afterlife

I used to believe that when u die u start another life in another body in another family

Blaaaah

I used to believe that there were different heavens for each nationality.
Chinese heaven was like one of those nightclubs or rollercoasters; you have to be 5ft or under to get in.

Box Fighter

When i entered my teen years, i began to think that my faith in God (I'm Catholic, hope I'm not offending anyone) was dropping, and I began to think that at the end of life, you slip into a coma for the rest of eternity.

Stevensonbak

I used to believe the nuns could decide if I would go to hell.

Colleen

I used to believe that if I doubted the existence of God I would never be forgiven and could never go to Heaven. Then I did doubt God's existence at some point and then felt enormous guilt. It troubled me for a long time until I realized I was afraid of absolutely nothing. Thanks for traumatizing my childhood, "God".

Tom

This is actually one of my earlier memories so it's a little hazy but parts of it are still quite vivid.
I remember being in Sunday School and this woman whose child care certificate must have been made of construction paper and glitter, was speaking to the congregation of youngsters about the difference between Heaven and Hell.
I have from as far back as I can remember struggled with the concept of living forever.(Either way I look at it living for an eternity in either case is Hell in itself.)
This woman had me believing that when you die and go to heaven (because we were all good little girls and boys.) you eternally sit on a fence and listen to angels sing.
Right then and there I decided that Christianity wasn't for me, her story sent me into my earliest memory of an anxiety attack and I bolted for the exit as soon as I saw an opportunity.
This is where things get hazy, I remember construction workers and a bunch of adults I didn't recognize. I was found and my parents promptly took me home.
I must have been at least 2, but it's hard to know for sure.

SaltineKraken

when i was little i always asked my mom if i could take my blankie to heaven. she said i could, so i always used to imagine my family soaring (all together) up to heaven, superman-style, with my blankie in my hand.

hp

when i was little i thought that as soon as you died, you were born again -- so anytime we'd learn anything about like the pilgrims or something i'd believe that i was a pilgrim.

in that way, when i was in third grade i actually thought that one of the characters from the little house on the prairie series was based on me.

laurel

when I was young my Grandmother used to
tell me to be very carefull not to drop salt on the floor because in heaven I will be asked to retrieve it with my eye-lids,& I believed that until my teens.
Amin

Anon

If you were lonely you could always climb a ladder to heaven to talk to people..

unknown,,

i used to think heaven was a gas station.

katy

when i was about 8 i used to beleve that when you die you used to be turned into a animal so you could live for a 2nd life and the 3rd life and goes on and on and on.

sam

My mom told me that everytime you sinned you got a little piece of your circle taken away. The circle is like your soul or like if the whole circle is gone you don't go to heaven.

Danielle

I used to believe that when you drove past grave yards at night, that the light flashing from the head lights was a light on the grave itself.

Bonni

..I was told by my father that when you died they first would send you to Hell and fill you up with coal to first burn the evil out of you. Then you could go to heaven. Thats what Hell was for. He was just telling me this as a joke, but for a long time I thought it made sense.

oakstorm

I used to believe that heaven was in the moon.

I was also taught about the end of the world and how the "good christians" would have to hide from the "beast" which supposedly was some government who wanted all religious people dead. I would cry because I thought that meant I would die or have to go into hiding before I was a teen, which meant I'd have no kids or be able to go places like Disneyland and basically not have a life of my own. That's pretty harsh for a kid.

rose

i used to believe if i was being bold or if i cursed that i wouldnt get my wings to go to heaven. So when i cursed i used to say sorry to god everytime.

Stupid Little Girl

When I was 5 I first thought about death. I was raised Catholic and had been taught that good people went to heaven when they died, and lived there in a state of great happiness with God, forever and ever and ever and ever... Such existence seemed terrifyingly boring to me. (And when I write "terrifyingly" I mean exactly that.) Then again, the alternatives of hell and purgatory seemed just as boring, but also painful to boot. I concluded that "life after death" was horrible no matter how I sliced it. And therefore death was terrifying. Thinking about these things made me very scared, but I trusted my elders, and I hoped that when I grew up I would understand things better, and would see that there was nothing to be afraid of...

I think this counts as a childhood belief because I thought it all out on my own as a kid (I even remember where I was when I did), but it was pretty much the way I viewed the matter for as long as I remained Catholic in my mid teens. I have been an atheist for a long time now. I find death as scary as I did when I was five.

Gabe

i used to believe that when humans died they would be able to change into any animal they want..you know just die and live on as something else. i didn't know there was a such thing as 'god' until my friend took me to church...i think my child-hood belief is ok no one told me that it was natural.

Anon

I used to believe because my father didn't believe in what my mother and I did (religion), that he would die and wouldn't get to live with us on the coming "Paradise Earth" that was supposed to be here in 1975.

Twenty-eight years later, Dad's thankfully still here with us and amazingly, Paradise Earth isn't.

Lisa