At what age did you stop believing in God, and why?

It seems that you stopped believing in the Church and its practices, not God.

Stopped going to (Catholic) church after confirmation at 14, then gradually lost religiosity/affiliation in my late teens. I don't think I ever actually "believed", thanks to my aspie brain probably not being capable of computing that.

I then became extremely anti-religious in my 20s, and now I've mellowed out in my late 30s. "Believe whatever the fuck you want, just leave me alone" is my philosophy these days. I do love reading, watching, and listening to anything to do with the history of religion, though.

Probably around 5-7 is when I started questioning and didn’t believe anymore once I reached 11.

I'm agnostic and have been since 18. I don't really care what people believe, but organized religion is largely a force for evil in the world.

6-7. Actually I don't think I ever truly believed in it

I didn't

I got dropped off at the public library almost all day in the summers when I was 10 or 11. I was happy as a clam in that environment and it was most informative. At some point I drank deeply from the well of science, specifically paleontology and historical geology. You just can’t come back to the book of Genesis or to any of it with real seriousness after that. Or at least I couldn’t.

Recently when I realized that humans don’t actually “progress”. We mostly fail upwards and use our vast numbers to write warm, fuzzy, heroic stories. All humans beliefs that espouse magic or uncontrollable outcomes are based on believing in heirarchies. Humans are lazy and outsource all ethical decision making to these heirarchies. The Capitalist god decides whether we should live or die and the Christian god determines if our love is pure enough, on and on. It’s just lazy.

I remember the exact moment I realized it was fake. I was six years old, and it just hit me.

p.s. I think about this often as we witness the right wing / religious conservatives’ attacks on science and on a well rounded education in general. They are fighting hard and fighting relentlessly to prevent as many Christianity-raised American children as possible from following a path anything like mine.

The summer I was 15. No big "light bulb goes on" moment...I just realized it was all BS. As an agnostic, I do believe that there is something, I just haven't a clue WTF it is and I'm okay with that. I still pray but I suppose that's morphed into more a kind of meditation.

I didn't.

[Quote] I do my best to respect religion (though privately I detest ALL religion

Sounds to me like you’re trying to eat your cake and have it too.

When my dad died suddenly. My heart was hardened and closed off.

I was 13 or 14. I was exposed to secular arguments and found them convincing. I can't say it was any one thing. It just became clear to me pretty quickly that nothing added up.

I was 12 & prayed that my cat would survive leukemia but he didn't. That was the last straw in a lengthy process of doubt. My dad was an atheist & my mom was a lapsed Catholic, so religion was never ingrained in me. Most of my friends were Catholic & I loved the history & pageantry of their religion, but too much doubt built up around the edges & I finally gave up. I don't miss whatever vestiges of faith I may have had & I find myself looking down on religious people.

I didn't get all the things I prayed for, therefore, there is no God.

Really?

My cat didn't live forever, that was the last straw!

Aw you guys - R16 was a 12 year old kid begging god/fate to save a beloved pet cat. It wasn’t exactly an adult theological perspective.

Around 6 - I was given some children's bedtime Bible story book.

There was a picture of Abraham with a knife while his son was tied to a rock about to be killed for sacrifice - and I was like - what if this motherfucker wants to do the same to MY DAD and test his faith?

That was the start - then just the fake smiles, stupid recital of verses as if they're supposed to be infused with such deep meaning, the refusal of any criticism or doubt....

It did take awhile - but once you break it, it's so liberating. It's also fucking disgusting how much of a hold it has over our minds and morality.

Our family wasn't even THAT religious and didn't go to services every week.

Religion and religious people fascinate me, and I try to be respectful of both, but I stopped being a believer when I was old enough to ask questions that had answers that made no sense or were just a word salad of phrases. I also saw that religion really kept people in darkness, backwards, and in many cases, mean. If God is this amazing, powerful, all-knowing thing, why would his followers be so hateful and anti-science?

I think I was 8 or 9 when I asked who Cain and Abel married and was given some nonsense answer.

R19 Sure, but all the more reason not to go by what one thought at that age.

i. e. to stop believing in God forever on such a flimsy premise. I don't mind if you have a good argument.

I also remember being given all the “Bible-In-Life” comic books depicting some of the Old Testament stories, at age 9 or 10, and thinking how come God made lots of things happen and stopped lots of bad things from happening way back then, but now God — if he’s even real — God just sits there lets really bad things happen?

I was obsessed with the Titanic and sat there in Sunday School thinking how the Titanic would have been such an easy layup for God, an easy thing to warn people about, or to help steer the ship etc. This was 4th grade. I think my library summer days (at my request) began a year later.

I'm from a long line of irreligious folks on both sides. We haven't been smite down over generations. We survive to live another day.

Dad was an atheist. Even though we went to catholic schools because the education was good, and I’d learn all the theology and prayers, my dad would sit me down and explain how inane it all was

I never believed in god but I was willing to try once I found out about him. I was raised entirely without any church influence. There was zero discussion of God. In school some of the kids went out of class every week for something and I asked about it. I was introduced to the idea of god. I walked away understanding that he was like the easter bunny and Santa Claus. If you were REALLY good and asked for things in just the right way he would give them to you. I dug it.

I didn't go to church or anything because no one in my family did but I just kind of accepted a very childish view of, I will be so good and perfect and someday I will have good things.

When I was 7 or 8 I was at the babysitters and she told I was going to need to stay with her for a bit because my mother was in the hospital. She'd had a heart attack. I knew this was my time for my payout.

There was a field with a boulder and I ran there, dropped to my knees and prayed in a. way that I think only desperate children can. I prayed for hours for my mother to die. Just hour of the deepest most pure and sincere prayers that have ever been prayed.

My babysitter finally found me hours later and thought she was giving me good news, giving me what I was praying for when she told me that they believed it was a very mild heart attack and my mother would be just fine.

I knew there was no god. I found out that same year Santa was fake too. Seemed fitting.

I didn't.

Losing your religion is one of the most alienating and unsettling things that can happen to someone. I can understand why people resist it.

It makes you realize that the people you trusted really don't have the answers.

Honestly, I think the pre-cursor to this is when you realize Santa isn't real and everyone was lying to you. It doesn't take a huge leap for you to start applying that to your religion.

The whole "God works in mysterious ways" - really? Why isn't he clear? You wouldn't put up with anyone else in your life not giving you all the details or saying contradicting things?

What kind of weirdo, insecure God is this? Demands people worship him and do good things or he will punish you for eternity?

The mental gymnastics that religious people go through is disgusting. Even on this board - holy shit the crap the Catholics on this board believe in and were excited about with a new Pope.

It makes your head spin - how the hell can you be so excited about that?

Why is this even a question? If someone invited you to a party every Friday night, and told you that you weren’t welcome every time you showed up - how long would it take for you to stop going?

Honestly DL, I was 10 years old in East Falls& realized my mom and dad (not real dad) were placing me in foster care.

I didn't understand why this was happening, I swore I would get all back, especially GOD.

R30 - incredibly, there are gay people on this board that STILL go.

I can't imagine being an adult gay man going into a church, feeling and hearing the contempt that your fellow members and clergy have for you, and you still keep showing up.

But then, there are about 15% of gays/lesbians who are Republican. Same energy.

It never hit me like a lightning bolt, but all throughout my childhood my parents forced me to go to church and my critical thinking skills--even as a child--lead me to question all of these outlandish stories they were trying to present to us as fact. It just never made any sense to me and I couldn't understand why so many adults around me (my parents included) seemed to be buying into it hook, line and sinker. And it was never lost on me how the pastor would butter everyone up for 45 minutes before finally hitting up their wallets with that offering plate! I remember thinking to myself, "Ah, okay...so THAT'S what this is all about." They'd never pass the plate around at the beginning of the service! Nope. Only at the end, once everyone was all high on the Holy Spirit! Watching my dad put money into that plate every Sunday always irked me.

In high school my parents attempted to force me to become a member of our church and that was simply a bridge too far for me. They could force me go to church every Sunday but they were NOT going to tell me what I believed in. And so I woke up early the morning of the confirmation service and I ran away from home. When I returned a few hours later (after I knew they'd all left for church without me), my mom had locked me out of the house lol. And it was January. I'm still proud of my 16-year-old self for putting my foot down and doing that.

To this day they try and push the bible at me and I push it right back.

R32 they’re usually over 60. It was ingrained into them.

Religion = man-made institution with human rules and practices. Often has absolutely nothing to do with God or the belief in one. I still believe in God, but reject the institution of religion in all of its forms.

I’m thankful my parents were athiests so I never had to go through all the mental gymnastics and disillusionment. I was never brought up to believe in the first place, and thought Christianity, especially, was quite silly.

The summer I turned pretty. I stopped believing and started dating.

Suffering is good, pleasure is bad. You're inherently sinful.

But you can do whatever you want - including murdering people and child sex abuse - as long as you repent before you die, all is good.

I mean - what? it's sadistic and it gives an out for all sociopaths.

All man-made rules, R38.

We went to Sunday School and I was baptized when I was 12 (by the dunking method), but I can’t say I ever felt very strongly about God or the veracity of religion. It was just something that you’re supposed to do. When I was 14 or so there were some kids on the bus shocked that some girl on the bus didn’t believe in God, and someone shouted out “so and so doesn’t believe in God!”. It was kind of enlightening to hear that no, you don’t have to believe, and I soon came to the conclusion that neither did I.

TWELVE. I knew it was all bullshit all along, but 12 was when I asked my mother if I could stop going to Sunday school. She said sure.

I stopped believing in the church which led me to question all its teaching, finally landing on the very idea of God. But then again it doesn't take a lot of common sense to question what a bunch of peasants believed in 21 centuries ago in view of all the scientific knowledge we have accumulated especially in the last century about the universe and our place in it. I would love to be able to believe in God again but it's as impossible as it is for a chick to crawl back into the egg shell after it's broken out.

To all you immoral non-believers, how do you keep from sinning? Stealing, murder, gluttony, coveting thy neighbor’s wife, etc.?

r43, I follow laws and try not to be an asshole. it's worked pretty well for me although gluttony doesn't really strike me as a big deal.

R43 - the fallacy in your argument is that you think religion keeps people from doing shitty things to other people. It doesn't. Hence the need for laws.

1) we have laws and punishments in the legal realm to help prevent abuse from others like you mentioned.

2) What kind of immoral person are you that the only thing holding you back from rape, murder, child abuse is your religion?

Sounds like you're a sociopath.

I think there are things we can’t explain but belief in god is just a response to the unknown. It’s a safety net.

I remain fascinated by the mysteries of the universe and how this all came about, but by the time I entered college I realized that organized religion and its elaborate fairy tales didn't begin to explain any of it.

In 1963, when I was 19 and living in a highly religious family, and teaching Sunday School, during one class I thought, what am I doing teaching these poor kids such crap. How can we believe there is such a thing as a Holy Ghost? My feelings had been drifting this way, but this was the tipping point. I stopped teaching to my parents' dismay. It took me another 2 years to find a job I had to move away to. And I never lived with them again. I consider my integrity is better as an atheist. I have no god to forgive me, but only myself to live for.

After I shed Santa Clause and The Easter Bunny: around puberty. We never attended any church so it made it easier.

I grew up going to Pentecostal church. I believed because my parents told me to believe, even though I felt silly praying or watching people speak in tongues in church. When I was about to go off to college, the pastor's wife told me, very seriously, "Don't let them tell you not to believe in God."

Well ... no one told me not to believe; I arrived at that myself once I learned basic critical thinking skills. If you question one aspect of religion, the entire thing crumbles like a house of cards.

Christianity turning blatantly political ahead of the 2016 election killed whatever was left of my beliefs. The idea supposedly "good" people would support someone who was the exact opposite of everything they supposedly believed made it obvious the entire thing was a hypocritical scam.

Not sure I ever started!

14 or 15. My mother wasn't pleased but I couldn't keep going to church. Even now when I'm in a church for an event, I keep thinking, "how can anybody believe all this shit?"

When I started going to a private Catholic school and asked questions.

R1 You cannot have one without the other.

Separating from the Church which was the foundations of Christianity is the biggest contradiction of the world.

It was also the bi-polar feeling of it. God loves all of you! God is always there for you! God listens to your prayers and helps you!

Then, we're all sinners. Only a few will get into Heaven, the rest of you will spend eternity in hellfire and pain. And we won't tell you if you get in - you just have to hope that you're good enough and live in fear of God's wrath - remember, the one who loves you so much?

People of other religions? Oh - they're all gonna die and be tortured for the rest of their lives for not worshiping OUR God. Why? Well, we send missionaries out there to spread the word, so most people have heard of it, and so if they turn their backs on it - so be it. WHAT?

Same thing with the congregants - fake smiley, shaking hands, etc., then gossiping about each other as soon as they are out of range.

It's a slap and tickle - you're a sinner, you're awful, you need to repent - then, God is really all about love and he loves you soooo much! It's classic abuse and control.

And if you leave this abuser - we will NEVER talk to you again!

I grew up in a weirdly old school Catholic parish. Our priest was a gruff and grumpy Slovak who did things his own way, down to having his beloved black Lab sleep under the altar during service. He was strict, but not exactly reverent in the expected ways. It all seemed like pageantry, and I never really felt like a believer, It's just what we did Sunday mornings. Our priest was EFFICIENT. You were in and out in under 30 minutes. Consequently, coming out and realizing that I didn't really care about church was pretty simple. I later married a guy whose father was an Episcopalian priest. We were married by a lesbian Episcopalian priest /minister friend of his family, and again, not really sure about organized religion, but the service was uplifting. We talked about going to church for a while, mostly for the community aspect? We're just overcommitted to other volunteer stuff for now. I don't see church as important, except for that. Not really sure what I believe, but it doesn't involve a church.

Last year Pastor of my church noticed a kid hadn't been in church with mother since beginning of summer Saw him on the street. Six-year-old said they'll be back in September, his mother said "God is on vacation."

R53, of course you can have one without the other. This thread proves it; the overwhelming complaint is about religious practices and man-made doctrine.

Oh God - here comes R57 the religion apologist who is going to parse apart every word in his attempt to defend his religiosity. Whatever.

Teenagers can be so charmingly certain they’ve got it all figured out.

Eighth grade. I stopped going to catechism and didn't make my confirmation. My Italian mother wasn't happy, but she had an Italian's skepticism of the Church. I ended up making my confirmation to get married in the Church. I went when my sons were baptized and started catechism. We left our local, suburban Catholic Church when they started on who to vote for because they were anti-abortion. We started going to a church a nearby city, that was an old-style cathedral. Very gay friendly, though I wasn't out. We stuck it out until my sons went off to college and I came out. Neither of my sons had church weddings, and I don't think my ex-wife attends Mass anymore.

The weird one is my sister. She's turned into someone who goes to Mass every day. Has masses said for all the dead. That's part of it, I think. She (and my mother and I) got sucked into her in-laws family, and we became part of theirs (all of ours being in Italy). She never had kids, big disappointment. And now, they're all dead. All the in-laws, uncles, aunts, many of the cousins. The holiday used to be huge events. Now it's just four or five people. Her life pretty much revolves around her small church now.

Do you find your keys or wallet when you pray to Saint Anthony OP?

R43 - the thing that prevents me from murdering or stealing comes from a basic sense of right & wrong. It does NOT come from sharing a church pew with Bob & Bertha Bigot every Sunday.

7. Some kids were talking about the tenets and it seemed wrong.

I tried very hard to make it work and connect to a higher power, but what a mindfuck it is when you're gay and God basically hates you.

Yeah, fuck that shit.

For me, the concept of God is the universe.

Btw if you're religious, please say a prayer for all the gays who went through hell thinking God hated them because a religion said so. All the suffering, all the hiding, getting into marriages and playing a part because God and society could not accept them.

Those so deeply closeted they didn't know it was the root of their alcoholism and those driven to suicide. It's a better world that gays are more accepted now, and gay marriage was passed.

I was at the very least a skeptic from as far back as I can remember. My family was quite religious and I went to Sunday school every Sunday, probably when I was at a pre-verbal age. I began questioning everything I was being taught as soon as I started wondering how the world worked.

R 58 has proven that he understands only simple concepts. Well, here it is : Religion = man made. DL posters complain about religion. OP posts about believing in God. DL posters respond by talking about religion, not God and not responding to the OP. Got it, or do you need drawings too?

That’s exactly how it was for me R66.

Reality is too harsh for god to exist. Physics Only.

I never did. I was very very similar to Damien from The Omen.

I don't know that I ever really, truly believed any of it. I went through all the motions as one was expected to do. But by the time I was in college I understood that it was all made up bullshit and that it was OK to no longer believe in any of it. Even now, though, it still gives me pause when I say that I'm atheist.

Never. I only later realized religion was supposed to be taken as fact.

I was raised Catholic and believing in God was so programmed into me at school every day and church every Sunday that I reflexively still pray sometimes, like a habit, when something worrisome is happening in my life. So I guess I can’t say I stopped believing in some kind of deity but I definitely think religion is bullshit and the Catholic version of God is a sick fuck. I haven’t gone to church other than weddings and funerals since I was in college.

My dad is a very irreligious person who was not raised with any strong sense of religion, so I got zero religious programming from him. However, my mom tried half-assedly to shove Catholicism down our throats when my brother and I were growing up. Her father was a hardcore Irish Catholic (and an extremely abusive, fucked up person, to boot) and I think it had a huge influence on her, even though she's what you would call a "cafeteria Catholic" at best. My maternal great-grandfather was part Jewish and was murdered in the Holocaust; my maternal grandmother was raised a Lutheran by my great-grandmother and converted to Catholicism when she married my grandfather.

I have gone through a lot of existential growing pains throughout my life and have a very confused sense of religion and God. When I was around nine years old and my parents were in the midst of separating, I remember my mom telling me to pray for them to stay together (which in hindsight is absurd because she was the one who was unfaithful in their marriage). Because I was nine years old and didn't know any better, I did, and when it didn't work and they divorced, that was the moment I questioned whether or not God was real. I was very angry for a long time about this. As a teenager, I firmly considered myself an agnostic, but I was never committed enough to proclaim atheism.

As I've gotten older, I would say I believe in God in an abstract sense. I don't think all human history is a mere accident; I've also had several supernatural experiences in my life that I simply cannot ignore. I know in my bones that good and evil are very real and that there is more than meets the eye to this world, but I ultimately feel that all of the religions are mere flawed human attempts at explaining something that cannot really be explained.

I never believed in God and came from a non-religious family. I didn't consciously realize it until I started school and had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

I attended Mass intermittently until about age 25. But some of that was social (gay Catholic group). I really had my doubts about Christianity once I studied comparative religions and realized that every one has its own kind of miracles and hierarchy of celestial beings to try to convince its followers that it was the true religion. Sounded familiar. I don't know that I would confidently say I believe in nothing. Perhaps I'm a pantheist on the order of Einstein, who saw that the order of the universe was far beyond the understanding of mankind and we ought to be in awe of "it" whatever "it" is. But I don't believe in the specific God of Christianity. My mother is a true believing Catholic, but in a practical sense. She just treats other people in the most loving way possible, even at the age of 103. I'm in awe of that too, but can't use a belief in Christianity to justify that behavior. I just have to believe that treating other people well is its own reward.

How about this one: At what age will you stop believing in trans/nonbinary ideology?

It's not supported by science/biology, either, and requires a leap of faith.

But it's become the woke left's religion/cult.

They even encourage followers to cut ties with family/friends who don't believe in it, too.

I never believed (but it helped that I grew up in a casually Unitarian household.)

The whole concept just didn’t make any sense, and seemed ridiculous. If he were real, why wouldn’t this god show up and interact with us? Why would the relationship have to be so [italic]complicated? [/italic] What benefit would there be in that, as far as a master plan went?

It just sounded stupid.

I knew the bible was horseshit as soon as we started having scripture classes because all the important stuff only happened to men

In sixth grade when we were reading some Greek myths in english class I asked the teacher if, when a good ancient Greek person died and went to heaven, did they meet Zeus or God.

I remember Mr Catarina being decidedly flummoxed. (How the hell do I remember his name 50 years later?)

At what age will r77 find another obsession?

Pray the gay away.

The thing is, if you're looking for something, chances are you'll find it, and praying to Saint Anthony won't make a difference. But Catholics swear by this because "every time I pray to Saint Anthony I find the missing item!" Yeah and every time I lose something I usually find it because things don't just disappear, and I don't need to pray to a magical dead person to find it!

Organized religion really is a confidence game. They dupe everyone into believing superstitions and lies through stupid mind games like these.

Probably 7 or so - same year I stopped believing in the Easter Bunny and other ludicrous fantasy creatures.

Organized religion has just become a way to control people and, ultimately, take your money.

[Quote] But Catholics swear by this because "every time I pray to Saint Anthony I find the missing item!"

Im not even Catholic but pray to St Anthony— and it works! Also, the upside down St Joseph in your garden helps sell your house too. I can’t explain it but they work

Also R86 can't explain how his grandpa was always able to pull a coin out of his ear. But it worked!

R86 is an idiot.

I didn't. I consider myself an optimistic agnostic. But I did stop going to church on Sundays when I was 16.

I never started believing in God. I knew it was all hocus pocus from the start

R65 homophobia doesn't exist because of religion though, it's just often an outlet for it, sadly. If not ask the atheist USSR. Or Cuba.

I say this because my mom is pretty religious (catholic, goes to church on sundays) and she didn't have a homophobic bone in her body. There are so many contradictions in the bible, you really do get to chose what you preach and the principles you want to follow.

I'm an atheist, but I like the whole St. Christopher thing.

R91 - what are you talking about? Absolutely people use religious texts to justify oppression against homosexuals. They cite it every single time. They call us Sodomites for crying out loud.

The Catholic Church says homosexuality is 'disordered' behavior and does not do same-sex marriages. They encourage homosexuals to just abstain from all sexual acts.

Homophobia in society is enforced by religion - otherwise, there's no root cause for homophobia. State religions reinforced that.

My dad was catholic and accepting of me as his son, but when he spoke up to his fellow church-goers about me and the ways the church has harmed gay people, he was ostracized.

You may know someone who goes to mass and also doesn't hate gay people, but that means nothing when the larger organization is using their might to demonize us.

R93 "Absolutely people use religious texts to justify oppression against homosexuals."

When did I say otherwise? My main point was that it is used to justify what people already feel. Religion may be used to justify homophobia but it's not where homophobia is born.

God is Santa Claus for adults.

R95 - if there were no religious texts to base their fear and loathing of homosexuals on, what leg would they have to stand on? There would be none and it would be hard to justify it.

It's the other way around - religious texts as a basis of morality seeps into legislation and cultural norms.

Santa Claus who usually leaves coal in stockings.