When did you all start following a religion? When did you stop?

There is no need to debate in here. This is just a basic question for everyone who follows a religion and also for those who followed one and stopped.

- For those who follow a religion I want to ask you this:

1) At Around what age did you decide to follow the religion?

- For those who were following a religion and stopped I want to ask you this:

1) At around what age did you stop following a religion?

2) what did you convert to and why?

I hope many of you participate, thank you.

Many of them already have. See the thread in my signature.
I hope many MORE, the new ones, take part in yours, and they are welcome in mine.

For my story, go to the OP in the linked thread.

reply to post by danielsil18

Originally posted by danielsil18
1) At Around what age did you decide to follow the religion?

I was born into it. I didn't decide to follow it.

- For those who were following a religion and stopped I want to ask you this:

1) At around what age did you stop following a religion?

I started questioning at about the age of six, but the indoctrination I had received was strong and it wasn't until much later that I started seriously questioning. Probably at around the age of 25, the questions and doubt got to a "tipping point" and my faith and belief started going down until the age of about 32. That's when I would say I knew I no longer believed and I was kind of in a limbo as regards religion. It took several more years to realize that there was no religion that I believed in.

2) what did you convert to and why?

I didn't convert to anything. I just dropped religion altogether. Why? Because it made NO logical sense whatsoever.

reply to post by danielsil18

I've done both.

At the age of 17, I gave up my very nominal commitment to the Christianity which I had been taught, and became an atheist.
This was on Christmas Eve, in the middle of Midnight Mass. The unctous tone of the sermon was the last straw.

I became a Christian, in a more real sense, at the age of 20.
I told about the process on this thread;
How an atheist became a Christian

Originally posted by danielsil18
There is no need to debate in here. This is just a basic question for everyone who follows a religion and also for those who followed one and stopped.

- For those who follow a religion I want to ask you this:

1) At Around what age did you decide to follow the religion?

I never went to church or had any interest in God until I was 14.

- For those who were following a religion and stopped I want to ask you this:

1) At around what age did you stop following a religion?

When I went to university at 17, I largely gave up on it.

For about 20 years, I was a "none" -- wasn't an atheist, but had little to no interest in God or religion. I came back to it around 2002 and switched from Protestant to Catholic in 2012, and am very happy with where I am at this time. (My story is also in WildTimes' thread, page one )

I grew up going to church.

I know its bad to say this, but I didn't want to wake up and go.I was a kid and the weekend was always cut short having to be home by 8am on Sunday. I wasn't taking anything from the experience anymore. I won't say I didn't take anything from going. I just didn't see the point in hearing the same things over and over again. I've always been a kind person willing to help anyone when I can. I didn't need to sit in a church to reaffirm myself.

Now that I'm older, I have actually looked at many different religions. I took the parts that sounded good and the questionable things I let fade away. They weren't doing anything for me.

I'm a spiritual person, I'm just not fond of taking sides and joining up. I'm smart enough to know there are always two sides of a story. Hearing one side of a story for so long can close off a questioning mind and make alternate paths to the same end fill up with drama, hate, etc. I don't see the need for division. We are all human. Lets take that commonality and move on and create new ideas, and yes, even new religions.

There are 7 billion plus religions occurring this very second. Its just inevitable that out of those 7 billion, some of those found enough in common to form their own faiths, which inevitably makes bringing people together a lot harder. I don't fault anyone for thinking what they think. Its their choice, I only have a problem when they justify hurtful actions in the name of God. Something all religions are guilty of in some form or another.

I was born and raised Roman Catholic - I never really took to it and turned to Atheism by 16.

By 19 I discovered the universal truth and became spiritual

Originally posted by ObservingYou
I was born and raised Roman Catholic - I never really took to it and turned to Atheism by 16.

By 19 I discovered the universal truth and became spiritual

I always say, religion will keep us from advancing.

Faith will see us move forward faster than we can imagine.

Went to Church of England primary school, went to Sunday school. Started questioning religion at about 6 years old, when I was walking through the dead leaves wondering if dead leaves go to heaven?

So I was raised a Christian, but probably stopped believing at quite a young age.

I am both a Man of Science and a Man of Faith.

Most people cannot reconcile these truly.

Originally posted by abeverage
I am both a Man of Science and a Man of Faith.

Most people cannot reconcile these truly.

Like "God" using evolution to get us to where we are today

Originally posted by cconn487

Originally posted by abeverage
I am both a Man of Science and a Man of Faith.

Most people cannot reconcile these truly.

Like "God" using evolution to get us to where we are today

edit on 2-7-2013 by cconn487 because: (no reason given)

Yes and at one point I felt like leaving a Church because I could see that evolution worked but could not believe that it was a trick. It made sense as did the age of the Universe and Earth. Leaving a church however did not mean me leaving religion either.

I was born into a Christian family. I can remember my mother disliking evolution and anything relating to homosexuality. They never took me to church because before I was born they were dissatisfied with being members of a Mormon church in Texas.

As a kid I identified as a Christian and as a teen I became a born again Christian. My goal then was to become a pastor. I was that on fire and I impressed many Christians with my faith in Christ. I still would like to learn how to become a better speaker and how pastors connect to their flocks.

Soon I started to lose my faith because I felt my faith in God was shrinking smaller and smaller. Church felt like school because everyone had their cliques and I felt like I was a floor mat. I decided to leave the church after a lot of bad days with deciding to become an atheist.

As an atheist I was angry at first. I was skeptical, but I didn't know how be critical of anything. I was angry because how I was treated in my life. Now I'm still an atheist but I'm happy now. I'm skeptical and can express my views in a clear matter. Being an atheist is very relaxing.

reply to post by danielsil18


I was never involved in religion until I was 8 years old. That was when I was drowning victim and had a near death experience. Based on what happened during that experience I began to believe and to have faith in something I could not see. It was then that I believed that there was something superior to what we have here.

Then I became involved in church and tried many different denominations.
Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Evangelism, Lutheran, Protestant, Jehovah’s Witness, and several others.

I even became involved in the Hare Krishna in my teens for a very short period until I discovered to my horror that it was nothing more than Brain Washing. I did get the chance to meet the Propapoda ( their equivalent to the Pope ) at the newly built temple in West Virginia in the very early eighties.

I have never converted to anything definite as I am not satisfied with what is available. Of all the denominations I have tried to become involved with I have never found one that is Not hypocritical.

I do read the bible now and again and have read it through in its entirety several times. Though I do find it very dry and full of contradiction.

I have never really stopped, however, I do not follow it as I once did.

Originally posted by danielsil18
There is no need to debate in here. This is just a basic question for everyone who follows a religion and also for those who followed one and stopped.

- For those who follow a religion I want to ask you this:

1) At Around what age did you decide to follow the religion?

- For those who were following a religion and stopped I want to ask you this:

1) At around what age did you stop following a religion?

2) what did you convert to and why?

I hope many of you participate, thank you.

edit on 2-7-2013 by danielsil18 because: (no reason given)

Such a complex question put so simply.

I do not follow any specific religion, but I do take hints from more religions than other when it comes to answering spiritual questions.

1.) I stopped following Christianity when I was about 10 or 11. It wasn't a clean break though, it was something that I was raised being, and I never showed interest in. It just slowly faded away into nothingness for me, even though my parents still pretended to believe out of some fear, or popularity, who knows.

2.) I converted to what I thought to be atheism and then agnosticism for years. For some time, I went even further and became anti-religious, anti-christian mostly. But recently, I have come around and realized that some people are just dependent, and they need outside guidance. They don't all contain an internal moral compass like I do, they feel more lost and scared for their salvation. I have never been scared that I might go to hell because I know that I am inherently good and I do good things for other people. That's all that matters to me, like Marcus Aurelius said, "If the Gods are just, then they will not judge you based on what you believed but by your actions. If the Gods are not just, then you should not want to worship them."

Then I realized that technically, there is absolutely no difference in being agnostic or being an atheist. Both do not believe in God, so if God were real and he required your conscious allegiance, then both agnostics and atheists would go to "Hell".

Then I realized that everyone is technically agnostic! I realized that the word agnostic has nothing to do with ones beliefs, only what one can observe and deduce scientifically. I think everyone can agree that no one claims to be able to scientifically prove or disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that God exists. No one. However, this does not prevent people from "believing" in God's existence. This notion of belief without scientific proof is called faith. Agnosticism, by definition, is completely irrelevant to your faith, because proof is not a prerequisite for faith. Therefore, every single person is technically agnostic, but that's ok. It's ok because you can be an agnostic Christian, and in fact all Christians are agnostic because they believe in Jesus without having to have proof, yet they will still say that they know they cannot prove to you Jesus or God is real or unreal, and that is the agnostic part.

Then i realized that by definition, I'm not even really an atheist! If anyone were to take a few minutes to simply study the etymology of the word atheism, they would deduce that it literally means belief in a deity. Now, this requires that you look up the definition of the word "deity". Do you really not believe in a deity if you're considered atheist? A general definition that we can all agree on for deity is in wikipedia, it says; "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans, but who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life." Now read that again, and think about it very carefully. This could mean Aliens, advanced Humans, energy, a star, a planet, some greater form of consciousness. Any of those could be your deity depending on what you "believed" in. So really, I bet no one is a technical atheist. Because the definition is fickle at best, fleeting and changing depending on whatever you believe to be a deity, which, according to wikipeida, has been completely stripped of any spiritual relevance. Doesn't make much sense anymore does it?

Had a mixed background with one set Grandparents Jewish and the other CofE. Went to a convent where there was always arguing with the Catholics and us Protestants.

I found the subject fascinating and when my first son was born took him to a Central Church and went to the Bible Study Group run by the Vicar. He was a very well educated man and brought the historic background to life when taking the classes. Sadly I have never met another Church man with his knowledge and wit.

I moved and took my son to the Spiritualist, Chapel and Quaker Churches and then we went to the local CofE. I wasn't very keen as my son was asking odd questions and I found answering them honestly I didn't believe in the doctrine. The church then went onto became a born-again, touched by the Holy Spirit and all fall down on the ground lot with people such as my Accoountant and the local Estate Agent fighting to hit the deck first. I had enough and left.

I then joined the local Theosophical Lodge which was the best thing I have ever done. Their belief that no religion is greater than the truth fitted my view and they had a brilliant library covering virtually all the religions and also a wealth of obscure books stretching from Thomas Aquainus to alchemical books. Every Sunday there was a talk from people from different religions and topics. One day my somewhat CatholicCoE values were challenged when an astrologer gave a fascinating talk. She showed pictures of circular churches with a zodiac on the roof depicting the date the bulding was commissioned etc she showed pictures of hidden zodiacs within church windows and then bought her talk up to today's world using the three outer planets which was so accurate I wa dumbfounded, as I have never given any credence to something like astrology.

I saw her privately and after she had done my chart, pointed out to the week my divorce, birth of my first and second sons and death of a loved one I rembered that in the Gospel Jesus refers to the planets as powers and for me that linked religion to the zodiac.

As religion was very important to me I then started to read a lot of the gospels that weren't in the bible, other books from that time and as much as I could about the other peoples and places in the Middle East. However although I knew that the cyclopean archetecture existed all over the world, like many people I had never thought about it and when I did suddenly the ancient world of spirituality, different beliefs from India, the American Indians, Aboriginees etc started to blossum for me. There were lots of creation and flood histories from all over the world. It just depended on what culture and where you were. I also was surprised to read of life in Babylon, and the myths and beliefs around that time and also what little could be learned of the Druidic society.

My indoctrination into the desert religions just dropped away because they are more military than spiritual. I still would like to know when men lost the ability to perform magic/miracles because I believe we, as Jesus told us when he said '(You can move mountains with your minds and Be ye wise as serpents)' have abilities that we have lost over time. I also believe that the way religion is taught today is deliberate to stop one being spiritual, a healer and moving mountains with our minds.

I was born a catholic and started questioning other branches of Christianity in my early 20s I stayed with a church that was of the Chasmatic born-again beliefs for most of my 20s. It was when I was 30 that I woke up to the fact that no one, no preacher, pastor, priest, rabbi, monk or any other high holders of religion knew anything.

Religions always profess to being the true way yet no one can give substance to their beliefs. Anything I ever questioned was answered with "It's a mystery" or "If God wanted us to know he'd tell us." or "Just have faith, don't question it."

I believe religion's only purpose served was in trying to control the masses. I will say that most religions use fear as the base of the teachings. They also use love I won't deny that, but most religions cancel out whatever love they preach when they start judging and trying to control how others should live and that is the reason that I walked away from religion many years ago and never looked back.

reply to post by danielsil18


What is your definition of a religion?

Originally posted by danielsil18
There is no need to debate in here. This is just a basic question for everyone who follows a religion and also for those who followed one and stopped.

- For those who follow a religion I want to ask you this:

1) At Around what age did you decide to follow the religion?

- For those who were following a religion and stopped I want to ask you this:

1) At around what age did you stop following a religion?

2) what did you convert to and why?

I hope many of you participate, thank you.

edit on 2-7-2013 by danielsil18 because: (no reason given)

I'm not sure what the word religious means to people today but I do fully believe that the bible tells the truth.
John 14:6 Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
I was a young child when I asked God into my heart. I went to "kid's church" for years and have been to summer bible camp. I believe that God is merciful and loving and also very much serious about his wrath and chastisement and judgement.
Psalm 118:18-24 The LORD has punished me severely, but he did not let me die. Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the LORD. These gates lead to the presence of the LORD, and the godly enter there. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the LORD's doing, and it is wonderful to see. This is the day the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.