Anyone ever become an atheist after believing?

A few people in this thread said that they were born-agains while they were still a minor. I thought the idea with born-again Christianity was that you were going through a mid life crisis then converted as a 40-something. 2 of them at my old work, both managers, gave me hell. Even my granny (Christian from age 10) was like facepalm.jpg at them. Good riddance when one resigned and the other finally got the chop.

As for me, my parents were agnostic and I was raised as the same. Grandparents (as per above paragraph) were Anglican Christians as minors and ever since, and they would tell me stuff about CoE. I went to church with them a few times and quite enjoyed it (liked the smells and stained glass effects) but I admitted that I was probably too corrupt to be a Christian and never really followed it up. Then I went to university aged 20 went clubbing etc. Grandparents initially slammed me for the clubbing, but fat lot they could do because it's something that normal adolescents and 20-somethings did anyway. Once they learned that I didn't become a druggy etc then it was fine.
 
I used to go to church (dragged, more like) but at some point stopped going. Not sure what triggered it but just sorta drifted away. Definitely in the atheist camp these days.
I'm not anti religion perse, more anti abuse of religion. Something along the lines of my religion is the one true religion, yours are all wrong, die unbelievers. You get the gist. Also the corruption of the Catholic Church winds me right up. It's run like the mafia, anything bad is hidden or covered up, "Don't do as I do, do as I say" sorta thing. Why do different versions of even the same religion, Christianity for instance, have to fight over it all the time. It's all the same god(or Allah) isn't it?
I think faith is a very good thing. It doesn't need to be in a deity or somesuch but its nice to believe in something.
 
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I always found religion to be something from our past, a throw back to the dark ages tbh, and a very strange R.E. teacher at school did nothing to convince me otherwise!

And having spent many an hour reading & watching / listening to Christopher Hitchens (RIP) I'm yet to hear anybody from the opposing view to him put up a better argument!

If that makes me an athiest, so be it I suppose !
 
Jason2 said:
So you reject Christ because some of his "supposed" followers engaged in an orgy? They obviously aren't true Christians if they're doing that.
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You are 100% correct but it was a culmination of so called Christians making up all their own rules and passing it off with God.
There is a poster on these forums who claims to be very religious but in the Jon Venables thread he wants to kill him based on a picture he hasn't got a clue is the correct one.
What kind of hypocrite is he?
 
Religion is psycologically fascinating. Particularly the "my best friend is Jesus" version. Unfortunately embracing a religion requires a degradation of ones critical faculties. It isn't that science and religion are mutually exclusive - it's that accepting one prevents you contributing to the other. You can trust in both in a witless sort of way with no difficulty.

This doesn't usually matter. It is a shame when someone who could have furthered understanding of our world has instead chosen God, but fortunately such people are few.
 
aln said:
It's essentially the same logic.
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Evolution as a whole teaches everything came from nothing, but yet the scientific method clearly shows that nothing produces nothing, so if there was nothing in the beginning there would be nothing now, there is no logic here. The scientific method clearly shows there has to be a cause, what is that cause under the evolutionary framework?.
aln said:
agnostic.the same logic.Atheism is basically a case of putting our best effort forward.
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Atheism is a position of ignorance, it has to ignore the truth, it does not want to be held accountable to God, it seeks it's own pleasures in Satans system of things. Agnosticism is in limbo land.
 
As with a few people, it was my experience of religious icons in my life (specifically my RE teacher in school) that turned me away from it all. These days I have a problem with any sacrosanct belief but religion is usually the main culprit in that group
 
kedge said:
Evolution as a whole teaches everything came from nothing, but yet the scientific method clearly shows that nothing produces nothing, so if there was nothing in the beginning there would be nothing now, there is no logic here. The scientific method clearly shows there has to be a cause, what is that cause under the evolutionary framework?.

Atheism is a position of ignorance, it has to ignore the truth, it does not want to be held accountable to God, it seeks it's own pleasures in Satans system of things. Agnosticism is in limbo land.
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Or to paraphrase the argument - "religion, for people that find science too difficult."
 
Atheist - why does such a word even exist - is there a word for people that don't believe in fairies ? That don't believe in a tea pot orbiting the sun ?

Seriously, would a Christian here please explain why they don't believe that Mohamed ascended to heaven pulled by a winged horse, or why they refuse to believe in any of the other gods and religions.
 
Theophany said:
Oh yay, another religion thread where we all acknowledge and respect each other's beliefs and reasoning. :)
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if I believed that I was the reincarnation of Napoleon I would be rapidly shouted down by the world and 'helped' by the medical profession.

But because lots of people believe the same thing it is granted credibility and acceptance. Bonkers.

Seriously - how many people have to believe something before it stops being mass delusion and becomes 'faith' ?
 
Hodders said:
if I believed that I was the reincarnation of Napoleon I would be rapidly shouted down by the world and 'helped' by the medical profession.

But because lots of people believe the same thing it is granted credibility and acceptance. Bonkers.

Seriously - how many people have to believe something before it stops being mass delusion and becomes 'faith' ?
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Snoop Dogg believes he is the reincarnation of Bob Marley. Nobody's sectioned him yet. Perhaps you're not gangsta enough to be the reincarnation of Napoleon. ;)

Is it really so hard to be respectful of people's beliefs though? Because you don't share them they have to be shouted down and made to look stupid? There's a lady who comes round to my house on Saturday mornings spreading the word of God. I've told her in no uncertain terms that I am not a man of religious persuasion, but she still comes round to have a chat and discussion about religion. She respects my (lack of) faith and I respect hers, despite the fact that we don't agree with one another's views.

There's nothing less endearing than a zealot.
 
kedge said:
Evolution as a whole teaches everything came from nothing, but yet the scientific method clearly shows that nothing produces nothing, so if there was nothing in the beginning there would be nothing now, there is no logic here. The scientific method clearly shows there has to be a cause, what is that cause under the evolutionary framework?.

Atheism is a position of ignorance, it has to ignore the truth, it does not want to be held accountable to God, it seeks it's own pleasures in Satans system of things. Agnosticism is in limbo land.
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Evolution absolutely does not teach that everything came from nothing. Evolution only describes the proven beyond all doubt explanation that everything came from a common ancestor by examining evidence. It does not attempt to explain the start of life (but that does not mean that Thor/Zeus/Abrahamic God/Ganesha automatically did it).

It's funny you talk about the 'scientific method' so much because if you followed it you would take the default position of god not existing until proven otherwise.

Atheism is not a position of ignorance, it is a position of no position. It is the equivilant of a football supporter of having no favourite team, but that does not mean they are not aware of football teams existing. Everyone is born an athiest until they become indoctrinated by parents and culture.

And I'm not sure what you mean about seeking pleasures in Satan's system. Athiests don't believe in satan, and I think this is an attempt to say that Atheists have no morals because fear of punisment by God is the only reason someone would be moral which is obviously untrue.
 
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here we go, another pointless thread on evolution v creationism. No one will convince Kedge and his ilk of anything so I wouldn't bother trying tbh.
 
Had a very vague almost forced belief throughout Catholic Primary and High School... (prayers at the start and end of every lesson etc). I think it was around the age of 14 that I sat down and had a word with myself, realising how bull**** it all was. I stopped doing the prayers during class and dropped out of Religious Ed shortly after.

I'm 20 now and still Atheist. I wish we didn't need to have that word, but there you go.

Swearing must be fully starred - Gilly
 
Castiel said:
here we go, another pointless thread on evolution v creationism. No one will convince Kedge and his ilk of anything so I wouldn't bother trying tbh.
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Perhaps an ironic reply on my part but I disagree. I always think that arguing the point (for either side) is worthwhile because it will increase everyone's understanding, even if they don't acknowledge it initially.
 
What tends to happen is that people's minds get twisted by an immense amount of rubbish and contemporary influence and their peer groups so they turn into atheists. Not to mention that atheism is cool these days. But science, yes, science is OK.

Now when people realise that both spirituality and science are the same thing, they're going to start feeling quite stupid. We are humans, we cannot possibly have all the answers, and its hilarious when people think we do.
 
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