Were you converted?

[Triangular Dice]

hmm...I never was converted...just two people are trying to convert me right now...  

[LadyKarura]

I had grown up Methodist because my family was methodist, but I always found Church to be so boring and it never made any sense and I never "felt the light of God," so I switched and became an atheist, and life is good.  

[Jediwannabe353]

I have a theory... all atheist "missionaries" (those who argue against the god theory) should read the scriptures...

Christians themselves say that the devel can quote the scriptures to his own ends... I think it is important to know the beliefes of the people we are talking to, out of respect and out of an urge to know better arguments.  

[puresilver]

I was baptised methodist, like my father, and raised kinda/sorta catholic, like my mother. Really, religion wasn't a real big part of my life. I was in 6/7 grade when I realized that religion was fake.  

[Balcerzak]

I was raised religious. My grandfather and uncle (on my father's side) are both ministers in the Methodist church, and I was raised Methodist. I have had, since nearly as long as I can remember, doubts about religion though. I'll share some experiences with you, even though I'm sure you've all probably had similar ones, as this seems the point of the thread.

As a yound child (elementary age) I remember getting in a discussion with a friend on the school bus and was talking about how I believed in Jesus but not God (okay I was a little kid, my beliefs didn't have to make sense). However it seemed like no sooner did the words "I don't believe in God" come out of my mouth but the entire bus was shocked and verbably leaped at me. I was forced to point out my belief in Jesus because he had proof of his existence, but not God, as there was no proof for him. While that did something to appease the situation, I ended up just backing down entirely, and that was the last of that for a long time (damn, doesn't peer pressure suck).

Then in junior high, I was again plagued by doubts when going through the whole confirmation process, as no matter what I did, how many retreats I went on, how hard I searched my heart for God, I couldn't find him. Yet, I continued to identify myself as Christian, and view myself as such, partially out of fear of the consequences, and partially because I may have truly believed that I was at fault for my inability to find God.

In fact I don't know that I can pinpoint a time in which I could with any honesty say to have "converted" to atheism, as it had really been there all along, just unacknowledged. I did begin identifying myself as atheist - to myself and select others - sometime between my sophomore and junior year of college. However, I cannot still come fully "out of the closet", as it would be very ill-recieved by my family - at least that's the feeling I get from certain events and conversations . . .

I would be happy to answer any questions or go into further details, but I have a feeling that none of you would really be that interested, and perhaps I've said more than was really necessary to the topic already.  

[Jediwannabe353]

Its very strange being an atheist in a faimly of CHristians (and one Catholic). One day as my mom was leaving for church, I sad "Oh yeah the god thing."

She asked me if I bleieved in god...

I lied.

I don't know if they know, but I'm not going to prompt a disgussion on the matter, they are the types to say, "Only those who believe in Christ get presents for CHRISTmass."  

[BuncyTheFrog]

Jediwannabe353

"Only those who believe in Christ get presents for CHRISTmass."

ultamatums suck  

[BuncyTheFrog]

(eww, I hate when gaia acts up)  

[Jediwannabe353]

Yet christians frequently issue them
I don't like them.
"If your not with us they you are with the terrorists." -Bush  

[xeagle01]

Not only was I raised christian, but I was raised LDS (mormon to some of you). Not so strict compared to some families, but I was forced to go to church every week, and I never really complained at first... I was young and I didn't care much. Later on I did the one thing that all human beings should do, but most don't. I asked questions. This lead to some answers, or glaring gaps where answers should be. I am going to ramble for a bit. For those that don't know about the LDS church, they don't have a preacher that talks for the entire time. The bishop will ask someone to speak a week or two in advance on a certain topic and they will speak that day. Normally 2 or 3 each day. I was a boyscout with that church (slightly ashamed) and it was required that we give a talk once a year. Well, the bishop had the wonderful idea to have 2 scouts give a talk on the same day on the same topic. I went second. The first guy was a machine. No emotion but all of the facts on the topic, and I was sitting behind him ripping up note cards as he went. It came time for me to speak, and this was during the peak of my questioning god, and I managed to give a pretty good speech. People told me how moving it was later on and it made me feel guilty, that I could invent this emotion, invoke it in others, and it was completely absent for myself. That made me really stop and wonder... what is different. Why do these people "feel the spirit" and I feel empty. That was the final question I asked as a christian. The answer was they wanted to believe it. I wanted the truth. Ok enough of that for now. I wouldn't say I was converted though. I did all of this on my own. I went looking for this, not the other way around.  

[Sors]

My dad's agnostic and my mom's atheist, neither of them have ever pressured me to be either religious or non, I've just never seen the point in having a god. I supose to me it doesn't make sense.
Although I've "converted" a bunch of christians to being agnostic. xp  

[BitchesBrew]

not really, i never realy went to church and my parents arent religious. My grandpa is a minister and i go to his church when im at his house but thats just to be nice, hes not even that religious though. Ive never seen him pray, hes liberal, and he was commiting sins in church just to prove how rediculose it is to enforce the 10 commandmants as laws.  

[[Lucas]]

I've never gone to church. Sure, my parents used to instill just a tiny bit of Christianity in me (like praying before eating), but it never stuck and ultimately I came up with my own beliefs which turned out to be agnostic beliefs. It bothers them a little that I don't believe in a god, but agnosticism does leave some room for their to be a god, and that keeps them off my back about it.  

[Kypuu]

I used to believe in god, but my faith just fadded away as I became older. I stopped believeing in 5th grade. I never was a devote christian anyway.  

[Pandori Ky]

I was baptised and raised into religion, whent to Catholic school for about a year, and went to church every sunday. Then in the fourth grade, I started to drift off from religion, I soon realized that the whole thing wasn't really for me, and that I rarely beleived any of the things they were saying. So, I did my reaserch, I thought it well, and forever turned my back on religion.