this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025
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and if you atheist/switched faiths, why did you do it and what faith did you choose?

im in a curious mood today :>

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Buddhist, I was more Christian. Growing up in a fundamentalist church and becoming more intellectual drove me to ask big question that Christianity didn’t answer for me. Causes and conditions allowed me to encounter Buddhism when I was living in Japan and it’s grown in me ever since. I really liked how Zen meditation made me feel. Very different from being told to pray but there was nothing and also no unstructured. Buddhism has clear practices and results. I know it has “supernatural” elements but it’s all mostly logical to me and I like that

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I never heard anybody make fun of Buddhists or slander them, quite a lovely religion ❤️

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Spinoza’s god fascinates me enough to be agnostic rather than an atheist with conviction.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It’s more of a philosophical god than a being with consciousness. He said that god is “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator.” Simplified, everything in existence is god, but individual things are not god on their own. That point is an important distinction between Spinoza’s god and animism.

Perceiving god as more of the framework of existence itself is a very compelling way for me to appreciate the connection of all things, without accepting a bearded man in the sky or encroaching on my scientific understanding.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I've not read Spinoza, but this idea has for most of my life seemed fairly self-evident. Something clearly seems to exist, I'm not the biggest most important thing in the something, though I am a part of it. Do I believe in God? Not per se - but I do believe there is something incomprehensibly larger than I am, and that in and of itself deserves a little respect and contemplation.

My religious parents didn't see it that way of course.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's complicated but I used to be essentially atheist but now believe that there is something one might as well call "God" after studying philosophy. Essentially everything has a cause and something must be at the end of that chain, and we might as well call that "God." I also practice Christianity because I feel that it is good to have the community and structure that a religion can provide but I don't think that "God" necessarily exists in the way Christianity typically presents it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Upvoting you because as an atheist I think its stupid that others are downvoting just because someone says they lean towards christianity

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Eh. I could care less about downvotes and I understand that the idea of practicing Christianity for reasons beyond personal faith in it is going to be controversial to Christians and atheists alike. If someone made a chill Atheist/agnostic "church" where there was singing and discussions on moral philosophy, and a community of people devoted to helping each other and their community I'd probably be doing that but as it stands religion is the only game in town for such things and I think that it's good to do something like this. Plus I don't know, it's kind of cool to be a part of rituals people have been doing for thousands of years.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Grew up in a Christian household, but grew out of that kind of superstition around high school or a bit younger. My parents never did, so that and politics caused a bit of tension, but never enough to keep us from talking to each other, visiting, etc.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Really happy for ya, parents usually don't take these things so well, mine would probably disown me if I ever came out about having different beliefs

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I will never understand this. Every parent knows their children have their own minds; you don't expect your child to think the same thoughts as you, or to have the same experiences as you had, so why would you ever be surprised - much less dismayed - that they come to different conclusions about religion than you do? Did you do your homework and come to that conclusion yourself? Great, if that's what makes you happy then I'm happy.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

long inhale SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN

endless defiance, i didn't know i could be free until i heard the archenemy singing to me

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Raised "Christian" in the evangelical/born again/southern baptist milieu. Strip mall churches and unaccredited schools with unqualified teachers and Bob Jones text books. Became atheist as soon as I was able to think rationally. The thing that did it for me was the hypocrisy, which became too obvious to ignore.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I am an atheist and ordained dudeist priest. Because it aligns with my values.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was raised Christian, went to church every Sunday and believed as a kid. Then I stopped believing in all my imaginary friends. Being slightly cheeky, but also I genuinely just grew out of it as I learned more about... Everything, really.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Damn I thought there would be more religious people, it is all exchristians in here

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

i think it comes with the territory; the kinds of users that lemmy attracts--and doesn't.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

The bit of the internet based in european languages tends to skew more atheist in general from my experience

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

The English speaking world as a whole is still, to my knowledge, majority Christian even if not actively so, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that many of us came from a Christian background. Nor, I suppose, that so many of are ex-.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

From very young age i never felt i needed to believe in anything, spirituality felt like a part i was missing. my parents took me to church but i never liked the god depicted there and i found the crucified man figurine scary. When they told me that god loves me and that if i didn't love him back i would go to hell it all soured for me. That portrayal of love didn't make sense in my mind.

I don't feel atheist either, religion feels very political to me, and atheism seems more apolitical than an active oposition. Where i live catholicism has a lot of power and it's tentacles wrap around government agencies and institutions. There are weird cults close to where i live that are offshoots of catholicism ; These cults have international power and they have deep histories of corruption and abuse. I feel something has to be done about this but where i live there is very little oposition or regulation for religious institutions.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I wasn't really raised with religion, but most of my family is Christian. I considered myself atheist as a young adult. But after many spiritual experiences, I believe in the unexplainable, but I'm not a fan of organized religion or cults.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I was raised protestant Christian.

I would say what I believe now is heavily influenced by that, but also heavily influenced by how clearly the focus that evangelical Christians put on the idea “God needs to be feared more than They need to be followed” has fucked up so much of the world. Fearing someone at the cost of spreading their message is nonsensical, idiotic, hypocritical, and toxic to human society.

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ rarely answered direct questions with direct answers; most of the time his answers came in the form of a story or a parable explaining one possible answer to the question given one possible context, implying that humans are encouraged to use their judgment to figure out how best to approach a situation. Imagine that. An all-powerful creator who granted intelligence like Their own to Their creation and actually wanting that intelligence to be exercised.

One of the most notable instances where Jesus answered a direct question with a direct answer is Mark 12:28-31:

“Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

In no uncertain terms, love is the most important commandment. Furthermore, Jesus equates loving your neighbor to loving God in Matthew chapter 25. It’s not evangelism, it’s not religious authoritarianism. It’s not indoctrination. It’s love.

I believe this world was created by an omniscient Creator who wanted humanity to use the intelligence granted to us to freely develop a society centered around love.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Im a romuvis :3

Used to be an atheist before ig

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Romuva is lithuanian paganism :3.. kind of obscure everywhere outside the country

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Man it's been a while since I've come across a pagan reconstructionist in the wilds of social media. Cheers!

I hadn't heard of Romuva before, but I used to know a bunch back in the day; Celts, Hellenists, Kemetics, etc.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Atheist, I never was interested in spirituality as I believe religions are population control tools.

However, I recently got the chance to meet Sikh peoples, and I understand they define themselves more as warriors than group of religious people. I just fell in love with what they are, what they represent.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Grew up in a very religious home, in a very religious country (orthodox christian). I don't think I ever truly "believed", but I didn't want to upset my family, so I got married in church and baptized my kids. I am an atheist, and don't practice any religion now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I was raised in an atheist/agnostic household. Nobody ever came out and said we were atheist or agnostic, but no one went to religious services weekly or on holidays. There was never talk of prayer or worship or god.

Both my parents came from different religious backgrounds. One parent is Jewish. The other is Christian, though I would argue that their parents were atheist/agnostic as well.

We celebrated the holidays that involved presents, Christmas, Hanukkah and Easter. I didn’t really learn any of their religious symbolism behind these holidays until I was much older and it wasn’t through my parents. Part of it was cultural osmosis, and part of it was curiosity about these religions when I figured out what they were.

My parents basically refused to explain anything about religion to me, even when I was curious just to understand what was being referenced.

We lived in a pretty big Jewish community or so it wasn’t uncommon to get invited over for Passover dinner at someone’s house.

I went to Synagogue with Jewish friends and church with Christian friends. My friend’s mother taught classes at their synagogue so I do remember going and learning about Judaism and the holidays there but I didn’t last very long. I didn’t really enjoy it, I remember not wanting to go back in after our little recess/break and watching Fiddler on the Roof.

When I was curious about Christianity and wanted to know why my friends went to Sunday school or church on the weekends, my mother took me to a Unitarian church. We didn’t attend for very long and I don’t remember being particularly interested or involved in any of the activities they were doing for the kids.

Now I would say, I am firmly an atheist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Atheist. Raised atheist but it doesn’t effect my viewpoint, I’d be atheist either way at this point in life

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

I guess at this point I should consider myself a buddhist.

I was raised in a Christian household in the us midwest but never felt drawn to it or any form of sprituality, over the years Buddhism in its many forms kept creeping up on me enough times and explaining things in such elegant ways that I eventually looked into Tibetan Buddhism more closely and realized that once you understand how the symbolism of it all works in terms of connecting the words of practices to actually useful life tips then it becomes a great benefit to yourself and others.

As simply as possible, I chose this route because it is like becoming a scientist of experiences and all the practices we do are things that prove what we experience just as a scientist forms a postulate, a Buddhist forms a practice that leads to some form of awareness.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

My mom let me figure it out for myself. I wanted to go to mass with grandma so she let me.

I quickly figured out the nonsensical nature of what I was seeing. When I found out I had to do a bunch of extra shit before I could get in line for Jeezits, I lost all remaining interest.

Been an atheist since. Probably was around age 12.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Raised non-denominational Christian to Agnostic to Gnostic-curious.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

born in islamic nation (turkey), family didn't really do anything to teach religion (except trying to teach Arabic), I got more and more estranged from islam as I did my own independent research using online sources of the Qur'an

I don't think I can be considered a Muslim anymore, I don't follow what is written down as a must, this actually makes me eligible to hell, and it is all so ridiculous for me now.

I've talked with a lot of people, self proclaimed Muslims but their beliefs are far more deist than anything else, but they still call themselves Muslims but with their own additional beliefs.

Another note, I haven't read hadiths, only the Qur'an. The Qur'an is very short and anyone here could read it, it's the absolute words of god so it is essential to follow if you're a Muslim.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago
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