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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This thread is for atheists to tell their deconversion stories.  Anyone offended should not read or participate.  And I ask atheists to be as respectful as you can when telling your story.

I will start with my own:

Raised a Catholic, [b]I don't think I have ever genuinely believed in the literal stories of the bible.  Even as a kid they seemed to me to be tough to accept.[/b]  Once I got older and learned what allegory was I could let go the constant questioning of facts... and I came to accept my Catholicism as a social construct rather than a religious one.  I was Catholic, as were all my family and most of my friends.  I continued to attend mass regularly and never spoke of the doubts I had about the faith.  It was something I wanted to keep secret because I didn't want to "not belong"...

But then in college I studied lots of things, including a few world religion classes, and that helped me understand the role of religion in the world - and I realized that I did not need it, and that I should not pretend to believe if I did not. I realized also there were other non-believers and  that being honest about my non-belief did not make me an outcast.

So I just stopped.  Kinda just like that.

I didn't have a deist phase, or a "spiritual" phase, or anything similar.  There were no traumatic events that happened to me personally turning me away from the church.  It wasn't a big deal at all.  To my slight surprise, it didn't bother many people in my family, and it is not an issue we ever discuss.  I just don't go with them to church.

Bottom line: once I learned that non-belief was a legitimate option, I embraced it thoroughly.  It did take the testimony of others to get me to understand that.  That's why it will be helpful for others to hear yours now.

Again, not trying to offend any believers.  This is my story of my religious journey - in this case OUT of religion - and I just wish to share it in the religion forum. [/quote]
The bolded is definitely something I remember too. I grew up generally christian, but not strict, not going to church, but my mom believed in god but we didnt really talk about it much. My neighbour was more religious and idk how but I ended up going to kids bible study, they gave me a bible etc. It just seemed so fanciful and I never really bought in. I couldn't come to terms with the blatant conflict with science (ie creationism). I remember at some point I was maybe 10-12 and my mom had asked me something and I told her I didn't believe in god. She locked herself in her room, went and found her old bible and cried into it (yes she was very dramatic). We'd literally never talked about it, said grace, or anything that seemed religious, but she was very upset by it. That also seemed weird to me. Like, this was so important to you that Ive broken your heart, but its basically the first time I'm hearing about it? Idk.

Where you talk about allegory, I think that made me further disenfranchised. How some stories are taken literally, how some are manipulated as a lesson, how some are ... etc etc. I grew up with very black/white thinking, so looking at this HUGE conglomerate cherry picking what to believe, what to enforce, etc did not really vibe with me. I think I've softened in my thinking as I've gotten older, but I've also realized how big of a manipulation tool it can be. I've also seen how the church is trying to modernize and reconcile with science, and somehow that doesnt sit right with me. If this is gods word, shouldn't that just be it? Why are you trying to update it? Oh right, because it's incorrect, and if people realize this they may leave, and you lose the power behind it. [/quote]
I will add that my husband grew up muslim, and came to the same sort of realizations as me. He was a bit older though, because his parents were more religious and he actually had to go to church/mosque and he did the motions of it for a lot longer because of that. I'm sure his parents blame me, the haram white non muslim/atheist for removing him from religion, but it was more so that their church was friday nights and he wanted to hang out with me/his friends lol. He also really rebelled against the tithe requirement as a young person just earning their first pay cheque. When he went to college, he basically became a militant atheist and argued with his parents A LOT. They never had any answers to his questions, just the same brush off "this is how it is" "trust gods word" or whatever. [/quote]

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