Did anyone become an atheist late in life?

[Anonymous]

I was Catholic up into my 50s. One day, while sick with pneumonia, I began to pray to get well. But in the middle of my prayer, it hit me like a bolt of lightning that there is no God. It was exactly like a conversion story, but in reverse.

For the first couple years, I tried to regain my faith. It would make family life easier, as the rest of my family is Christian. (I don't talk about this with them, but I stopped attending church.) I realize what a security blanket religion is, especially when this world is making no sense and it would be nice to think about an afterlife. Sometimes I feel relief, but I also sometimes feel sad. Maybe a little bit of fear, but that's faded. I finally stopped trying to talk myself back into belief. It's never going to happen. I feel that as strongly as I once felt in my heart that there is a God.

Every atheist I know either was raised that way or became so in college. Did anyone come to a sudden realization later in life, and for no apparent reason?

[Anonymous]

I was a lapsed catholic but started back to Mass on a regular basis after my child died. Did so for 7 years and found comfort and healing there and then had a second child/daughter die of totally different cause. I don’t know if I’m an aethiest but all I hear now in my mind on the rare occassions I go to church is a numbing background static.

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a lapsed catholic but started back to Mass on a regular basis after my child died. Did so for 7 years and found comfort and healing there and then had a second child/daughter die of totally different cause. I don’t know if I’m an aethiest but all I hear now in my mind on the rare occassions I go to church is a numbing background static.

Stories like these are why I just don’t think I can believe in God. I was never super devout, but I’ve given up much pretense.

[Anonymous]

God does not respond to prayers on demand. This is one of the biggest mistakes that all Christians, irregardless of a denomination, make. We should pray to God for wisdom and discernment to understand His message and to become more faithful and more like Christ in our conduct.
God already knows what you need, even before you ask him. He is not looking for prayers on demand, He is looking for a humble heart and discernment of His message. He is looking for disciples. He is looking at your heart to see if you have turned away from your sins, if you have crucified your flesh and denied yourself earthly, fleeting pleasures. Only after you have done all of that can you call upon Him in your hour of need. That's how God works. And He does not respond to every prayer and when you want Him to, He responds in His own time, on His schedule, and according to His will.

[Anonymous]

God is not a genie.

[Anonymous]

i have cancer so i am very skeptical

[Anonymous]

There's nothing special about college except that people are away from their families, meeting new people with new perspectives, and growing up. They don't learn to be atheists in college.

I never had a strong belief in God -- I tended to think of God as an idea, vs. an entity -- but I did believe in a spiritual realm for a long time. I gave all of that up, too, in my 30s. I realized it was just a comforting fiction.

[Anonymous]

I used to read Mormon blogs and there were pretty common stories of people who stopped believing as older adults. Their kids were grown and they just were suddenly done with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God does not respond to prayers on demand. This is one of the biggest mistakes that all Christians, irregardless of a denomination, make. We should pray to God for wisdom and discernment to understand His message and to become more faithful and more like Christ in our conduct.
God already knows what you need, even before you ask him. He is not looking for prayers on demand, He is looking for a humble heart and discernment of His message. He is looking for disciples. He is looking at your heart to see if you have turned away from your sins, if you have crucified your flesh and denied yourself earthly, fleeting pleasures. Only after you have done all of that can you call upon Him in your hour of need. That's how God works. And He does not respond to every prayer and when you want Him to, He responds in His own time, on His schedule, and according to His will.

Barf.

This explanation of god is really just a way of explaining away all the bad stuff that happens in the world.


NP here. I was raised Christian (my parents are evangelicals) but I became atheist in middle school. I was always skeptical, even as a young child. But right around 6th-7th grade was when I just stopped trying to believe.

[Anonymous]

I guess around 14 or 15 I had that revelation. The whole thing was just ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

I became atheist in my 30s. After a lifetime of dealing with extremely hateful and violent family members who did disgusting abusive things to me, I realized the concept of a god was useless.

It's like a lightbulb went off and I saw the truth. I felt much freer afterwards, realizing that there is no reason for the shitty stuff that happens in life, and that there is no glory in me or anyone else suffering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God does not respond to prayers on demand. This is one of the biggest mistakes that all Christians, irregardless of a denomination, make. We should pray to God for wisdom and discernment to understand His message and to become more faithful and more like Christ in our conduct.
God already knows what you need, even before you ask him. He is not looking for prayers on demand, He is looking for a humble heart and discernment of His message. He is looking for disciples. He is looking at your heart to see if you have turned away from your sins, if you have crucified your flesh and denied yourself earthly, fleeting pleasures. Only after you have done all of that can you call upon Him in your hour of need. That's how God works. And He does not respond to every prayer and when you want Him to, He responds in His own time, on His schedule, and according to His will.

Barf.

This explanation of god is really just a way of explaining away all the bad stuff that happens in the world.


NP here. I was raised Christian (my parents are evangelicals) but I became atheist in middle school. I was always skeptical, even as a young child. But right around 6th-7th grade was when I just stopped trying to believe.

You can barf as much as you want at the true nature of Christianity and Christian God. If you want a genie in a bottle that will work on your demand Christianity is not it.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Sometimes it takes many years (decades?) for even the most intelligent people (like me!) to undo a childhood of religious brainwashing and think for themselves.

[Anonymous]

A god that thinks any of us “need” to lose two children or battle cancer is a god I’m OK not believing in.

While I ever went to church after I left for college, I didn’t embrace my atheism until my 30s. And when I finally did, the universe made sense.

I guess, though, I am agnostic in that I agree with Christians when they assert that we don’t the true nature of god. There may be an entity or phenomenona that does explain the religious experiences of humanity. However, I find it ridiculous that any one would limit their discovery of such an entity to any ancient document. Sure, there’s much to learn, but only in the context of history and science.