Sephiroth

I voted for former liberal Catholic, not sure if that's the right pick though as I was getting fed up with the Church in the last few months.

Hedwig

Baptized in the Southern Baptist church and wound up being "encouraged" to leave by the youth minister before a full year had gone by. But directly before I became atheist/agnostic I was a practising neo-pagan with Native American shaman leanings.

keyser_soze

It would appear that protestants continue to hold around 40%. Interesting.

Louis_S

I voted "other" because I'm a former Baha'i. As far as things go, its probably one of the most inclusive and open religions, and I'd love to still consider myself one, except that I can't honestly say I believe in God.

*sigh* Got to go with intellectual/spiritual honesty before comfort I guess.

Viti

I posted in the now deleted thread...I went through a series of beliefs before arriving at atheism

1. Secular/no religious instruction until age 10
2. Non-denominational Christian, baptized at age 12
3. About age 14, became a nominal Christmas and Easter Christian
4. Just said I was Christian/Apathetic/Social Christian until age 21 or so. "I don't believe in organized religion.." type thing
5. Explored Paganism, New Age/Universal Consciousness
6. Cross between Pantheist and Deist and agnostic until finding II acouple of years ago
7. Atheist

KnightWhoSaysNi

I don't find that too surprising. Most people who post in the forum are from North America, a predominantly Protestant population.

KnightWhoSaysNi

Yeah, Bahais are interesting. They're so inclusive that even secular humanists are welcome (given their respect for reason and science).

One thing about their beliefs that set off my alarm bells though is their refusal to participate in the democratic process. For example, though they're allowed to vote in elections, their members strongly discourage membership or involvement in political parties. What would a country look like if the population was 100% Bahais? A weird form of anarchistic theocracy?

Korihor (formerly, 'Nightshade')

southernhybrid

I was a born again, Bible thumping Baptist throughout my youth. I was a liberal Xian for a year of two during my late teens. I was a student of Eastern relgions and a friend of the Bahais during most of my 20s. I tried to embrace that religion for many years but wasn't sure about god and some of the other dogma was just too weird for me to accept. I guess you could say I was an agnostic with theistic yearnings during that time in my life. I so badly wanted to believe but it never made enough sense for me to actually regain my faith in the supernatural.

Since I was about 28, I've been a strong atheist. I just woke up one day and realized it. That was about 25 years ago. Atheism is the only thing that makes any sense to me and it also gives me peace to realize there is no god. I'm not sure which box to check in the poll since my deconversion was so slow and it included so many different religious influences.

themistocles

Formerly Catholic. Went gradually to atheism, I figure it took me about 7 years. Was largely a deist during that "evolution".

Shake

Well... in spite of the fact that I should say, "Nothing, I wasn't born," on a count of the fact that I believe we're all born atheists, I voted liberal protestant. I considered myself a Lutheran for a few years when I was a believer, and have long since deconverted.