When did you stop believing religious stuff without evidence ?

[palbert]

First, the Delphic Oracle went.

Second, the Vestal Virgins went.

And the world ends next Tuesday.

What part do you want me to believe.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

When I did some research and realized everything from the Christian religion was plagiarized from earlier, even more archaic religions.

The bible is so full of holes and contradictions I don't see how anyone could make sense of it logically.

Jesus certainly wasn't the first person in history to believe himself to be the son of a 'god':

Achilles
Hercules
Caligula
Alexander the Great

... no name a few.

I DO believe in the Ten Commandments. I think a civilized society needs a set of moral rules/guidelines to follow.

But I think they need to do it because they WANT to, and/or see the need for it, not out of fear of some fictional 'god', or fear of a 'hell'.

While I do not believe in God, the thing that scares the hell out of me (no pun) the most is what would happen when the people who do believe stopped believing.

 

[ixthrock]

The bar for the Leap of Faith has always seemed absurdly out of reach for me. I never was all that good at Crack and Yield.

 

[quasar]

...whereas the other pretends absolute knowledge.

Which is pretty much why I fell out with organised religion - none of them like it when we laymen ask uncomfortable questions.

I guess you still believe in some sort of "higher power".
It will take time for that "higher power" to disappear from your thinking

Yes I still believe in a higher 'force' - be it physics, 'nature' or some undiscovered (as yet) energy that links our physical existance to our 'spiritual' existance.

...to which Dawkins would reply "Show me... ...rather than that it just is."

Or something along those lines.

It's a little like showing the love for one's mother. I can demonstrate to other's by buying her flowers, gifts, helping her, hugging her, etc, but without those physical demonstrations you just have trust me when I say that I love her. This blind faith exists everywhere on a day-to-day basis. I can describe the most beautiful sunset, but my lack of a photo isn't proof that it didn't happen.

...When you have known the kindness of humans, you have little time for the imaginary gods of human religions. And when you have seen their cruelty, you have little time for their demons either.

Another reason why religion just doesn't 'add up'.

To be honest, I think once of the most telling things from the Bible is from Luke when he basically says there's no point looking for the kingdom of God because you won't physically find it. No-one can point it out to you because the kingdom of God is WITHIN you... but that's a discussion for the Religious forum!

 

[geloge]

I was raised in a firmly catholic family, as a child I believed but before I finished primary I have important doubts.

BTW is there any evidencefor religious stuff? I thought that it was about faith.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

When I had an epileptic seizure in church when I was a kid, I pretty much called it quits on religion (although didn't really care for it in the first place).

I'm amazed you didn't burst into flame in the church. You're lucky you just got off with the seizure.

 

[ixthrock]

I'm amazed you didn't burst into flame in the church. You're lucky you just got off with the seizure.

pentecostals encourage epilepsy... along with glossolalia

 

[bankside]

It's a little like showing the love for one's mother. I can demonstrate to other's by buying her flowers, gifts, helping her, hugging her, etc, but without those physical demonstrations you just have trust me when I say that I love her. This blind faith exists everywhere on a day-to-day basis. I can describe the most beautiful sunset, but my lack of a photo isn't proof that it didn't happen.
Another reason why religion just doesn't 'add up'.

To be honest, I think once of the most telling things from the Bible is from Luke when he basically says there's no point looking for the kingdom of God because you won't physically find it. No-one can point it out to you because the kingdom of God is WITHIN you... but that's a discussion for the Religious forum!

Ahh but it is not! You are an expert in your feelings for your own mother and I would take your reporting of your own emotional state toward her as convincing, without expecting you to sit in a functional magnetic resonance imager so we could corroborate how you really feel about her with empirical data. It would be a hassle.

Conversely we both can prove to each other without much fuss that the sun has set. People have done so, and come up with all kinds of definitions around things like "civil twilight" and "the limb of the sun" and so on.

But proving something is a different task than approving of it, which is what you do of the sunset, and all that anyone has ever done about god. Is it a beautiful sunset? I might think it is the most spectacular I've ever seen, whilst you might say you've seen better. That wouldn't change the fact that the sun had set. Is your mother wonderful? I wouldn't know.

The trouble with things like "kingdoms of gods," is the universality of the claim. Either this is within us all as you say (or as luke says), or not. What am I to make of this claim when I look within, so to speak, and do not find what is alleged to be there? At the very least, I see that such a thing is not within us all. And then I speculate that it's not within anyone; I think what's in everyone is a beautiful mess of hopes and dreams, remembrances, victories, challenges & fears. I suppose we could be inhabiting two universes tangled together, one created by the divine hand, and one in which no god ever existed, but that seems improbable.

Proving and approving is what seems to get muddled in most religious thought. But luke can actually help us out there too! I approve of his rescuing han solo from jabba's palace; it showed courage, character and loyalty. But I can also prove that it never happened, even though it can stir and inspire - at least it did for most kids I knew.

 

[doctorsun]

My family was never religious. My mom's a devout Atheist and I was never clear on what my father believed because he never spoke about it but I'm pretty sure he didn't believe either. So, I was fairly skeptical my whole life, but as a kid, religion made a certain amount of sense, so I never ruled it out. I'd say as I entered my adolescence, I developed my trademark cynicism and started seeing through the ways of the world. Religion has become an increasingly ridiculous concept for me as I've aged and the degree to which it governs our society disgusts me.

 

[Telstra]

And, as everyone knew when reading the title of this baited thread, many of us look within and see the opposite. In fact, the majority of the world's human inhabitants do.


And to Telstra, you still have not spoken up about demonology and astrology.

There is also a deafening silence in this thread from the many JUBBERS who constantly post about the zodiac and the signs. By what science is that belief vested? By what gravitational force is the life of a man born a Pisces governed?

I don't have a clue what are you talking about.
Could you please link me to the thread so i know what it is ?

 

[mygaybuffet]

Not necessarily; one side simply admits ignorance where there's ignorance and attempts to genuinely explore what possible explanations there may be, whereas the other pretends absolute knowledge.

Thank you!! Atheists like myself don't need to create magical tea cups floating in space to explain the origins of our universe. As scientists we are on that grand discovery of just that moment of inception. As religious nut jobs, you claim to have the answers from a book that has as much validity as Harry Potter. That is the difference!

 

[Ninja108]

When I was old enough to think for myself

 

[maxpowr9]

When I went off to college at 18. During my senior year in highschool I severely doubted my belief in God (especially with the sex abuse scandal fully blown *giggity*) but once I was "on my own" I basically stopped caring.

 

[TickTockMan]

I wouldn’t say I ever truly believed it. If I did though I stopped when I was six or so.


I lived in a town with a bunch of my family. I asked my great aunt if she would take me to church with her. One day the church was doing an event after services and I had to go in to use the bathroom. While walking down the hall I saw two people counting the collection money and they reminded me too much of Scrooge McDuck from Ducktales. They had such glee in their body language and voices that I realized then church is more about money than it was anything else. Although I didn’t know the word hypocrite I already knew pretty much everyone there was one. That just tipped me over.

 

[DanikShade]

Two things happened at the same time for me when I was 12. My Grandfather died and I had a history teacher named Amos Musser. Mr. Musser encouraged questions, all questions, and wasn't afraid to send someone to the library to research why God would let hundreds of thousands of innocent children in Africa starve to death? Why did God not intercede like he did with the Hebrews?

As for my Grandpa's passing it may sound stupid but I still haven't forgiven God for the pain my Grandpa endured. If God does exist (unlikely) he's got a kick in the nuts coming for random enforcement of his own bullshit and ignoring those that actually bought into his mind warp.

 

[bankside]

I think it is important to distinguish between having the opinion there is no god, and not being a fan of god.

 

[The_Reaper]

Grade Two.

I grew up in the Catholic School System, and we got to talking about the creation of earth at some point during Grade 2. Me, being a voracious reader since before pre-school, had read books about the universe and asked our teacher why God created the other planets in the solar system if mankind only lived on Earth.

My teacher was stumped; and I was intellectually unsatisfied with any of the mumbling answers she tried to come up with. From that point on, I questioned a lot more of the religious teachings that they tried to push on us as kids and more or less discovered that I did not really believe in God anymore.

 

[hotatlboi]

It was around age 19 for me.

 

[Taz]

I don't pretend to know anything about the universe, so who knows? there may be some godlike being out their who had a hand in our creation. I don't believe for a second one as described by the many religions exists, but one may.

 

[glasvegas]

I'm a Buddhist. We aren't that extreme, but I do believe in God in a certain extent. Sometimes when I'm down, I pray.