Soviet Union.
Nobody's religious here, bar some mentally handicapped fools.

religionblox
>>4848137
>Most atheists like to deny it but lack of religion leaves a hole in ones life where a community used to reside; and reality's far bleaker than fairy tale.

That's because Americans don't believe in society and look down on people who socialize for no good reason, am I right? The dream is that everybody should be holed up in their houses/offices working their asses off, isn't it?

I, and everybody I know, have grown up atheist and there's no hole to be found here. That's one of the upsides of communism.

what is this i dont even
http://www.Anom - m + nTalk.com/
> cfbmg ss srdrwidxf4 rg 4w 2s nffh rmf

>>4846984
It's considered rebellious because there are many teenage dipshits who renounce religion for the sole reason to be "edgy" and "different"

>>4848192

You're seeing it backwards.

America was founded and is still principally organized around the town square. Little villages here and there, all of our current cities just sprouted upwards from shitty fort settlements and missionary villages. So for a wide majority of towns the center of the town was the church. Everyone went to church; everyone met at church. Even in modern America, the church (or mosque or synagogue for that matter) holds several functions outside of religion. They run social functions, formals, picnics, raffles, even the more liberal ones run dances and parties.

Many major political movements (good or bad) within U.S History started on the backs of religious groups.
There are 'community centers' and the like now; but those are merely areligious variants of what used to be churches.

Growing up in the CCCP, where would your family go to events? I had always assumed from my (blatantly propagandist) school textbooks that the Party took up the mantle of community in some form or another

>>4848183
SOVIET UNION FUCK YEAH

Ahh, those were the days.

I was 7, my hamster died, I grabbed a pretend shot gun and told God I was going to shoot him down for taking away my Bobo. Then I just stopped believing. Silly reason I know but I would have regardless. I was lucky enough to have parents who wanted to educated me on theology but still give me the choice of choosing my own. Now both of my parents are atheists themselves and I am proud to say I helped show them the "light" so to speak.

Atheism is a cancer, just like chrsitianfags. You guys always have to justify why god can't exist or "tax them" or anything to make it known your an atheist.

atheism = rebel against parents is a nice trollmeme in dis here parts

mootblocks
>>4848253
>Growing up in the CCCP, where would your family go to events?

They actually grew up in Yugoslavia, which was far more lenient when it came to cultural life, although communists in general really didn't trust public gatherings for obvious reasons. This country's civil sphere was founded on the alternative/punk movement of the 80s, strange as it may sound. People went to "student discos", subterranean clubs to hear bands or records, it was a really grungy scene, and there was an alternative festival in an old open-air auditorium once a year. Before that, in the time of the hippies, people used to congregate in taverns, which are the traditional gathering place of Slovene society. Of course the countryside still attends church en masse, but drinking is just as important as congregating for the Lord.

>>4848192

On the contrary, tovarishch. Americans are obnoxious social butterflies that don't work enough and ask too many questions.

>>4848240
>>4848348
i'd guess that's a problem specific to america, where atheism isn't mainstream.

I don't know about you Nietzschean faggots, but I try to keep my atheism a secret. It tends to strain relationships with most people (and most people I know are at least deist) when I "come out of the closet" to them. I just avoid the topic of God altogether now, and when I do debate it, I make sure they know I'm 'debating', as in taking on an opinion that isn't necessarily my own.

>>4846819
needs to distinguish between strong and weak agnosticism

Gnosticism and Agnosticism are not opposites, as they're commonly used. Don't let the etymology fool you.

Meh. Never was religious to begin with.

Being nonreligious' not a big deal in a lot of countries.

Everyone should have their own personal religion. That is my belief. My personal religion forbids me to tell anyone anything about it beyond this.

>>4847158
Did you go to Scitech in South Texas? I remember coming up with that idea and telling friends in Calculus; its kind of like a reverberation process, with matter collecting, forming a black hole, eventually forming a worm hole between two sections of the universe, where all the matter shoots out one end, causing another Big Bang, and starts collecting again, thus the process becomes a cycle
Whoops, oh yeah, I'm an Athiest, because if God exists, and Nature is pure and good like in the Garden of Eden, why does it not rain pancakes, hmm? WOULDN'T A GOOD AND JUST GOD LET IT RAIN PANCAKES?

It goes to show how insecure and worried most robots are about the future and death to say that a thread like this can last so long even after it being repeated hundreds of times over the years.

I was 9 and some of my firends were talking about god.

We were discussing The New Testament and I just thought 'Nah, actually, now I think about it the bible is pretty stupid.'' They were all kinda suprised.

I studied up on the Bible and then questioned leaders at my church and all I got was.

"He's omnipotent we don't have to explain it!"

Then I said fuck Christianity.

Then other stuff happened I don't feel like typing out and then I became an agnostic atheist.

Someone just told me to post in this thread, so here goes:

I never really was religious, despite my grandfather being a former Presbyterian minister and a professor of Theology at some university. My parents are both religious and we used to go to church when I was 3 and under, but strangely enough, they never taught me religion at all.

Never considered it, im Wiccan

The first time I was subjected to Christianity was when I was in pre-school. I went to this afterschool daycare, and basically all we did was learn about Christianity. We were taught that Jesus was our saviour, God was our Father, Heaven/Hell, etc. I had a hard time believing any of it, and when I asked questions, I remember them not having any answers. They simply said "because the Bible said so." Their explanation of Hell was that if you didn't believe in God, that's where you would go to burn for the rest of your life.

Even at that small age, I just figured it was a load of bullshit.

I was raised a Christian, went to a Christian elementary school, etc. My entire childhood I was a Christian, and now I'm an atheist, yet I can't remember any "defining moment" where I suddenly dropped everything religious.

It was more of an "Oh, I skipped church this week too, maybe I'll go next week," and my religious habits just became more and more infrequent until I just gave it up entirely. Kind of like when you're supposed to be taking antibiotics, but you forget it in the morning when you're late for work, and then you forget it again that night, and then you forget taking them altogether.

Though I was raised a muslim, And i cannot comprehend an all powerful god deal. I tried my best to think on the situation.

I am not an atheist, but always constantly searching for undestanding.

I do not believe that there is nothing. Or that there is a mystical way that can be explained.

I believe that there is a more underlying aspect of this universe that cannot be explained and understood, what will be will be. there is something more, even if we cannot see it.

essentially the Hippie theories and spirituality.

>>4848623

Enjoy your fake religion that was fabricated in the 50's

I mean at least christianity & co have been around for thousands of years and have some cultural relevance

Wicca is pretty much on par with scientology, except it's for teenage girls and creepy D&D players instead of rich people

As a little kid, I was into paleontology. I learned the outline of the natural history of the world from the Precambrian age to the Holocene before I started kindergarten.

Consequently, I was never religious.

>>4846620
Hmmm, let me think. When did I first consider atheism? Hmmmmmm.....................I would say when I was not born a fucking god loving fairy worshipper.

>>4848687
Don't give them ideas! Wiccascientologists, oh dear ;_;

>>4848687
Actually, no, it was around much longer than that.
and i dont see how its anything like scientology.

I don't know if I can call myself an atheist.

I guess I'm just really hoping there's someone keeping score and watching me NOT be a fucktard like everyone else.

Britfag here, non-religious parents.

Went to a public primary school which, while supposedly not a religious school, had us in the main hall ever other morning singing christian songs and praying.

At the time, I never thought much of it - it was just what people did, right? By my final year at that school (age 10/11) I'd since realised santa and christmas were just fairytales to make kids happy - and if christmas was a fairytale, christ was a fairytale too.

Secondary school had no mention of god whatsoever - no singing, no praying, nothing. This didn't strike me as odd either, since fairytales were for kids, and I was no longer a 'kid'.

Only when I was 17-18 did I look back on my early schooling and realise that it was full of christian indoctrination, which thankfully didn't stick to me atall.

>>4848750

I know I'm getting trolled, but w/e, it's late and I'm bored

Gardner invented Wicca in the 50's, it draws very, very loosely from european paganism, but just as much from the western ceremonial magic tradition and eastern spirituality, it is in no way a continuation of ancient paganism, which died out entirely until the revival movements (of questionable authenticity) in the later 19th century.

It's just another fake religion designed to sucker people into buying books and crystals and jewelry and fake magical props, it's as BS as any other religion and the whole 'magic' thing is laughable

>>4848750
awesome, im Wiccan too, which Tradition you follow?

I am an agnostic atheist because that's how Sweden works. 90% of the population gets baptised and married in church, but other than that doesn't give a crap.

>>4848709
I loved dinosaurs as kid. I collected a whole series of magazines, called, aptly 'DINOSAURS' over the course of 2 to 3 years.

Knowing there was stuff on the planet millions of years before humans even existed pretty much crushed religion right there.

The earth is NOT six thousand years old, and anyone who thinks so is a fucking retard believer.

>>4848786
Hey, some crystals are awesome! Like, um, salt! YEAH SALT!
Don't reply, it's how they spread

I'm an atheist, but I don't get why do people compare God with Santa. It just seems so stupid and ignorant, like you couldn't come up with some better argument or something.

>>4848814
It's because they don't need to come up with a better argument.

>>4848750
It's still for teenage girls and D&D players.

Also, the modern Wicca has little in common with the original relgions (There are dozens of them that go under the blanket term 'pagan') that it's based on.

When I first read "Brief History of Time". It was if a veil had been lifted off of my small perception of the universe, and that the idea that the force/deity/whatever that sparked the universe into being and life to begin could be so concerned and obsessed with such a small and selfish species is the absolute height of arrogance.

I'm a Christian. I was raised that way, but abandoned it in college for the same reasons many of you do/did. Authenticity of bible, evolution, Jesus is just a solid teacher, etc. Also I wanted to have lots of random sex and if you're serious about God, there's a conflict there.

Was rollin' around being Atheist for about two years before I evolved into a Theist (belief in a God). The more high level science I took, the more I understood how life worked. The numbers supporting the evolution of even a simple unicellular organism are insulting to anyone who has taken a high level cellular biology course. So I became a Theist (belief in God).

Then I started examining the repercussions of Theism, of how God would interact with the Universe. And after months of investigating, questioning, and talking to smart people, I became a Christian again. Talk about cyclical.

Pic related, the book that finally brought me around.

Alright then, I'll tell my story.

I live in Miami, and if you have never been, suffice it to say 85% of the people here are Cuban/Cuban-American. Now in my community, everyone I knew was Cuban and Catholic, all my friends were, my parents were, and my school and teachers were. So naturally, I grew up as a very believing Catholic and all that jazz.

But then puberty came. Some of my friends started talking about girls and I didnt really feel anything. Maybe I was a late bloomer, who knows. So eventually nature started to run it's course and I began to jack off....to guys. I didn't think it was weird or gay at the time, I just did because it felt good.

Then the teachers at the school started talking to us about jacking off and how it was natural but should be avoided (more accepting than other Christian denominations from what I'd seen). Naturally they talked to the boys about girls and the talks left me more confused than ever.

So I started praying. Fervently. We went to mass every week and I prayed and prayed and prayed. I wanted God to make me normal, I pleaded and begged and promised to do all sorts of favors. I would do anything to just be normal.

And you know what happened /r9k/? Nothing. Fucking nothing happened. This was happened when I was about 13 or so. I was fucking crushed. Eventually I just gave up. I wouldnt say I'm an atheist, I can accept that maybe there is a God. But fuck religion. It fucking crushed me as a child and I'll never forgive it for that.

Wow, fuck me I'm crying ;_;

>>4848856
I'd "get it" if you arrived to deism in some way or another, but why theism and _christianity_ of all things?

Please, if you will, explain a wee bit further.

>>4848804
My coven follows Blue Star Wicca tradition, how about you?

>>4848856
Recent laboratory RNA evolution, successful experiments
Google it

>>4848910
Supernovas and Quasars are much more awesome to follow

>>4848902

It's always bugged me that religions try to earn their way into God's favor. If you do enough X, then God will do Y. If you do A enough times, then God will be pleased. If you do B enough times, God will overlook C. This always seemed crap to me. Why would God, literally the person who has everything, be bought off by prayers or candles or other kinds of atonement? Salvation, to my mind, cannot be earned. That belief is only echoed in Biblical Christianity, of all the religions of the world. The rest are on this guilt trip, doing petty gestures to earn salvation. God must hand out salvation, if he does at all, without payment. It has to be a gift freely given. That concept is called Grace.