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Teenage Atheism/Agnosticism
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22-06-2014 10:21pm#1So I've just turned 18 and I'm not long "out" to my parents. I still don't really know if I'm atheist or agnostic, I call myself agnostic but I think that's due to me wanting some form of hope. My parents believe it's a phase that will pass, that I'm a teenager who merely wants to rebel. So did any of you realize your lack of faith at a young age? Is this more than a phase? :pac:
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So I've just turned 18 and I'm not long "out" to my parents. I still don't really know if I'm atheist or agnostic, I call myself agnostic but I think that's due to me wanting some form of hope. My parents believe it's a phase that will pass, that I'm a teenager who merely wants to rebel. So did any of you realize your lack of faith at a young age? Is this more than a phase? :pac:
I knew I was an atheist from a very young age (although I didn't know the term atheist) I remember not wanting to make my communion because I didn't believe. However, everyone is different and comes to their non-belief at different times in their lives, if at all. Some people can be very patronising - I remember being told when I was 20 'you'll think differently when you're older'. This is a fundamental disrespect for dissent from the status quo which is attributed to youthful foolishness. It's possible that you will return to a faith (and if you do, I would imagine that it'd be more powerful as you did it through careful thought and not merely through circumstance of your birth) but either way, you are entitled to come to your own conclusions and not to have to believe as your parents do...0 -
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So I've just turned 18 and I'm not long "out" to my parents. I still don't really know if I'm atheist or agnostic, I call myself agnostic but I think that's due to me wanting some form of hope. My parents believe it's a phase that will pass, that I'm a teenager who merely wants to rebel. So did any of you realize your lack of faith at a young age? Is this more than a phase? :pac:
They are not mutually exclusive. Most atheists would admit to being agnostic atheists.
I went through an atheistic phase as a teenager, then went back to religion. I don't know why. I think the brainwashing ran deep back then. My kids are all baptized and are now all teenage atheists. They weren't brainwashed to the same extent, so I guess they can let it go more easily. Of course, we didn't have access to so much information back then.0 -
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I love that quote, it's so true! I was so scared to admit my lack of beliefs to myself because it infers a lack of hope, but I think I've somehow come to terms with itSo true. you have to find your own strength and truths. Make your own happy ending. alleviate your own suffering and hopefully that of others.
'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for i brought my own damn torch and map[/B]'
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I love that quote, it's so true! I was so scared to admit my lack of beliefs to myself because it infers a lack of hope, but I think I've somehow come to terms with it
You see IMHO it means the opposite, or a new hope if you will. We are the hope, We are the miracle, the omnipotent, the life. Humans are amazing, we can be everything we need to be and then some. For me waking up as an atheist meant finding hope.0 -
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Join Date:Posts: 26454
Zubeneschamali wrote: »Atheism is about belief: Do you believe in any gods? No? You're an atheist.
.
Don't you mean "Atheism is about non-belief:"
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So I've just turned 18 and I'm not long "out" to my parents. I still don't really know if I'm atheist or agnostic, I call myself agnostic but I think that's due to me wanting some form of hope. My parents believe it's a phase that will pass, that I'm a teenager who merely wants to rebel. So did any of you realize your lack of faith at a young age? Is this more than a phase? :pac:
I was raised Catholic, like probably 99% of the country, but in my tweens I actually read the book the whole religion was based around. Fastest method to get me to turn non-theist.
No it is not a phase. Tell your parents that if they ever bring it up again, tell them that just as they expect respect for being believers, so should you expect respect for being a non-believer. No-one ever says to them that their belief is a phase that they'll grow out of, do they? This is something you've put a lot of thought and study into (I hope) and this is the conclusion you've reached.0 -
So I've just turned 18 and I'm not long "out" to my parents. I still don't really know if I'm atheist or agnostic, I call myself agnostic but I think that's due to me wanting some form of hope. My parents believe it's a phase that will pass, that I'm a teenager who merely wants to rebel. So did any of you realize your lack of faith at a young age? Is this more than a phase? :pac:
I was 15. I remember it happening quite well.
As a child raised in the Catholic Church, religion was something you did, performed, God's existence was taken for granted. Never put any thought in it.
My grandmother died when I was 13. It was a horrible time, my dad was splitting with my stepmum, my mother was coping with being the only member of her immediate family being alive (apart from me obv, but her dad and brother died ridiculously young). My grandmother had a partner, a lovely man, who died very soon after her. Even though at her funeral he had been healthy. Broken heart I suppose.
So I bottled a lot of this stuff up, didn't deal with it. In my secondary school there was a huge emphasis on religion and frankly it was the most tedious class we had. Again, God's existence was still being taken for granted but thinking about it all, I couldn't buy it. Then a girl- who I didn't really know, she was a year or two ahead of me- died in a horribly avoidable car crash. Her death opened the floodgates and I became horribly depressed. I considered suicide. I came out of this. I think it was reactive/SAD possibly, and I do suffer from anxiety anyway, so there you go.
I could not believe in God. I just did not buy it. I remember in religion class being asked to keep a diary (and our teacher swore she wouldn't read them, in fairness, she mustn't have done. The only declared atheist in our class had been handed a Bible). One class I wrote out all the reasons why I did not believe in God or the Church.
I was never militant, but I didn't want to go to mass anymore, it made me feel a hypocrite. I had huge rows with my mother over this. I caved- and went until I went on my study abroad. I did my study abroad in a largely Protestant country where no-one seemed to care much about God anyway. Didn't even know where the nearest church was. I came home and my mother asked me about going to mass over there. As I hadn't been in 6 months, she conceded defeat and I've only been to funerals and weddings since. I go at Christmas to keep the peace- one concession.
I am 25 now. I think I am an agnostic rather than atheist. I am not militant. It's definitely not a phase. I studied English lit and a bit of history in college and I have a huge interest in folklore and the esoteric and did modules related to this. To be honest, seeing how humans create belief and make their gods, convinces me that the Christian god does not exist. I also studied theories of the sublime, essentially things so glorious we cannot even comprehend them. I think if there is a higher power, it is essentially beyond our level of intelligence. We are apes that got lucky.
I'm beyond done with Catholicism though. If I ever did go back to religion, I think it would be Buddhism or maybe some nice quiet Anglican sect that draws me back!
Sorry for the lengthy post, and I hope you got something out of it. If this is how you feel, this is how you feel. There's nothing wrong with you. And it's not necessarily a phase.0 -
I'm sorry to hear you have been through such an ordeal. I can completely understand your reasons for being agnostic- some of which do match my own. This has given me some interesting insights and I definitely don't feel alone.I was 15. I remember it happening quite well.
As a child raised in the Catholic Church, religion was something you did, performed, God's existence was taken for granted. Never put any thought in it.
My grandmother died when I was 13. It was a horrible time, my dad was splitting with my stepmum, my mother was coping with being the only member of her immediate family being alive (apart from me obv, but her dad and brother died ridiculously young). My grandmother had a partner, a lovely man, who died very soon after her. Even though at her funeral he had been healthy. Broken heart I suppose.
So I bottled a lot of this stuff up, didn't deal with it. In my secondary school there was a huge emphasis on religion and frankly it was the most tedious class we had. Again, God's existence was still being taken for granted but thinking about it all, I couldn't buy it. Then a girl- who I didn't really know, she was a year or two ahead of me- died in a horribly avoidable car crash. Her death opened the floodgates and I became horribly depressed. I considered suicide. I came out of this. I think it was reactive/SAD possibly, and I do suffer from anxiety anyway, so there you go.
I could not believe in God. I just did not buy it. I remember in religion class being asked to keep a diary (and our teacher swore she wouldn't read them, in fairness, she mustn't have done. The only declared atheist in our class had been handed a Bible). One class I wrote out all the reasons why I did not believe in God or the Church.
I was never militant, but I didn't want to go to mass anymore, it made me feel a hypocrite. I had huge rows with my mother over this. I caved- and went until I went on my study abroad. I did my study abroad in a largely Protestant country where no-one seemed to care much about God anyway. Didn't even know where the nearest church was. I came home and my mother asked me about going to mass over there. As I hadn't been in 6 months, she conceded defeat and I've only been to funerals and weddings since. I go at Christmas to keep the peace- one concession.
I am 25 now. I think I am an agnostic rather than atheist. I am not militant. It's definitely not a phase. I studied English lit and a bit of history in college and I have a huge interest in folklore and the esoteric and did modules related to this. To be honest, seeing how humans create belief and make their gods, convinces me that the Christian god does not exist. I also studied theories of the sublime, essentially things so glorious we cannot even comprehend them. I think if there is a higher power, it is essentially beyond our level of intelligence. We are apes that got lucky.
I'm beyond done with Catholicism though. If I ever did go back to religion, I think it would be Buddhism or maybe some nice quiet Anglican sect that draws me back!
Sorry for the lengthy post, and I hope you got something out of it. If this is how you feel, this is how you feel. There's nothing wrong with you. And it's not necessarily a phase.
You're right, it's not a phase.
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I'm sorry to hear you have been through such an ordeal. I can completely understand your reasons for being agnostic- some of which do match my own. This has given me some interesting insights and I definitely don't feel alone.
You're right, it's not a phase.
Thank you
Glad it helped Lisa
Don't get the wrong idea, my teen years were not all agony and worrying about my eternal soul! Yes mam and I did argue a lot. It was unusual to say the least because she wasn't raised a Catholic. My grandad was an atheist, and my grandmother didn't much care either way, but she was uneasy at my mother going to church groups. (She didn't grow up in Ireland). I suppose she became religious in her teen years and having me turn away was like her having to justify her beliefs all over again.
It was never particularly a struggle either once I got past through the first few years. You mention it being 'out' to your parents and like being gay, I would love if being atheist/agnostic was to become not a big deal, like I dearly hope being gay will be someday.
It's not something that pains me or I think about all that much. I do get freaked out at the prospect of death, but I think the freeing thing about accepting that there may be nothing after is that you have more motivation to get stuff done now while you're alive!0 -
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