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To any former Christians like myself out there, if you feel comfortable sharing, what was your experience like with Christianity, and what was your reasoning for and experience when leaving? I can go first if it makes others feel more comfortable to say something. Feel free to skip over, I just think this is something really interesting that we former Christians can discuss.
I remember as a small child I was just told that there was only one god, and that was, well, God. One big reoccurring theme for me when I was a Christian was that I was extremely confused. I never went to an actual church, but instead I would visit my grandparents occasionally and have little "bible study" sessions there. This was usually done with a simplified children's Bible, since I was a very small child. I don't think i've picked up an actual proper Bible, but even the children's stuff confused me a lot. Often when I would see my grandparents pray, I always had so many questions that remained unasked and unanswered. How would I know if God is listening? How would I know if my prayers were being answered? Was there a proper way to pray? What was I supposed to say? When I tried to pray, I always felt like I was praying to a brick wall, begging it for forgiveness when I did something that my family or peers deemed as sinful. While my family wasn't super strict on Christianity, my Christian peers at my (typically conservative) schools always had a lot to say about certain things, especially homosexuality and being transgender (just LGBTQ in general). The more I tried to comprehend Christianity, the less I understood and the more repulsed I felt by being a part of that religion. Halfway through my first year of high school, I started to question things a lot more. I noticed that my family and peers saw anything that wasn't Christian and assumed it was "devil worship." Take Paganism and the pentagram, for example. My mother literally thinks that Paganism is devil worship... Anyway, I started thinking about Christianity a lot more, and just how limiting it felt. Things like homosexuality and being trans were seen as sinful, as well as natural feelings such as anger, envy, and lust. Why do I need a god to tell me how to live? Why is everything that interests me seen as wrong and sinful? Why is God never there when I need help or guidance?
So then, it happened. I abandoned Christianity and became an atheist, and eventually pursued my nearly lifelong fascination with witchcraft, and I feel a lot happier now than I did when I was praying to someone who didn't even seem like they were there.
This isn't an attack on Christians or anything. In fact, there are quite a few wonderful Christians in my life who genuinely care about others and accept me for who I am. Which brings me back to my question; So what was your experience like? :)
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