Has anyone here gone from not believing, to believing in God?

motivez · 04-26-2008, 10:42 AM

My family, when I was growing up, was never really an active church-going family, so despite them being conservative and believing in Jesus / God / etc, I was never really indoctrinated heavily the way I think a lot of kids are.. if we went to church at all (rare), it was usually on Christmas or something like that

As stupid as it might sound, I think once I realized that Santa wasn't real and I had been lied to about the existence of one "magical" person, I started to think I had been lied to about others, like God, as well..

Now, the idea of a personal God that sits out there and is watching our every move, cares intimately about what we do and wants us to live a certain way, and if we disappoint him, we'll be sent to a fiery torturous eternity seems just completely ridiculous to me.. but I still feel like we don't know everything, so I can't say without a shadow of a doubt that there's nothing 'greater' out there or what happens after we die.

I don't really have a desire to change how I feel / what I believe right now, but I wonder if once you get on a track of rejecting whatever religion you were brought up with, especially for non-belief instead of belief in something slightly different (ie: another denomination) or completely different (conversion to whatever) if it's ever possible to go back?

6SpeedTA95 · 04-26-2008, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by motivez

My family, when I was growing up, was never really an active church-going family, so despite them being conservative and believing in Jesus / God / etc, I was never really indoctrinated heavily the way I think a lot of kids are.. if we went to church at all (rare), it was usually on Christmas or something like that

As stupid as it might sound, I think once I realized that Santa wasn't real and I had been lied to about the existence of one "magical" person, I started to think I had been lied to about others, like God, as well..

Now, the idea of a personal God that sits out there and is watching our every move, cares intimately about what we do and wants us to live a certain way, and if we disappoint him, we'll be sent to a fiery torturous eternity seems just completely ridiculous to me.. but I still feel like we don't know everything, so I can't say without a shadow of a doubt that there's nothing 'greater' out there or what happens after we die.

I don't really have a desire to change how I feel / what I believe right now, but I wonder if once you get on a track of rejecting whatever religion you were brought up with, especially for non-belief instead of belief in something slightly different (ie: another denomination) or completely different (conversion to whatever) if it's ever possible to go back?

Yeah I think its possible to go back my Aunt did. BTW not many preachers say disappointing God results in going to hell. A few crazy preachers say that but not most, most actually read the scripture and a few good ones have even read some of the hebrew manuscripts.

But yeah you can definately float from believing to not believing and back to believing again. My aunt did just that. By the time she was in her late teens/early 20s she was beginning to reject God and the thought of God. Went through a long phase of not believing. Then she had some things happen in her life and today she's in her late 50s but believes quite strongly today that there is in fact a God but that he doesn't work in the same way that many would hope/expect.

Dumpy Dooby · 05-03-2008, 03:55 AM

I liked this post from Jas0n on OT:

Historical and scientific evidence, especially in regard to claims made about events long before modern methods of recording, will probably always be incomplete. Keep that in mind. Also something to keep in mind regarding, say, historical evidence for Moses or scientific evidence for some sort of young-earth creationism: the (literally) unprovable nature of these things equates roughly to an impossibility of choosing some ancient religion based on "the facts." Scientific theory, historical interpretation -- these things should not be the determining factors in your philosophy or your belief system. They are fluid, and as such, are terrible grounding points for a belief system, whether your belief system involves a deity or not. Instead, consider the philosophical, the rational, the moral, the logic sensibility of ... well, really, EVERY proposition.

Doing this will, I promise, keep you firmly planted in an atheist mindset. Consider that belief in that which cannot be rationalized requires faith, which is the antithesis of reason, the exact opposite of thought. Thus, the only way to re-enter the realm of any sort of theism is to abrogate your willingness to think; in order to divorce yourself from atheism, you must accept that your intellectual capacity is simply unworthy of comprehending the realities of the world around you.

That sort of abrogation and self-depreciation is absolutely absurd. I suppose you probably feel the same way, to some degree, though whether you have considered it exactly in those terms before I do not know. In either case, I hope that you'll consider the situation in the somewhat black-and-white terms above. Above all, please remember that, despite what some may tell you (in order to entice you into their church or synagogue), your choices are two: submit to faith, or stand on the shoulders of reason. There is no middle ground. You are choosing between slavery and freedom.

kombayn · 05-05-2008, 05:43 PM

I use to go to church as a kid but around becoming 13, I found myself becoming an atheist. I found being in a church was a bit strange, with hands in the sky worshiping something that isn't there. It came off as a cult.

In my high school years. I was very opinionated on the subject and held a very anti-church stance. As I grew older and out of my high school years, I started reading on the subject again through the internet. I found myself to take an Absurdism stance on the entire subject because it made the most sense to me.

Is God real? Maybe, but we have no way of ever knowing even after our death. (Unless you believe 100% that Heaven exists.) So it really becomes a non-issue. I do have a bible in my closet with a box of old stuff, it has Jesus' teachings outlined in red, which I find are important to a society knowing about good ethics. I can't speak for churches, but if people just live by those words of Jesus (Or whoever wrote them.), they'll lead a good life. I find faith to be good for the human being but at the same time can cause a path of destruction in the human being. The merits of life.

jimeigh · 05-07-2008, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by 6SpeedTA95

BTW not many preachers say disappointing God results in going to hell. A few crazy preachers say that but not most, most actually read the scripture and a few good ones have even read some of the hebrew manuscripts.

you've been to enough churches to be able to say how "most" preach, and that "not many" threaten hell?
or have you been to like maybe 7, and only 2 talked about going to hell?

because plenty of them threaten others with the notion of hell. plenty.

up|dn · 05-11-2008, 01:36 AM

Originally Posted by jimeigh

you've been to enough churches to be able to say how "most" preach, and that "not many" threaten hell?
or have you been to like maybe 7, and only 2 talked about going to hell?

because plenty of them threaten others with the notion of hell. plenty.

I've found that it's not really a polite topic, so most pastors won't literally preach damnation (especially since churches are recruiting members), but if you were to press them about it, they would admit it to be a biblical teaching and something they believe.

Stylerod · 05-20-2008, 12:17 PM

Yep!

How I came to believe in “God”

Rhianann · 06-14-2008, 01:18 AM

Does believing in life after death constitute faith? Most people I think wouldn't call me faithful. I am pro choice and I am pro gay rights. Anybody doesn't like it they can suck it.

I was raised by athiests. My father would invite Jehovah's Witnesses into the house just to argue with them, and they would leave with their tails between their legs. Then in his late 60's he "found God". I think that was his Plan B. Most religious people I come across are what I refer to as "just in case" believers.

Sorta Believer: I'll believe just in case there really is a God.
God: I'll send you to hell for a while just in case you're not convinced yet.

If you're going to follow the bible you have to go 100% or not at all. It's not something you can pick and choose what you believe and ignore the rest. That is my biggest beef with christianity.

The closest thing that describes how I stand on religion is Diesm. If there is a God, he sure isn't here. And that's as it should be. How boring would it be to create people only to control their destiny.

Let's hope that people like Reverend Phelps never get any real power. Google him. His site is disgusting.

Dispatcher · 06-15-2008, 06:46 PM

I did. I have, at different times, been an Atheist, a Christian, and an Agnostic.
Until recently, I have been an atheist. I am now trying to be a Christian.
I am an intelligent, logical, but also compassionate person.
I could not understand why God would let bad things happen to children, the elderly, etc.
My conversion to believing in God was not just some leap of faith. In fact, maybe it would be more noble if it was. I have been researching near death experiences of people and I have been interested in paranormal science for years. Even when I didn't believe in God I believed in ghosts and hauntings. I have always believed there was something spiritual going on that we can't see. I also once had a paranormal experience with a loved one who had passed away.
People think that people who have had a near death experience only see light and feel love and see loved ones. But some who have had this experience have indeed had a glimpse of hell.
Also, people report floating above their bodies and see and hear things they could not possibly hear and see if they were just laying there.
I have also done some research into microbiology, and there are organisms could simply cannot be explained by evolution alone.
This is only my personal belief, and I'm not trying to convince anyone of any thing. But just as we can't see the air we breath, there are other things we can't see also.
I still do not attend church, but I want to find one and maybe host a support group for people with depression like me.

Dylith · 06-17-2008, 07:44 PM

My mother was raised Christian and then left the religious path for several decades after she got out of college, but now, the older she gets the more religious she is becoming. My twin brother and I started off not being raised with a concept of religion but started being raised Christian at the start of grade school after my mother went bankrupt and found God again.

As for me. I used to be Christian, but became uncertain of my beliefs and ultimately ended up becoming a rather anti-Christianity even anti-religion atheist. Since that point I have calmed down quite a bit in my beliefs and while I still consider myself an atheist, I have switched over to soft/weak atheism and also now appreciate religion a little more.

I also really enjoy learning about religion in general and have especially tried to further my understanding of Christianity and Islam. I actually have always found it more amusing that I have learned more about Christianity as an atheist than I ever really did as a Christian.

Libertaire · Yesterday, 05:19 PM

I went from deist to an atheist to a new ager to a satanist to nothing in particular to Christian. Some people point to a pivot point where they were transformed "on the Dascus road", but I have no such pivot point. I'll just say that it was through multiple experiences.
I don't view faith as contrary to reason like some do. In fact faith encourages reason. My faith encompasses knowledge, reason, intellection, discrimination, temperament, desire, will or other functions of the psyche.
It was through the voluntary utilization of these functions that I began to practice my faith in God. God who is not totally definable anymore than love is definable, but is revealed through various mediums, mostly through His icon: the human, as Ego eimi: I AM.
Faith does not merely reveal itself through functions of the psyche, but is apparent through action as well: "Faith without works is dead."
When I say, "I believe in one God," I'm not pointing a blind hope in some abstract concept but recognition of the mystic, personal source of existence which even goes beyond time-space and is only evident through observation, experience, and the continuity of existence itself. Through our tendency to simplify, we use "symbols" to represent what we cannot readily perceive through our self-absorbed reasoning. This is made apparent through images, thoughts, words, and actions. I think it's vitally important to realize that these functions are voluntary and are derivative of the intellect (experiential), reason (rational), desire, and will. Faith, of course, encourages the productive use of these "energies" as opposed to counterproductive use, called sin.