your tansition

[tacoma_kyle]

I am curious about it, transition to being atheist. Not lookin for a story, just how did it go about...difficult, confusing, easy goin...???

Mine was prtty much kinda slow but ever increasing. I wasnt born in a super-active chruch style. Did go whe younger, but that was about it. I always had abouts, was pretty much always agnostic from about 8th to 11th grade. Then about the end of 11th I started listening to TOOL and sped up the process for some reason and I was atheist by like early12th grade.

I did have a little bit og a depressing 12th rgade though, maybe a connection? Probably feelings of isolation from related issues. I wasnt a socially active person and still not really.

But really it didnt seem to be that bad, I dont know if there is much I would change...if anything at all. Oh wait, I woulda never bought that Revo 3.3 lol). Some dumbass is thinkin he's ganna scam me for it...actually, I should play along.

[rlrose328]

I don't know if I ever really believed... my mom was very religious, raised Lutheran so I was too.  Dad was raised by a radical Southern Baptist who went on cycles of alcoholism and radical religiosity, but he believed in god and heaven and all that.

I went to church all the time... and mom was the choir director so I always sang in the choirs.  I went to bible school and sunday school, was baptised and confirmed, all that stuff.  But I never really in my heart believed.  I always challenged the teachers and pastors with questions about the bible stories and was always just told to "have faith"... if I have faith, it will all become clear.  And because I had questions, obviously my faith wasn't strong enough.

I stopped going to church and used the word "agnostic" when I was 20.  I knew I didn't believe at all, but was unwiling to use the word "atheist" because of all of the negative connotations.  Like sticking with "bisexual" rather than "gay" because you can leave people to figure you'll grow out of it eventually.  

Anyway, as I aged, I continued to read the bible, mythology, and any other religious text I could find.  I'd get bored and skip from one to the other, but all of them seemed like fiction to me.  None of it made any rational sense.  Of course, as I aged, I was exposed to more people and realized that we are all the same, regardless of our beliefs.

Then Bush Jr. came along, with his "I'm God's Candidate" crap... and I had many gay friends who were denied the right to marry... and so many other social issues that I became passionate about that seemed to be denied based on religious beliefs and that was just wrong.

The day after Bush stole the second election... er., was re-elected... I "came out" as an atheist.  I said it outloud and suddenly, everything was crystal clear, quiet, real, satisfying.  I felt at peace.  Like flattening out a piece of crumpled paper.

I don't hide.  I don't introduce myself as an atheist, but when religion comes up in conversation (and at my son's school, it does quite often), I say I'm a non-believer or an atheist.  I get questions a lot and I've had some great conversations with other believing moms... for the most part, I'm accepted and there's little strife from being an out and active atheist.  

[SteveS]

Hey tacoma_kyle,

I guess my story isn't that much different, in substance, for rlroles328's.  I never really believed.  I made a mild transition to atheist from agnostic because I had been living with a poor definition of atheist --- I thought all atheists claimed to "know" that there is no god.  This idea doesn't sit right with me:  there are all sorts of really good reasons to believe there are no gods, but could this actually be proven, to the point that I can say "I know"?  When I discovered the broader definition of atheist as "one who does not believe", I thought, perfect!  I don't know, but I don't believe --- this description fits me perfectly.  So I went with it.  (Keep in mind when I say "I don't know", I'm talking about the idea of god in general --- I don't think its that unreasonable to claim you "know" the god of Xtianity is false, for example).

There is something of a political connection with me as well, but its not as direct.  In other words, I didn't start calling myself an atheist because of any politicians (Bush, et.al.), but more because of the Jehovah's Witnesses that came by my door.  However, as rlrose328 points out, when politicians start saying things like "I'm God's Candidate", I feel that they are unnecessarily "dragging" religion into the public spotlight, and that I no longer have to refrain from disagreement out of politeness.  If they're going to put their faith and beliefs in the public spotlight, then it is entirely acceptable for me to put my disagreement into the public spotlight.  If they are going to use faith as justification for a government policy, then I will argue against them in public without remorse.

I know I'm not as inclined to the political left as most of the members here - but I do detest statements like the one above attributed to the president.  Its just that I don't draw my lines along political party lines.  I find Obama's "Faith Action Change" website just as disturbing.  If your first reason for supporting a candidate is "he's a man of faith", I think that's F'ed up, whether the candidate in question is Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, Silly Party, whatever.  I would be far more comfortable if faith and the political process didn't intermingle so freely like they do now.  I think our constitution is very clear that religion and government have no business together, and I find it disturbing that the majority of politicians pay only lip service to this idea, and that the majority of people tolerate or even outright support this behavior.

[Will]

Slow and steady. It started with blind faith, which slowly turned to a dismissal of religion. Once I was free of religion, I was able to start questioning without fear. From there, it was a cake walk.

[MommaSquid]

As a child, I believed in god and Santa Claus.  Is that really belief?

Around age 10 (or thereabout) I began wondering why people behaved one way in church and another way in the rest of the world.  

A few years later came the 'I don't believe in religion but I still believe in god' phase, but that was just a safety net.  Saying you're an agnostic feels safer than flying solo, plus believers don't hassle you as much.

I didn't find the move from agnostic to atheist to be painful or scary.  It was a slow and natural process for me.  Like digestion.

[Whitney]

I began wondering why people behaved one way in church and another way in the rest of the world.  

That and how a loving god could send people to burn in hell forever were the things that got me to start questioning religion.

I was a pretty hard core believer entering into freshman year of high school by freshman year of college I was questioning how god could exist in the first place, by about my 3rd year of college I would sometimes self identify as a deist then a couple years later atheist.

For me it was slow, it took meeting friendly athiests for me to feel comfortable investigating the possibility of no god.  I had been taught that atheists are evil and didn't want to be evil so I avoided the subject (except for back when I use to tell atheists they would go to hell....was being 13 an excuse?)

[Tom62]

I lost my faith at an age of 11 or 12. My mother was at that time sufering from a terrible disease and I just could not understand why this god guy would let my mother and my family suffer for no reason at all. Receiving no logical answers at all from religion (btw our pastor was a real jerk), I quickly realized that religion was nothing but BS.

[tigerlily46514]

I love your stories!!  RlRose, loved it when you said you had a bit of trouble because of all the negative connotations associated with the word 'atheist' so you called yourself 'agnostic'!  Been there, done that!  Briefly anyway!!

I grew up in the absolute most devoutly religious Catholic family, (i am a recovering catholic.) I suspected it was pretend very young, like 8 or 9?   I realized it was all pretend at around 10 or 11 or so.....admitted it to myself, that there is no god at all at around 12 or 13........and stayed there.  I have never struggled with my atheism, never was uncomfortable INSIDE with it at all.  Accepting it inside of ME was kinda easy, it was coming out that is still difficult for me to this day.  Can't take all the hostility if i won't convert from all the theists !!!!

I suppose if i had lived my life with religion as a big part of it for quite a long time, it would have been more difficult to let it go....?

Well, I am actually a BORN AGAIN ATHEIST!....after a brief foray into agnosticism in my 30s...only lasted a year or so...then back to my comfort zone of atheism again.

Tacoma Kyle,  it can be a little isolating at times to be an atheist in a sea of theists. THANK GOD for atheist forums!!  bah ha ha!!!

[rlrose328]

If they are going to use faith as justification for a government policy, then I will argue against them in public without remorse.

YES!!!  Exactly.  That was my motivation for saying "I'm an atheist" outloud after Bush took office.  I just couldn't sit back and let everyone believe that all Americans are easily manipulated by faith and that we won't all just sit back and let the country become a theocracy.  Bush just happened to be the catalyst, but it could have easily been any president who claimed to be the one and only Christian god man.

If your first reason for supporting a candidate is "he's a man of faith", I think that's F'ed up, whether the candidate in question is Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, Silly Party, whatever.  

Again, I completely agree... I had it out with my mother about that when Bush was elected the first time.  She said she would vote for him because he's a Christian... nothing about his policies, either domestic or foreign, or anything remotely political.  It was his religious agenda, she supported.  

I'm a registered Dem but was so way before Bush was in office... back when it meant something.  Now, they're all alike.  All have hired religious consultants so they can court the conservative Christian vote.  It sickens me.... that they do that and that people are so guillable that they believe what they're being spoon-fed by the politicians.  Ugh.

[SteveS]

Good points, rlrose.  

More than endorsing any party, or individual candidates (they seem as much similar as dissimilar to me as well), I'm more interested in a more "general" take on politics: I'd like to see religion removed from the arena entirely.  I'm loosely following the actions of groups like the Secular Coalition for America with some interest.

[rlrose328]

I'm on a Yahoo group that sent a huge group donation to Lori Lipman brown at the SCA when she set up shop.  I haven't followed it to closely lately, though.  Just haven't had time to follow up on ALL of the political groups I was monitoring in 2004.  Sad, I know... I have all kinds of excuses, though.  ;-)

[SteveS]

I have all kinds of excuses, though.

Yeah - me too  :wink:  

I have been correctly identified as politically apathetic.  I think this applies more in practice then in principle, though.  I have strong feeling on politics, its just that the actual practice bores me --- I don't have it in me to argue about which particular candidate is better or worse then which other one.  On particular issues or situations, sure, but in totality?  Eh, I just lose interest  :?