For those of you who were religious at one point was there any event or catalyst that started you questioning your former faith?
I remember a few key points on my path to atheism. One was in Lutheran Sunday school. I got in to a debate with the teacher. I think I was 6. She said all babies were born with hearts black with sin and that only through baptism could they be saved and go to heaven. I blurted out "so if the baby dies before it can have a baptism ceremony it goes to hell?". The instructor said yes! So I then said "Are you telling me that god would punish a newborn baby for all eternity because the pastor is ON VACATION or stays home with a cold? How is that the baby's fault?"
I think I was sitting in the corner for the rest of class.
Another incident was when we were visiting grandma and grandpa. They took me to mass (I was baptized catholic but went to church with the neighbors). They passed the plate no less than 4 times!!! It began to occur to me that the whole church thing may be some kind of racket! (I was around 4)
As I got older, I was a very fast reader. I remember being at services and we were told to read specific bible passages and then they would be discussed after everyone read it. Well I got wicked bored waiting for all the slow readers to catch up so I started reading the passages before and after the assigned one. I developed a sense of context. Context that seemed to be totally lost on the bible study leader and the congregation. After me asking some uncomfortable questions, I was told to only read the assigned passages.
I think the beginning of the end for me was when I was around 12. After all my previous experiences, I decided I was going to read the WHOLE BIBLE, front to back, starting with the old testament. Boy did I have a lot of questions, but I figured I was pretty much done with religion by the time I got to Judges.
"And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
11And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
12And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
14And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
18Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
19Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
20Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.
23And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
24And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance."
Between reading the bible with its contradictions and inconsistencies, seeing the living examples of continued hypocrisy around me by those who claimed to be religious, etc... I came to the conclusion that religion was about money, power and control of the masses. If there was a god, god and religion had very little to do with each other. And if god was what the religions said he was, he was a bit of a jerk.
I remember a few key points on my path to atheism. One was in Lutheran Sunday school. I got in to a debate with the teacher. I think I was 6. She said all babies were born with hearts black with sin and that only through baptism could they be saved and go to heaven. I blurted out "so if the baby dies before it can have a baptism ceremony it goes to hell?". The instructor said yes! So I then said "Are you telling me that god would punish a newborn baby for all eternity because the pastor is ON VACATION or stays home with a cold? How is that the baby's fault?"
I think I was sitting in the corner for the rest of class.
Another incident was when we were visiting grandma and grandpa. They took me to mass (I was baptized catholic but went to church with the neighbors). They passed the plate no less than 4 times!!! It began to occur to me that the whole church thing may be some kind of racket! (I was around 4)
As I got older, I was a very fast reader. I remember being at services and we were told to read specific bible passages and then they would be discussed after everyone read it. Well I got wicked bored waiting for all the slow readers to catch up so I started reading the passages before and after the assigned one. I developed a sense of context. Context that seemed to be totally lost on the bible study leader and the congregation. After me asking some uncomfortable questions, I was told to only read the assigned passages.
I think the beginning of the end for me was when I was around 12. After all my previous experiences, I decided I was going to read the WHOLE BIBLE, front to back, starting with the old testament. Boy did I have a lot of questions, but I figured I was pretty much done with religion by the time I got to Judges.
"And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the children.
11And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
12And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.
14And Benjamin came again at that time; and they gave them wives which they had saved alive of the women of Jabeshgilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that the LORD had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that be escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not destroyed out of Israel.
18Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters: for the children of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
19Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
20Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;
21And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.
23And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they caught: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and repaired the cities, and dwelt in them.
24And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance."
Between reading the bible with its contradictions and inconsistencies, seeing the living examples of continued hypocrisy around me by those who claimed to be religious, etc... I came to the conclusion that religion was about money, power and control of the masses. If there was a god, god and religion had very little to do with each other. And if god was what the religions said he was, he was a bit of a jerk.
