Did you ever believe in God?

TeddyTedson · 17-04-2014 1:42am #1

I remember as a small child, I'd pray every night before bed. I'd say a few prayers and then ask God to bless everyone in my family.
I'm not sure what age exactly I did this until but I reckon at about the age of 13 at least I wasn't really believing in any of it any more.
That means for more than half my life now I'll have considered myself atheist.
I remember my religion teacher in school telling us about God and just not having any time for it. I began to wonder how religion ever even came about and wondered would I one day, much like Santa Claus, discover that it was all a big story to try and keep kids well behaved.

Anyway I'd imagine I was quite young to lose my religion so to speak but are there any people out there who despite being from a religious family never really believed in God? I remember always having some doubts even as a very young child. I don't think I was ever really sold on the premise.

Hotblack Desiato · 17-04-2014 1:52am

Went through all the motions and did actually try to believe in it for a while in childhood but can't really say I ever bought it. And yes much more religious than average family even by 70s Irish RC standards.

As soon as I was old enough to get away with participating in each aspect, I did so, it was great when they stopped the compulsory school confessions. I never bought into confession even at age 7, hated it and thought it was nonsense and contradicted everything else we were told in school about god.

There was a lot of contradiction though, post-Vatican2 hippy-dippy religion books about god-is-love, and some teachers who played along with that, but some others and visiting priests who were still into hellfire and brimstone.

I did actually re-examine christianity in my mid 20s, an acquaintance was 'born again' :rolleyes: and thought I might be susceptible to infection, I read through the NT she gave me and thought 'you know, I could really buy into this. But it would be on the basis of nothing at all except convincing myself to do so.' and that was it, all religion is dead to me forever.

Turtwig · 17-04-2014 2:13am

Yep, devout Catholic, now atheist. :cool:
(Now pokémon)

Cabaal · 17-04-2014 8:39am

Nope, can't say I ever did,

Went through the motions of all the crap in primary school but at the end of the day my mother says even at 5 years of age i used to say "I hate religion", to me it just all seemed like a big fairytale which everyone seemed to believe in as real...yet snow white and the seven dwarfs was fantasy...go figure!

Glass Prison 1214 · 17-04-2014 8:49am

I never really did, I remember when I was a kid, maybe six or seven and my dad was telling me stories about Greek Gods which I found interesting(and at the time more convincing than Christianity) but at the end he would tell me that the stories were myths and that the Gods were made up. I asked him what was the difference and all he said was that God was real yet he couldn't give me a real reason. Even at that age I couldn't fathom how they were different and never believed from then on.

Christy42 · 17-04-2014 10:11am

Yep. Was a generic not overly interested believer until 5th year when I decided I would become more involved and started reading books and praying more to be a good catholic.

Having read a lot and thought about what was going on a lot lead me to have doubts through 6th year and early in my 1st year of college I realised I couldn't justify believing to myself.

eviltwin · 17-04-2014 10:19am

Not sure I ever did. I believed because I was told to believe, I don't think I came to the conclusion that god existed on my own. I always hated religion and didn't understand why something that was supposed to be a force of good seemed to be obsessed with making people feel bad about themselves.

TheJackAttack · 17-04-2014 10:22am

I believed as a child because I was terrified of going to hell..

Pherekydes · 17-04-2014 10:22am

Yep, brainwashed into the RCC at an early age. The deeper the brainwashing the longer it lasts. Funnily enough, I always hated going to church. My father used to pinch me to keep me awake, or to stop me looking around.

Doctor DooM · 17-04-2014 10:29am

I believed as a child, and kind of a la carte believed through school.

By the time I hit college the church had completely lost me and I started reading up about all religions as much as I could. Soon, I'd gotten into paganism as it suited my world view a lot more. No required nastiness there.

It'd be a decade ago now when reading some of the non fiction work of Douglas Adams forced me into realising I was fooling myself because I liked the idea of a here after. This very forum put the final nails in the coffin.

gaynorvader · 17-04-2014 10:29am

Yep, until I took it upon myself to read the bible cover to cover at age 9/10 (can't remember which). That threw me in a lot of doubt as it didn't make sense for much of it. Started questioning my Sunday school teacher and local priest, got no answers. Pretty much stopped believing altogether soon after.

Frynge · 17-04-2014 10:35am

As a young child I thought I would understand it all as I got older, even a 8 making our communion I was getting into trouble in school for not doin the religion work (drawing pictures in a copy book marked religion).
The whole thing just didn't make any sense to me, even remember picking holes in the Noah story.

redfacedbear · 17-04-2014 10:58am

I can't say I ever properly believed. I accepted the (apparent) consensus (and in Ireland of the '70s and '80s it seemed very much like a consensus) of everybody around me without really questioning it. Once I started to think critically and independently in my teens any question of belief fell away fairly quickly.

Obliq · 17-04-2014 5:17pm

Nope. Born and raised a godless heathen

robindch · 17-04-2014 5:36pm

Obliq wrote: »

Born and raised a godless heathen

Lucky you!

Obliq · 17-04-2014 5:37pm

Counting my *cough* blessings every day!

seamus · 17-04-2014 5:53pm

Yeah. Definitely would have believed as a childer of the big bearded man in the sky with his hippy white-even-though-he's-arabic son by his side, looking down over everything. I don't remember anyone ever being fie-and-brimstone about the whole God thing, but there was never any question that anything else even existed. There were proddies, and proddies are evil, but they believe in God too. And there were Jews, but they didn't really exist except in the bible.
Anyone who didn't believe in God was a Pagan who murdered and sacrificed babies over bonfires. Pagans went extinct in the stone age after St Patrick came to Ireland.

That was reality, and as a child you don't see any reason to question that, especially when everyone you encounter is (on the surface at least) a good honest Catholic.

I don't remember having a eureka moment about the whole thing. Through my teen years I slowly came to the realisation that the Catholic church was full of hypocritical ****heads and its teachings a pile of nonsense. I went so far as to say that to an ultra-religious teacher once, who knew better than to react to a student, but hated me from that day on.

Until my mid-twenties I held onto the idea of the ethereal "religion's a big pile of bollox, but there must be something else", which in reality is code speak for, "I want there to be an afterlife, but I don't want to have to do anything to get there or really think about it much at all".
After having a good old think about it, I eventually realised that was nothing more than me wanting something to be true, without a shred of evidence to back it up, which leads to the default position of atheism.

Devia · 17-04-2014 6:10pm

Yeah I think indoctrination as a child is (or at least was) fairly standard practice whether it be religion or something else. I would have believed anything my elders told me as a kid, let alone stories about god.

Sulla Felix · 17-04-2014 6:16pm

Well into my teens. Thought I felt the "call" and all. I remember aged 16 had detailed plans to take a gap year after the LC and work in the missions with a priest I got to know through school. He was the brother of one of the nuns and came to give a talk about his work every time he came home.

Anyway. Somewhere between JC and LC I became a filthy heathen. Still kind of regret not doing the year abroad mind, belief or not it probably would have been fulfilling.

mohawk · 17-04-2014 6:26pm

I am not sure that I ever truly believed. I remember religion classes in school where we would listen to bible stories like Noahs arc, Jesus turning water into wine etc. I was one of those children that asked millions of question and I never got any proper answers to any of my religion questions. I found the Adam and Eve stuff a bit suspect and I was told to stop asking questions when I asked about it.

MrPudding · 17-04-2014 6:39pm

I believed. Or at least I think it did. My decent into heathenism started in a kind of funny way, though it was not funny at the time. Not sure what age it was at, but I forgot to say my prayers one night. Woke up the next day, realised I had forgotten and spent the day in a proper panic. Was convinced someone was going to die or something bad would happen. Nothing did. Said the prayers they might breathed a sigh of relief. Couple of week later I tried an experiment. Didn't say prayers. Nothing happened. Downhill from there really

MrP

Kiwi in IE · 17-04-2014 8:41pm

Obliq wrote: »

Nope. Born and raised a godless heathen

Me too. Went to an Anglican primary school which was my first real encounter with religion. Never believed in God, Holy Ghosts, or Jesus as a superhero. I never thought of bible stories I heard at school as being any different to Cinderella, Billy Goat Gruff or Jack and the Beanstalk.

My parents are atheists too though which undoubtedly goes a long way in avoiding religious indoctrination.

krudler · 17-04-2014 11:06pm

Maybe in a sense of a "I might just in case" kinda way, which in fairness is still how a lot of people think, which is nonsense really. was around 12-13 when I just thought ah here this is bollocks, was like a weight lifted off my shoulders, no supernatural big brother watching you.

RobbingBandit · 17-04-2014 11:10pm

Started reading mythology when I was about 5 years old, Greek, Ancient Near East, Norse, Egyptian etc. They all have a King God whose son save humanity, Biblical stories are rehashed tales from other dynasties.It has all been told before in some way or another. Long story short yes I did believe as it is human nature to believe tall tales, now though the answer would be a resounding hell no. :P

Lia_lia · 17-04-2014 11:13pm

Obliq wrote: »

Nope. Born and raised a godless heathen

Same here pretty much. Well, not totally true! Got baptised alright when I was 7 to make my communion. I had just moved to Ireland and my Mother thought it would 'make me fit in with the locals better'. Didn't really even know religion existed until then.

Kidchameleon · 18-04-2014 12:31am

The first time I ever heard thunder I thought it was God talking. Scared the **** out of me, I still remember that moment like yesterday, 27 odd years later.

bogwalrus · 18-04-2014 4:17am

Up until the age of 13 I was saying 100's of hail mary's. Then one day I was like. What am I at and decided to ask god to show himself or I will stop praying to him. I gave him a few days to give me a sign and there was nothing. Pretty soon I realised there was no god. It hit me as a pretty obvious thing even as a 13 year old. Strangely I did not really understand why I believed in a god until much older when I learned about indoctrination and stuff.

Calibos · 18-04-2014 11:35am

I'd like to thank Bishop 'whatever his name was' in the early 80's for sneering at a 9 year old me for saying good evening instead of good afternoon at a meet and greet after Sunday mass. 'Twas a great chuckle himself and the surrounding adults had at my expense. Set me on a path to my heathanism so it did.

Brian Shanahan · 18-04-2014 12:06pm

My journey out of religion went thusly:

0-4 Didn't know didn't care (all children are born atheist); 5-15 devout catlick (was even the boy in school who knew all the answers and wasn't slow to say them when the bish came); 16-18 slowly moved towards a la carte (clash with the fact the only free time I had on a Sunday was now mass, due to my part time job); 18-21 dabbled with pantheism while avoiding doing any studying in college (read Spinoza); 21-25 agnostic, religion never entered my mind, but I had a vague idea that there was some sort of Urge at the back of it all; 25 saw a documentary on C4 about a jumper from the twin towers, the docu maker was trying to identify him, and at one stage the best guess was a Puerto Rican chef. When the documentary went to talk with his family they (devout catlicks) were aghast at the idea of him jumping, saying things like "no he'd never commit suicide, he's a good boy, he'd never disobey god" and I was horrified that good people could be brainwashed into beliving such ****. And I vowed there and then that if such a god existed I would have no truck with it.

To expand further on my final deconversion, the idea that 1) when faced with two deaths, in relative terms, easy and painless and long and hard that taking the easier option would be suicide could be allowed, and that 2) even if a person commits suicide (my next door neighbours as children father committed suicide when I was a child) they should be punished forever because of it (being in a state that you would try to kill yourself is hard enough as is) were absolutely abhorrent to me. I realised at that moment that any religion that held such or similar views was not worth following, even if true. I copped on and figured out that even if a particular religion were true that the only moral choice would be to, in the words of Terry Pratchett, "to become his moral superior." There is no other valid option, and therefore there is no point believing in any religion. Thus atheism.

pauldla · 18-04-2014 6:08pm

Sulla Felix wrote: »

Well into my teens. Thought I felt the "call" and all. I remember aged 16 had detailed plans to take a gap year after the LC and work in the missions with a priest I got to know through school. He was the brother of one of the nuns and came to give a talk about his work every time he came home.

Anyway. Somewhere between JC and LC I became a filthy heathen. Still kind of regret not doing the year abroad mind, belief or not it probably would have been fulfilling.

I thought I had 'the call' too, and went away for 'vocations weekends' every so often. Was quite the holy joe at one point. Ah, the memories.

SpaceTime · 18-04-2014 6:13pm

I was an annoyingly analytical and cynical toddler.

I actually don't remember ever believing in that kind of stuff.

Even Santa Claus, while I liked the story, I knew it was make belief / fantasy stuff.

I'd say I believed in God like I believed in Superman and he has a cool cape and can fly, so I paid a lot more attention!

So basically, I'm a total heathen & proud!

Did you ever believe in God?

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