When did you realise you were a non believer

I never believed - I remember in primary school reading the stories of "The Brown Bull of Connacht", "Tir na Nog" and "The salmon of knowledge" and pretty much assuming that these supposedly real life stories like "Noahs Ark" "The nativity story"and "The story of the loaves and fishes" etc etc were pretty much the same tall tales.
I think when I was too young to know what I was supposed to be thinking about the Bible that I just assumed they were fairy tale stories and I remember much later on thinking my Nana was having a laugh with me telling me they were real stories! I'm pretty sure I had made my communion around that time - I made it not knowing what the hell it was all about, I just wanted the money! I thought making a confession was being locked in a cage (badly described confessional box by teacher)

Don't think I ever believed, even as a child I remember thinking it was a load of rubbish. Only came out as a non believer when I turned 30 though.

Saipanne wrote: »

Some time before my confirmation.

I imagine you still made it, anyway.

I began to smell a rat in Primary school, when the class was told by the teacher that "the fear of god" in the bible in fact meant "fear of losing god", trying to soften the harsh image of the Old Testament deity.

Even to a seven or eight year old it was clear that the man was either lying to us, or completely deluded himself.

It wasn't really until I left school, though, when I travelled a little, met lots of interesting, helpful, good people, none of whom were religious in any way, that I realized that a life without religion was not just possible but in fact preferable.

Squeedily Spooch wrote: »

Catholicism on it's own is enough to put anyone off.

Exactly. You often hear from religious people that if only we would discover the true form of religion (ie theirs) then we would be saved. The problem is, it wasn't the way catholicism was taught to me, it was catholicism itself, in all its bizarre, medieval, hypocritical essence, that put me off.

It isn't because I don't really know true religion that I don't believe, it is precisely because I know what religion is all about that I am an atheist.

My story differs a little from most of the ones posted so far.
I didn't grow up in Ireland, but in the Catholic heartlands of Southern Germany.
Similar to here, you were just born Catholic, and that was that, no questions allowed.

But I was kind of lucky, the Catholics I met in my formative years were very, VERY different from the fearful, dour variety.
The man who baptised me was a good friend of my parents, a Fransiscan friar with the loudest and heartiest laugh ever. He called himself "God's wild boar", and had an immense sense of humour. But he would regularly be in trouble with his superiors for being - well, too human. He told me once that he saw it as his duty to follow his conscience rather than doctrine.

The primary school I went to was secular, but my secondary school was run by Mary Ward nuns (sub sections of Jesuits, I think). And they were similar little revolutionaries. We had extensive sex education, they made sure all the girls in their care knew damn well how to protect themselves from STIs (most importantly from AIDS, the massive scare at the time) and unwanted pregnancies. I've never once heard any of them even suggesting that one should wait until marriage. Their message was to find a loving relationship, and to take things at your own pace. Don't let anyone pressure you, but if you want to have sex, here's how you do it safely.
They never thought much of having to wear the veil, either. About half of them never did, many of them had ditched habits in favour of plain skirts and blouses anyway. Years before the Vatican declared that this could possibly be allowed.
They were also very strong convinced environmentalists, setting up a recycling co-op in the school, protesting plans for new nuclear power stations, teaching us how to safe water, you name it.
They were happy enough to accept same-sex relationships between older students, no judgment, just being happy for the girls in question.


I have learned a lot from them, and I am truly grateful. The lessons of respect, of critical thinking, of picking your fights well in life, of self-awareness have always served me well.
On the other hand, the very fact that I admired all this so much as it tied in to totally with my own morals and ethics that I didn't want to question if the biblical background would actually hold up to scrutiny.

That happened much later, and funnily enough on another online forum. I was discussing religion trying to take what I thought was a sensible kind-of-in-the-middle position, and as the discussion progressed the question to me became ever clearer - how could I call myself Christian, let alone Catholic, if I though the whole thing was effectively a made-up collection of moral tales without any of the supernatural stuff being actually real?

And that's when it clicked - I had been engaging in double-think for quite some time without realising. It was time I admitted it. I was actually an atheist.


Edit : Goodness, sorry about the length of this!

Bit of a caveat to that in 1801 though, follow your conscience at all times, but you can still be wrong

nc19 wrote: »

When I heard my first bible story.

How anyone get take these stories seriously is beyond me. Noahs Ark ffs......water into wine pfft....immaculate conception my arse! And before any says the stories are not to be taken literally if you dont take whats written in the book as true whats the feckin point in any of it?

We will see XMen type mutants before we see any tangible proof of a God

Just to nit-pick for a minute, the immaculate conception isn't in the bible, its something that was invented in the (I think) 19th C to account for some deep theosophical problem. Which kind of says it all really.

branie2 wrote: »

When ye told your parents you were atheists, did some of you get the standard "as long you're in this house, you'll go to mass" speech?

Nope, surprisingly enough. My mum's attitude was always that the church considered you old enough to make your own decisions after Confirmation, so 11 year old me had a choice in the matter.

branie2 wrote: »

When ye told your parents you were atheists, did some of you get the standard "as long you're in this house, you'll go to mass" speech?

No, the only reaction I got from her was "Don't tell your grandparents, they won't understand and it'll only upset them".