Why most people leave religion? They just ‘stop believing’

[trotsky]

http://religionnews.com/2016/09/22/why-most-people-leave-religion-they-just-stop-believing/

It’s bad news for organized religion: A majority of the religiously unaffiliated — the so-called “nones” — say they fell away from faith not because of any negative experience, but because they “stopped believing,” usually before the age of 30.

Gloomier still for religion is this — nones now make up 25 percent of the American population, making them the single largest “faith group” in the U.S., ahead of Catholics (21 percent) and white evangelicals (16 percent).

And only a fraction — seven percent — say they are looking for a religion to belong to at all.

Those are among the more salient findings of a new study of the religiously unaffiliated conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Report is available here: http://www.prri.org/research/prri-rns-2016-religiously-unaffiliated-americans/

[tonyt53]

1. I didn't "leave" religion, I just stopped going to church at about 16 or 17 y/o.

I realized that the people that went there were more screwed up than I could have ever imagined. Southern Baptist church, full of drunks, gamblers, liars, bigots, and adulterers. Those words of Jesus only applied while they were sitting in the pews. I was finally old enough to see how those people were living and to realize what they were doing. It just seemed more appropriate to live by those words instead of going to church and pretending to. It is pretty darned easy to treat everybody the same and to try help others when I can. I'm 63 now and have never regretted my decision. But I do still go for weddings and funerals.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

2. What I don't believe in, is

Religion itself. Particularly big, organized religion. It's a scam for rubes.

[heaven05]

3. negative experience(s)

prompted me to study american christianity, especially the racist and bigoted Southen Baptist belief, for 20years and then realize, it's not as the so-called religious leaders say. American Christianity Sunday worship, still the most segregated hour in america.

[vlyons]

4. That's one of the beauties of Buddhism. It's not based on silly beliefs.

Buddhism is more a psychology of how the mind works than a religion. It is a non-theistic religion that doesn't rely on some parental god for it's authority. It relies on the mind of each and every one of us to use logic and reason to discover a path away from suffering and towards happiness. The ground teachings of Buddhism begin with the 4 Noble Truths, first of which is the truth of suffering. There is an ethical code and a path to maintain a calm and peaceful mind, and be inspired to acts of compassion for others. The dharma (Buddhist teachings) have now come to the West. However, unlike Christians, Buddhism doesn't proselytize for new converts. One has to seek out and ask for teachings. One has to be ready to receive the dharma. For those, who aren't ready, well that's ok too.

[rurallib]

5. I left religion after so many of their threats never came true

Catholic, so missing Sunday mass and the eating meat on Friday were the first I accidentally tested.
Didn't die, wasn't visited by Satan, no one could tell I had committed such vile sins. Started investigating the threats of hell and damnation and realized they held no water.

Like so many others, I also had a hard time reconciling the drunks and adulterers being the church leadership. And why didn't non-catholics experience some kind of punishment? Chip by chip religion went from being central to my life to a bag a fanciful stories that had nothing to do with reality, but seemed to be a major source of prejudice and hate.

So i guess I too just "stopped believing" after finally realizing that there was no "there" there.