has anyone ever followed a religious life...then left it behind?

[bubblepop]

what im wondering is..have you ever had a period in your life where you became religious,or perhaps you were more religious than before,and why? and then perhaps you moved on from that and either became less religious or perhaps a non believer? interested to find out peoples experiences.

I was brought up by my family who have religious beliefs, at about 21 I started to question these and went on a search for what I thought was right, rather than what I'd always been told was right iuswim. I'm now a secular humanist.

I guess I was never really religious, although I believed everything I'd grown up being taught, and then slowly started to question it all.

Why are you asking?

I used to believe in God, and follow Christian teachings but now I believe I wanted to find a God so I found one, not because He was there!

I actually felt a lot happier for leaving it all behind. I think now I have a much better sense as to who I am as it is in relation to me, not any faith or God.

Now, after taking up philosophy of religion and ethics and studying various philosopher's approaches and arguments to prove/disprove God I have come to the conclusion that whether He exists or not (IMO probably not) I'm happy living a secular life.

Mina xx

omd, i am asking not because of myself(im an atheist)but i am worried about my sis. we come from an unreligious backround.in the last few years she has 'discovered' God. i am very pleased that she is happy (now more than ever) in her life,and respect that it is what she wants to do. my mum thinks it is a passing phase of her life and she will eventually come through it. im not so sure, hence my post. she found God at a time in her life when she was a little lonely and perhaps feeling sorry for herself..

i was brought up in rc household, went to rc schools, etc (tho my dad was o gawd i can't remember - anglican or protestant i think). he was more rc than my mom and he used to be really funny if we dared mention it to him. anyway. when i was 18 i had a boyfriend (as you do) and i got sent down to the local priest because my parents thought that they couldn't handle me anymore then he asked about my sex life and if it wasn't for the fact that i was so polite i would have told him it's none of your business and walked out. so that kind of helped me to stop being a rc.

now, i guess you could say i no longer follow any specific religion, it's not religion that causes the problems per se, it's man's interpretation of their holy books that causes the problems. i do have a belief system but it's one that's kind of evolved ove r the years. if it makes your sis happy, i think (and this is where we enter grey area) that it isn't really your mom's right to think it's just a phase as it's not really showing your sister an awful lot of respect - i may be wrong and i certainly don't wish to upset you.

as someone who is making a similar journey -agnostic philosophy grad to (sort of) believer, i can partially understand where you are coming from and why you are worried about your sister. Unfortuanately the age old question of whether people 'create' God because of their own spiritual yearnings or whether God in fact is there, and we come to a realisation that he is helping us through the bad times is an impossible one to settle. I think you need to support your sister and respect her beliefs. I am presently at the point where i think it's probably equally as likely that God does or doesn't exist (which is actually quite a long way towards the direction of believing in God by my standards!) so I think atheists and theists have a great deal they can learn and share with each other - it's just a matter of keeping an open mind.