Christians who became atheists/ agnostic/ non religious/

Originally Posted by RedEmbers

I am just wondering if any of you have experianced confusion from religious people in your life, for example people who may wonder how one can be spiritual with no religion?

I experience that from people right here at Spiritual Forums.

What does spirituality mean for you now as opposed to when you were religious?

It means having an interest in improving my vantagepoint on the deep issues of life for the sake of personal growth or transcendence. To be spiritual means having an "inner-concern", a concern for what is inside oneself (inner-values) instead of limited to what is external to oneself (external values such as wealth, status, power, etc).

And so, for example, when the Buddha tried to figure out the true nature of things in order to quell dissatisfaction with life, he was being spiritual in my book.

You'll note, of course, that spirituality in this sense is easily possible to atheists.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Originally Posted by Blackraven

I’m interested in learning, however, how others evolved to atheism after being a Christian. It’s quite a transformational process.

I would just say for myself that I don't think I was a Christian, in the true sense. I've always had a kind of sceptical mind, and so if something didn't make sense, I could not accept it, or not fully. I went along with things as a child because there was no option really not to. I wanted it to make sense though. I was curious and asked questions, but discovered early on that the adults were really clueless. You just believed in the religion because it was the right thing to do, and it was a matter of obeying authority. Meanwhile there was hypocrisy all around. As I moved to adolescence then there was a kind of conflict. There was the internal searching and forming of ideas, and there was the outside in which people went through the rituals and customs. So for me, I would say in my teens, I had no definition for myself in that sense. There wasn't much info available and in particular where I was living, so I was an atheist or non-believer as a kind of necessary next step. Really though, I would say I was more of a pagan in those years. I spent a lot of time in nature. There were particular places that I went to everyday just to be and experience what to me was sacred. I didn't consider it a spiritual practice though. There was no label or definition, and that was what I liked about it, or what I needed.

I relate in some way to what you're saying about Christian teachings, Blackraven, in the sense that I've been rediscovering these, or discovering 'for the first time' or feels a bit that way... The traditions and stories and words are there in memory so if I read something, it's not actually for the first time, but I'm having some understanding of it for the first time.

[blackraven]

Originally Posted by dreamt

I would just say for myself that I don't think I was a Christian, in the true sense. I've always had a kind of sceptical mind, and so if something didn't make sense, I could not accept it, or not fully. I went along with things as a child because there was no option really not to. I wanted it to make sense though. I was curious and asked questions, but discovered early on that the adults were really clueless. You just believed in the religion because it was the right thing to do, and it was a matter of obeying authority. Meanwhile there was hypocrisy all around. As I moved to adolescence then there was a kind of conflict. There was the internal searching and forming of ideas, and there was the outside in which people went through the rituals and customs. So for me, I would say in my teens, I had no definition for myself in that sense. There wasn't much info available and in particular where I was living, so I was an atheist or non-believer as a kind of necessary next step. Really though, I would say I was more of a pagan in those years. I spent a lot of time in nature. There were particular places that I went to everyday just to be and experience what to me was sacred. I didn't consider it a spiritual practice though. There was no label or definition, and that was what I liked about it, or what I needed.

I relate in some way to what you're saying about Christian teachings, Blackraven, in the sense that I've been rediscovering these, or discovering 'for the first time' or feels a bit that way... The traditions and stories and words are there in memory so if I read something, it's not actually for the first time, but I'm having some understanding of it for the first time.

dreamt - Thank you for explaining your personal experiences with this.

Blackraven

I think I was always an agnostic, but I didn't realize it until a few years ago.

I grew up in a semi-Christian home. My mother was (and still is) the most hardcore Christian of the household. I can't tell anthing about religion to hell because I feel like she won't understand. She's one of those types who don't want her children to go to Hell. As with my dad, I think he kind of knows, but for the sake of my mom, he doesn't mention it.

Always had an aversion of going to church since I was a young girl. The environment didn't sit well to me.

Overall, I have particularly mixed views about religion. I can see how religion can bring someone comfort (my mother is an big example), but I can also see religion can bring out the dark side of people.

I'm a spiritual person, but I'm not a religious person.

I grew up into a Christian family in the south eastern U.S., or southern church going family as I'd call it, and was raised to put on dress attire, attend church every Sunday morning/evening, read the bible, pray over our food, pay tithes, and etc. From a young age I was always one to question my highly religious grandmother about God. Questions such as: Who is he? Where does he originate? How is he so powerful? Why does he allow torment if he is a God of love? Without these questions being properly answered, I grew frustrated, and slowly started to drift away from religion and God himself.

As I grew older, I questioned his own existence. I've put so much of my early life going to church and seeing no rewarding result. I got to the point where I had to question my own self if I was becoming atheist. I still don't want to disbelieve in him, nor do I want to fully believe in him. I would assume in my case that I had become a weak agnostic. I want to believe that there is a higher intelligent being that oversees us, but I don't necessarily want to call that being the Biblical God.

I made an attempt to return to religion, and really study the bible. Upon doing so I've noticed that it is full of many contradictions. Why had I never seen these things before? I felt as if I had been taught nothing more than nonsense. In a sense, I felt betrayed. Also at the same time I felt so guilty to feel this way towards the book that my grandparents, and family have taught me to believe in.

What is God's definition of love? You believe in me and have everlasting life, but if you don't you're going to Hell to be damned for eternity. They say that is God's gift of freewill towards men, but I call it blackmail. How can one who is all powerful, all knowing, who can see into the past, present, future not foresee one of his children going against his will, and then later allow them to be tormented forever? Why even create them in the first place?

I was a Christian until about 1999; although long before that I questioned much of what the religion taught. It did not resonate with me at all that God could be wrathful, jealous, vengeful and send people to a burning hell for simply choosing the wrong religion.

My conversion to more of a Pagan belief began in 1994 and really seemed to bloom in 1996. From there, it was a smooth transition that totally replaced Christianity by mid 1999.

I still believe in the Divine, but it certainly is not the "God" that religion puts forth as, "the one true God."

I grew up in a catholic family,church every Sunday confession every fortnight, what a load of rubbish, even as a child I could never believe in any of it, cos non of it was physically real I couldn't touch it or feel it, it meant nothing to me. Now I don't really know what I believe, mostly that it's all just energy vibrating at different frequencies and we need to go through life learning to manipulate this energy so as to get what we want from life, but then I have had experiences that are not so cut and dried as that and show me that there is something more to it than merely energy, but cos I cant touch it, see it I don't know how I can believe it, but on some level I know there is a lot more to this existence than just physics.

Originally Posted by RedEmbers

I guess I am just interested in other people's experiances of this sort of thing, I am just interested really.

I was raised a Catholic; good came from it in developing a belief greater than myself (deny ego) ...
Somehow at a young age I understood God was not to be feared ...
As an adult, I've chosen my own spiritual path ...
I believe in the 10 Commandments, Universal Truth & The Golden Rule ...
They're basic, realistic, moral, ethical, easy to follow/comprehend, unbendable & continue to apply to the world ...
That's how I roll ...
No need to assign myself to a religion ...

I was raised in a Christian fundamentalist household, but I've been agnostic for as long as I can remember. My parents held very strong beliefs, and did not put up with anything that deviated from what they believed to be true. They were involved in 'spiritual warfare', the only people the family interacted with were fellow Christians who held the same beliefs, and for part of my childhood we moved across country to a seminary town where they studied.

We had very harsh, strict household rules. Nothing from other religions, no myths, no legends, no cartoons with witches, magic, or skeletons. There were even certain clothing and hairstyles that were forbidden, having been deemed to be demonic by them.

For many years I went through the required motions, mainly because there was no option not to, but I don't think I ever really believed in it. There was a time when I was 6 or 7 years old and my next door neighbour asked me what my family believed. He was asking because his family had never been to church. To this day I can recall how I felt explaining it to him... it was as though a lump was in my throat, as though what I was saying felt like a lie.

I was a very inquisitive kid, but was never content with the answers that I'd get to my questions. They would be responses like "You'll have to ask God when you get there", or "Pray on it", which frustrated me because I couldn't understand how they could believe when they didn't have the answers themselves. By the time I reached my teens I had pretty much turned off everything relating to both religion and spirituality. I needed proof, not belief. I did investigate things over the years, studying religious texts and learning about ancient myths, but it was only an intellectual interest by that point. I no longer had any interest in belief.

However, as I got older I did have a couple experiences that kept that door open. Things that made me wonder "what if..." In particular, a dream in which I died stuck with me over the years. While it wasn't the only dream I've ever died in, it was the only one where I experienced an afterlife. The dream was so vivid, so realistic, and seemed to feel so true, that it constantly made me question my old view of there being no afterlife. It wasn't until just this week that I was finally ready to truly investigate what I experienced in that dream, to see if there was something there. What I found was the equivalent of having YES! screamed in my face. My preconceptions shattered, the next day I found this site and registered.

It's taken me a few decades, but I've finally managed to start finding answers. Those answers are creating new questions though, which is why I'm here

There is definitely confusion from the religious individuals in my life as to what I believe. All throughout my adult years I've had to constantly correct my parents, relatives, or family friends because they would always seem to forget I don't hold their beliefs. I would be included in their definition of "we" when referring to Christians, and every time they would express surprise when I clarified about my position. They would then ask me what I believe about this or that, not remembering they've asked me those exact questions in the past, and would show as much surprise at my answers as all the previous times they'd asked me the questions. I think it stems from their hope that I will one day return to the religion. They don't want to think of me as being outside that circle.

[Lynn]

Hello

I grew up in the Anglican Church and I turned from it at 13 firm and final, now 51 not been back. I do not recommend the path I turned to but for me it was a path of learning I needed to go along to become whom I am today.

What triggered it simply was that no matter how many times and ways I would ask on "seeing dead people" I was shut down, again I embrace that the times were much different then and I was shut down in discussions for good reason I might well have been committed. It was a childhood of great struggles and God seemed to give me no answers so I though that the opposite force would that being Satan. Now I did not follow that path in the 'dark' places man can take it too in wrong faith, I simply followed a different doctrine with the Church of Satan. I was with that til I was 21.

I was given a NDE at 21 not for the faith path I was in, but for the crafts I was into. Being able to do things others call having "gifts" without the manual of understanding can get on in hot waters. I never used mine for bad things on people but I was heading that path with the friends I had. So lessons are given. While I never went to walk with God again I learned a new understanding of what God is, its the Universal Divine Light that we are all a part of that we all spawn from. We are all "one" yet we feel we are individuals in our bodies.

Where when someone would say God Bless You, I would find a wall of offense go up now I embrace that being said. I do not worship God but as I can not prove or disprove the existence of God I came to find that I had not the rights to diss it as a possibility. I was given abilities to use for a reason and its a great blessing I was given to be able to have the insights I do that move others at times along lifes paths of struggle to paths of understanding. To be able to move an Earth Bound Ghost to the place of Light into Spirit. Some say I am doing God's work in the way he would want it done and I can now embrace that being said. Found peace in understanding that I have faith on the Soul level just that I need not put a title to it.

Lynn