For Research: Why have you lost faith if you had it before?

[Whatsthequestion123]

Looking to hear your reasons to narrow lines of research enquiry that's all

Define faith.

Define religion if that is what you line of enquiry is working with.

Is this A level, or university level?

I have certainly lost the faith I had as a child. As an adult that is only to be expected. I'm still a Christian though.

I was brought up in christian faith. There was an assumption that god existed. We prayed every day in school. So having faith was my default, not an active choice.
In my teens I decided to do some research and hard thinking. I read the bible.
I came to the conclusion that god was probably fictional, and that is he did exist he was a genocidal maniac and I wanted no part of his warped world.

Because I grew up. Because it became clear to me that it wasn't true. Because bad things happened that I couldn't reconcile with the idea of an all loving, all powerful god. Because I fell in love with a nonbeliever and saw how possible it was to live a good and decent life without believing in god.

Thanks all. It's for my dissertation. Any other stories people would care to share?

Stages of faith stuff is here www.psychologycharts.com/james-fowler-stages-of-faith.html

I would say that I was in Fowler stage three for a long period. I lost my childhood faith Fowler stage 2 around 10. I spent the next 8 years or so as an angry atheist. When I got to university and met some kind mature Christians I did a huge rethink and rather unexpectedly found a connection with the faith I thought I had left behind. My faith was different as I was different and as a student of philosophy I had to argue my case to myself and others. When I was in my thirties I hit Fowler stage 4 due to various life crises. These days, and well into the second half of life, I'm in stage 5 and what I love about my congregation is that lots of them are in this stage as well. They are a very prayerful lot.

So I've lost my faith a number of times and found it again in a different form.

Love the fact that someone has charted the idea of faith as a personal evolution. so us simpletons that have not reached the heady heights of stage five are just simply not getting it yet.
mostlydrinkstea how sad that you were an "angry" atheist. And a very convenient perjprative choice of words to have a go at non believers generally.
Fowler sounds delightful.

Stages of faith theory works across all faiths and none. I've met people of no faith, pagans, worshippers of the goddess and all sorts who are comfortable with mystery and paradox. That is stage 5 in Fowler's system. I've got people in my church who are probably stage 1 as they have LD but they are still full members of the church and important members of the community. It just makes my life easier if I've got some people in my church who pray like me.

At 16 I was angry with God; convinced that the world should be fair and angry that it wasn't. I was a classic teenager and an atheist. Not all atheists are angry just as not all Christians are fundamentalists. Oddly bought some of the fundamentalists that I've debated with online and face to face think I'm not a proper Christian because their black and white thinking says I'm not one of them thus I'm apostate, heretic or whatever.

I find stages of faith helpful in the same way I find transactional analysis helpful. It gives some clues and waymarkers in the complexity of human life. It doesn't explain everything because people are complicated. If someone writes a dissertation about loss of faith and assumes that all people of faith have a childlike faith or are fundamentalists then they may find themselves in academic deep water.

I'm a practising Roman Catholic. At times I consider my faith and beliefs and I hope there is a 'heaven'. I do believe in Jesus and God as all encompassing. You don't necessarily have to see something to believe. I attend church with my parents. My older brother and sister stopped attending church years and years ago. My teenage son is a baptised Catholic and until recently he was a dedicated altar server. He is now quite reluctant for come to church but still attends most weeks. I think the fact that he attends a Catholic secondary school and only one other pupil from his year goes to church has influenced him. My faith gives me comfort and I feel I will always be an active Catholic.

I lost faith as a teen. It was an easy form of rebellion and I didn't want to adopt any of my dad's valies as he behaved very badly (alcoholic, abusive). In any case I think childhood faith is credulous / accepting and adult faith more questioning and critical at least to get there.

I cant say I applied any intellectual rigor to abandonning faith. Id say I just decided I was agnostic. I wasn't feeling very fervent or faithful any more, church was a drag, no one cool believed in God. I wanted to go out and get pissed up with my mates. (Ironic given I was meant to be rejecting my dad's behaviour!).

Fowler is just an excuse to rope people back in whenever a real life crisis occurs. Oh, you lost faith and now life is shit - that must be stage x, come back to stage y. Utter bollocks of course. Just praying on the unfortunate and the weak minded.

• preying, pun not intended.

I believed because I was a child and I was brought up to believe. I also believed in Santa Claus. Then I grew up and developed critical thought and reasoning. I realised Santa didn’t make sense and wasn’t scientifically possible. I realised the same about religion. So I stopped believing in both.

Believed as a child Loved religion in primary school so picture perfect with happy endings.

Then I grew up and it all seemed silly and now I don’t understand how anyone believes.

I realised that religion is essentially just a comfort blanket, stories made up over generations to help us cope with the idea of our own mortality. It must be lovely to actually be able to convince yourself that you’ll live forever in in some form of afterlife but it’s just a fairytale.

I would love to have my faith back. But children dying in pain stop me. I just can't marry that up with a baenevolent, all powerful being.

Still believe in the lessons of my RC childhood. Still admire faith and the beauty of devotion. Still get a feeling of 'home' in churches. Still light a candle. Still believe in the birth & death of Jesus. Wonder still if I ever could join a convent. Fundamentally agree we should examine our actions, repent/learn and be granted/accept forgiveness. However, I cannot reconcile my feminism with the teachings of the church and it's patriarchy. Its exploitation of the poor, the vulnerable and of children. And missionaries? Or the C of E? I cannot reconcile and won't accept it despite carrying a real 'belief'. Good luck with research.

Because I can't reconcile the messages that I was given at church. That I was 'better off' because we were in the group that knew God loves them, that we were waiting to 'be whole' rather than knowing that we are all essentially whole, that due to the hierarchical nature of church there was an authority figure that was always slightly further along the path than me therefore knew slightly more than me all the time and I should know my place and just listen. I started to feel that any questioning on my part just meant that my faith wasn't strong enough but this started to feel like I just simply wasn't 'good enough'. I don't need that from an organisation, especially one that is apparently kind and compassionate.

I lost faith and came back to it.

Turned away because of hate / judgement / general lack of compassion.

Came back when I realised that it was just a certain expression of the religion.

Oh sorry, it just occurred to me that I have given my answer as to why I don't go to church. I do have faith though, but in my own way.