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Why did YOU start to lose faith?

Started by Insult to Rocks, January 20, 2014, 03:13:28 PM

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SGOS

Quote from: doorknob on April 09, 2014, 07:19:02 PM
I think it all started when I got into a drug addiction. I got clean by the sweat of my own brow, Actually I was just really lucky. While I noticed all the people around me who couldn't get clean were praying for god to help them while I did nothing and got clean. I thought that was weird that god wasn't helping all those people praying to him. That's when it started.

after that I got into science and started looking at how illogical religious arguments tend to be and how science conflicts with religion. Personally I'll take science over religion. It's a lot more trust worthy in my personal experience.
I've brought that same observation up in regards to my experience with Alcoholics Anonymous so many times that I hesitate to mention it again.  If there is some sort of psychological link between recovering from illness and praying to a higher power, it was not evident to me in AA.  Some devout believers got better.  Some did not.  In addition, those who most strongly insisted that recovery was dependent on, or even impossible without relying on God, appeared to be the ones who continually failed most often.

I've thought about why, and I hypothesize it's because they are expecting recovery to come from outside themselves.  Rather than strengthening their own determination and responsibility, it's like they are expecting those necessary attributes to be given as a gift or a handout.  They would deny this of course, saying God is giving them strength and resolve, but the telling observation is that they don't appear to have strength and resolve as they don't make solid recoveries.

Some of the devout do recover, but I think it's because those that do, also tap their personal resources and become responsible for themselves.  The spirituality thing is just a perk that makes them feel good.

doorknob

I know when I couldn't get clean it was because I was waiting for some one to rescue me. Eventually I realized that there is no knight in shining armor if you want saved you have to save your self. And you have to believe you can do it. And you have to believe you are worth saving too. If you don't believe that then you won't get clean.

charde

Quote from: doorknob on April 11, 2014, 02:40:39 PM
I know when I couldn't get clean it was because I was waiting for some one to rescue me. Eventually I realized that there is no knight in shining armor if you want saved you have to save your self. And you have to believe you can do it. And you have to believe you are worth saving too. If you don't believe that then you won't get clean.

Gawd. I have written that part I've bolded in my journal. I was stuck in a bunch of stuff for a long time and finally realized it was up to me, and I could do it, and I was worth doing it for.  I was so passive for such a long time, though... waiting. But no one came. So I engaged my own life and made the changes.

IntellectuallyPrimitive

Faith is a redundant concept and is devoid of practicality. Reason and a rational perspective are superiorly more pragmatic and more robust than faith. Both of my parents are christian and imposed their religious dogma unto me during the first 14 years of my life. I attended church regularly every Sunday and practiced prayer before meals and was even baptised. I have never been concerned with substantiating God via attaining evidence however, I gradually became fairly skeptical regarding the text of the Bible and the claims asserted by others. Two years ago I occupied an apartment with another individual in college who portrayed and adopted more of a philosophical perspective rather than a scientific approach. This individual inspired and influenced a copious number of questions regarding the universe and subsequently resulted in me questioning and contemplating the existence of God directly. Any faith that I may had possessed in relation to the existence of a Christian God had diminished completely after cogitating the probability of God and the reason why I had faith in the entity. I am currently applying reason and adopting rational thinking to better understand the world I live in rather than dogmatically insert faith into the existence of entities.

Berati

I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school until I was 19 years old. In high school some of my instructors were priests. Having said all that, my parents were never fundies. The school thing was because they thought the education at those particular schools was better.

As to losing my faith, I can honestly say that I never accepted any of the supernatural stuff. Even as a little kid I remember thinking that the bible stories were the same as the Santa stories. They were there to make us feel better, they weren't literally true. I started losing interest in religion in high school when it became apparent that many people took the stories literally which just seemed so dumb to me. I became interested in science and found that history was full of mistakes by the truly faithful so I just dropped the nonsensical beliefs probably by the time I was 17 or so even while remaining at a private Catholic school.
Carl Sagan
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

SGOS

Quote from: Berati on April 13, 2014, 06:57:53 PM
I started losing interest in religion in high school when it became apparent that many people took the stories literally
I experienced the same dynamic in myself.  Even though I considered myself a Christian at the time, I knew most of the Bible stories were so obviously metaphors or just bits of plain myth.  When I saw that some people were absolutely convinced they were real, I reacted by distancing myself from the whole package, at least distancing myself enough to step back and look at the picture as a whole, followed by the recognition that I had no sound reason to accept the parts I actually had been believing.  Strange how that chain of events happened.

Walker_Lee

I have not lost faith but i did get rid of religion. I hate religion it is the cause of so many wars and deaths. I believe in Jesus and everything that goes with him. I realized Jesus even preached against religion. Religion is either made up (example Hinduism and Jediism)  or it takes from or adds to  the bible (example Catholic and Baptists). I lost it when i was actually an atheist to be honest and looked into all of these religions and realized it was stupid. When i was looking for reasons Jesus came into my life. I realized what i was and asked for repentance. I follow the Jesus alone nothing added or taken. I reject religion because of what it does.
God is real.
That is the truth.
There is a heaven and hell.
That is the truth.
Jesus lived, died for you, then rose again.
That is the truth.

josephpalazzo

Quote from: Walker_Lee on April 19, 2014, 03:04:41 PM
I have not lost faith but i did get rid of religion. I hate religion it is the cause of so many wars and deaths. I believe in Jesus and everything that goes with him. I realized Jesus even preached against religion. Religion is either made up (example Hinduism and Jediism)  or it takes from or adds to  the bible (example Catholic and Baptists). I lost it when i was actually an atheist to be honest and looked into all of these religions and realized it was stupid. When i was looking for reasons Jesus came into my life. I realized what i was and asked for repentance. I follow the Jesus alone nothing added or taken. I reject religion because of what it does.

So where is your source of information about Jesus? Is it by any chance the bible? If yes, which one, and Why that one? If not, then from what other source?

Walker_Lee

Quote from: josephpalazzo on April 19, 2014, 03:15:07 PM
So where is your source of information about Jesus? Is it by any chance the bible? If yes, which one, and Why that one? If not, then from what other source?
The bible as in the holy bible as some of these Christians call it. Because that is the book of history that tells the story of our past.
God is real.
That is the truth.
There is a heaven and hell.
That is the truth.
Jesus lived, died for you, then rose again.
That is the truth.

PickelledEggs

Quote from: Walker_Lee on April 19, 2014, 04:13:45 PM
The bible as in the holy bible as some of these Christians call it. Because that is the book of history that tells the story of our past.
So you made your own religion of bull-shittery?

Sent via your mom


Berati

QuoteThe bible as in the holy bible as some of these Christians call it. Because that is the book of history that tells the story of our past.
The bible is a bunch of writings by people. Other people then decided which writings they wanted included in the bible and which they didn't want.

So you see, you ARE following a religion that was made up by other people.
Carl Sagan
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

Walker_Lee

Quote from: Berati on April 19, 2014, 05:47:58 PM
The bible is a bunch of writings by people. Other people then decided which writings they wanted included in the bible and which they didn't want.

So you see, you ARE following a religion that was made up by other people.
What religion? I do not see why this is hard to understand like atheists i have no religion. I personally hate religion. So i am not some religious person. Do not get me wrong i love all people no matter there belief. If the bible was made up of a bunch of bull crap tell me why it stirs up so much tension even now? 
Quote from: PickelledEggs on April 19, 2014, 04:15:38 PM
So you made your own religion of bull-shittery?

Sent via your mom


Same answer for you i have no religion. I follow Jesus alone nothing added or taken. I am a follower of Jesus not some religious person.
God is real.
That is the truth.
There is a heaven and hell.
That is the truth.
Jesus lived, died for you, then rose again.
That is the truth.

PickelledEggs

Quote from: Walker_Lee on April 19, 2014, 10:03:44 PM
What religion? I do not see why this is hard to understand like atheists i have no religion. I personally hate religion. So i am not some religious person. Do not get me wrong i love all people no matter there belief. If the bible was made up of a bunch of bull crap tell me why it stirs up so much tension even now?  Same answer for you i have no religion. I follow Jesus alone nothing added or taken. I am a follower of Jesus not some religious person.

Yeah..... And the stories of Jesus are from the bible. What makes you think the bible has any validity? How are going about your cherry picking of what you think is real from it?

Do you refrain from washing your hands before dinner, btw?

Mr.Obvious

Quote from: Walker_Lee on April 19, 2014, 10:03:44 PM
What religion? I do not see why this is hard to understand like atheists i have no religion. I personally hate religion. So i am not some religious person. Do not get me wrong i love all people no matter there belief. If the bible was made up of a bunch of bull crap tell me why it stirs up so much tension even now?  Same answer for you i have no religion. I follow Jesus alone nothing added or taken. I am a follower of Jesus not some religious person.

Well appearantly some atheists do have a religion.
You guys remember that 'cultural Christian' from a few days ago? *shudder* Now there was a guy with his fingers tucked deep in his ears.

You may hate religion, but that does not excuse you from being a religious person. No more than a guy I once met who hated men wasn't a guy himself.
Not feeling like you fit in with a greater denomination of Christians does not excuse that.

It's stirs up tension because people like you are still buying it and proclaiming we should too. The Thora is also still stirring up tension, especially if you concider it's kind of part of the current Bible. It's had a longer run too, but that does not lend credit to it. The Koran still stirs up tension. I dare you to find one argument to dismiss their holy book that can not be turned around and used on the Bible with minor adjustments. In other parts of the world you have Hindu's still following their ancient texts are called and it doesn't lend an iota of credit to their beliefs.

Why does it still stir up tension? You need only look in the mirror. We're ready to move past it.
"If we have to go down, we go down together!"
- Your mum, last night, requesting 69.

Atheist Mantis does not pray.

David.B-88

I come from a Scottish Protestant background, was put in Sunday school and recited the lords prayer in school. My mum is an elder in the Church of Scotland but isn't really in any way overtly strict in her religiousness. When was around 13 up until I was about 18 I was obsessed with protestantism, was anti-catholic and intersted in Orangeism( http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Order). I still have sentiments left behind just now with my politics as a unionist and still sympathise with this side in Northern Irish politics but this does not affect my atheism as I think Catholicism and Islam as more of a threat to my country than half-hearted Protestants.

Anyway, as my interest in Science and logic became more profound I started to become more agnostic because I hadn't really read any arguments againt a deity. I decided to buy "The God Delusion" which I read around the time I was 19 which had an effect on my outlook on life more than anything and then continued with writings by Hitchens, Harris and also watched debates with "the rational responders" and videos of "Atheist Experience".

Now there is no doubt in my mind, as certain anyone could be that there is no such thing as deities or the supernatural,  the universe is far more beautiful and wonderous than a bronze age book of fairy tales could ever proclaim. I'm happily married(a month ago) and had a great Humanist wedding, instead of saying vows to a God that doesn't exist I made a promise to my wife.

Well that's my story.