Losing your religion?

r3boot · 23-08-2005 07:53PM

My passion for religion started to go downhill when i found out it had alot more to do with people than it did with god. The fact that my religion is linked with terrorisim didn't really help.....

Tha Gopher · 23-08-2005 09:14PM

Is it just me or are people on these forums more virulently anti religion than in the real world?

Like, of all my mates, Id say only one doesnt go to mass or anything because of some deep hatred of the catholic church. The rest just cant be arsed etc. But all of us except him would still get our kids christened etc.

I wouldnt say I lost mine, more it was hardly much of a part of my life to begin with. My parents barely went to mass so it wasnt really an issue.

Never met a religious young catholic til I went to college, girl in my class who cant stop going on and on and on about how shes going on a pilgrimage to here and there and everywhere, how much charity work she does, how many of her mates are in the Maynooth seminary etc etc. She barely ever goes out or anything, seems a pretty miserable oul life to me. Alot of the young Irish ones they interviewed at the popes thing in Germany reminded me of her. Just way too clean living for my liking

rainbow kirby · 23-08-2005 10:16PM

Never really had faith... realised that I didn't believe in God at the age of 11 in Confirmation preparation classes in school. Haven't been to a church voluntarily in about 9-10 years.

Aisling(",) · 23-08-2005 10:24PM

I lost when I was around three.My parents are of the older and extremly strict variety and believe in going to mass every sunday and holy day even when you are on holidays.I used to hide every sunday because I hate it that much.Even at the age of 14 i don't have a choice of I go to mass or not and I won't untill I move out of my parents house.I've faked illness to try to avoid mass..I've physically been carried/dragged to mass many times.I Hate MASS :mad: !!!!!!!!The amount of slagging I have endured due to this fact is unreal.This also has a deep impact on my life because I'd some times not be allowed go to the pictures or whatever because i'd miss mass.I've taken to staying in a friends house on friday nights then ringing my mam and telling her I'm staying over at her house for another night which i would do anyway but the avoidence of mass is a bonus.My mam believes that if i don't go to mass I'll go to hell of something(which i will anyway).I probably wouldn't be as anti-religon if it hadn't been for my Mam an Dad so It's all their fault.

Pepe LeFrits · 23-08-2005 10:52PM

azezil wrote:

Gave up on religion at 17, was religious prior to that, stopped believing in a God at about 20.

Same, only replace 17 with 16 and 20 with 18.

larryone · 23-08-2005 10:53PM

That sucks. One of the things I hate most about religion is the way so many people try to impose and force their beliefs on others. Drives me mad sometimes.

Alvis · 23-08-2005 11:56PM

I've never had a religion. Since I was young I was leaning towards the more logical and scientific point of view of everything. I've never walked into a church voluntarily...

tribulus · 24-08-2005 12:04AM

Probably just in the last year, so 18. Other people having faith doesn't bother me at all just when they try to force it on you and don't accept that you don't share the same beliefs it gets me :mad: :mad:

Flukey · 24-08-2005 12:12AM

I am sure that even the under 14 people didn't lose it until after they got their Confirmation money.

arbeitsscheuer · 24-08-2005 12:21AM

Flukey wrote:

I am sure that even the under 14 people didn't lose it until after they got their Confirmation money.

Nope. Was never confirmed.
That's the whole f**kin point of confirmation. When you're baptised you are too young to make a choice, by the time confirmation rolls around you are considered old enough to decide whether or not you want to buy into such-and-such a religion's mentality and belief system. So I considered it, thought about it...

And said, f**k you. I don't subscribe to b*llsh*t.

the_syco · 24-08-2005 12:42AM

Aisling(",) wrote:

My parents are of the older and extremly strict variety and believe in going to mass every sunday and holy day even when you are on holidays.

Listen to Slayer's albums. They'll love that.:D

SebtheBum wrote:

And said, f**k you. I don't subscribe to b*llsh*t.

Did ye take the money?

Gazza22 · 24-08-2005 12:49AM

I never really had that much of a belief in God but a few years ago i questioned it all once and for all and totally abandoned it.

Religion seriously puzzles me, the fact that anyone can believe in religion really puzzles me. I put my beliefs in science and would denounce religion under all circumstances.

I just see it as a burden in our world, though i believe when it comes to religion you should live and let live. It is a bit of security for alot of people. Religious debates just don't go anywhere i'm afraid, they are pointless.

The whole thing is very far fetched and has no place in my life until i get some proof that having a religion is not a waste of time.

Goodshape · 24-08-2005 01:01AM

SebtheBum wrote:

So I considered it, thought about it...

And said, f**k you. I don't subscribe to b*llsh*t.

I said the same but was told to go on ahead with it anyway.. for your granny's sake at least :rolleyes: (I conseded with dollar signs in my head... didn't get that much in the end).

Couldn't get passed the hypocracy and irrelevence of Christianity from a very young age. Bar a mild interest in what all the fuss was about, I don't think I ever 'believed' in it.

At the same time I started taking an interest in abstract spirtuality (that is, an interest speicifically not bound to any 'religion' or dogma) at about 15 / 16.

Nightwish · 24-08-2005 02:38AM

the_syco wrote:

Listen to Slayer's albums. They'll love that.

some anal c*nt or cannibal corpse would be more fitting!!!

Tar.Aldarion · 24-08-2005 02:45AM

more fitting maybe but slayer are better...we want a maximum enjoyment thing goin on!! so listen to the album 'God Hates Us All' and be sure to mention they decided to release it on 9/11

jester77 · 24-08-2005 08:51AM

I can't believe how people are so gullible and so easily brainwashed. Just think about it for a minute... it's like Santa Claus for grown ups. How can anyone believe in it?? I think it was just created to help people to come to terms with how they existed. Back in those days science didn't exist. There's no difference between the stories in the bible or the stories about Salmon of Knowledge, Children of Lir, etc... If we had grown up in a different part of the world we would have been fed stories of some other religion. People need to be more open minded and just live their short lives and enjoy them, we don't spend long on this planet!

BossArky · 24-08-2005 10:04AM

Question: Of those of us how don't believe like myself, do you think you will get married in a church(if you are going to get married) or have your kids go to a catholic (or other) religious school for the sake of fitting in, then let them decide for themselves later?

I hate seeing this happen... i.e. people who are blatantly non-religious getting married in the church and going through the motions for the benefit of convention. Hypocritical.

Mr. CooL ICE · 24-08-2005 10:33AM

14.

I genuinely believe that the existence of god began back with the neanderthals, when they discovered fire and lightning and everything that they didnt know or couldnt explain, and believed something (a god) was responsible, and out of fear, began worshipping 'it'. But over thousands of years, as more and more scientific discoveries are made, all these religious theories are being proven wrong, the most significant being earth revolving around the sun (imo). Its like natural human evolution.

I went out with an extremely religious girl for a year (wasnt christianity, was an eastern religion) and it led to a lot of tension, because i couldnt help feeling sorry for her being, imo, an idiot. And it worked both ways too. She would ask how i couldnt see that god existed, and i asked how she could see that anything like it existed. She couldnt believe how morbid death was (imo, once you die, thats it, you rot) and made me think religion is just a cushion people use to feel secure. But i dont see how they can feel secure with something with absolutely no proof of existence.

*whew*

Goodshape · 24-08-2005 10:37AM

BossArky wrote:

Question: Of those of us how don't believe like myself, do you think you will get married in a church(if you are going to get married) or have your kids go to a catholic (or other) religious school for the sake of fitting in, then let them decide for themselves later?

That's more or less what my parents did with me.. all ears to listen to my questions, rebuttles and critisims of the religion and never even suggesting that I should believe blindly in anything if I don't want to.. but at the same time 'you may as well play the role'.

While I have to resentments towards them for it, I won't be doing the same if I ever have children. They can choose their religion whenever they feel they're old enough to do so, and not before.

Stephen · 24-08-2005 11:15AM

I stopped going to mass when I was 16. Hadn't believed in god for a few years by then. Before that I was forced to go every sunday/holy day etc. The only way I could get the parents to stop making me go was to point out, in no uncertain terms, the fact that I do not believe in the existence of any god.
The brainwashing mentality of most major religions disgusts me - baptising babies etc, confirmation at 12. Most kids at 12 are not mature enough to commit themselves to something like this.
My Ma, the staunch catholic that she is, believes this is only "a phase" and I'll return to the church eventually. Pft.
I have no problem with anyone believing in anything they like, but when they preach at me or otherwise try to push it on people, then they can go **** themselves, the cocks.

larryone · 24-08-2005 11:30AM

The brainwashing thing bothered me alot... Take the rosary for example, repeating the same prayer 50 times in a particular pattern. The almost automated responses to what the priest dictates every sunday, all spoken in unison, with nothing but dead silence in between. Kinda frightening if you think about it.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 24-08-2005 11:35AM

I decided to turn atheist when I was around.. I dunno, 10-11 after I'd heard a butcher in superquinn mention the word. i asked my mother what it meant and it just made so much sense.

"alright mam. I think I'll be an atheist from now on"

I didn't even realise it was an option up until that point.

monkeyfudge · 24-08-2005 11:40AM

I went with Never! Never! Never! in the same way that I've Never! Never! Never! lost my solid gold rocket car...

As for BossArky's question... I'd certainly never get married in a church. But I'd have to think about what to do with a child. My brother has been raising his daughter atheist and really it just seems to be as bad. She just seems to have been brainwashed a completely different set of dogma.

By not having a child babtised you aren't giving them a choice, you're taking it away from them and forcing them down your path. It might be best to let them decide for themselves in the same way that we did. Certainly swapping out catholic dogma with atheist dogma isn't the solution. I mean... this girl believes in aliens... I mean what's the point of emptying a childs head of religious junk and then just filling it other junk...

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar · 24-08-2005 11:45AM

well.. that's what parents do. Try to fill their childrens head with alot of the junk they've picked up over the course of their lives.

By not having a child babtised you aren't giving them a choice, you're taking it away from them and forcing them down your path.

uh.. also by having them baptised you're making a choice of religion for them out of how many thousand? What if they want to be a scientologist? They mighnt't take too kindly to their parents having baptised them into a false religion when they were young.

Adblock · 24-08-2005 12:20PM

Well here is my view

I was raised catholic baptized, communion, conformation etc. Then I started to think around the age of 16, about life and religion, it angered me the way in which people were so stupid to believe, what their parents were told.

I have to admit it really gets to me to see a grown man stumble in front of a priest but to be fair people are really lost and if you were placed face to face with the daunting reality of our reality, the prospect of death, the notion of being alive with no purpose per say, you would soon be very affected by all this, in some sense, so much so it could and most likely affect your life.
People are not so much stupid just afraid, now I know a lot of people will read this and think "well I'm not afraid" and that may be true and that is fine, but fear can hurt, and it can hurt more than you can imagine.

But I'm not just going to say that all religious people are afraid that's not the only reason they blindly believe "and remember I'm not religious I just understand where they get it from" just think about the loving relationship you have with someone/thing, you mother, father, dog whatever. That feeling of love is naturally void from a person "hence we go out and find it and or we stick with our families" so if your alone and you try to find peace in that, the world "and all in which you know, will blindly turn its back on you, and you will be left cold. the fact that the only comfort you can find in life, in truth is with another person, the fact that your existence is void without them and will be void again when they are gone leaves your mind with a great sense of loneliness,

I think religion fills this gap and many others, with the prospect of eternal unity with this feeling of "reality and its acceptance". To be honest I can't explain what I'm trying to get across, ill have to think about it a bit more.

Just be careful a world filled with unguided people is chaos, whether you like it or not religion brings that order, and I think it's the best the world has at the moment, society isn't ready to be religious free while we are biological beings. I probably could have explained this better, its just I've lost interest now.

crazy_dude6662 · 24-08-2005 12:29PM

i never belived in a god, although there are statues of buddah around the house although we dont follow religion. i was like 7 when i deicided that if there was a god and he let bad things such aas war happened then he was a ****ty god, to be hated and not worshipped. i went to church once and with the grandmother i kept giggling, i had to leave until i composed myself, i never went back.

and since im not catholic or whatever religion i cant get married in a churched.

i would like to get married outside

Tar.Aldarion · 24-08-2005 12:37PM

i'm an agnostic now as opposed to an aethiest i guess.
i hate that because you are born into a catholic family,for example,that you automatically are made believe that tripe...so where you are from,what race you are and what your family believe determines what religion you are for so long...

Gazza22 · 24-08-2005 12:54PM

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

i'm an agnostic now as opposed to an aethiest i guess.
i hate that because you are born into a catholic family,for example,that you automatically are made believe that tripe...so where you are from,what race you are and what your family believe determines what religion you are for so long...

I know, religion is pushed on people from a very young age when they cannot decide for themselves

that tripe

couldn't have put it better myself!

highdef · 24-08-2005 01:26PM

The brainwashing thing bothered me alot... Take the rosary for example, repeating the same prayer 50 times in a particular pattern. The almost automated responses to what the priest dictates every sunday, all spoken in unison, with nothing but dead silence in between. Kinda frightening if you think about it.

Have to say I find an average church service quite disturbing. It's like a big room full of drones listening to everything that the leader says - the drones repeat some of the the things the leader says. They eat the body of some guy, Jesus or some fictional person like that - Well maybe he did actually exist but he sounds like he was a bit of a loony seeing as his mother gave birth to him without even getting any action from the hubby - Yeah, right!

I also think religion in general, is the root to most wars and a lot of evil in the word today. Nearly every war going on today is due either primarily or totally down to religion. What, is it a case of "My god is better than your god?" so I'm gonna kill you coz your god is my god's enemy. Religion is all so unneccessary.

Wonder if it would be possible to take a case out against the leader of some religion on the basis of it's organisation being the cause of thousands upon thousands of murders!

arbeitsscheuer · 24-08-2005 01:28PM

highdef wrote:

seeing as his mother gave birth to him without even getting any action from the hubby - Yeah, right!

"No, no, Joseph - Honestly, I haven't been playing away from home - God did it!"

Losing your religion?

Comments