What made you leave the church?

[hereweare1]

One of the reasons that I had left the church was that I had been rejected by them and I felt like they no longer supported the lifestyle that I had lived. I felt unaccepted and I was once sincere but now it's like whatever. I don't really care anymore. A part of me wishes that I had never even been a part of the church in the first place, but then it's like what is the use of looking back? I just hate them so much. I felt like they never accepted me and that the church kids my age were such jerks. I never had a positive experience with them so I left. I wouldn't go back if they begged me to or even invited me to do so. Heck no. I am done with them forever. I am here to vent because I wanted to get this off my chest. It had bothered me for a few years already and I have already come to the conclusion that it is now time to let it all go once and for all.

I would always keep saying to myself that the Christians I have met were never there for me and I find that nonchristians are more "Christian" than they are. I felt that Christians did not accept me at all and I would just cry and get all upset because I don't know. I guess some things were worth more to me than others or they had played a role in my life but now it's like whatever. I have not been able to let go of this so I figured might as well just post this on here just to get it all out so that I don't have to ever worry about this again. It is just long overdue.

Christianity is also one of the reasons why I got depressed in the first place. Just by following a religion like that can lead to a lot of anger, frustration, depression, and stress. I honestly am better off without it. I just don't like it. It hurt me. I felt like I was going to die.

[Baruch]

I supported Christianity, because I married into it.  They failed to support my family when we needed it most.  Fortunately I also had one foot in the Judaism ... and that carried me forward for a few more years.  I am still a spiritual guy though, I just don't need the institutions and the social clubs.

I hope you can get past your anger, and find a better situation for yourself.  We all need belonging, but you haven't found the right kind yet.  Keep looking, the right kind for you might be secular, associating with people who like the same things you like.  That is how voluntary society works.

[Blackleaf]

I understand your frustration. For me, the church was my favorite place to be when I was a teenager. But after my parents forced me to go to a different church, then another, then another, I lost that love for going to church. While the first church felt like home, the environments of the other churches were much less inviting. The people weren't as kind, there wasn't as much opportunity to get involved, and any connections I built with other people were always short-term. After a while, church just became a chore. I went to church, I ate lunch, and I spent the rest of my day at work. I was getting absolutely nothing out of it.

But most importantly, the reason I stopped going to church was because of God. Over the years of church hopping, it became painfully obvious that God either didn't exist or he wasn't who I thought he was. He did not have my best interests in mind. He did not answer my prayers. I held on to my faith for as long as I could, because I felt that my relationship with God was the most important thing to me. But over time, I grew tired of God failing me time and time again. I decided that if God doesn't give a fuck about me, then I shouldn't give a fuck about him.

After my faith died, my eyes were opened, and I was able to see flaws in the Christian religion and the Bible that should have been obvious to me before. But because I was indoctrinated from a young age, I had faith goggles on that shaped the way I could think. Now, the only way to get me to return to Christianity is to take away my intelligence.

[AllRight]

I was forced as a child to go to church and always thought it was odd and didn't like it even though I tried very hard because it was what was expected of me. I tried a few different churches as an adult because I still thought it was the right thing to do. Every time I went to a new church the women were cold, maybe because I didn't have a man with me?  Very hypocritical in my opinion. My frustrations with religion led me on a journey lasting many years. Reading "Dance of the Dissident Daughter" by Sue Monk Kidd was pivotal for me. I went through a phase of "spirituality". Some very painful events in my personal life eventually left me with no other conclusion than to be Atheist.

[Baruch]

Maturation kills our inner child.  Religious adults have managed to remain immature ... but then the end result of maturity is death.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"What made you leave the church?" Damned SWAT team.

[Atheon]

All churches have doors. When I visit a church, such as some tourist site like Westminster Abbey, eventually I have to leave because I have elsewhere to go. And sometimes churches close for the day. I mean, I don't live there, so I have no reason to stay.

[The Skeletal Atheist]

Can't really put it down to a specific thing. It was really more of a combination of things. Being gay, the problem of hell, the problem of evil, the absolute absence of evidence, and several other things all came together until I was eventually the atheist fuck you see here today.

To be honest, I never really had a bad church experience: the churches I went to as a kid were of the Methodist and Lutheran "let's just be really chill about this whole thing" variety.

[aitm]

I read the babble. Figured only old women, retards, terminally ill and the addicts could buy into that bullshit nonsense....and so far it seems to be the picture.

[Hydra009]

I left the church because the sermon was over and they started ushering people out the doors.

Now the reasons I didn't come back are little more interesting.  Basically, I found better things to do with my time than to sit through a few hours every week of someone asserting the historical truth of a book featuring a talking donkey.

Also, someone telling me what life, the universe, and everything is like despite not actually knowing any of that stuff himself but having strong faith in the veracity of a possibly historical story of guy who might have existed who allegedly heard voices - presumably, the voices of angels - who told him that stuff.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I never really belonged to any church and never wanted to. There was a short period of my life I thought I was missing out on something or going there would somehow magically change who I am for the better, but instead I found it dull and very unrealistic and the last donation I made when they passed the plate was an old snot rag. It's not easy to leave somewhere you never really was to begin with.

[Cavebear]

Never was in a church, a belief system, or any eastern reincarnation idea.  Hope I am not missing a possibility of non-belief here.

[HumanBN]

While I was growing up I was forced to go to church.  My dad even told me that if I didn't go I couldn't live in the house anymore (I still don't know if he really meant that, or what mom would have done).  When I was a teenager I really tried to be a Christian.  I used to play drums for a praise band every week.  I remember being in services and seeing everyone else with their arms in the air, with an expression of near bliss on their faces.  I would try very hard to experience that.  I would stand there every week praying and asking God to just let me feel him the way everyone else seemed to.  I used to even pray for that after I went home. 
For a while I did manage to convince myself that I did understand and that I was a good Christian.  I even thought for a while that I would become a pastor.  When I left home and went to college I met, for the first time in my life, a person who openly claimed God and Jesus weren't real.  What an experience!  Like telling a bird that it's never flown, but that it's been dreaming its whole life.  I freaked.  I couldn't keep up with my studies because I didn't know that I needed to study hard!  I thought that if I was supposed to do well in class then God would give me the way.  I was so brainwashed that I didn't realize I needed to put forth any effort of my own.  Anyway, I eventually decided that I wanted to spend my life learning and studying.  It took a while but I finally quit going to church.  I've since graduated from college, and am currently working on a Masters of law and a Juris Doctor.  It's amazing what a person can do when they stop waiting for some unseen force to do things for them. 

[doorknob]

I well it was clear I didn't belong in the church but that's not the reason I left. The reason I left was that I just couldn't lie to myself anymore. Some where inside I knew it was all a lie but I was forced into it by my parents.

Now that I'm an adult I'm free to reject Christianity all I want.


Btw Since then, I've found a boat load of reason not to believe in god. Just stick around.

[trdsf]

I had what I took to be a profound conversion experience and left Roman Catholicism for Wicca for about 20 years, and then had a profound de-conversion experience, so to speak, when it just occurred to me that you know everything seems to operate just fine without divine intervention.  The Universe (or multiverse) is spectacularly self-explanatory and self-contained, and the full majesty of reality hit me.