What made YOU leave stage Blue? Share your story

[Jay Ray]

 

I wanted to collect peoples stories on why exactly YOU left your past stage blue religion so I can see some of the commonalities. 

What made you leave, is there an exact memory of something that was a turning point for you?

Was there a conversation with someone or a video that you watched that changed your mind? 

Have you ever been one of those angry theists in your lifetime ? 

If you met yourself from the past when you were at stage blue, what would you say or ask your self? 

Thank you! 

 

[Arcangelo]

A youtuber named DarkMatter2525

[Jay Ray]

@Arcangelo yeah his videos are VERY convincing 

[Espaim]

Studying logic in high school and then trying to apply it to religion

No doubt I went full atheistic after that

Mind you I was the type of guy that read the Bible and prayed everyday.

Edited August 26, 2020 by Espaim

[Matt1576]

To be honest, I would say I haven't entirely left stage blue, but it has been a few years since I stopped believing in Christianity. What sparked that was a combination of 'the Atheist Experience' and primarily Matt Dillahunty, and the YouTube channel Rationality Rules run by Steven Woodford. 

I think most people who have left religion can relate to the utter horror and existential crisis I faced at the time, and even the feelings of contempt for the people that were sparking these feelings within me. 

 

[soos_mite_ah]

I was exposed to other religions and started questioning which one is the right one since all of them claimed to be so. I went to a stage blue christian school and the kids bullied me because I was Hindu. Then I realized that all religions have that one group that thinks they're the best and that everyone else will burn in hell and thought that was messed up since I didn't want anyone to go through the bs I was going through. 

Later on, I studied other religions outside of my own in middle school. Sometimes that helps you see how relative it all is. 

Also as far as obeying authority goes, I realized early on that my parents weren't the most reliable source because they were pretty toxic especially compared to my friends' parents. Therefore, I started questioning them and just anyone in authority in general because I saw how blindly following someone or something can lead to your demise. It was a survival strategy. The only reason why I went to orange instead of red is because just in general, I was a pretty calm and agreeable kid. I couldn't pick a fight and start something if I tried (unless it was an argument/debate). This and the bullying thing happened around when I was 9. 

I didn't go through the phase of being an angry theist or angry atheist. My family wasn't super religious and never pushed it on me. I didn't go through the angry atheist phase either because I adopted the label of being agnostic at around 13 because that made the most sense to me. Back then my logic was, hey i can't know for sure and it best to claim that I don't know and be humble instead of going around and yelling at people who also don't have the answers. I also saw healthy manifestations of religion as well where people weren't harming each other. My take is this, if a bearded man in the sky can give you guidance and hope, who am i to smash that to pieces. This helped me not demonize blue too much. But i did see the excesses and that freaked me out a little for a while  (12-15) but then its like, there is a lot of social conditioning and factors that causes people to act like this. That realization happened around 16.  

Edited August 28, 2020 by soos_mite_ah

[Mada_]

Contemplation 

[fridjonk]

Being raised in an orange/green society. I probably left blue around the age of 8. 

Looking up to people in stage orange helped pull me out of there. 

Edited August 26, 2020 by fridjonk

[EternalForest]

When I recognized that rules and laws were arbitrary things. But as for leaving Blue religion in specific, I guess it happened when I began studying other religions outside of Christianity. When all you know is one tradition, it's easy to get dogmatic about it. I'd wager the majority of Christians have never set aside time to seriously study any other spiritual tradition. Not to say that doing that would automatically make them more open-minded, but it's certainly a stepping stone.

Edited August 26, 2020 by EternalForest

[Danioover9000]

   I gradually got out of stage blue thinking, and I had a few life and death situations I had to defend myself in that made me rely on myself more than prayers.

[Elshaddai]

I was struggling for a long time with my belief in the biblical version of god and my jewish faith in said god yet I've always had my doubts.

After reflecting on traditional religion vs science and reason I realized religion to be false and science correct because you cannot escape the emperical evidence behind scientific claims.

[Carl-Richard]

I think I've prayed to God like two times in my life when I was like 10 years old. I was asking if I could get a girlfriend, and it worked lol. I probably started to react negatively to Christianity when I was around 15 (watching The Amazing Atheist, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Hitchens etc.). That probably peaked at 18 years old, and then I became more pluralistic and less materialistic.

I did have my confirmation in a Christian church, but it was primarily a boring experience more than anything else, except one time when they had a talk where they separated the guys from the girls and tried to turn us off from masturbating to porn. The dude who was talking about it felt kinda insincere and we were all offended by the message.

[tuckerwphotography]

Travel. Growing up every year my family would go on an off-the-beaten path trip in a "developing" country. Made me see from a young age that the world is big and our diversity of beliefs and practices are what make life rich and beautiful. Also, this documentary Baraka is like traveling without traveling and had a huge influence on me when I first watched in around age 15.

 

[Moon]

I started questioning more (specifically to do with religion at around 14) and as I got more into science and understanding evolution, I just had too many questions and ideas that were incompatible with Islam. 

I fully "left" religion at around 16 (in my head anyway). I also would watch atheist YouTubers and Jaclyn Glenn was my favourite, as well as being intrigued by how Muslim YouTubers like Dawah Man and Ali Dawah would spread their message and listening to their persuasion and arguments used.

Luckily, I didn't leave blue religion with hostility towards the ideas or people, perhaps because the religious side of my upbringing wasn't too dogmatic and forceful (in comparison to others' I'd see anyway). I kept onto a few blue cultural values a bit longer after I quit blue religion though. 

I aIso enjoyed studying philosophy and ethics at school, which made me label myself agnostic over atheist. (I may have labelled myself atheist for a few months max, can't remember tbh).  I was agnostic till around 21. 

[Godhead]

On 26.8.2020 at 3:06 AM, Jay Ray said:

What made you leave, is there an exact memory of something that was a turning point for you?

I remember all the arguments that I had with my parents (Jehovahs witnesses ) about metaphysical topics when I was 12-14 to which they more often than not had no response. My sister believed at 25 that if the earth was only one cm closer to the sun we would all burn. I always warned her that she shouldn't wear high heels. 

On 26.8.2020 at 3:06 AM, Jay Ray said:

If you met yourself from the past when you were at stage blue, what would you say or ask your self? 

I would tell myself something like: "You'll figure out whatever you put your mind to and don't be so mean to girls "

 

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by Godhead

[AtheisticNonduality]

Short answer: Hugo and Jake and His Dark Materials and critical contemplation. Long answer: jerking off.

[Seiden]

The fact that I could only date people of the same religion, I was actually a teen group leader of a protestant church and was raised as a hardcore christian, but seen everyone as sinful and not trustworthy if they're not christian really started to feel painful.

ACIM really resonated with me for that reason. since its aimed mostly to ex-christian.

[Gesundheit]

I got exhausted so I quit.

[Someone here]

I never was religious lol.   I knew from the very beginning that all religions are different paths to inner wisdom and universal consciousness and the moment you take it  as a dogma or a belief system you fundamentally misunderstand it.. Which is exactly what 99% of religious people are doing ?

Edited August 29, 2020 by Someone here

[Dryas]

I don’t think I was ever properly stage blue. Always been highly skeptical of my religion and very open to new ideas. I did still kind of want to practice my religion as best as I could but my thinking, at least subconsciously, went something like:

This is the theoretical framework I have adopted for now. For me to not practice its teachings would be hypocritical, but there’s no absolute reason for me to believe that this framework isn’t flawed or fundamentally mistaken. 

Eventually my skepticism grew and a few very heated debates and YouTube vids forced me to think in new ways. Of course I still had quite a few stage blue ideas that needed deconstructing and Actualized helped a lot with that. 

I believe the reason for my openness and skepticism was my refusal to accept that my, or ‘our’, worldview is perfect. 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Dryas