Did you ever believe in God?

TeddyTedson

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

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

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

Cabaal

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

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

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

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

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

Pherekydes

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

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

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

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

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

Nope. Born and raised a godless heathen

robindch

Obliq wrote: »

Born and raised a godless heathen

Lucky you!

Obliq

Counting my *cough* blessings every day!

seamus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Red Nissan

I was an extremely witless child, was afraid of my own shadow and believed EVERYTHING. I still suffer psychologically today.

As a young child I was absolutely terrified as they crucified Christ and at three o'clock on the dot of his death, the dark clouds came over ~ theatrical at it's best but, real.

I was so freaked out, like I was almost a babbling idiot, somethings might not have changed, but however.

That was my fist ponder, about seven I was I'd say, back in the old days at the turn of a new decade called the sixties, I pondered, if we love Jesus so much why do we kill him every year?

So I pondered a lot after that and before I made my Confirmation, I was already a non believer and well on the road to becoming and atheist.

SpaceTime

I'm sure my teachers thought I was really annoying. I remember trying to get a primary teacher to explain infinity with endless probing questions.

I remember asking her what was before the Big Bang too and how the matter got squeezed up in the first place.

She told me to do a degree in physics and stop annoying her!

(I'd add she also brought me in books and stuff on the topic and let me go browse Encarta...lol)

Frank Bullitt

As a boy I did. Went to a C.B.S and we had a principal who would take what seemed like extra attention to the religion section of class.

As I got older and could see how useless and fake Catholicism is, I began to refer to myself as Atheist.

Oddly enough, I get more raised eyebrows here in Canada at it than I did at home in Dublin.

forgotten password

oh god

SpaceTime

Gintonious wrote: »

As a boy I did. Went to a C.B.S and we had a principal who would take what seemed like extra attention to the religion section of class.

As I got older and could see how useless and fake Catholicism is, I began to refer to myself as Atheist.

Oddly enough, I get more raised eyebrows here in Canada at it than I did at home in Dublin.

I'd say it would very much depend on where in Canada though.

I found some USAmericans quite horrified when I said I wasn't religious though and it seemed to be taken as quite a negative thing by them. Hard to generalise though as it's a huge and diverse country. There is definitely a more fundamentalist and vocal kind of religiosity there though that you'd rarely encounter in Ireland or most of Europe these days.

DazMarz

I was a proper Holy Joe growing up. Largely due to the influence of the family. My nana (mother's mother) was the biggest influence, methinks. She was a great woman. Absolutely brilliant. Strong and convicted. Made the best damn soda bread ever, too. She was one of the people I would term "properly Christian"; a strong believer in all things holy, yet at the same time was never cruel or malicious towards others for differing beliefs or things that allegedly went against religion. She had the whole "God loves everyone, regardless" thing down to a tee. She was a deeply moral and kind woman, but I would wager anything that even without a deep religious belief, she would have been the same.

When my grandfather died, I was about 8 or so. I used to go into my nana's every weekend to keep her company and stayed with her over the weekend. From Friday afternoons after school, up to Sunday evening, I stayed up in her house in Bray. Every Saturday evening, we'd go to mass and I actually enjoyed it a bit; meeting all of her similar sweet-old-lady friends, meeting other kids, etc. It seemed like a big social meeting more than anything. 40-odd minutes later, it was back home for tea and to watch the Big Big Movie on RTE. Simpler times...

I was instilled with a deep sense of reverence, respect and appreciation for the Church and religion and god. And I did believe... for a while.

I think it all started when I hit around age 12/13 or so. That's when I started questioning things. I had been told sometimes that the reason I had a great brain (I was a precocious, intelligent child and I read a lot and so on) was because of god. Up until then, I believed that god smiled down on me and made me a smart kid. But then, I reasoned, was it not because I read a lot and was constantly expanding my knowledge? Just maybe...

It was also around this time that it all started coming out about priests molesting kids and the Church covering it all up. That dented my faith... severely. And then getting into trouble in religion class in secondary school for daring to bring up such a subject. I never used to get into trouble in school, but I was incredibly bitter and got a proper stroppy teenager-y "Fúck you!" attitude about the whole thing when I was severely reprimanded for daring to bring up the topic of clerical sexual abuse in a religion class. I felt like screaming Basil Fawlty's line, "This is exactly how Nazi Germany started!!!" over it.

From then on, it was just a descent into becoming a godless heathen. My trips to mass became less and less frequent (becoming the traditional Irish catholic way of: Christmas, Easter, funerals, weddings, christenings). Then it devolved to the current state; avoiding church like the plague apart from funerals, weddings and christenings.

Another thing that stuck in my mind a lot was from my primary school days; it was a form of slight, subtle discrimination. I only see that now, but back then I was slightly more innocent and didn't realise it. The school I went to was a Catholic school and I'd assume that 99.99999% of the pupils there were Catholic. In the school, one of my closest friends growing up was from a Protestant family. We were like brothers; inseparable for the most part (it actually hurts me when I think how quickly and dramatically we drifted after primary school...). For religion classes in school, he was sent from the classroom. When we were getting ready for our First Communion and Confirmation, he was also sent from the classroom. I didn't fully understand why back then... maybe his parents had requested it. But at the time I thought it was very harsh and unfair. Still do to this day. Only a minor thing, but I found it a bit odd that if god loved us all so much... why did my best friend have to leave the class while we talked about him and stuff?

By the time I was about 16, there were tenuous links to believing in god and religion and all that, but they were hanging by the thinnest of threads. I think it was watching a documentary about Magdelene laundries and the abuse that went on there was the final straw. I finally said to myself that if there was an all powerful god up there, he would have done something to stop this shít. He didn't. So he's either a useless and semi-sadistic thing, sitting up on his cloud, looking down and relishing the suffering and pain... or he simply is not there at all.

By the time I started university, it was totally gone and I became a full blown atheist, openly. I was accosted while walking through the campus one day by a religious group. Totally unprovoked; I was walking along, Megadeth blaring in my ears, when a guy leaped at me. The pamphlet was wielded like an assassin's blade. He began a spiel about it all. I fired back, "Hold on, there's no poker or heavy metal in heaven... it's not for me!"

So yeah... that is me... sorry it's so long...

Lithium93_

Believed in ''GOD'' up until around the age of 14 or 15, then all of a sudden stopped going to Church in either 2009/2010, (seriously sat in the seats listening to the priest babble on about an invisible being and how his son died for our sins for 30 minutes every Saturday,biggest waste of time)..... Safe to say after 2010 i just gave up altogether, and I've been a heathen since then






(Only time I'll ever set foot in a church is for Christmas Day mass and anniversary's)

Duggy747

Came from a normal Catholic family but I never did believe in a God, it just never clicked with me. I had to do things like pray in primary school or before bed along with the sister because I thought it was something you were supposed to do, I never actually believed prayer did anything or that there was someone there to listen to them.

When it came to Mass I absolutely detested the entire concept of kneeling and chanting prayers I had no idea how to say. The priests' garbs, all the crosses, paintings, and statues used to spook me out too.

I used to get clipped by aul wans for not blessing myself or for not saying a prayer along with everyone else. My work-around was to mime "Mars Bar" because that's what I thought people's lips looked like when they murmured during Mass :pac: I didn't have interest in Mass not because I thought it was cool but because I really had no interest in it or that someone was up in the sky looking out for me.

What really did it for me was my 2nd class teacher, who was a brilliant guy,
who brought us out to this specific plot of badly kept land that was hidden way, way outside of the town.

Turned out it was a graveyard for unbaptised and born out of wedlock babies, imagine a wild garden belonging to a house nobody has lived in for 30 years with nettles and branches all over it. They just had little headstones to mark their graves, some had fresh photos and flowers on them so people were still visiting them at the time.

Anyways, the teacher explained what they were there for and that they were supposed to be stuck in limbo because of how they were treated by the church and people in the town.

I thought it was a horrible and unfair thing to happen, to be stuck out in a graveyard that was unkempt and were forgotten about (beside the parent(s) who were still going out there) because they didn't get a splash of water on their head so they could join the club like the rest of us.

After that, I was one of those kids who asked millions of questions but the answers either dodged them or were half-arsed. I was usually told to not ask those types of questions because you're not supposed to.

Once I learned that other religions existed in the world that was my "Ah now, come on....." moment towards Catholicism and religion in general.

I'm a very chillaxed guy so other people's beliefs don't bother or phase me, I do find it funny when some people got annoyed at me when I said I don't believe (and I'm only ever forced to admit that, I never bring it up just for the sake of it) and they turn into that "Oh, so you're an atheist, then? Well....." where they assume I'm going through some sort of rebellious phase because I must listen to "the Prophet, Richard Dawkins".......though I don't read his books or ever mention him.

meoklmrk91

I don't think I ever really believed, not really, had absolutely no interest in any of it, got out of going to mass as soon as I was allowed, lied to the priest to get out of serving mass, didnt really want to make my confirmation but felt that I had to, it was to me as an 11 year old like there was absolutely no choice in the matter. I tried to believe for a while when I was around 13 but that didn't last too long and pronouced myself an atheist not long after, to those day my father and I cannot have a conversation about it because it upsets him and he doesn't want to even try to understand because the church is so important in his life. Another of my siblings would be agnostic but came to that realisation much later and the other is somewhat catholic I think, doesn't go to mass but would probably balk at the idea of a child not being baptised.

smacl

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

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

Likewise, both parents atheist and raised an atheist myself. Never believed in any of the mainstream Irish Catholic deities including God, Jesus, Santa, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth fairy. Felt a mild stirring in the Force after watching Star Wars on the big screen when it came out in '78, but after a day or so of trying to move objects using telekinesis, gave up on that too.

DazMarz

Duggy747 wrote: »

What really did it for me was my 2nd class teacher, who was a brilliant guy,
who brought us out to this specific plot of badly kept land that was hidden way, way outside of the town.

Turned out it was a graveyard for unbaptised and born out of wedlock babies, imagine a wild garden belonging to a house nobody has lived in for 30 years with nettles and branches all over it. They just had little headstones to mark their graves, some had fresh photos and flowers on them so people were still visiting them at the time.

Anyways, the teacher explained what they were there for and that they were supposed to be stuck in limbo because of how they were treated by the church and people in the town.

I thought it was a horrible and unfair thing to happen, to be stuck out in a graveyard that was unkempt and were forgotten about (beside the parent(s) who were still going out there) because they didn't get a splash of water on their head so they could join the club like the rest of us.

That was another thing that really swayed me, and I was only reminded of it when I saw what you posted.

The whole idea that innocent children could be so forsaken and ignored. The idea that their families (who were most likely fervent believers) would be tortured forever in anguish at the knowledge that their little son/daughter would never get into heaven because they were not baptised. I mean that is just evil.

Add in the amount of people that were not allowed to be buried on "consecrated" ground because they committed suicide. Even worse.

The town I live in has been blighted in the past few years. At least 3 young people (all aged under 30) have taken their own lives in the past 5 years. Two were Catholics. At their funerals, which I attended, the priest was stoic, cold and emotionless. You could sense it that he wanted to rail against suicide, call it an evil act and possibly revert to form and forbid them being buried in a Catholic graveyard. But, for obvious reasons, he didn't. But there was a real... undercurrent... or something there.

It has even touched my own family. And again, I only thought of this now.

My aforementioned grandmother often told me stories. Right up until just before she passed away (she passed away in January, 2012), she would often tell me stories from her own life and of her relatives. I was always enraptured. It was always interesting. The way in which she described things meant you could almost see the story unfold before your eyes.

Anyway...

The story she told me concerned what would have been a cousin of hers, a young Catholic girl, whose surname was McGuckan. They were growing up in Antrim at the time, and this would have been in the 1930's or 1940's. This girl fell in love with a young man from a Protestant family. At the time, this was an absolute scandal. The parents of both families united to stop such a "sacrilegious" union happening. The young woman was forced to emigrate to America, to stay with relations of the family in Upstate New York. The young man stayed behind. Before she was forced away, she promised that she would write to him.

Years passed, and he never received a single letter from her. He married and had a family.

In America, the girl arrived and discovered she was pregnant. She kept the child and raised him. She got married and had more children.

She constantly wrote letters to her old flame back in Ireland, but received no reply.

Years later, the sons and daughters of these two families reunited, meeting "relations" that they had never even known about. Sadly, by this time, the man and woman who had been forced apart had long since passed on. It was discovered that the man's mother had been intercepting the letters coming from America, but instead of destroying them (as you would imagine), they had been hoarded away.

I saw one of these letters that my grandmother had. Listening to the story, I was in tears. Absolute tears. I was only about 15 or so (so maybe the details are a bit fuzzy; but that's the bones of it). Through the tears, looking up from the letter, I asked my grandmother, "Why?"

She replied with a sad shrug, "Blind faith and ignorance." was her reply.

Shook me to my core.

bnt

I don't think believing as a child counts as really believing, since you were a child and pretty much clueless about everything. It's when you grow up that you put away childish things, and in my case religion was one of those childish things. It faded in to the past, along with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. I can't remember "really" believing at all, not sure I ever took religion seriously.

nozzferrahhtoo

I have not one single memory of ever even once subscribing to the idea there was a god. I simply never believed it. I was even slow to realize that any other people actually did either, and it was not just a big part of role play, fantasy, story telling and more.

seamus

bnt wrote: »

I don't think believing as a child counts as really believing, since you were a child and pretty much clueless about everything.

I think we're getting into philosophical territory here, but I disagree. I think childhood belief (in anything) is the closest most of us ever get to truly believing (again, in anything).

"Suspension of disbelief" describes a cognitive effect whereby someone is immersed so wholly in a story that they forget where they are and what they're doing, and their consciousness has been superseded by their imagination. It's the end of goal of all great storytellers, from the old seanchai right up to modern movie making; to make your viewer/listener forget who they are and what they're doing, if even for a few minutes.

Most children can do this pretty much at will. If you ever watch a 3 or 4 year old playing at anything, they are completely in the moment, their reality is whatever they are imagining in their head.
As you get older, this kind of pure escapism gets harder and harder to achieve.
The word "suspension" perfectly describes the nature of the effect. You're not ignoring your disbelief, in your mind disbelief is actually suspended. You don't watch a good movie thinking, "This isn't real". When you get really into it, belief & disbelief don't even come into it. Like a vivid dream, you unconsciously accept the story (and therefore your imagination) as being "reality" if even only for that temporary period.

So on the topic of religion, I think children get into it in a way that few adults can. It's a pure acceptance of religion as reality. As you get older and the nature of reality becomes more apparent, you have more disbelief to suspend in order to maintain the "old" picture of reality in your head. I think you will find very few adults who absolutely and completely believe, without doubt or hesitation. Most children of religious parents will though. "Little Johnny has gone to heaven" are much more soothing words for a child than an adult, because the adult always has the lingering doubt.

Vote 4 Pedro

I've never felt the need for any religion at all,
I was raised in care by several different foster family's from the age of 3 who all tried to make me believe - they had no chance as i thought it was all a joke and i couldn't understand why they just could not accept the fact that i did not believe in god.
They all tried i can tell you.
Then i married a girl from a Catholic family and they are still trying to convert me even to this day.
They think i'm some sort of "one off" as in there eyes it's not possible to be happy without god in you life.
Over the years my wife has now stopped believing as well but i have had nothing to do with that, religion just seems to have warn off her,
The other day we were driving somewhere with my son who is a total none believer and his friend who is a Catholic and we drove passed a few churches and the friend crossed himself as we drove passed.....my lad asked his friend why do you cross yourself passing a church and the friend said "because my mother slaps me if i don't" :eek:

Zubeneschamali

I believed when I was a child because I was taught to by people I had reason to trust when they told me about God, Santy Claus and Australia.

As I grew older, I decided they were right about Australia, wrong about God and kidding about Santy.

I never bought the whole "believe based on faith just because", as soon as I heard that was why other people believed, not any actual valid reason or evidence, that was the end of that.

rainbow kirby

Kinda, but given that I decided I didn't believe in (G|g)od at roughly the same time that I decided that Santa didn't exist... the sort of faith that you have as a small child (I was 10ish when I stopped believing) isn't the sort of faith that someone who practised their faith as an adult would have.

iDave

Yeah suppose I did if I'm honest. Realised it was preposterous well before the Leaving Cert.

swampgas

Believed in God well into my teens. Even when I was sure that organised religion was a contradictory mess it took a long time for me to shake off the feeling that there was still some sort of "Big Brother" God watching my every move and thought, which in turn inhibited me from thinking things through properly. Once I was free of the delusion that my every thought was being observed (and judged) everything fell into place for me.

I find that it gives me an insight into why religion can be very hard to shake off for many people, especially if it has been embedded deeply into your consciousness as a child.

Akrasia

"And now I lay me down to sleep
I pray to God my soul to keep
And if I die before I wake
I pray to God my soul to take"

Those words still send shudders down my spine (and not because of the Metallica song)

I used to say them at night, sometimes I'd be almost about to tall asleep when i remembered that I forgot my bedtime prayer so I jumped out of bed to say the prayer in case I died during the night and went to hell.

I believed when I was very young out of fear but it never really made any sense to me. As soon as I allowed myself to start asking questions I stopped believing pretty rapidly.

Also, Father Ted might have played a big role cause it became ok to laugh at religion and how silly it was.