Why did you leave or stop practicing your religion?

I'm religious but I wondered just out of curiosity, if you would like to share what the reasons were e.g. disinterest? conflicting belief system? social or cultural pressures? What age? Was there a traumatic event in your life that challenged your existing belief system? Did you embrace another religion?

For me it happened when I was I guess around 6 or 7. I went to sunday school, although my parents were not all that strict on me going... I literally remembering being taught some of the miracles that Jesus had supposedly performed, and obviously the resurrection etc, etc. To me it all just sounded like stories, very far fetched, made no sense even from that very young age. I came to the conclusions it all doesn't make sense in actual reality, and so came to the conclusion that they are just stories.

As I grew older I continued along with this considering the teaching and such as stories and also realised that really Christianity is mainly just for social reasons and of course back in the day to help keep people in line and moral (although people shouldn't need a book or rules for this!!!).

So after that I became, as all humans are born, back to being an atheist.

What religion are you, and did you convert or were you born into it?
Why do you think it is the one true religion out of all the possibilities?

Because I hated the fact that religion was making me sad and depressed and I hated my life I was very devout muslim before but now I feel at peace and happy I feel like I can finally be free from the shackles of religion

Late teens. At a younger age I was the sort of person who simply accepted things 'because God said so' and 'because the quran is perfect'. I prayed, fasted and did everything a 'good Muslim boy should do', but never though for a second WHY I was doing all of this.

Eventually I started asking myself questions. Why do I need religion to be a good human being and why does God place so much emphasis on following a long list of rules just to be a 'good muslim' and not a 'good human'. I used to read the Quran/hadiths/tafsirs from the angle that everything was perfect - I never read it from a non biased angle and from an angle that actually made me question and critique what I was reading. When I eventually did, the flaws and contradictions in islam started to be evident and the true nature of Allah and muhammed came more clear.

Add to that that the free will arguement and 'life being a test' argument made zero sense. Fundamentalist islam (true islam that is followed word for word which Muhammed encouraged for all followers) is totally incompatible with the western world. While it was still applicable to 7th century arabia, many of the practices are not applicable in the 21st century.

So if anything, it wasnt me wanting to drink alcohol or eat a bacon butty that made me question religion, it was the Quran/sunnah/tafsirs themselves! I wasted my time praying to God begging him to make my situation better and make some of my closest support system suffer less, God did absolutely nothing. Is a God who deliberately makes people suffer to test others, causes natural disasters, causes pandemics, does nothing to to solve the real world issues such as famine and poverty worth following? - I think not. Why doesnt Allah solve some the real issues instead of worrying about someone wearing make up, listening to music or not lowering their gaze? Either God priorities are all wrong or is a nasty piece of work who gets a kick out of making people suffer and doing nothing about it.

Ultimately, all religions rely on childhood indoctrination and blind faith.

The basic premise of Christianity is that no man is perfect, we are all flawed in some way or the other - this is why we need a perfect God.

What differentiates Christianity from all other religions is that we believe that you cannot reach God by doing good things, but he is the only God who has ever personally reached out to us.

The time that we spend on this planet is not as long as it may seem, especially when compared to the lifespan of the soul - putting your trust in Christ and his work guarantees eternal life.
- this is not as easy as it seems, however it is worth it.

I lost you at "this is why we need"...

Because no one is good/perfect. No matter whether its your grandmother who seems sweet (she was once a teenager lol), or a 5 year old ("did you eat those sweets" and the child replies no, even though they did.)

Therefore we need someone that is good