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So, why don't you believe in God?

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
As in I do what I do and don't give a damn about what you are doing so why do you care about what I am doing?
Whoa! Why are you mad?

I'm just curious. I'm curious because I'm fascinated by what people believe, and even moreso why they believe it.

If you didn't want to talk about it, why did you post?
 

tumbleweed41

Resident Liberal Hippie
Back to the discussion...

I can see how upbringing can shape ones belief or non-belief in deities.
For instance, would I be a deist if I did not have a desire to hold on to a bit of the belief ingrained in me growing up in a Baptist household?
Others are able to reject belief in deities altogether, but I still hold onto that tiny bit of faith.
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
Whatever, dude. I was only asking.... I still don't understand why you posted if you didn't want to discuss.
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
Back to the discussion...

I can see how upbringing can shape ones belief or non-belief in deities.
For instance, would I be a deist if I did not have a desire to hold on to a bit of the belief ingrained in me growing up in a Baptist household?
Others are able to reject belief in deities altogether, but I still hold onto that tiny bit of faith.
Interesting thought....
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
I read a book by Bertrand Russell called Why I am not a Christian. It completely spun my thinking around.
I've read that. Wasn't impressed, but that's because I read it in response to the challenge that it would "cure [me] of belief." By someone who already knew I wasn't Christian. :facepalm:

Anyway, why did you reject all God-belief based on an argument tailored to one?
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
For me, making the decision to discard any notion of God fell into place later on of which my decision was borne out of experience coupled with some reflection over how things actually transpire in life as opposed to how I had perceived it. I just decided after a long period ascribing to theism that in light of how things are in actuality, there just simply cannot be no God until something (if ever) comes along indicating the contrary in an absolute fashion of which I cannot possibly dispute. Till such a time occurring, I reflect back that I took no notion of any god when life first started for me, and consequently it now makes perfect sense to continue on with that.
Would you mind sharing the experience(s)?
 

Warren Clark

Informer
I mean, what is your story.

I am not interested in the "there is no evidence of god"-argument, I am interested in how you came to view the world the way you do.
Where you born in a non-religious family or did you make a conscious choice later on?

Well I grew up Baptist.

My first existential look at Christianity was with a question that made no logical sense to me regaurding the trinity.

It was with the whole baptismal scene.
Jesus was baptised by John and the spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) decended from the heavens as then a voice from the heaven (God) said This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.
Matthew 3:16-17

For me it made no logical sense for God to be in three different forms in the same place, and still be just one monotheistic God.

Then came the outside thinking, what about every good/decent person.
The humanists and secularists that have driven this country to give us our very freedom of/from religion.
What about all the people that have already died, never hearing "the word of the Lord".
Were they all to burn in hell?

I found it very sickening.

Then I had my own tribulations with homosexuality and the church...
I was gay and trying to conform to the church's standard, I found myself in a threatening position being in severe depression caused by the opression of my family and the church.

I ended up studying deeply within the scripture then with in the Apocrypha and other text not included in the Bible. From there I went in search of myself.
I found that conforming to religion had its consequences and that I came to realize for myself that it was unhealthy to do so.

I then started my spiritual journey.
There I found science and reason which have been my closest allies.
I now call myself a humanist as it is what I am.
(As was jesus :p )

I call myself a pantheist, because I cannot deny the wonder of existing and I look back at my pain that religion had instilled and I am still in awe that people do not realize the very wonder that is a part of their being.
To have the breath of life is a gift and most Christians, as I see it, abuse it, along with their arrogant,jealous, and wrathful "God".
The universe provided us with an amazing gift (unknowingly/unconsciously) of sentience.

I see the good and the bad in the world.
There are those that cherish their sentience and others that abuse it.
That is where I found Pantheism and Humanism.
 
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Felidae

Member
Well. I have never believed in god. I was baptized, thought more cause grandma wanted it than parents, they were never really christian. I did first communion. I went to a roman catholic junior school. So everyone did that, so did I. The stories, tales etc of jesus and god I just thought nice tales, pretty tales. Nothing more. Time came for confirmation, and I chose not to. Just didn't care for the fairytales anymore.

God has never been a factor in my life, never meant anything, I've never searched for faith. Never missed any god either.

I am more a scientist at heart. Sometimes I feel there's more than science, less than religion though. I am fine where I am, can't see any religion suitable for me.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Back to the discussion...

I can see how upbringing can shape ones belief or non-belief in deities.
For instance, would I be a deist if I did not have a desire to hold on to a bit of the belief ingrained in me growing up in a Baptist household?
Others are able to reject belief in deities altogether, but I still hold onto that tiny bit of faith.

Or maybe it is not so much faith or even belief as much as a pattern that you learned to employ in your thoughts. A matter of language if you will. Nearly everyone seems to be somewhat permanently shaped by the way they were raised - a favorite example of mine are the language accents that few people ever overcome even if they don't have much of a true attachment to them.

IMO so-called belief in God is largely a matter of perception, of aesthetical preference or affinity. Seeing how at ease you seem to be with disbelief, I wonder if it is not a simple matter of you being confortable with the "idiomatic expression" as opposed to full belief.
 

Warren Clark

Informer
Very long story made very short.


Also I guess a huge factor would be that for the first 17 years of my life my mother was abusive to me and my siblings.
I would just close my eyes and pray.
Once I stopped praying everything ended up getting better.
 

Otherright

Otherright
I mean, what is your story.

I am not interested in the "there is no evidence of god"-argument, I am interested in how you came to view the world the way you do.
Where you born in a non-religious family or did you make a conscious choice later on?

It was an epiphany of sorts. I majored in philosophy and minored in religion. Theology was always something I studied. I still do. Although I was raised baptist and married catholic, my world view started falling apart as logic seeped into the studies of higher and lower criticisms.
I always wondered why it was different groups prayed and believed they received answers. Why this afterlife? Why no afterlife?

Issues I had in religion, started showing up in themes of my works as I was writing. Various editors I worked with noticed these. Philosophical, sociological issues and the such, have always been a hallmark of mine with a Gibson-like style accompanying climatic twists. But after three religious themed stories in a roll, I actually quit writing for a while.

One day, I went for a walk with nothing particular on my mind. It was summer. As I watched the wind blow through the trees, I came to the realization that there was nothing. There was nobody watching over me, no one judging me. I was part of a biological cycle.

I came to the realization that in all the years of studying theology, it wasn't that I was studying because I believed. I was studying because I didn't believe.
 
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