ANSWERS: 30
  • When I was 17 and left school.
  • 16, when I finally grasped the amazing consequences of Darwinism.
  • When I was about 16 and left school. I was quite naive when I was younger and had many, many misconceptions about organized religion. Now I'm older and wiser, and I know it's nonsense (in my opinion, before anyone starts berating me).
  • Around 15 years old.
  • I don't know exactly. It always seemed kinda dumb to me. "Everyone get together and pray that the world gets better instead of going out and making it happen."
  • When I was about 6. It wasn't so much a matter of "giving up" on Christianity, I just thought it seemed kind of dumb and didn't make a lot of sense.
  • When I lost my brother in 1995. All 7 of us were forced to go to church & only my sis still goes. After my bro died @ the age of 31, I felt abandoned & then my mom died in 1997.
  • When I thought that God was only willing to allow me to live and go to heaven if I married this fat chick at my work. When I donated thousands of dollars to the church at once, only to get a decrease in pay from my work that same day. When my prayers were not answered. When God did not comfort me. One day I woke up and realized that there is no God. It was all in my head all along. Now I feel like one of many saviors of man. Be free, think outside of the box. Question authority.
  • after 35 years of unanswered prayers, no miracles, constant judging by Christians. I then looked back over my life at my son being raped, growing up in an abusive home, (where was God in all of that). I waited years for the promises of health, happiness, peace..never came..one day I realized that it was because I had been believing in someone that didn't exist, beleiving in a book that was full of contradictions and expecting judgemental Christians to help me figure things out. I am so much happier now.
  • Around 22. I had read and read and read. Then I decided that if there is a God I don't care. My problems, all health, are not meant to be cast apon me simply so others can maybe if they feel like it help out a little so they can go to heaven. Now I am better off as far as health goes. Best thing I ever did is get rid of organized religion from my being. By the way - religion only belongs to those who read and re-read books. Most people poseing as religious are not by definition. Most people poseing as religious are faking it because they are idiots.
  • The same time i gave up on santa claus and the toothfairy
  • About 25, after being born again around 22. I started to believe in myself and found I didn't need to believe in Jesus any more.
  • I'm not for a main headquarters controlling a church that I attend.
  • whan i was 12 years old. I don't think that organised religion was for me but i can understand why people follow them.
  • when i started to look into other religions ten the one i was born into. i was also exposed to the evolution vs. creation debate. (which i never thought was an issue until then)
  • Never will. Never have questioned my faith and never question anyone else's beliefs.
  • Eleven. It was when I realized I could have fun and be a good person and learn about the rest of the world without it.
  • I was about 21 or 22. Then after a long journey through agnostic and atheism I wound up finding more false pretenses there and more truth in the church and now I am a believer again in my Catholic faith.
  • Round the age of 12 -13
  • I gave up organized religion early on in my unintentional trek toward atheism, when I was about ten or eleven. Of course, I was still forced to be a part of organized religion until I was fourteen, since I attended a Catholic school.
  • I think I was always agnostic. I pretended growing up, but that eventually faded. My views on things now aren't all that different from when I was a practicing Christian. Now I'm just willing to admit that there's no God, where as before I just didn't know for sure.
  • I was well into adulthood. I gave up on organized religion when I realized that they didn't know my right name, but wanted me to volunteer with my time, and tithe 10% of my annual income. I explained that I was a single parent with a handicapped child and I didn't think I had the available resources to tithe that amount and was told if I was unable to promise the church that small amount of my income, the church could promise me nothing and would drop my name from their roll. I responded by telling the pastor's wife that since they didn't seem to KNOW my name anyway, to go ahead and drop me since I would not be returning. Since that time, approximately 28 years ago, I have attended church only for weddings and funerals. I still have God in my heart, but I don't have to dress up and go to church to impress God. He knows what I feel.
  • 17. I questioned in highly since I was 13, especially since I was 15, but I became Agnostic at 17. I was raised Roman Catholic, I attended RC private schools, and I was a devout Christian. Prayed the rosary, all of that. It started when I last went to confession at 14 back in the 8th grade. Just didn't feel that I needed to go somewhere to tell God I was sorry. Then early in high school I questioned the Bible's validity. Then at 17 I just quit believing in Christ, therefore I did not have sufficient proof of a God existing. At least I know that if there is a God, it is not a Judeo-Christian God (unless of course Jesus appears and says so himself on CNN lol or GOD for that matter). SO I DON'T HAVE SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO PROVE THAT THERE IS A GOD, BUT I DON'T BELIEVE THAT THIS IS IT, I THINK THERE'S MORE TO OUR EXISTENCE, SO I'M WAITING FOR PROOF FOR THE CONTRARY. That's why I'm Agnostic.
  • I was 53 years old ( 1996 ) when I was almost killed in a military parachuting accident. I was in the US Army hospital at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for three months. I missed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I had been going to a church in Greensboro, NC, about 90 miles from Fort Bragg, for over ten years and had taught Sunday School there for three of those years. While I was in the hospital at Fort Bragg, I got not one visit, not one phonecall, not one letter, nor even a card from anyone at that church, including the Pastor. And some still to this day ask me why I don't like organized religion.
  • After I went to sunday school with a friend when I was 8.
  • I was a little over 16. I realized that I, like everyone else in my church, had given up my life to the churches' will. My personal responsibility was replaced with the fear that not doing what i was told would result in cosmic reprimand. We put our responsibilities in gods hands. God became the extension of our ego. He could do all the things we wish we could: He could get my dad a raise, he could make us happy... he could smite those we hated. Sure we were virtuous, good, "civilized" people, but we had no passion for life. Just the complacent patience for an end we thought would make us happier than we were then. Questions festered in me. what was my real purpose, if any? why was i/were we put here? Frustration took me. I couldn't understand any of these questions because the full potential of life was hidden from me, replaced with "god is your only purpose." One day i couldn't take it anymore. I began to see that no one in my community was genuinely happy. everyone had given up on their dreams long ago, as i had nearly done and any mention of following my dreams resulted in a bitter toungelashing about the impracticality of dreams. I stopped going to church, i began taking responsibility for my own actions and emotions instead of hiding them away. I took the road that was considered impractical by those used to a routine lifestyle. I went from survival mode to taking control of my life, and now, 11 years later am on a journey that has given me the joy and happiness that i believe god would have intended for me.
  • Age 32 worked for me. The church I was raised in split up into small groups after the "leader" died and I decided I didnt believe any of the groups' teachings and wanted nothing more to do with religion.
  • I was around twelve when i started questioning it!
  • I was about 17 years old (I am now 21). I started leaning towards atheism but when I was about 19 I decided I was agnostic. "What is so wrong with just saying 'I don't know?'" -Bill Maher
  • Even though I was raised in an organized religion (Jehovah's Witness), I never really took to it. At the age of 12 I decided to leave the faith. I formally asked to be removed from the congregation's membership at 17. I didn't think about religion for about 10 years. I think I was 28 when I decided that I was an atheist.

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