Did you start as a believer?

[bindeweede]

I believe that John Jackson is a smartarse. Provable, undeniable fact.

Well, if I had it, I'd flaunt it. But I haven't, so I don't.

[Rose]

Don't we choose all our beliefs? It seems to me that the beliefs we "just have" are those that are taught to us at a very early age, long before we're capable of questioning them. Should you continue in such beliefs when you are capable of questioning them, you've made a choice.

True. But it’s as difficult to change some beliefs as it is to take on new ones. Look at the child growing up and constantly being told that he’s stupid. As an adult he realises that it’s not true but it takes time, and perhaps years of therapy, before he finally lets go of that belief.

[Tony Williams]

My experience was similar to Bob's. I was never much taken with religion except for a brief trial phase when I was 16. I remember being intrigued by UFOs and also the writings of people like Lyall Watson (Supernature). This faded out in my young adulthood as I become more skeptical. There was no one specific reason for this that I can recall, I assume that I just became exposed to more critical thinking and it gradually changed my outlook.

[Admin]

I believe that John Jackson is a smartarse. Provable, undeniable fact.

[brianp]

My parents were both staunch Methodists so I was sent to Sunday School and more or less accepted the reality of god/afterlife etc as a given. In my teens I attended church, church clubs and Boys' Brigade and later ran a club for 8-12 year-olds - again not questioning anything, despite studying maths and science at school and university. I also bought into the JFK/RFK/MLK assassination conspiracies and into assorted UFO lunacies including joining TUFOS (Tyneside UFO Society).

UFO nonsense was my first insane belief to go - as my knowledge of physics increased, I realised that the vast majority of sightings were very easily explained and, more importantly, I realised that the basic assumption of many UFO enthusiasts - ie "unexplained" ="alien" - was an absolutely untenable position and "unexplained" means just that and implies nothing beyond our ignorance.

On the religious front, my first doubts arose in my early twenties and these doubts increased rapidly to the point where I was atheist. I continued attending church, treating it more as a social gathering than anything else. To my surprise I discovered that several other regular churchgoers were atheist too. This social church-going continued for a few years but, after witnessing some appalling examples of bigotry among senior church members, I vowed never to set foot in that church again - and apart from burying my parents, I've stuck to that. Indeed, apart from attending christenings, marriages and burials of close relatives, I've not attended any church service since that date.

Belief in conspiracies was the last to go - and, perhaps ironically, it was the utter insanity that arose following the death of Diana and, more particularly, 9-11 which caused me to re-examine my belief in the 1960s conspiracies. I re-read and re-evaluated my extensive collection of JFK material and soon realised that it was just as shallow and unconvincing as the bullshit following the more recent events.

One positive result of discarding my CT hat - I sold all my JFK books, mostly on Ebay, and found, to my delight, that some paperbacks were eagerly sought rarities worth up to £100.

So I suppose I've been a believer in most flavours of crazy - but, hopefully, I'm now free of them all.

[smudge]

I've noticed, to my surprise, that a number of skeptics actually started out as 'believers' (ie. believing in stuff for which there seems little good evidence). Can I ask who here started as a 'believer', what sort of stuff they believed in and why they stopped believing?

Come on Harry...You can't ask such a question without posting a full and detailed confession of your own!

[Jules]

I was into all kinds of nonsense as a teenager in the seventies, particularly anything occult related. Funnily enough, I was never the slightest bit interested in conventional religion, which I thought was absurd gobbledegook. I suppose it was more to do with being a rebel (I was also into heavy metal at the time) and it never occurred to me ask questions, or even consider anything so square as "evidence", it just didn't seem relevant at the time.

For a time I was quite into astrology , but I think the appeal was more to do with it being a "system" - you could do all kinds of mathematical stuff, draw complex charts etc, which I enjoyed. Again, it never really occurred to me to question the premises behind it.

I always had a nose for inconsistency though, which was sharpened during my time at Uni studying Engineering. Gradually I lost interest in the fanciful and found reality much more interesting.

[chaggle]

No, not really. Being brought up in an extremely religious churchgoing family it was difficult and I wanted to believe and perhaps even thought I did for a bit but only half-heartedly.

I've always been sCeptical of anything like CAM, spirituality, astrology and so on.

[ZERO]

I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness and believed it all, hook, line and sinker.
A life long interest in science eventually cured me.

[bindeweede]

As a child, I used to go to a Methodist Sunday School, because, I think, that was what "nice" children did. My father had no interest in religion - "never did nowt for me", a typical attitude, and Ma never showed interest, just allowed me to do what I wanted.

Then I discovered that I had been "baptised" or "Christened" or whatever into the Church of Scotland, so I really ought to be Presbyterian, so I moved on to that lot. By the time I was 14, I realised that I didn't actually believe the stuff spouted from the pulpit, and I was being hypocritical, so I stopped going.

End.

[Drop Bear]

I've noticed, to my surprise, that a number of skeptics actually started out as 'believers' (ie. believing in stuff for which there seems little good evidence). Can I ask who here started as a 'believer', what sort of stuff they believed in and why they stopped believing?

Today, one of my self descriptions is 'recovering Catholic'

I was brought up working-class-bog-Irish-Catholic,arguably the most pig ignorant,superstitious, bigoted and and hateful form of that pernicious faith.

I began seriously doubting at 16,and overcompensated,becoming an insufferable little prig. At 20,I was conscripted into the army. I immediately ceased being a Catholic,it was great.


Today I'm a skeptic,materialist, moral relativist, egoist and agnostic atheist. My atheism is an effect,not a cause, an inescapable conclusion,not a choice.

[Harryprice]

Come on Harry...You can't ask such a question without posting a full and detailed confession of your own!

Ah but I wouldn't describe myself as a skeptic. Nor a believer. But I will, nevertheless, answer.

I was brought up as an RC and believed it uncritically for years, though I found going to church irksome - it was the same mass every week! It was school RE that cured me of being an RC. A teacher made the mistake of trying to justify the Bible as historical fact and, in doing so, revealed the reality behind it.

I have been interested in the paranormal since I was a kid. Still am! I never bought into the 'spirit' bit, probably because of my disillusionment with religion. However, I could see that, if things like hauntings were real, they challenged science. So I approached the subject from a scientific point of view always being prepared to go whichever way the evidence went. As it happens, I discovered more and more natural explanations that fitted paranormal cases. I am still open to the idea that the paranormal might exist but the lack of conclusive evidence so far is frustrating.

[Pebble]

I was brought up as an RC and believed it uncritically for years, though I found going to church irksome - it was the same mass every week! It was school RE that cured me of being an RC. A teacher made the mistake of trying to justify the Bible as historical fact and, in doing so, revealed the reality behind it.
.

Ditto, what a lot of ex catholics here. Is the catholic church's attempt at rational justification of their faith in the 1960s & 70s responsible for a significant proportion of the current critical thinking stock?

[Floppit]

I've never really been sure if childhood beliefs count as such. I had a religious family but always found 'loop holes' or found myself changing beliefs as reality appeared to dispute them. By mid teens - no.

I think I had the same leanings in childhood but to a child's eyes evidence can be abundant. One instance comes to mind. I loved fruit, I was only allowed a little of it so I would spend pocket money on it. One weekend I bought 3 satsumas for 3p each and I gave one away to my Mum, later that day our family went shopping in town - somewhere with a carpet floor I found myself sitting on and a satsuma rolled towards me. I can't remember how or where it came from, or whether I tried to find it's owner, just thinking 'Give and you shall receive'. Voilá! I was told god made the world, the world was evidently there.

I'm not sure it would have been possible to have thought otherwise until I had some grasp of more complex concepts and as I gained them I lost notions of faith. Perhaps getting as far as my teens showed I was rather slow but the move in that direction was something relentless and inevitable.

I never showed any interest in CAM, magic, psychics, ghosts etc - never bothered, never found it persuasive.

[Drop Bear]

I've never really been sure if childhood beliefs count as such.

I think they do,very much.


It's my perception that our most powerful, long lasting beliefs an attitudes are formed before the age of about 7. The beliefs are absorbed uncritically,without the use of reason.They become part of the person's sense of self. Relatively few people ever seriously question such beliefs and attitudes.


I have never seen any evidence that human beings as a species are capable of consistent rational thought or behaviour. Some individuals come close,but very few.