Telimaktar

I was curious as to why you have/had decided to give up Christianity? And if you had the opposite experience feel free to let us hear that as well.

If there is a thread like this already then I apologise.

So let me start with myself.

I was a Christian since birth and while my parents later fell away I still kept at it. My faith was quite strong.

Then 2 years ago I met a group of people from a different culture and religion and they were the some of the most amazing I have ever met. We became friends. Now one day it struck me (after having had a few discussions regarding religion) that if myself or someone else was unable to convert them, then according to the bible they will be destroyed.

That was a view I absolutely could not live with. Till today I refuse to believe that God would be so petty. Just because you were raised by parents who follow a certain faith ( whose parents also followed it and so forth) you deserve death.

If I had been born into a Muslin family I would also believe what they believe without a doubt.
So here I am, two years later searching for the truth.

What is your story?

greywolf90

if you want mine, see the "desperately seeking" thread. its pretty long, and i don't think i want to repeat it all.

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"for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."- Hamlet

Telimaktar

Thanks greywolf, will do so now.

marmalade

I'm sure I've told my story somewhere also, but I'll give you a quick post.

There never was a clear transition from Christian to Agnostic. I was raised in a church that was open to questioning and even encouraged it. So, that is what I did. In a sense, I've always been an agnostic and I've always been a Christian. I've never stated an absolute belief in god nor have I ever stated an absolute denial of God. I'm filled with both faith and questions.

This is why I'm an agnostic instead of an atheist.

Geshtinnanna

I was raised Catholic. But no one ever thought to ask me what I believed in. When I was 15 I decided to finally become a Satanist after asking myself what I believed in.

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romansh

My early Christian training was relatively mild. My mum was Russian orthodox, my Dad I could never get him to talk about god.... tried back in September.
Nevertheless ended going to a Lutheran service once a month. More of a cultural gathering if the truth be known. CofE was my back up influence being brought up in England.
At the age of 17 was confirmed Lutheran, tried really hard to believe
Obviously not hard enough.
During university years and late twenties, the people I met and socialized with were by and large silent regarding religion. Rarely came up in conversation.
By 30 a wishy washy agnostic and ever since then, as Lecter would say, I have been going to the Agnostic Gym.

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There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ........... Douglas Adams

Astreja

I was baptized at the age of three months, but never believed the Christian message.

I read a picture-version of the Bible at about age six, on my own initiative. Almost immediately I saw through the stories of Hell and considered that they would be extremely useful tools for the rulers of a nation who wanted to keep the citizenry in line. As for stories like the Garden of Eden and the Flood, I was absolutely amazed to learn that many people saw them as fact rather than fiction.

As I got older I learned enough about Christian doctrine to also reject the concepts of Original Sin and substitutionary atonement.

A good portion of my skepticism can be attributed to my parents, who did not attempt to indoctrinate me and who did not force me to attend church.

tommi atkins

My mum was a deacon in a baptist church. She was born again when i was 5 years old, and has always put fairly heavy pressure on me, although even from childhood, I could see that the stories in the bible were fantasy.

I suppose I have always been a Aggy, in my worst moments slipping blindly into passive half-assed acceptance of christianity.
Following my Dads death it forced me to look into my true beleifs. So far I'm looking for a contact with God, he appears to have switched the phone off.
I research theology now as my hobby, and I'm really hoping that Yahweh and Allah are not real, because if they ever come back, they will carry out more of their psychopathic bloodfests.

Mustainez

I go to a Christian school, so every day I was exposed to this stuff. I got into music, which changed my life, especially death metal, and this was "evil" by my school. Metal caused me to question things, and soon I picked up Dan Barker's Losing Faith In Faith. IT was what I thought wrong about Christianity, and he had a similar situation, growing up a Christian.

Yes Man

I had called myself a non-denominational Christian throughout my childhood. But the Christian doctrine was never really pushed on me all that much; despite my mother being Roman Catholic and my father a supporter of the Polish National Catholic Church. I remember quite fondly of the talks me and my father had of religion, science, and philosophy. When he died I found myself without an outlet for my ideas; so I decided what better place than the internet to voice my opinions? After a while, I found myself immersed in a sea of intellectuals (as well as pseudo-intellectuals) arguing over subjects that I found quite fascinating. Then one day, I found myself questioning my faith and thinking how I could believe in such things so blindly. But life goes on.

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With knowledge comes the loss of innocence.