When you were a Theist.

[Grave_n_idle]

Many Atheists have been in this mental state at some point in their lives. There are some who were Atheists from the get go, but this is not always the case. Most of us believe in God at some point or another.

My question is, if and when you were a Theist, what was your reasoning for holding that belief? What was it that made you believe? Did you want to believe?

To be completely honest, I don't think I ever had reasoning for being a Theist. My mother approved of my readiness to worship, and my father approved of my Bible studies. It just always seemed a good thing to do in that regard. This was before I realized that I didn't have to believe something to please my parents.

I was a believer because that was what I heard and saw. Once I actually started questioning, I lost faith.

[New Byzant]

I was born into Greek Orthodoxy. As a kid my parents forced me to go to church , and I did not quite like it. As I grew I became more and more unsure of it all. And then I discovered science. Learning about the theory of evolution and all made me asking question. Why believe in a religion and how it is that the religion I was born in was the true one? Why Orthodox and not Catholic or Protestant? Why Bible and not Quran? Why Abrahamic Gods and not those of the east? Why any faith and not science? Then I've discovered that the Orthodox church is actually historically and theologically the same as the church of the New Testament. Then I've discovered that Islam uses a person as prophet, as that person historically has nothing to do with they say He did. I've seen that Jesus's teachings are the actual fulfillment of the Jewish Law. I've discovered how Christianity has changed and reformed the moral of the world, and created the moral that we toady take is just simply applying to the universe. I've learned the absurdity of abiogenesis, some of the fallacies of the evolution, and learned that truly has risen the Crucified God!

[DaWoad]

I'm a theist. I believe that there is one God, our Creator. He created all the things in Earth. He created us. God never does anything accidentally, nor mistakes. God's presence is too profound to be measured by mere sensation or emotion. If there is no God, we would all be accidents, the result of astronomical random chance in the universe. But, no. Our lives have profound meaning. And, yes, the life here on Earth is just a test. We will spend far more time in eternity, meaning, death is only the passageway to afterlife. We were made for immortality.


"Surely, God wouldn't have created such a being as a man to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality." - Abraham Lincoln. We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

On what do you base your belief?

[DaWoad]

some of the fallacies of the evolution

name one.

[Bottle]

I never was a theist, but there was a time when I was really trying to be.

I know that I was really attracted to the little ceremonies of religion. Like, kneeling to pray before bed. I tried that out. I thought it was a neat idea. I liked the elaborate rituals in some churches. It was like they had this secret club with a secret handshake and I wanted to learn the handshake so I could get in.

I also had a stretch of time when I wished I could believe in some "higher power" simply because my life sucked so much that it would have been nice to believe that I could just sacrifice a chicken or something and it would all get better. I wanted to ask the universe to take pity on me, somehow, and I wished that I could believe in a God just so that I could at least have the slim hope that something would hear my pleas. In retrospect, I think that might actually have made it worse, since those pleas would have gone unanswered and then my belief in the higher power would have been smashed along with all the other shit I was dealing with.

[Geniasis]

You know, I'm willing to give Pascal a pass on that embarrassment. He did write it when he was dying after all. I mean, I'll probably be lucky if I'm not messing my pants when I'm dying, so I think a little perspective is warranted here.

We're all dying, friend, just at different rates.

Oh all right, you little pedant. Pascal wrote it when he was in a highly accelerated sequence of death. Is that better?

[Meowfoundland]

I didn't think about it. I was a pretty good Christian, now that I think about it, with all my praying and going to church and stuff.

[Brandenburg-Altmark]

I really never was. I would go to church occasionally because I was told it was something you "had" to do, but it always felt odd to me. I didn't feel anything when I was supposed to be "talking to jesus," or whatever the guy at this group would say, and it just seemed strange that they were asking me to communicate to something that wouldn't ever talk back.

[Sociobiology]

We're all dying, friend, just at different rates.

Oh all right, you little pedant. Pascal wrote it when he was in a highly accelerated sequence of death. Is that better?

not to mention pascals wager only works if you stick with the false dichotomy of one monotheistic religion or no religion being your only two options. Pascal's wager breaks down as soon as you have more than one religion (200 and counting right now)

[Geniasis]

not to mention pascals wager only works if you stick with the false dichotomy of one monotheistic religion or no religion being your only two options. Pascal's wager breaks down as soon as you have more than one religion (200 and counting right now)

Er... duh. That's why I'm giving the otherwise intelligent Pascal a pass on it, since it was part of a collection of things he'd been puzzling out on his deathbed.

Way to bring the premise halfway in the conversation.

[Terra Agora]

A 'sky daddy' seemed logical at the time. Except I was a deist so it was more like a creative nothingness.

Either or the occult and lore is what kept me going. I had a keen interest in it.

[Zekopia]

My parents were christians so i was brought up it and stuck with it until because i simply thought it was right and i was also terrified of going to hell but later i saw the world for what it was and saw sense.

[The BranRiech]

im atheist because i cant stand how people can believe that one god is creator of everything, i also cant stand for the fact that other religions are put down and joked about just because theyre different in their beliefs.

[Vettrera]

His theories he renounced... Not his faith.

no...the point is that the Christian church is anti-Darwinist

No they weren't. Darwin's theories were evolution by natural selection with animals and nature, not humans

[Vettrera]

im atheist because i cant stand how people can believe that one god is creator of everything, i also cant stand for the fact that other religions are put down and joked about just because theyre different in their beliefs.

Thats understandable

[Josh Sinister]

I never was really a Theist.
In my younger days, I extensively studied theology (all of it. Seriously, ask me about Zoroastrianism and its influence on how we interpret the bible, dualistically. I haven't studied Islam, though...). from a materialistic perspective. I didn't say what I was (an atheist) because, well, I lived with a bunch of pretentious assholes for sisters who'd change theologies when it seemed cool (ask me how much I like those dickweeds). Thus, I decided to just ignore the whole damn thing.

About a year or 2 later, I decided that I needed to define myself in this area. I essentially looked around for scientific reasons to confidently abandon that silly veneer, and, later on, realized that maybe the whole world is "Materialist."

I didn't want to define myself as "Atheist", because it stopped being about materialism and just nontheism, and more about being a cool and "irreverent" pop term (read: bigotry). (Yes, it does seem like all Atheists hate each other.)

Frankly, my mindset hasn't really changed from that. I prefer "Materialist" or "Humanist" to atheist, because those terms actually mean something.

Weirdly, though, when I was younger, I was extensively into the occult. Really. To the point when it was really fucking nerdy. God, I feel a bit retarded because of it...

[Josh Sinister]

I'm a theist. I believe that there is one God, our Creator. He created all the things in Earth. He created us. God never does anything accidentally, nor mistakes. God's presence is too profound to be measured by mere sensation or emotion. If there is no God, we would all be accidents, the result of astronomical random chance in the universe. But, no. Our lives have profound meaning. And, yes, the life here on Earth is just a test. We will spend far more time in eternity, meaning, death is only the passageway to afterlife. We were made for immortality.


"Surely, God wouldn't have created such a being as a man to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality." - Abraham Lincoln. We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

On what do you base your belief?

Uh, we're not all immoral. Seriously, I have no idea why people (and pretentious fuckers who think that misanthropy and cynicism is cool or something) always have to debase Humanity. Morals obviously didn't come from god; they came from us.

Would you, as a theist, kill someone if god didn't exist? No, you wouldn't!

[Kesheru]

Was an Athiest and then became a Thiest

[Bottle]

I'm a theist. I believe that there is one God, our Creator. He created all the things in Earth. He created us. God never does anything accidentally, nor mistakes. God's presence is too profound to be measured by mere sensation or emotion. If there is no God, we would all be accidents, the result of astronomical random chance in the universe. But, no. Our lives have profound meaning. And, yes, the life here on Earth is just a test. We will spend far more time in eternity, meaning, death is only the passageway to afterlife. We were made for immortality.


"Surely, God wouldn't have created such a being as a man to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality." - Abraham Lincoln. We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

That's not only vapid, but also off-topic. The OP is asking people why they were a theist. You simply stated your beliefs, which happen to still be theist. If you had at least attempted some sort of self-examination, and explained WHY you believe as you believe, you might be on topic. But instead you simply parroted the same theistic statements that we've all heard a zillion times, with nothing of substance or value added.

Do you really think that you are representing your faith well when you do this?

[Meryuma]

Was an Athiest and then became a Thiest

Why? Also, it's spelled "atheist" and "theist".

[A Ant]

Was an Athiest and then became a Thiest

Why? Also, it's spelled "atheist" and "theist".

"Correct" grammar is a tool of the coercive and tyrannical state.

[Meryuma]

Why? Also, it's spelled "atheist" and "theist".

"Correct" grammar is a tool of the coercive and tyrannical state.

You mean spelling.

And "coercive state" is redundant.

[A Ant]

"Correct" grammar is a tool of the coercive and tyrannical state.

You mean spelling.

And "coercive state" is redundant.

Spelling too. That you knew what he meant but chose to correct him anyway means you obviously only did so in order to feel self satisfied. Why do you hate freedom?

[Soheran]

My question is, if and when you were a Theist, what was your reasoning for holding that belief?

I thought that all knowledge claims were essentially arbitrary, so I might as well go with a particular set that I liked. (I don't believe this anymore, but I think there are alternative ways to be rationally religious: I just don't think they would work well for me.)

What was it that made you believe?

Some combination of my general tendencies toward moralism (which I still have in a secularized form), the comfort of faith in an all-powerful deity, and a desire to have a life more infused with meaning.

Did you want to believe?

Yes. Otherwise I wouldn't have. I still do, on some understanding of "want."

[French Union]

I never was one, I was forced to go to church till I was 8 though. I'll never get those hours back...

Even if there was some kind of higher power, putting someone above myself goes against my principals.