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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I never really bought into it.  It always just sounded like bullshit to me. [/quote]

Same!  [/quote]

Fascinating! were either of you from religious families? e.g., went to services/Sunday school regularly? Did either of you tell your parents of your views as children?  If so, how did they handle it?[/quote]

DP, but I fall into the same category.

I'm honestly a little confused by the question.  Wouldn't it be better to flip the question around to ask why people became religious?  To a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster]Pastafarian[/url], this would be like asking, "Why did you stop believing that an invisible and undetectable Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe after drinking heavily?

Atheism or agnosticism seems like the default state.  Even if you're told something, you don't really believe it until you have the capacity to make that decision for yourself.  That might happen in some sudden revelation, or it might happen slowly as you age.  But at some point, it changes from what you've been told to what you believe.

I grew up in a Catholic household.  We went to church every Sunday.  I went to CCD, which is like Catholic Sunday school, except it was on Wednesdays after school.  I distinctly remember telling my CCD teacher on my first day that I didn't need to introduce myself because I wasn't going to be back- my mom said I only needed to go once and I didn't intend to come back.  I lost that battle, though, both with the teacher and with my mom.  I went through confirmation.  I didn't want to, but was basically forced to play along.  My mom even called my then-girlfriend to tell her she needed to make sure I made it through confirmation.  And I did, but I always said I wouldn't lie to do it.  I went through the motions, but never lied when asked a question.  It seemed like the priest, church staff, and CCD teachers knew not to ask certain direct questions about beliefs.

So it wasn't that I became agnostic.  I just never really became Catholic.  And why not?  Because no one ever provided evidence, or even a rational explanation, for why I should believe anything they were saying.
[/quote]

As for [b]"Wouldn't it be better to flip the question around to ask why people became religious?"[/b]  In some cases, yes, but for most people these days, the answer is a given, i.e., "because I was raised in a religion."

It would sort of be like asking "Why do you speak English?"  It's because that's what people spoke at home.  Not a perfect analogy, I know, but until recently most people were raised in a religion and "supposed" to believe what the religion taught.  Their parents thought so and the society thought so.  Clearly a lot of people responding here didn't fall into that mode.

In my case, I believed as a child and it slowly fell away as I got older. I admire the people here who realized early on what I figured out slowly and what many don't figure out at all.[/quote]

A serious question: did you actually believe it as a child? Or were you just parroting it back? I think there's a big difference.[/quote]

I believed it -- but wasn't required to believe it very deeply.  It was "there" - more something we did on Sunday than lived through the week.  No parroting required.

By reading here, it seems evident that people have very different experiences with religion, depending on family influences, the requirements of their particular religion and individual personalities.

A serious question: did you believe in Santa Claus as a child?   I'm also addressing this question to others here who say they were atheist/agnostic as children even though they were taught religion.[/quote]

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