The Road to Enlightenment...

[theopold]

Do you remember your first real step on the path that ultimately led you to atheism? Assuming you weren't born to it, was there a singular event or perhaps a moment in time that still resonates, years or even decades later?

I was born into a Protestant family. Each and every Sunday morning, my parents would pile my two sisters and I into the family station wagon for the 20-minute drive to our local Methodist church, which happened to be located in the next town over. I was the youngest child and so I invariably ended up in the middle of the back seat, squeezed between my two sisters.

The last mile or so of the journey was a long, straight, stretch of road which ended in a left turn, with the church itself just another 1/8 of a mile further on. About mid-way down that last straightaway, there was this short, sharp, drop in the road - not so much a hill as an inverted hump, if you will. Every time we hit that section, I got that slightly discomforting, slightly erotic feeling in the upper groin area one often gets when experiencing a sudden change in elevation.

I was only a child, of course, pre-sexual in every sense of the word, and yet I remember thinking that God was punishing me with what I could only imagine were unclean thoughts and feelings mere moments before entering his house and humbly surrendering myself to his mighty omniscience. And I was, indeed, dirty with guilt and shame. Because, you see, I had already begun to doubt His existence...

 

[ScottinSoCal]

I accepted a challenge to read the bible and the book of mormon, cover to cover. It was supposed to confirm my faith that the book of mormon was the true, inspired word of god, and that the bible was a mishmash of conflicting ideas - the word of god corrupted by man. Instead it confirmed that both of them were a load of horsecrap.

 

[Cocky0]

For me it was actually kind of silly. I had just finished reading the Area 51 novel series by Robert Doherty. I enjoyed the series, because it took some actual fact, mixed it with theories and legends, and created a thrilling piece of fiction. I had never read something quite of that nature, so I went to the book store to find another book with the same idea. The lady behind the counter reccomended one from an up and coming author named Dan Brown. (Yeah you see where I'm going with this.)

Anyways I read The Da Vinci Code, loved it, read Angels and Demons, and loved it some more. And those books got me interested in the actual history behind the biblical stories that I'd been taught to believe all my life.

I was on Operation: Noble Eagle at the time, so I consulted one of the chaplains about the origins of the bible and Christianity in general. He told me about oral gospels and how those were later transcribed into Hebrew then later translated into other various languages. So I began asking about the validity of those transcriptions and translations, and I basically implied that it was more probable that the stories we read today are incomplete for one reason or another as opposed to them having been accurately maintained over the past 2000 years.

Anyways he then warned me of being "misguided" by outside sources, and without provocation he went on a rant about the still relatively recently published Da Vinci Code. His rant did all but imply that Mr. Brown was the antichrist. I attempted to approach his criticisms with an open mind and logic, but he was having none of it.

So that got me curious as to why a work of fiction could have such an affect on a chaplain. These guys are normally very mild mannered, but just being on the subject of this book made him hostile. Why? Now keep in mind that this was before the book really caught on and before it hit the news as being "damning to Jesus."

Anyways a little research got me to look on the bible and the church with a skeptical eye. I still believed in some higher power, but I wasn't so certain that any of the religions had it right. About two years ago I realized that I have no good reason to be critical of others' beliefs without being critical of my own beliefs. I asked myself, "What do you believe? And why do you believe it?"

I was able to answer the first question, but I could not answer the second one. So ever since then, I have maintained that until I am given a reason to believe in anything, I will believe in nothing. To date I have not seen, heard, nor experienced any reason to believe anything remotely religious, spiritual, or supernatural......but I do keep looking.

 

[Gx3vi]

I don't remember a specific moment where the lightbulb clicked on and it was all clear. It was more of a series of small steps that led me to being atheist. It started when as a kid I would ask some adult a question regarding religion and they wouldn't give me a straight answer. Also much of the behavior many devout christians displayed inbetween church visits made me suspicious of their motives for being there. That led me to believe that they didn't know alot about what they were talking about and that they didn't fully buy into it. I put my questions on the back burner till I got a little older and then came to the conclusion that I was agnostic at best. Several years later after doing quite alot of reading into the subject I realised that I was an atheist. It took a while, and I hung onto to that agnosticism for far too long but I finally made it.

 

[theopold]

I don't remember a specific moment where the lightbulb clicked on and it was all clear. It was more of a series of small steps that led me to being atheist...It took a while, and I hung onto to that agnosticism for far too long but I finally made it.

Agree on both counts. There's definitely a journey, or path, to be taken. No real "lightbulb" for me either. It's more that, when I think about my own journey - for whatever reason - that weekly trip to church I described above still strongly resonates for me all these decades later. And, I think many of us hobble along on the crutch of agnosticism for a good part of the journey as well.

One other comment...I think Cocky0's remarks point out another common thread - an interest in research and the "actual history". One of my favorite authors along those lines is Karen Armstrong. Her book, "A History of God", for example, presents the relevant historical facts (and cultural context) in such a way as to make any other potentially rational conclusion, well...highly irrational