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The use of religion as a tool to oppress, discriminate, and cause harm upon others. In its truest form, religion can be something incredibly beautiful, providing inspiration and meaning to people's lives. Its dark side, however, is as dark as it can be. My stomach churns thinking about the countless people who have been killed, tortured, disgraced, oppressed in the name of religion
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The hypocrisy. I learned a long time ago that it is a staple of many religions that I cannot overlook.
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I grew up in a family that did not go to church or profess to be part of some "religion". I decided to go to church by myself at the age of eight. Every Sunday I would get up, get dressed in my Sunday best and wait outside for the tiny school bus to pick me up. My dad would be working and my older brothers would be playing out in the yard or in the street with their friends. My mother, who didn't believe in God, would wait at the window and wave to me as I boarded the bus. When I returned, she would ask about my time at church and encourage the activities that I was excited to participate in the following week.
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I grew up in a family that did not go to church or profess to be part of some "religion". I decided to go to church by myself at the age of eight. Every Sunday I would get up, get dressed in my Sunday best and wait outside for the tiny school bus to pick me up. My dad would be working and my older brothers would be playing out in the yard or in the street with their friends. My mother, who didn't believe in God, would wait at the window and wave to me as I boarded the bus. When I returned, she would ask about my time at church and encourage the activities that I was excited to participate in the following week.
I went to Sunday school and participated however I was able at that young age. One year I was ecstatic when I was invited to a winter camp because I was able to memorize the most passages from the bible. I was so excited to go despite the fact that it was wintertime in Canada and there was no running water. Despite my enthusiasm, the experience became a turning point for me. The focus of the weekend camp was fear and damnation. The message was clear. Repent and convert your family and friends or burn. Mission and testimony were at the forefront and the only way for you to be right with God. I left the camp terrified for my godless mother but also started to notice things did not resound with me. The church was a social gathering rather than a collection of souls coming together to commune with God. My mother was an example of true love and faith but would not be "saved" by their god beause she did not follow their path. I soon disconnected when I could not follow their rules and stopped "fitting in". I found that I had big opinions and a greater view of what is good and just. I could no longer respect a group of people who relied on fear to teach the way.
It took many years to reconcile that my experience at church was an experience in faith. Those people were human .. they were bound to have skewed opinions and ideals but I was too young or angry to understand that is part of the journey.
I struggle every day to find faith. Is it in a religion that I have not yet learned or am I safe to follow my own path of respect and love?
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I'm in the exact same position. Grew up a catholic but choose not to follow its ideas. I stuck to believing in just God. Aren't all religions the same because the main thing is to believe in God? So why are they all different?
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I'm in the exact same position. Grew up a catholic but choose not to follow its ideas. I stuck to believing in just God. Aren't all religions the same because the main thing is to believe in God? So why are they all different?
I'm completely done with religion because we don't all believe in the same thing. If the church is mad at me then guess what? I'm going to Christian Hell. Not hell because I don't believe in it.
I just believe in God:)
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The Bible says: "God is Love and he who abides in Love, abides in God, and God in him."
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I have been a Baha'i for 43 years. Nothing in my experience has
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I have been a Baha'i for 43 years. Nothing in my experience has
caused me to turn away from Baha'u'llah's teachings. The more
I read, the more I think about it, the more I am persuaded
that Baha'u'llah really was the Manifestation of God for our age.
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We don't decide what's right and wrong. We all try our best and fail. We compare ourselves to others and this makes us proud for being better than the other person or miserable for being worse than the other person. Catholicism will make everyone miserable because we can't keep the commandments! No one can! Catholicism brings no hope. It never will.
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What is it with Catholicism, anyway? When I was thirteen, I renounced the Catholic religion and everything that had to do with it in my life, including prayer, the belief in a male God, and even the consideration of the Bible as a historically accurate document. I turned away from that religion because it seemed to stifle my naturally curious urges to learn about the world. I also turned away from it because, at the time, I didn't believe that a just and righteous God worthy of my devotion would've allowed the things to happen in my life which happen in a lot of lives. And because I spent the next thirteen years as a die-hard atheist, I was able to clear out all the garbage that had accumulated in my soul as a result of being brought up in a religion that didn't work for me. I discovered witchcraft and shamanism, and have been happier with that path than I ever could have been if I'd stayed a Catholic.
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What is it with Catholicism, anyway? When I was thirteen, I renounced the Catholic religion and everything that had to do with it in my life, including prayer, the belief in a male God, and even the consideration of the Bible as a historically accurate document. I turned away from that religion because it seemed to stifle my naturally curious urges to learn about the world. I also turned away from it because, at the time, I didn't believe that a just and righteous God worthy of my devotion would've allowed the things to happen in my life which happen in a lot of lives. And because I spent the next thirteen years as a die-hard atheist, I was able to clear out all the garbage that had accumulated in my soul as a result of being brought up in a religion that didn't work for me. I discovered witchcraft and shamanism, and have been happier with that path than I ever could have been if I'd stayed a Catholic.
What really turns me off about Catholicism now is that it's a religion which has turned into a multinational corporation, intent on keeping its followers ignorant and fearful and obedient.
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I think that I turned away from religion when I started to feel that it was more based out of fear and "commandments," and not primarily based on love. Don't get me wrong I believe that their is a lot of potential in religious beliefs, but I have not chosen to take that route in my life. As long as you're not hurting yourself or those around you then I say do what makes you happy, but keep an open mind and don't be quick to judge opposing view points.
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I was also raised catholic, and when I started to question the bible and no one could answer me kinda did it for me. Also, if i'm being 100% honest, The child sex abuse really made me sick that men of the church would do that.
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I was also raised catholic, and when I started to question the bible and no one could answer me kinda did it for me. Also, if i'm being 100% honest, The child sex abuse really made me sick that men of the church would do that.
I still have a relationship with God, but it's my relationship with him, not what others think it should be.
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It was when my father used the Bible as a punishment. I remember one time, I told him I had my doubts about religion and God, thinking I could trust him. The next argument we had, he sent me to my room and told me to read my bible. That reading it would set me straight. I have issues with religion now because of that moment.
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The "fire and brimstone" mentality that I picked up in Sunday school. I've since returned to religion thanks to grace and some genuine people. I enjoy *good* sermons but I've found that I get more out of it from Bible study in a small group. I like to talk and question, not be talked at.
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I'm still a Catholic, so technically this doesn't apply to me, but I was almost shaken from my faith by the people in the Church who continue to, against all logic, insist that it is God's will that women not be priests. I hate this. I wanted to be a priest since I was little, and it seems stupid to me that perverts with penises are selected over any and all women. This was one of the few times that 'it's ineffable' didn't quell my outrage (I don't believe that homosexuality is inherently sinful, and I especially don't agree with the way some of the 'faithful' treat gays, so that would be the other time). I was sitting at yet another mass where the priest makes a desperate plea to boys in the crowd to become priests because the Church is in desperate need of them, and I was inches from walking out. I stayed because I'm not nearly brave enough to stomp out of church. The next week, I went back. I went back because I realized that religion is not meant to be some perfect thing. Instead, it's just a way of explaining and sharing God, of creating a cohesive social morality to bind community. Should women be priests? In my opinion, hell yeah. I think the Church is wrong. I think it needs to change. People are the imperfect tools of God, and they are prone to make mistakes. The Church is not perfect, but I love it anyway, so I stayed. But yes, there are definitely things that make it tempting to turn away.
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I'm still a Catholic, so technically this doesn't apply to me, but I was almost shaken from my faith by the people in the Church who continue to, against all logic, insist that it is God's will that women not be priests. I hate this. I wanted to be a priest since I was little, and it seems stupid to me that perverts with penises are selected over any and all women. This was one of the few times that 'it's ineffable' didn't quell my outrage (I don't believe that homosexuality is inherently sinful, and I especially don't agree with the way some of the 'faithful' treat gays, so that would be the other time). I was sitting at yet another mass where the priest makes a desperate plea to boys in the crowd to become priests because the Church is in desperate need of them, and I was inches from walking out. I stayed because I'm not nearly brave enough to stomp out of church. The next week, I went back. I went back because I realized that religion is not meant to be some perfect thing. Instead, it's just a way of explaining and sharing God, of creating a cohesive social morality to bind community. Should women be priests? In my opinion, hell yeah. I think the Church is wrong. I think it needs to change. People are the imperfect tools of God, and they are prone to make mistakes. The Church is not perfect, but I love it anyway, so I stayed. But yes, there are definitely things that make it tempting to turn away.
Also, unrelated-- artfulLOve, you said you sin and you are still here, which made it sound like you think the Church is saying you shall be instantly smote if you sin, and the fact God hasn't murdered you proves that they are wrong. I'm not sure if this is what you were trying to say, but if so, no one I've ever known (and, being Irish, I know a sh*t ton of Catholics) has ever believed that God smites all sinners instantly.
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Let's start with the idea that religion is Man-made. So are beliefs. They are for the most part, what we "want" to believe.
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Let's start with the idea that religion is Man-made. So are beliefs. They are for the most part, what we "want" to believe.
What makes us think we should not turn away from something boasting spiritual power that is entirely a fabrication of Man?
Relationship with God by faith -- and this by grace rather than by any works or rules of Man's mind or hands -- is pure. It's not a "3-way" where someone is in relationship with God and telling you what God says to you.
You're talking about rules and condemnations.
What do such people do with Romans 8?
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When I was a kid at church everyone kept going on about being able to feel God's presence and how when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior they felt him come into their heart... and all this going on and on about feeling God.
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When I was a kid at church everyone kept going on about being able to feel God's presence and how when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior they felt him come into their heart... and all this going on and on about feeling God.
I accepted Jesus as my savior, said all their fancy words and hoped with all my little heart for Jesus to save me... and never felt a damn thing so much so that I probably did that 2 dozen times at least. Never once felt anything but fear that I just wasn't doing it right and that I'd end up burning in hell forever.
And then there were all those times I needed a savior. And I prayed and prayed and believed and hoped and prayed some more... and nothing happened.
And after I got sick of asking and praying and hoping... I decided that facts, logic, and probability were more trust worthy and went with that.
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First of all, I hated going to church. I don't remember feeling anything or getting anything out of it. I went to sunday school, and same deal. Don't remember anything about it that was positive, and nothing ever really effected me greatly.
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First of all, I hated going to church. I don't remember feeling anything or getting anything out of it. I went to sunday school, and same deal. Don't remember anything about it that was positive, and nothing ever really effected me greatly.
I was "religious" in that I was a child, and people believed in this stuff, and I was told that I believed in it too. At a young age, pre-teen, thinking about the way God was described, and the things God did--Well, I realized that this was all wrong. God couldn't be good, God couldn't be perfect, and the laws that God had laid out were all wrong and completely illogical. Some were just plain hurtful to people. Keep in mind, I was raised VERY liberal catholic. I didn't even hear the anti-gay or anti-contraception stuff until much later. The laws I am thinking about are generally basic tenants of Christianity.
As I got older, as in...early high school or late grade school, I started to understand that God probably didn't exist. Not because anything happened--just because it did not make any sense. None of it made sense.
As I got a little older I started to really think about the whole "religion" jazz. I started from the default thinking that you NEEDED some kind of religion, so I started to look at the world religions for a little bit. I realized that none of them were for me, really. After some more reading, and learning more about history and philosophy and just the world in general, I started to seriously lash back against religion.
How DARE people made me think this could be remotely true--especially when I was a child and vulnerable. How could anyone think the concept of hell was an appropriate thing to lay on a little kid? How could they tell me that things which were so blatantly untrue were REAL?
Ugh.
Well anyway, after a lot more looking about, I have developed into a complete no-holds-barred atheist, so here we are.
You don't need anything to MAKE you turn away from religion--you just need reason or logic.
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I haven't found anything that makes me want to turn away from what I know to be true.
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prolly getting thrown out of assorted churches. LOL. people seem to get real upset when you question stuff.
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prolly getting thrown out of assorted churches. LOL. people seem to get real upset when you question stuff.
I found /my god/ in my heart. don't care what anybody says. don't need intecession from a third party. ;-)
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People like john3:16 appeared in my family vicarage home all the time, which meant that once I reached around 12 years old the whole ridiculous edifice and artifice had become transparently wrong.
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People like john3:16 appeared in my family vicarage home all the time, which meant that once I reached around 12 years old the whole ridiculous edifice and artifice had become transparently wrong.
I spent a fair bit of time looking into all the alternatives ... Noticing the similarities, and how they were affected by the culture where they emerged...
It took an awful lot of turnings and rejections until I found the Quakers had a pantheistic and atheist accepting bent, and a real understanding of humanity as community...
Beliefs and faiths?
.dont need them any more.
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Ultimately the thing that drove me away from religion was the fact that most of those people are scared close minded people who pass judgement on others without knowing anything. The answer for everything was, "if it's not of God its of the Devil". I felt that this was a cop out, that those people don't understand a thing about what life truly is and what they are worshiping. All I saw and still tend to see is the stunting of minds... There is very little room for anything outside of their beliefs and to me that just isn't what life is about.
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Hello friend. We are all sinners. That is why Christ paid the price for all of our sins on the cross 2000 years ago. Accept His free gift of salvation today. No religion required.
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I'm a Baha'i and one of the things that drew me to the Baha'i Faith was that we can pray at home and hold our services (meetings) in each other's homes --- small circles of friends sitting in the living room. I would not like a church building and someone at a pulpit in a funny hat telling me what to believe. We have no clergy and we are self-governed. For so many years I have been happy with it. I am 65 years old and I have been married 5 times. I am far, far, far away from virginity. This year I fell in love, deeply in love. We are not going to marry. There is no reason to. We live together half of each month. When I say this, there is a gasp in the room and someone always reminds me that our Holy Book says there should be no sex (NO SEX) without a marriage contract. Well, I am committed to just that one man and I will not be straying, but there will be no marriage contract. We both have adult children who are our heirs and we both have financial situations where we don't want to blend, yet. I'm going to go on enjoying sex with him, for as long as my hoo haw can hee hee. I am not going to let religious law stop me. I will turn in my Baha'i card if they try.
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I turned away from simple literalism of religious beliefs. The symbolism has much more meaning as symbolism than projected realities.
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Fancy book learnin'.
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Fancy book learnin'.
As a kid I had a genuine interest in learning things, and I quickly came to realize that Christianity's version of reality didn't match real reality. And the latter was infinitely more fascinating to me.
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Hypocrisy, misogyny, child abuse and my realizing part of my tithe must have been used to play "shuffle the child abuser from parish to parish".
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Being told I could be tortured for all eternity for eating a hot dog on Friday. Can't say for sure I recognized the absurdity all on my own in 3rd? grade, but I know no one at home contradicted the dogma. It might have even been a liberal priest or nun who cast the first serious doubt, under relentless interrogation by 3rd graders,lol. After that, the eccentric behavior of the 'loving' God became more apparent on a regular basis, especially in the classes designed to draw us to him. The Baltimore Catechism was not the best recruiting tool for use in a country riding the crest of the greatest golden age in history. We weren't going to take any sh*t, even from God.
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I remember being in second grade at Holy Name Catholic School when they told me I couldn't take the Body of Christ because I was a Methodist. That's where it began.
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Conflicting and impossible claims. Weak evidence. Requirement of faith, which is dishonest. I think the first time I heard the gospels were written decades (what 50 years?) after Jesus supposedly walked the earth I knew something was very wrong. The Old Testament is a horror story. I have a brain.
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