and if you atheist/switched faiths, why did you do it and what faith did you choose?

im in a curious mood today :>

  • Dae@pawb.social
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    2 hours ago

    Zen Buddhist. I grew up Christian, realized I was believing out of obligation rather than genuine conviction, but also I’m pan and Christians have made it very clear that’s not okay with them.

    I was areligious for awhile. Which I use because I am still an atheist; I don’t see much evidence for gods, but that isn’t important to Buddhism.

    I appreciate the Buddha’s teachings and find them incredibly helpful. I’m calmer, more focused, and over all, happier for my practice. It gives me a spiritual outlet that doesn’t make me feel “dirty” the way Christianity did.

    There are aspects to Buddhism that I have to take on faith even though I am otherwise a skeptical individual. But ultimately, those things don’t change how I would have had to live my life. And I believe that a true practitioner needs a balance of logic anf faith: too much logic, and you kill your faith. Too much faith and you wind up in a cult. You need enough logic to stay grounded, and enough faith to believe. But you have to acknowledge that you can rarely prove the things you take on faith and because of that, there will always be non-belivers, and that has to be okay.

  • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    3 hours ago

    Satanist.

    Raised Mormon, was a Mormon missionary. Had a nervous breakdown, and religious leaders said that I must be sinning, and needed to pray more, read my scriptures more, and repent. But… What sin? And how was I supposed to pray/study more when I had already dedicated two years of my life to preaching? E.g., there’s 24 hours in the day, and I’m already spending multiple hours doing that stuff, so where am I supposed to fit that in?

    That was the first crack in the foundation. Took a while, but once you realize that religious leaders are just men (and yes, it’s always men in the Mormon church), and that despite their claims they don’t have any prophetic powers, then you start questioning a lit of things, like how you can even know truth. (Spoiler: you can’t know truth without some kind of objective evidence, and all religions’ truth claims are based on subjective evidence and “see?, it says so, right here in my book!”)

    Atheist is a label that says what you don’t believe. Satanist is a label that says what I do believe. So I eventually settled on Satanist.

  • zenforyen@feddit.org
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    4 hours ago

    My true faith is: don’t be an asshole and be a decent, rational and empathetic human being.

    Everything else I may or may not believe does not matter, it’s decoration.

  • WhatSay@slrpnk.net
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    5 hours 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.

  • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Atheist. I was raised in various flavors of southern, whites protestant churches. Mostly the so-called charismatic, non-denominational, types, but also mainstream Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, etc, but not excluding some of the weirder cultish strains.

    I left because I began to realize just how fucked in the head they raised me. I couldn’t relate to regular people very well at all, and couldn’t trust the judgement of religious people at any level. I got out and got the help I needed. I only wish I had done it sooner.

  • markovs_gun@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    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.

    • Dr_Box@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

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

      • markovs_gun@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        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.

  • Dr_Box@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I’m an atheist. I grew up super religious and had a falling out with my church due to their “if someone belives different than our denomination they are going to hell” mindset. After that I found out that most other denominations are like that except for mormons but they are worse in other ways. Then I did more and more research that sort of caused what belief I had left to fall apart and now its kind of like Santa Claus, once you figure out its your parents putting presents under the tree theres no believing in Santa anymore

  • beerclue@lemmy.world
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    8 hours 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.

  • Wrongdoer1@lemm.ee
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    10 hours 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.

  • OmegaLemmy@discuss.online
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    10 hours 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.