Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions

Global and Historical Patterns

• Some note that in post-Soviet societies the pattern ran in reverse: people raised atheists became religious once restrictions lifted, and wonder if a similar rebound could someday occur in China.
• A commenter highlights Pew’s own caveat: younger people being less religious may reflect a life‑cycle effect (people becoming more religious with age) rather than one‑directional secularization.
• Others point out that, beneath the “rise of the unaffiliated,” Islam is gaining a noticeable share of “switchers” in some countries, including the U.S.

Personal Shifts in Belief

• Multiple stories of leaving childhood Christianity/Catholicism/Mormonism, often due to intellectual doubts, hypocrisy, or abuse scandals; some later return when they have children or seek meaning and structure.
• Several describe becoming or staying atheist/agnostic, often after realizing religious stories resemble other social fictions (e.g., Santa Claus) or failing to reconcile doctrine with suffering.
• A few move in the opposite direction: from atheism back to religion, sometimes prompted by awe at biological complexity or by dissatisfaction with “atheist community” culture.

Science, Design, and Evolution

• One person infers design from the immune/endocrine systems; others push back, accusing them of misunderstanding evolution and randomness.
• There's debate whether belief in a creator is compatible with evolution (some say fully compatible, others claim it’s “mental disease” for a scientist).
• Arguments over “intelligent design” focus on alleged sloppiness (vitamin C synthesis, choking hazard of shared airway) versus humility about incomplete biological understanding and unfair comparison to IT systems.

Suffering, Morality, and God’s Nature

• The classic “problem of evil” recurs: what kind of good, omnipotent god allows vast suffering, and why do wealthy religious institutions fail to alleviate it?
• Some argue “God isn’t good, therefore doesn’t exist” is a logical move when goodness is presented as core evidence for God; others call this a non‑sequitur or suggest malevolent/ambiguous deities (e.g., Gnostic demiurge).
• Long subthreads explore whether suffering is necessary for meaning, whether a world with only “relative” but not extreme suffering is possible, and how death factors into assessing suffering.

Institutions, Power, and Abuse

• Several see religion as primarily reinforcing power structures and in‑group/out‑group dynamics rather than doing good, especially once churches pivot from charity to culture‑war and power maintenance.
• Catholic decline is attributed to faith no longer being practiced at home and then greatly accelerated by clergy sex‑abuse scandals and cover‑ups, destroying trust (“we simply do not trust priests with our children”).
• An evangelical insider says many “losses” are people who were only culturally involved (potlucks, social life); when Christian cultural dominance faded, their nominal faith evaporated or morphed into Christian nationalism.

Community, Social Role, and Secular Replacements

• A recurring theme: religion provides community, role models, and structure—especially for families. Some ex‑believers miss this and seek analogues (Quaker meetings, humanist congregations, Zen centers).
• Others argue that if what’s desired is ritual, silence, or discussion, religion is unnecessary; you can use churches/temples as spaces while remaining actively atheist.
• One view: religion restrains some potentially destructive people who say faith is the only thing stopping them from violence; skeptics counter that sanity or surveillance states now play that role.

Spiritual but Not Religious (SBNR)

• Several suggest many “leavers” aren’t hardline atheists; they retain some sense of higher power or spiritual unity but reject rigid dogma, supernatural claims, and institutional corruption.
• This SBNR space is seen as under‑served: people would affiliate if there were frameworks with community and ritual but looser metaphysics and fewer authoritarian claims.