What was it that turned you?

[tomspug]

In your most recent conversion or pronouncement /renunciation of faith, what was the issue, moment, or idea that initiated and/or triggered that change?

 

[Wandered Off]

I was sitting in a Survey of Religion class at the world's largest Baptist university, and the professor was going over differences between the two creation stories. Having grown up in a hyper-literalist tradition, I was truly shocked by the revelation of the differences and even more so embarrassed by my own inattention that I hadn't noticed this in the many times I read and supposedly studied it. The worst part was realizing that none of the teachers in my two decades in church had so much as mentioned it. The foundations fractured right there, and I entered a rather bitter phase of spiritual development coping with the loss.

I know that sounds like a small thing, but it marked a stunning paradigm shift where my view of scripture was forever altered, and everything followed.

 

[doppelganger]

I'm turning all the time. One of the bigger early moments with a lasting effect was reading the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" from The Brothers Karamazov for the first time about 20 years ago.

 

[msmcneal]

There's many reasons why I left Christianity. But there are two main reasons:
1. The Bible is too contradictory to be taken as the supposed "word of God"
2. God was not something akin to a friend, but something distant, cold, and uncaring, therefore going against the Christian concept of "God"
There was simply no reason to believe in something that could not communicate properly, or that did not care about my life. It was a gradual change, due partly to the fact that I wasn't sure how my wife would take it. But she was feeling the same things I was, just not as long as I had been thinking about it.

 

[doppelganger]

There's many reasons why I left Christianity. But there are two main reasons:
1. The Bible is too contradictory to be taken as the supposed "word of God"
2. God was not something akin to a friend, but something distant, cold, and uncaring, therefore going against the Christian concept of "God"
There was simply no reason to believe in something that could not communicate properly, or that did not care about my life. It was a gradual change, due partly to the fact that I wasn't sure how my wife would take it. But she was feeling the same things I was, just not as long as I had been thinking about it.

Yeah, when Christianity gets mired in superstition and a quest for personal salvation it's far less than inspiring.

 

[Storm]

There was no turning point for me. I simply, suddenly realized that I wasn't really a neopagan anymore. My theology had outgrown it.

 

[msmcneal]

Yeah, when Christianity gets mired in superstition and a quest for personal salvation it's far less than inspiring

Yeah, I even practiced various forms of Christian mysticism, and it worked for awhile. But even then, it just stopped making sense.

 

[tomspug]

I'm turning all the time. One of the bigger early moments with a lasting effect was reading the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor" from The Brothers Karamazov for the first time about 20 years ago.

I really need to go back and read TBK. It was one of my most interesting religious class discussions.

 

[doppelganger]

Yeah, I even practiced various forms of Christian mysticism, and it worked for awhile. But even then, it just stopped making sense.

Off topic here, but I'd be interested in reading more about this when you get a chance. Welcome to RF, BTW.

 

[msmcneal]

Off topic here, but I'd be interested in reading more about this when you get a chance. Welcome to RF, BTW.

Sure, no problem.

 

[Engyo]

I don't believe that there has ever been "one thing" that turned me; it has always been the slow and steady accumulation of facts, observations and understanding that does it.

 

[Buttercup]

I was a Christian for 25 years, taught Sunday School off and on and read the bible front to back at least 5 times. There wasn't any turning "point" but my beliefs gradually shifted over several years largely due to my disdain for the mainstream Christian notion of hell and how it's so incredibly unwarranted.

I couldn't reconcile never meeting God, never having a word with him personally could land people in hell for non belief because of one measly, scanty piece of evidence (the bible).

 

[Riverwolf]

I don't believe that there has ever been "one thing" that turned me; it has always been the slow and steady accumulation of facts, observations and understanding that does it.

I'm kind of the same way here.

I don't really "turn"; my beliefs change as I grow older and more knowledgeable and experienced.

But the biggest change recently was reading the first half of the first book in Joseph Campbell's "The Masks of God", which solidified the concept that the gods might be psychological. I haven't read the rest of it yet, but I intend to eventually.

 

[msmcneal]

That's the way it is for most people, at least from all the ones I've talked with who have left Christianity. It's a slow, ongoing process. For most people, it's not something instantaneous, although that does happen. It's just not the norm. As far as books go, I've been reading Thomas Paine's Age of Reason and it's pretty awsome.

 

[Magic Man]

Yeah, for me it wasn't sudden. I realized at one point that I couldn't reconcile the problem of evil among other things. Then, I didn't give it a whole lot of thought really until I started here. When I started here, I just kind of realized that I am an atheist. It's a very slow process.

 

[methylatedghosts]

I read a book at.. oh... must have been 14 years old, or so. Basically I never really aligned with anything, only I said I was "christian", mainly because I didn't know what else to answer. Someone would ask "are you catholic?" I'd shrug and say "I dunno."

What this book did was gave me loads of ideas to mess around with and make my own. Basically, it didn't so much convert me, as it did give me something to define myself by for a brief period. And then I kind of left the definition, and any labels behind as I realised I didn't need them

So now, "Pick-n-mixism" works quite fine ^_^

 

[MysticSang'ha]

LIke Engyo, it's mostly been the little observations and practices and analysis of what I've seen work and not work in helping me to be a more compassionate and wise person. However, a profound moment for me that "turned" me (I guess you could say), was in Autumn of '05 when I faced my own death. I had been practicing Zen mostly for almost 10 years at that point before I discovered Vajrayana. The experience is still incredibly intimate for me, and I have some difficulty sharing it candidly (however, I have shared it on this forum). But my studies into Tibetan Buddhism confirmed much of my spiritual experience during that time.

Since then, it's been little things here and there again that confirm that Tibetan Buddhism works very well for me and my goals to continually be of more benefit for others.

 

[Jordan St. Francis]

Wandered Off

I was sitting in a Survey of Religion class at the world's largest Baptist university, and the professor was going over differences between the two creation stories. Having grown up in a hyper-literalist tradition, I was truly shocked by the revelation of the differences and even more so embarrassed by my own inattention that I hadn't noticed this in the many times I read and supposedly studied it. The worst part was realizing that none of the teachers in my two decades in church had so much as mentioned it. The foundations fractured right there, and I entered a rather bitter phase of spiritual development coping with the loss.

I completely understand this. For me, when I was told in my 11th grade World Religions class that "Noah's Ark never really happened" I was very challenged. The teacher continued to say things to me, quoting at times the Jesus Seminar. This opened me up to the world of historical criticism and introduced some profound doubts. It lead me down a several year journey of experimental mysticism and such. It was very troublesome (initially) and caused me to stop considering myself Christian.

My faith today is not the same as it was then, and so I am grateful that this teacher prodded me out of less mature versions of the Faith.

 

[Dezzie]

Well... about 5-6 years ago I was a Mormon, or a Latter-Day Saint as others may know it as. The reason for my change was a few beliefs I always had. Mormons believe that as long as you know Jesus was the son of God and that he died for our sins, we would go to Heaven. I don't believe in that to a certain extent. The reason for that is because I never felt that God would damn people of other Faiths to Hell if they have never heard of Jesus or him being the Son of God. I didn't find that fair. I still don't...

Also, the church I went to was very discriminating. I never felt like I fit in because everyone was so cruel... I used to have many piercings and I have a tattoo, so everyone I went to church with looked down upon me. Literally everybody there was that way (even my family members). The Mormons I went to church with were VERY religious... they didn't believe in drinking caffiene and you could only have ONE ear piercing... I had over 12 including my eyebrow and belly button... Everytime I went to church I could feel people's stares. I didn't like it and I didn't feel they were good Christians because they were being so discriminating. A good Christian should not be that way and should look at someone for who they are on the inside... not what they look like on the outside. It hurt me.

 

[Willamena]

In your most recent conversion or pronouncement /renunciation of faith, what was the issue, moment, or idea that initiated and/or triggered that change?

A shift in approach from the ontological to epistemological triggered by the suggestion, and subsequent realization, that the ontological was imaginative.