Irritated to Atheism?

[The Darkness]

Warning! Could be offensive to some strong believers! Read at your own risk! Please don't be personally insulted!

My mom's a Christian.
My sister's a Christian. x1000000
But my dad's Mormon!
And me? Well, I consider myself Agnostic.
I don't know but the more everyone in this household of mines speaks about God and how great he is and how he loves us all and whatnot, the more I am starting to not believe, and get extremely irritated, and even start to hate this make-believe creature they call God!
They get so extremely irritating when they start talking about how "God Loves You!" and "He will save you!" or "You will be condemned to an eternity of hell if you do not believe in Him or his Son!" *shakes Bible in face*
They go on preaching to me saying that I should pray and read the Bible and how I should love him and respect him and all that crap. Frankly, I don't give a damn.
I used to believe in him. When I was little. I used to think "man, God is great 'cause he give me all these toys!" but then when I was sad or lonely or when my friends bullied me or when my sister ignored me I would say "Oh please God, won't you let me be happy with my friends, my family, all that?" that was when I was little. My prayers were never answered, even if I pleaded, even if I cried and I fully believed that that God I believed in would change my life and care for me and LOVE me like how it said in the Bible!
So slowly, I tore apart from believing in him, like how you slowly part from an imaginary friend. Not very long, eh?
Then my sister started becoming more of an evangelist, or whatever you call them. She kept preaching and preaching every single moment, 24/7, boring you to death with God and the Bible and whatnot. That made it worse. I wanted to continue beliving, but it got harder. Soon it got so bad that I gave up on the fact that there is even a God. That there's even a greater being that exist and LOVES me? how can an imaginary thing, something we cannot see, something we "hear" and "feel" and "love", love us and care for us and watch over us 24/7???
How I believe religion was created? There's a bunch of guys and they come up with the idea that they make up a big and Godlike creature and make a book to emphasize it and so everyone liked it and went with the flow.
And with all that stress and drama just makes me more and more Atheist then Agnostic now.
And to add with that, I asked them to stop preaching to me so they said "You will never stop hearing the word of the Lord because the Lord lives here!" Well, it doesn't seem like a holy place at home, it's more like a living hell!
-_- No one may understand.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Myself and many others understand. It's good you can find some belief that you can believe in comfortably and like despite having other beliefs shoved down your throat. As much as you may hate it, I certainly would, remember that not all Christians are like this. The "bible-thumpers" are, the ones whom your family appears to be comprised of. It's a narrow-minded view that basically says "believe or else". There's not much I think you can do about it and trying to challenge their views I'm guessing would go nowhere because like many bible-thumpers, when opposed they essentially put their fingers in their ears and go "lalalalalala, not listening", then once you stop talking, they repeat whatever they just said. The reasons I see are either they're afraid there is no god, so much so that they don't even want to consider a world like that or they simply haven't thought about a god not existing and not putting the bible infront of them everytime a situation arises.

In other words, I sympathize with you and don't know what else to say other than that.

[Xujhan]

Hi Waltera!

I completely understand. I get enough bible-thumping to irritate me just reading Michael's posts here on TeenHelp. I can only imagine that actually having to live with that 24/7 would be a nightmare. Like YNF says those, there likely isn't much you can do to change their attitudes.

What you can do for you though, if you care to, is do some research and some thinking; figure out exactly what it is you believe. Few things are quite so empowering as knowing exactly where you stand, especially when surrounded by people who think very differently. Personally, I like to thing about such things by asking three questions:

1. What do I think is likely to be true? Namely: do I think god likely exists? And if so, what kind of god?

2. What do I think is morally good? Namely: if god exists, do I think s/he is good, evil, somewhere in between, or simply indifferent? Here it's worth considering several different possible gods, and deciding how you'd feel about each one.

3. Given the above two answers, how should I live my life?

There are other ways to go about it of course, but this is what I find works for me. If you'd like to talk more about religion or atheism, feel free to PM me or track me down on MSN. I'm an atheist myself, so I have plenty to say on the subject.

Hope you're having a good day!

[Power Cosmic]

I have to say, I sympathise, and can empathise.

I had to live with my religious family for 17 years... escaping from them for university was like a breath of fresh sanity...

Just hang in there mate

[Jocelyn.]

I feel like I've thought your exact thoughts many times

My boyfriend and I are planning on raising our son as an agnostic. Basically that he is free to choose a religion if that's what he wants, but here is what mommy and daddy believe is the truth... (that religion was created to force people to follow laws lol).

However, both of our families are quite religious and we're deciding how to keep them from pushing it on him. If they want to try and teach specific things, like how they feel about issues in the bible and why, and why they believe, I feel that's fine because they are allowed to express that. Not like he won't hear it from kids at school anyway. But I don't want them brainwashing him with "God loves you!", and if you pray God listens, and about building a relationship with God because if you don't your going to Hell.

I feel your pain, and all I can say is I'm sorry.

[Power Cosmic]

Originally Posted by BadFish

I feel like I've thought your exact thoughts many times

My boyfriend and I are planning on raising our son as an agnostic. Basically that he is free to choose a religion if that's what he wants, but here is what mommy and daddy believe is the truth... (that religion was created to force people to follow laws lol).

However, both of our families are quite religious and we're deciding how to keep them from pushing it on him. If they want to try and teach specific things, like how they feel about issues in the bible and why, and why they believe, I feel that's fine because they are allowed to express that. Not like he won't hear it from kids at school anyway. But I don't want them brainwashing him with "God loves you!", and if you pray God listens, and about building a relationship with God because if you don't your going to Hell.

I feel your pain, and all I can say is I'm sorry.

I wish I was your kid >.>