My mother's funeral, which should have been a celebration of her life, was turned into a fucking sermon and I was ready to punch the guy doing it in the face, despite the fact he was my cousin.

Being ask to leave the service because the person I was with was not white.

My worst experience with religion is that it taught me not to think. I was taught (or rather brainwashed) to accept everything on blind faith, and just listen to the church leaders and obey them. My response was to research the religion of my childhood in a scientific manner. I discovered that it was a lot of nonsense, so I abandoned it and became free from such bondage. Hooray!

Worst "I" have had - - - I transitioned to rational thought over superstition when I was very young so religion had a very limited windows to harm me personally.

As for religion damaging those I know and care about. . . .

The most bitter realization of just how (*ucked up) people can be because (religion) brings to mind a lovely (inside and out) young woman who had lost her father about a year before. She was very depressed and was sent to a Catholic mental health unit to help her deal with her loss . . . I don't know where she got her information but her friends told me the note they found beneath her hanging body read, "I've killed myself so I can forever live in heaven with Jesus and my dead father. An administrator from the university during a student gathering announced. ". . . God had called her to him."

There are many other examples of the *"goodness" religions have imposed on those I know.

I was told by a Catholic priest, Father Ysrael Bien, that I would not be allowed to marry my (ex) wife because even though I had been baptized when younger, I couldn't produce any record of such baptism. I stated I would be willing to be baptized again but I discovered this was not allowed. My ex is devout Catholic so marrying outside of the church wasn't an option. I ended up having to search around for a priest who would agree to marry us despite no record of baptism. This ended up ruining our original wedding plans. You can imagine how difficult and time consuming it was to find a priest willing to marry us without a baptismal record. We did find one eventually.

The irony: if I'd kept my mouth shut from the beginning about ever having been baptized when I was younger, I would have saved myself months of time and perhaps thousands of dollars. I could have just been baptized a second time as if it were the first.

Further irony: the original priest in question fled the USA some years later after having been busted setting up a hidden bathroom camera in my wife's church, St. Francis, in Beaverton Oregon. That's no kidding. Read about it here:

[oregonlive.com]

and here:

[globalnation.inquirer.net]

I got off easy. A lifelong skeptic, I scoffed at ridiculous Bible stories as a young child. Told my parents I was an atheist at age 13. They were fine with it. Mom was an atheist and Dad never went to church.

Sadly, my Jehovah's Witness cousin cut me off when I refused to be converted.

My dating website says I'm an atheist. Two men saw this as a challenge.

"Martin Luther said there are no atheists," one man said triumphantly, as if that settled the matter. "I don't care what a Catholic monk said over 400 years ago," I replied and laughed.

"I don't want to argue with you," I said. "I'm leaving. Thanks for lunch."

Exit stage left.

Besides the let down of its lies?

My girlfriends dad, a pastor, assaulted me in front of my step kids because their dad let them watch "Corpse Bride". That set the tone for all things religion with her in the relationship. As in, it's okay if you say sorry, and then that makers them justified for their actions. It further supported the notion that there's no such thing as a Holy spirit, nor any god in general. Also, that often the most vocal proponents of religion are its worst subjects. To this day, that whole family blames me for the shitty relationship and thinks that I was abusive because I stood up for what's right (moral) while they just circled around believing lies. Probably the absolute worst example of humanity I've ever got to see on a personal level. Downright despicable people that espouse to be righteous and heaven bound.

There was no one stand-out, but as @BestWithoutGods suggested, the biggest disservice it did me was to teach me not to think with my supposedly god-given brain. Specifically, to disrespect evidence and following it where it leads. Diametrically opposed to this is the dictum, "let God be true, and every man a liar". Meaning if facts and evidence disagree with the Bible or ecclesiastical authority, then facts and evidence are what is wrong. Definitionally that can never be the case. Facts in lived experience have to agree with the Bible for it to even be provisionally considered to be correct.

Because of my lack of clear rational thinking, I made many bad life decisions that will impact me until the day I die. I have to own my role in that, as no one held a gun to my head and said I HAD to subscribe to ridiculous beliefs. But ... I definitely would have been better off without religious influences.

Being told by a catholic that I would be going to Hell because I took communion and hadn’t been confirmed.

I just replied that I doubted it because I did not believe in it.

When I was in my early 20s, and doing lots of drugs, my two best friends (and apartment-mates) got into jeezus. They went all-the-way and I went with them. In retrospect, the "church" baited us with females, but that works with virgins in their 20s. I found myself preaching and proselytizing, carrying a bible around with me. It took about 6-months for me to snap out of it. The hypocrisy was too much for me. And I never did get laid.

Never mix drugs and religion. Actually, never touch religion.

worst? probably not... infuriating? to me, yes. i was required to let my kids believe in santa claus by my ex wife to uphold family traditions. one of my youngest's best friends is from a family of jesus worshipers. they did not introduce santa to their children because the holiday to them is about the christ child, not commercialism. they apparently demean folks who celebrate with santa. the holiday to me is about christ as well. that is why i refuse to celebrate it.

now it comes to pass that my kid is too old to believe in santa. she just is. she does anyway despite what she has heard because she loves her quasi-christmas and enjoys the gift giving/getting and santa as well as family gatherings. this is as much as her sort of buy in allows in that she doesn't celebrate actual christmas because she is an atheist (her self adopted moniker)...

her jesusy friend decides to be the final straw in my daughter's santa belief one year. the friend is insistent that he doesn't exist. the friend makes her feel badly about herself because she still believes in santa, she is too old to believe in santa, and the real celebration is of christ baby, which my kid cannot allow because she doesn't believe in god so she is somehow ruining the holiday for the jesus family.

so my kid is made to feel bad about the imaginary thing that the jesus family doesn't believe in, and made to feel bad about the fact that she cannot celebrate christmas correctly because she doesn't believe in the make believe deity that jesus girl believes in.

yet another example of the religious living and letting live. i was correct in the first place. since we don't believe in christ we should not be celebrating christmas, jesus, or santa. i'm pretty sure my daughter has recovered and hopefully sees the jesusy family in a more correct light. me? yet again, i live and let live. i did have thoughts of telling them off given what their kid spews as fact to mine, but i refrained.

there was another instance where they congratulated same daughter on accepting jesus christ (at around age 7 or 8 ) into her life when she attended a church function with the family (me again, live and let live)... if i were them in this instance, say their kid at my house agreeing that her god is bogus, i would have said, "i think you may want to talk to your parents about what you say you are accepting. they may want to share their beliefs with you." he chose to congratulate her and tell her how proud he was of her. i was not privy to this story until years after it happened. tearing them a verbal new one would likely be pointless (so live and let live yet again.) she has since attended more of these functions and has gotten over the acceptance she was mistaken about just by listening to them barf hooey. the jesusy people don't have a chance in catching her. too smart. my fervent hope is too late in life to be indoctrinated. i also told her make sure she talks to me before joining any cults. and she can celebrate new year's with me, our gift giving holiday guilt free.

My mother was a very religious Catholic. When I was about 10 years old my mother brought me to the church for religious instruction with a big nun who wore a habit. There were other kids there and I was talking to some kids I knew so the nun grabbed me pulled me out of the pew and dragged me over to a wooden statue of Jesus in the back of the church. She wanted me to apologize to Jesus and kiss the feet of the wooden statue. I said "NO!" She tried to force me down I my knees...I pushed her back....rewarded her with a few expletives....and ran out of the church and went home. Needless to say this created a big fight with my Mom....my father sided with me,,,,and I never went back to that church.

too many to mention, but most of them came from my mother and her obsession that I was going to grow up to be a prophet

My worst experience was being raised within the limited thinking of religion. It greatly hampered my creativity and ti took a lot of work to develop an open mind. My mental maturity was stifled and I was pretty naive going all the way into my mid 20's. This put me at a great disadvantage in being prepared for life in my adulthood.

Can't think of a single one.
Then again, I've always known that religion is bullshit and all gods are false.
Even before I had the words or knowledge to explain or categorize it, I knew it
was all false. Even as a child, it all just felt like lies to me.
So, for me, none of that stuff has ever mattered worth a damn.

During my brother's funeral, despite the fact that he was right there, in an open coffin, in front of everyone, the priest ignored him completely and droned on for forty minutes about how awesome Jesus is. No mention of my brother at all. I was FURIOUS but I kept it together and let it go but my hatred for religion definitely increased that day.

oh you mean like the men trying to the men making passes and trying to screw you as a kid and then beating you for hours to days for lies their children told because you wouldn't admit you did it
you mean like that?
or being in a foster home and catching the wife with the neighbor and getting a beating when the hubby came home cause she lied about you
stuff like that?
or maybe 5 men praying for your healing and finding out later 2 of them are lovers
Like that?
or working for a religious retreat and finding the most judgmental back stabbing ppl on earth
does that qualify?

I never had any bad experiences with religion. There were many things and people that I liked within my church. I just didn't believe in what they were teaching.

One time in middle school I spent the night with a friend. The next morning I went to church with them. It was pretty boring, but there were no lasting effects.

My step grandfather. Was the worst, but he is always the worst about everything. Too controlling and inconsiderate of others sometimes.

The worst?
My parents were United Methodist missionaries and their religious beliefs affected every aspect of my life.
But probably the "worst" was their patriarchal mindset, backed up by the Bible.

From babyhood, I was pressured to conform to how a proper "girl" should dress and behave (I now identify as nonbinary), although my parents gave up when a "real" girl sister was born.

From toddlerhood it was obvious to me that my parents valued males over females; my brothers could do no wrong, were constantly praised, but we girls were ignored and blamed. My mom doted on my dad with religious zeal.

When a doctor relative sexually assaulted me when I was 15 years old, and I told my mom, she ignored me, confirming that in her mind, girls don't matter at all.

Many years later, I did file a sexual assault complaint against that doctor with the medical board, so that at least it will be on record in case there is a class action suit later on.

I would say being raised in a religion that taught that we are all dirty, rotten, corrupt, sinners and deserve to spend eternity in hell for simply being born human was pretty bad.

Of course, all we had to do was ask Jesus into our hearts and all was forgiven; but, then comes the guilt of not understanding why we keep "sinning" even though Jesus supposedly makes us a "new person."

And, those who don't ask Jesus for that forgiveness, or believe in him, no matter how good a person they are, are going to hell--growing up, this really bothered me.

My response was eventually questioning everything I had ever been taught. I left organized religion, then Christianity; and, in time, after learning more science, I became an atheist. I realized there is no need for any kind of god.

Being told when I was ten by the psychiatrist my mom took me to that my bishop had talked to the man who was sexually harassing me and didn't believe he would do anything like that. Then having everyone quietly drop the matter. That was the day that the whole world became unsafe on a new level. When someone assaults you, you feel afraid of them. When no one believes you, you feel afraid of everyone.

There are no good experiences with the religious types because religion takes ignorant people and guides them down the garden path to being retarded people.