Why are you an atheist? What’s your story?

I’ve never been otherwise.

My story is simple -

I Stepped out of my head and saw the world again and I stopped believing in “God”

I am a Hindu and I studied in a Christian school – that was enough to do the trick. You hear different viewpoints – many a times conflicting – on the same subject.

How can there be one true God across so many religions? – once you hear two conflicting “stories” it easy to learn that “God” is a man-made. Thats the bitter truth.

Then one day I thought to myself and came up with this conclusion:
The real word for God is Nature – and the only way to offer your “sincere prayers” to “God” is to protect Nature.

I admit it – I am a sinner. Thats because I directly or indirectly contribute to pollution and all the other bad – and the only punishment I will get for this sin is “hell”.

Definition of hell – a very bleak future. Todays man is ensuring that there is no place for us AND other flora/fauna of tomorrow.
Nothing worries man more than “what will happen to his clan in the future?” – this is where it will strike him – and it will strike him hard – there is no future.

The sacrifice for our sins was not borne by Jesus – thats bollocks – go preach that to a kid.
Observe and you will realize that the real sacrifice is yet to come – slowly (nature takes its time) but surely each generation will suffer – more and more with time, till doomsday. I pity those who will live to see that age which will be dark and can be defined as the demise of life on earth.

Once I understood this simple equation the atheist in me was born – all of these are my own thoughts and not influenced by a preacher:
- Nature is the true God
- Religion is man made – and hence bollocks
- sacrifice was made in future – so that I can have a jolly good life today. (This sentence is grammatically wrong but logically correct)
- there is no reboot button to save Earth.

I have left the definition of future undefined.

Peace
-A

When I was in Jr High/High School, my mum insisted I go to Mormon seminary (it’s a religious class taken in conjunction with secular classes). It was going there and hearing the audacious theories that they used to try to make their faith dovetail with science that drove me to looking at other religious. From there I determined that none have any more evidence, truth, or moral superiority than any other. Then I started to look to people I idolize, like Richard Feynman, Einstein, the Founding Fathers, etc, and found that they all have a agnostic/atheist thread in common, and that it appealed to me too.

Don’t supposed I refused to believe because others told me not to. Their thoughts resonated with what I saw in the world, and still do.

I’ve always preferred rational thought to the alternative. I remember as a 13 year old realizing that I couldn’t (that is the most appropriate word – my mind works in such a way that I don’t think I can believe in a god) believe in the traditional christian God. In spite of that I went through my pentacostal phase a couple of years later. Yes, I was hit on the head and fell backwards at a revival meeting. However, even as it was happening, I remember thinking, “I could get up if I decide to.”

Over the past several years, I’ve come to terms with my atheism. My wife, while still a devout christian, accepts this and we are working to raise our child so that he can decide for himself what he believes.

I cannot remember ever believing in god. I do remember, however, believing in Father Christmas.

Short answer: ran out of reasons not to be.
I’m writing up the long answer for posting on my blog Real Soon Now ;-).

I went to christian schools in the UK – not because my parents were religious, just because they were good schools – and was required to attend regular church services and so on, plus religious education classes.

From as early as I can remember, I used to read books on mythology and legends. I loved the Norse, Roman, Greek, Mayan, Arthurian, African, Amazonian … (and so on) myths and legends. Still do. They’re often great stories.

Christianity always just seemed to be a particularly weak story. Not enough gods and too boring. If you’d asked me to sum it up, I’d probably have said “Christianity: Needs Giants”. At least, I wish that’s what I would have said.

It never really crossed my mind until my teens that people actually took it seriously. I just went to the services. I’d lumped it into the mythology category.

When I did finally realise that people actually believed this stuff, I didn’t really know what to make of it. I wondered if I was missing something. I has the same feeling when I found out people actually thought praying was different to making a wish when blowing out birthday candles.

Years later, I would call myself an agnostic and say I didn’t believe but couldn’t be sure etc. Can’t disprove god, after all. After a few conversations with various people (during one of which a friend of mine told me an atheist was someone who would deny the existence of god to god’s own face if god appeared in front of them – heh), I decided to find out what agnostic meant, and what the name was for someone who thought what I thought.

I’ve settled on any of the following since, depending on circumstance: “atheist”, “teapot atheist”, “nontheist”, “secular humanist” or “no mate, I’m not stupid enough to believe in magic invisible sky-men or their zombie children”.

because I was born that way

I read the Bible.

Biggest atheism conversion tool ever conceived of by man.

13 years of Catholic school definitely helped for me. I don’t think I was ever truly a believer. Religion was a big part of my daily life at home. It was 3rd grade that my doubts and questions started. The class was taking their First Communion but I wasn’t participating since I wasn’t baptized. I was told I was evil and going to hell unless I believed in god (at the time I never said I didn’t believe) and HAD to be baptized right away. Then the other kids wouldn’t play with me.

I was like, “whatever, who needs a religion that teaches little kids to hate each other and be mean.” I was 8 or 9.

My junior high I refused to “pray” with my class. I remember looking around once and realizing they were all just staring into space and reciting the prayers. They had no idea what they were talking about or why they were doing. I quit reciting with them and would say a silent, heartfelt prayer. By high school I stopped believing there was much merit to organized religion but still believed in a higher power of some sort.

It definitely wasn’t the Christian god because the god I believed in actually didn’t care what you did as long as you did your best to be a good person.

I pretty much stayed like that for years. I never really thought much about religion or god and then I started having kids. Everyone told me that once I had a baby I would see how glorious god is. Whatever. Shortly after the birth of my 4th child I looked over at my kids playing together and suddenly thought, “there is no god.”

It just came to me like that and it was because of my children. I couldn’t imagine making them sit through church or force them to believe is some loony story. God is like Santa Claus (which my kids do believe in…so far).

That was pretty much what brought me to atheism…my children. Now I’m right where my dad was 25 years ago. He has been agnostic my whole life (remember I went to Catholic school for 13 years). Now I’m atheist and sending my children to Catholic school. It is so odd but it is working out okay so far.

It all started when I was a kid. I was raised … agnostic, I guess, but my parents decided there were good lessons to be learned from Catholic school (possibly to appease my grandparents). I had a lot of Jewish friends, and I couldn’t figure out how they could be right, AND Catholicism could be right, so I asked. No good answers, in fact I think the nun was angry. Then I realized how many religions claimed they’re right, and that they all must be wrong. One day, when I was about 13 years old, my mom’s dad (my atheist grandpa) sat me down and said to me, “there is no such thing as God, it’s all just stories made to control large amounts of people. It’s the same as Santa Claus not being real.” I was convinced!

I had agnostic parents. In my early teens I prayed once in awhile, but I was comfortably on the fence. Then I joined a Mormon boy scout troop.

One June, we set out on a 50-miler in the Wallowa Mountains of NE Oregon. On day 3, we lost the trail under deep snow attempting to cross a mountain pass that was a couple thousand feet above. We were lost for a day in wandering around a landscape of snow and frozen lakes. All of our summer clothes were wet, we were freezing, and a couple of scouts started puking from fear/altitude sickness.

It was getting dark by the time we arrived at the top of a ridge and finally realized where we were. The above the lake we wanted to camp at was a thousand feet below, and frozen over. There was one bare, windswept patch of rocks next to a tree at the very top of the ridge (barely enough space for a single tent). The wind was blowing ominous storm clouds in our direction that flashed with lightning. One of the scout masters announced that God had mercifully provided us with a spot to camp, and that the older scout master and some of they boys (who were dragging a half hour behind) could go no further. He said that we would pray, and God would shield us from harm. The Mormon scouts heartily agreed. This scared the shit out of me. I said I was going to walk over to another part of the ridge to look for Long Lake, where we wanted to camp. I took my backpack with me. They yelled at me to leave it, but they were too tired to force me. Several hundred yards away, I could see the lake we needed to camp at a couple thousand feet below. It was unfrozen and below the snow line. I was carrying the fly to the largest tent.

I yelled that I had found the lake and they yelled to come back. I stood there for fifteen minutes quivering at the thought of betraying my friends and very real authority figures. I then asked myself if I believed in God, or even in the chance of God. Watching the lightning close in, I suddenly had a clear epiphany: “I’m an Atheist!” I wasn’t an agnostic like my parents. I didn’t even believe in the chance that we’d be protected on that ridge. And since I suddenly knew that there wasn’t a God, I didn’t have to feel guilty about going against their wishes. A wave of relief washed over me, and I was happy. I had no choice, I had to go off the ridge, and they had to come with me. I screamed back that I had the fly to the tent and I was going to walk to Long lake, and that they had to come too. They came after me without their backpacks, but I started trotting down around the cliffs away from them. A third of the way down, they said they’d stop if I did. So I did. They then had a long talk and a prayer. They decided to come down too. They went back and got their packs.

It was dark by the time we got down to Long Lake, far below the snowline. It was still and beautiful. The storm was barely missing us, but it was raping the ridge we were on with crackling lightning. The oldest scout master asked if I would pump water with him. I agreed. I was sure he was going to thank me.

Instead he said “You know, when we were up there, I felt closer to God than I ever have before. I literally believe I felt the hand of God up there, and it was God who led us off that ridge.” I was so angry that I almost started crying. We went back to the group and he recounted the God story to the group and many scouts nodded in approval. He led the group in a prayer. I stepped out of the circle. I was so stressed out that night, it was hours and hours before I could sleep, and I had nightmares about stumps running around outside our tent. We couldn’t go out the way we planned because we were afraid we’d get lost again, so we went off trail for a day. Many of the Mormon scouts wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the trip. We were two days late and very, very out of food by the time we got to the trailhead. The The Rangers were getting a search and rescue party together and were about to launch a helicopter.

If it weren’t for my timely conversion to atheism, I’m convinced that they would have found dead bodies. Since my conversion, I’ve been much happier and much more fulfilled. I know that there’s nothing after this life. I take full responsibility for myself, and I enjoy every beautiful moment that I can.

When i was little i simply accepted there was a god in the same way i excepted there was a santa clause. At about the age of 8 i started asking my dad alot of questions about religion, how could you fit 2 of every animal on earth on one boat, why is there evil in the world, how can there be so many religions that all claim there right at once.

he had never realy talked about religion with me till i brough up the subject. i didn’t realy know that at the time but he was an atheist like most people in the UK. i had only learnt about god from the primary school i was at where the head teacher was a christan and keen to instill god in us all. he tryed to answer my questions as best he could but eventualy he just said “you do know that if you dont want to beleave in god you dont have to” which had never occured to me before.

thats when i stoped beleaveing in god and it was a huge releaf all the condraditions and confusions i’ed been trying to deal with to make god fit in with the science i learned and loved just melted away, i no longer found my self thinking in circles, and finaly the world made sence. it was a very liberating experiance and i recomend it :D

Well, I have always had my doubts about Christianity. Even though I gave sermons as a youth and was the youth counselor for my church of over 300 and went to Church Summer camp for 8 years straight.

The first doubts I had was when I was learning about the past of humankind.

I asked my mother, “We’re Adam and Eve caveman?”. I could tell by the look on her face something didn’t add up… she replied with.. “I guess they would have to be”.

I am now 27, a militant Anti-Thiest, and exposer of the ignorant.

I would be grateful if some of you who’ve answered why you are atheists might, if you have time, drop by and answer the question “What is an atheist?” on my blog at http://exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-is-atheist.html

I was raised in a home where we were christian, but mostly in name only. When I asked questions about the how it was supposed to work or if I’d read through a picture bible for kids in the family doctor’s waiting room my mom was pretty open in explaining the general stories, but we never went to church and I was still only very vaguely aware of religion’s tenants. I remember once when I was about 10 having a friend ask me what denomination I was. I had to go ask, because I didn’t know what the word meant. It turned out I was Baptist. I also attended church with my older brother a couple times he tried to get into going to church with his family, but I had to go to the “children’s service”, essentially daycare with religious homework and coloring books. There were tasty brownies at least.

I’d always been encouraged to learn as much as I could by my mom. By the time I got to 3rd grade I was in a “gifted” class one day a week. That was the highlight of the week and I really got into Lego and Greek mythology. By the time I got to middle school I knew more about the fables, genealogy, and explanations of the ancient Greek pantheon than I’d later figure out many college graduates do.

I’d also been encouraged to always ask more questions by my grandma. We’d spend hours at her house, where there was always plenty of yard work I could do for pocket money, and almost every time I’d bring back in an empty spool for the weed eater for her to reload we’d wind up discussing many things that would have been considered “too grown up” for a pre-teen to get. I was a libertarian, carpenter, and landscape architect in my grandma’s ramshackle old house before I was a teenager.

That was the gist of my exposure to religion in anything more than a passing glance, movie, or irreverent comedian’s routine until I was about 17. My mom got lung cancer and my grandma had died the year before of it as well. My grandma had told me she’d made her peace. She didn’t need a priest or pastor to tell her so it seemed.

Within a month of the diagnosis she and my dad were attending a church. I never joined them in this since it seemed to be more between them. After my mom passed away, I joined my dad, hoping to find some of whatever had given them solace and to see what the place was like. The whole event every week started with going to sunday school, where the youth minister would start with a prayer, give a topic and try to get discussion and thought going on it. I liked this, but often the discussions wound up seeming like the other students trying to stab for the answer the minister expected while I’d stick out and have the minister on his toes, or at least be asking questions with reckless abandon. I wasn’t aware of what sort of things to steer clear of other than gays and abortion, but even when we had a discussion on Sodom and Gomorra I wound up asking questions like why the father would offer up his daughters to a crowd of men who would only rape them. I didn’t wind up talking much more than in general niceties to the other kids.

Then was the service. I noticed quickly that there was a lot of tension to go with the crowd. The usual order was hymn, shake hands with everyone, play musical chairs before the hand shaking song finished, hymn, pass the collection plate, hymn/live music, pastor’s sermon, group prayer and leaving time for anyone who wanted to to come be saved, everyone make for the door and shake the pastor’s hand.

I immediately thought it was funny that they asked for your money before making the sermon. You don’t have to pay, but one of the sermons was on how a true Christian shouldn’t have any problem tithing 10% of their income since they’ll get it back in some form, God will take care of ya. I never saw a plate with 100 dollar bills and checks in it. The sermons we full of passion, comedy, and a hefty dose of the things that southern Baptist churches are known for: denouncing gays, the occasional mention of abortion being sinful, some fire and brimstone, and the idea that God and Jesus love the crap out of you and need you to spread the word. The thing that got to me the most the more I went was that almost without fail the pastor would give his sermon and contradict himself at least once per service. After the sermon there was a group prayer and a call for any “unsaved souls” to come to the front and profess that Jesus had come into their heart. I felt huge pressure to let that happen and step to the front, but I didn’t want to do it if I really didn’t feel anything, so I never walked up.

I dug into the online world of religious study, and found that my questions with regard to contradictory verses, ulterior motives in the church, and seeming lack of need for religion with science explaining things so well, but religion contradicting science were all held by other people, and rather than easing my concerns and explaining why these seeming problems were not, it became apparent that most of the people who’d come to these conclusions simply had lost their faith. I discovered the concept of and word atheism around 20. I was probably already one for around a year prior, just with no one to talk to about it. I sent an anonymous email to the church’s pastor and youth minister with a list of big questions I was hoping they could clear up for me. I never heard back.

Eventually I got lucky and my work schedule kept me working day time Sundays, within a few weeks of me working during church, my dad and new step-mom stopped attending themselves after both having been baptized. I was going to college by now and wound up in a class on near-eastern religious history through early Christianity. We did Mesopotamia’s religions, the Greek and Egyptian mythos, and by the time we got to Judaism and early Christianity, their beliefs just sounded like warmed up leftovers of faiths that had already gone before them, often taking stories wholesale from the likes of the Sumerians and Mithraics. I now had a probably logical lineage from early nature worship to early Christianity. A class in Western Civ. filled in the gap from then to now, tossing in the history of Islam along the way.

So to make an overly long story short; I’m an atheist because as a kid my mom and grandma showed me why learning is important and why you should always ask more questions, especially when the answers seem to be hard to come by.

I’m alongside Eamon. I ran out of reasons not to be.

I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school until grade six. I took First Communion and received Confirmation in that time.

In high school I encountered the work of Robert Heinlein, and some of the “blasphemy” he wrote stuck.

{Including: “Of all the strange “crimes” that human beings have legislated of nothing, “blasphemy” is the most amazing — with “obscenity” and “indecent exposure” fighting it out for the second and third place.”}

I don’t think I really thought about it that much, though. I still went to church.

Sex was a big knock to Catholicism for me. I started having major problems reconciling my desires to my faith. Since sex didn’t seem to be doing either me or my girlfriend any active harm, I couldn’t see why there was an arbitrary rule against it [For accuracy I should say now that I feel some harm was done, but that neither of us realized and it had little to do with faith]. Like most of the Catholics I knew I began quietly going agnostic.

But my motives weren’t purely selfish. Quite simply, a lot of what I saw in the world didn’t square with the conception of God that I’d grown up with. Why should God smite Ethiopia with famine? What had they ever done to him?

It wasn’t until I joined the army that I fell away from the Church. During basic I realized that there were beatiful, blasphemous bastards who had simply never been churched at all, and they seemed to be doing just fine.

I stopped going to church the year I was seventeen. And I remained agnostic (a paranoid atheist) until I was past thirty.

At that point I decided it was time to stop sitting on the fence and call myself what I felt I actually was: Atheist.

I have easier and worse days. I’m hoping I can raise god-free kids if ever I have them, and I can’t imagine the personal strength I sometimes need to keep from falling back into the comforting rituals of Godism. But it’s nice to know there’s a community out here.

Maybe we should start having special meetings every Sunday? ;-)

On another note–one of Comfort’s trolls observed (probably in aid of pointing out the heresy that is Catholicism) that most of the atheists it met were ex-Catholics. Does this seem right to you folks?

I conjecture that because Catholicism happily interprets the Bible rather than taking it “literally” (which means “Everything’s literal except the parts we can’t fit into modern society”), Catholics learn to think early on, which carries a risk, as we all know.

But perhaps it’s just that the CC is so big that any gathering will contain a number of current or ex-Catholics.

When I grew up in Moscow, in 1-3 grade they tought us about morals, and how to make good decisions that benefit others around you. There was this kid’s book, “what’s good and what’s bad” would be my best translation. And although I was raised religious, baptized (Russian Orthodox) after birth in `77, (no, religion was not prohibited in USSR, it was however discouraged) I never found a good place for it in my life.

When I asked my parents to explain how Lenin’s revolution proved there was no god, my dad’s answer was it couldn’t be proven, nor could the non-existance of god could be proved either.

Then as a kid, and now as an adult, I could never understand the difference between my grandma’s superstition of black cat walking across the street, UFO sighting, and saying a prayer before the next basketball game. Shortly after my dad’s conversation I decided to take the part of good reasoning in favor of magical god explanations.

Henceforth, when I struggled with understanding various life difficulties I tried to reason them out, rather than use the help of god. It included the death of a friend at the age of 7, getting out of a major beating of 4-1 by calmly looking for a way out at the age of 11 and e.t.c. That turned out to help me greatly with my analytical and critical thinking skills, which made me as successful as I am today.

So you see, being a good citizen had nothing to do with my believes. I grew into a healthy, rational, free thinking, and happily married individual.

I wish everyone take that approach with kids today. I certainly will, and we will be a better society in the end.

I tried for a long time to believe, because lots of people who were important to me did.

But after studying the various religions of the world, I realized that all of them were equally valid. It took me a while of meta-theorizing that all the religions were looking at the same God differently to decide that all the religions weren’t looking at God at all.

Religion is a control structure, always has been. To get the “good stuff” all you need is a positive outlook, anyone trying to spread that message wouldn’t need to judge people’s morality. It is obvious by the pattern of growth and the content of the message that nearly all of the worlds religions are operating solely in the interest of sustaining themselves to compete with other religions.

When I was 13 and my parish priest became more interested in my balls than my beliefs.

I think it started when I was about 9 and going to Sunday School. The entire Genesis bit with the Garden of Eden seemed like a huge setup.

Why put the tree there? Why let Satan run around? Why punish Eve if she just did what you wanted her to do all along? Where did Cain find a wife?

I know! Someone just made it all up.

Oddly, I did believe in all the paranormal stuff featured on In Search Of… but I eventually came to my senses.

When I was 7 and I heard the story of god telling Abraham to kill his son, so he takes him up to the mountain, has the knife poised to the boy’s chest and god goes “sike!! thanks anyway, Abe, I’m good, you and your kid can go home lol”. I felt sick and asked the teacher “why would god do that? I thought he loved us.” up until that time god and jesus were awesome to me.

I kind of divorced myself from that day on.

As soon as I turned 17 I was allowed to stop going to church and it has been a point of contention between me and my family since.

I was raised a catholic and my family is a huge bunch of hypocrites. The whole thing w/catholics is, as long as you show up to church you can judge and hate everyone AND have sex when you aren’t married….

Quick story: from a super blue collar catholic town, some idiotic 20 year old I worked with was pregnant, not married and a self-proclaimed “devout catholic”. I was lent and you are not permitted to eat meat on Fridays (I know…it’s stupid) she ate chilli and someone told her it had meat in it and she cried for the rest of the day.

Because I was born one and haven’t been given reason to change. I am also agnostic, like most atheists (and theists for that matter).

A long time ago I decided the religious experience is an entirely personal one … if you have a religious experience, you’re convinced of the validity of your belief and reinforced in it, and you become more religious.

I am an athiest because I’ve never had a religious experience. As I once said to a co-worker (who got quite pissed off!) “… if a 40-foot bleeding jesus appears in the parking lot tonight, with his hand pointing down at me and saying, “Youuuu boy…” I bet I’ll feel different about it.”

From my own internal experience, there’s nothing that convinces me “there is a god” (and in point of fact, I don’t think it would matter to me if there was … it doesn’t really change anything.)

I can’t ever remember believing in a god, but I can remember the point when I embraced atheism. I was dating a girl who was extremely religious and we would get into arguments about religious stuff. Finally I said “What kind of God, who is supposed to be a loving and caring father figure, would dump his children on some rock with a convoluted manual for how to live? If my real father dumped me on some island with a shitty book and nothing else, then told me to live up to ideals that even He doesn’t live up to, I would hate him.”

It was at that moment that I realized I was an Atheist.

I grew up as a fully committed evangelical christian and the son of missionaries. I attended bible studies and church services, played in the worship band for years and was generally considered deeply spiritual.

There were many small cracks in my foundation but none became important until I started looking at the doctrine of Hell. The more I looked the less support and consensus I found on it. Quite suddenly it became clear it was one of the harshest most mind-controlling and unmerciful beliefs imaginable.

Hell fell away for me and when it did life opened up. For awhile I felt as though I was falling: falling out of my community, away from my “friends”, falling from the prestigious positions I held in the community, falling towards all that I had demonized. I eventually landed as an atheist.

As an atheist, my life has only improved from what it was as a christian. I now own all my thoughts and actions and no longer have god to blame my problems on. I take responsibility for who and what I am and no longer wait for an imaginary friend to fix me.

Born Atheist.
Thanks Mom and Dad, I owe ya one.

I was never raised in any religion. My parents were, but had been, at the very least, agnostics long before I was born. I never went to church or anything like that.

I did, to some extent, believe in a god when I was fairly young, though. Mostly because it’s hard not to be exposed to religion, even going to public schools and living in a non-religious family. And, yes, partially out of fear. Even as a young child with a LOT of imagination, I found the idea of a god ridiculous, and found it very unlikely that he existed. But I had heard on TV and just in culture in general that if you don’t believe in God, you go to Hell forever and it sucks a lot. I decided to be cautious and keep the idea of God in my head. I considered going to church a few times, but never took action on it, thinking my parents would be “weirded out” and maybe even disappointed if I asked them. I even prayed once or twice, figuring, if I’m gonna spend my life believing this shit to get out of Hell, I might as well see if the guy can do me some favors too.

Of course, he never did. And I realized, probably around age 10, that what I was doing was fucking ridiculous and felt embarrassed for myself. So I just stopped caring and became sort of an agnostic. Then, over time, probably around high school, I decided I was an atheist. That’s about the whole story.

I can’t say that anything “happened” to make me an atheist.

When I was a child I used to try to pray. I felt so silly doing it. Like writing a letter to Santa Claus after I found out he wasn’t real.

So when I was 12 I simply decided I didn’t believe. Around that time I found out there was a name for people like me.

I was not raised in a religious household, nor were my parents atheists. They simply didn’t concern themselves with religion one way or the other. In fact, I can’t say what my parents believe – if anything.

I firmly believe that such an upbringing allowed me to come to my own conclusions regarding religion. I allowed my son the same freedom – he’s agnostic right now. I believe he’ll eventually become a full-blown atheist once he stops worrying about the “just in case” scenario.

Like many of the other posters so far, I attended Catholic school as a child, from K-8th grade. My parents and much of my extended family are unquestioningly Catholic (as far as I know). I knew things didn’t add up from a very early age.

I distinctly recall in first grade being told that abortion was a sin, and I remember wondering how something you do to yourself can be a sin. (Ditto with masturbation, albeit at a later age!) They paint things like premarital sex as this huge transgression, until I was in junior high I was convinced that NO one had sex before they were married, unless they were really bad people. When I realized that people I KNEW had premarital sex… my first inclination was “well, but they’re NOT bad people!” I came to see this as part of a larger pattern of religious institutions using their power to control how people live their lives… particularly women.

The more questions I had, the more research I did. I read about world religions, and Greek myths. And I realized that in Ancient Greece, the people were positive that THEIR religion was right. And the same goes for other modern religions. My first thought was, “that’s so unfortunate that they’re wrong”. From that, I went to believing that all religions worship the same God, but in different ways. So, Allah=Jesus=Buddha, etc. etc.

At the same time, I developed some major issues with the Catholic Church, I couldn’t take the constant judgment of others and the rampant hypocrisy. So, I began to look into other religions. Mostly other branches of Christianity, but also some Eastern religions and I learned a lot about Judaism as well. But nothing seemed to “fit”, so I just dropped it. This was sometime in college, and I think somewhere in there is when I actually realized there was no God, but I didn’t bother to admit it to myself until several years later. I don’t remember any “Aha!” moment, but I think the final straw for me went back to how the main goal of all organized religion is political. It’s to subvert women or minorities, or to get a mass of people to do something you want them to do so you can control them. Also, the fighting and extremism… I realized that if there IS a God, this is NOT how he would have himself be represented on earth. And since there is no other representation of a God…

As I began to look into atheism/humanism/agnosticism, I realized that it’s the only thing that actually makes SENSE. I’m a very logical person, so what I read really appealed to me. It’s the most obvious answer. And having “lost” religion, I find that I am more appreciative of life, and my fellow humans, and animals, and the earth. I want to make a difference, and help people… because THIS IS ALL WE HAVE.

I was thoroughly indoctrinated (fundamentalist Christian style) from at least the age of three. Church was my second home and what was taught at church was reinforced at home and vice-versa. I had many questions but I asked them early enough in life that I could not yet properly evaluate the justifications I was given, and this served to immunize me against criticism of our beliefs for a long time. It seemed we already had an answer for every objection, and on top of that, I learned that doubt was a sin so I had lots of practice with rejecting my doubts by the time I was in junior high. I reevaluated many of my convictions and interpretations of scripture as I went through high school and college, learning that there was plenty of room for Christians to disagree on teachings that were not foundational, etc. After a while, it became apparent that one could legitimately make a case for so many and contradictory interpretations of scripture, even on key issues, that my faith in the biblical record was eroded. I remember nervously asking my mother a couple years ago how we were supposed to know that the apostle Paul meant for his letters to certain churches to be regarded with the same authority he accorded to the Jewish scriptures. If it was possible that a prominent teacher’s letters should be regarded as scripture, then where is the line drawn for whose teachings are not eligible to be canonized, and when? The prominence of the Bible in my faith experience was such that this was the doubt that unleashed the flood of all the others I had kept at bay (and there were plenty of them, particularly regarding the problem of evil). I decided to seek answers to my doubts directly, trusting that God would prevail and strengthen my faith. So far this has not happened. I am floating in some kind of deistic, agnostic netherworld at the moment, taking it slowly.

My folks were agnostic, and since we lived in a fairly isolated area I wasn’t exposed to the whole religion/church culture until I was in my teens. Like Lee (#62) I read Bullfinch early. I had grown up reading mythology like other kids my age read comic books.
When I first encountered people who took their religion seriously I was pretty stunned. I couldn’t understand why they were unable to see that their religion and beliefs were exactly the same as every mythology I had ever read.
There’s the senior god impregnating a human woman, the semi-divine son/savior/hero, the pantheon of minor gods, the antagonist god, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
I can only guess that some people have a desperate need to believe in something, no matter how illogical, but I just don’t share it, and have a hard time understanding it.

I read the bible all the way through at about age 7. I know that sounds unlikely. I was able to read very early. Before that Bible reading I had a real awe of church, the priests, the songs and the chanting. After that I was really freaked out about all the murder and war and cruelty.

Also I did learn that pride was a sin. Well, it seems that the concept of “faith” which denies all rational concepts is the ultimate form of pride. Asserting that something is true simply because you believe it is pride rising to the level of arrogance. That is religion, summed up.

The bible and the churches’ own doctrines are enough reason why you should walk away from them.

Growing up, my mom had all sorts of books around the house. She encouraged reading. I read all sorts of things: science, philosophy, literature, religion. She encouraged me to read about religion and decide what I want to be.

I grew up completely doubting the existence of god. In fact, I’ve been in the depths of despair and tried to believe in god–got down on my knees and prayed and all that, but it never felt right. I felt ridiculous. I couldn’t feel a divine presence. I just couldn’t believe in a personal god.

At 18 I took acid for the first and last time. I dropped 2 tabs with the dealer who took the same. We started tripping 15 minutes into it and the dealer said “Whoa, this is the strongest stuff I’ve ever seen….we shouldn’t have taken 2 tabs! Get ready for a long trip!” And that scared the hell out of me.

For the next 12 hours I was incapacitated with visions and hallucinations. At one point I felt the energy within all the molecules of the world around me, and I was part of it. I was completely one with the universe. It was my first spiritual experience and I never forgot it. (I don’t wish to experience it that intensely ever again but it was informative.)

I studied Buddhism and Hindu cultures and beliefs after that. I do believe there is a spiritual side to this world–but no GOD controlling everything.

I’m a pediatric cardiologist. While I’ve had misgivings about the existence of God and the truth of Christianity for some time, working in my chosen field has confirmed to me that there is no God.

I deal with kids who are born with unimaginably terrible, fatal heart disease. These kids did nothing to deserve this. What kind of Intelligent Designer could do this to an innocent child? What kind of benevolent being could create such monstrosities of human physiology? Just to give me job security? That’s just sick!

To me the question of whether God exists is immaterial because if there is a God, I would not care to worship or respect him/her one iota. If God exists, he/she is a truly evil, sick twisted being, and I don’t want to spend one second, much less eternity with such a thing. Thankfully, such a being does not exist.

I could go on, for my experience as a cardiologist is not the sole reason, but I would be repeating what others have stated much more eloquently before me.

I was raised a Catholic. When I was young, I would often ask questions of my Sunday school teachers or parents whenever things that I was told seemed to contradict other things, or when details seemed to be scarce. I was always given vague, evasive answers. Eventually, by about 16, I gave up trying to make sense of Catholicism by asking others, and tried to make sense of it by doing my own research.

I discovered many uncomfortable things about religion, things I did not agree with or could not make sense of. I was very confused about what I believed, until I discovered Occam’s razor. Suddely I realised what I was looking for: an objective, proven way of seperating truth from fiction.

I began to apply Occam’s razor to my beliefs. Slowly, they began to fall away, I went from Christian to Diest to Athiest in about 2 years.

I was about 19 when I finally realised that the idea of God violates Occam’s razor. Any attribute of God that is necessary to explain reality can be attributed to the universe itself, so, God is an unnecessary entity.

It was when I found out Santa wasn’t real. In my younger days, Santa was the one that would punish you if you weren’t good by depriving you of toys, etc. I realized that the connection between Santa and God isn’t that different. Santa watches you when you sleep, God watches you when you sleep. Santa knows when you’ve been bad or good, God knows when you’ve been bad or good. Both are supernatural who reward the well behaved and obedient. If I denied one, I had to deny the other. It was the only logical decision.

My life has been awesome from the day I became an atheist. No regrets.

As Tom said, “The only bad thing about being an Atheist is, I can’t tell you I told you so when we die.”

Like everyone else – born that way. Reached age of relative reason before even meeting anyone overtly religious.

Many don’t have any stories to share, because we were born to atheist parents in apatheist societies.

I was a christian believer when I read the bible, and I soon saw the obvious faults, contradictions and the fallacies of it’s claims to be God’s “own work”. I realized God talking back to me was the sound of my own thoughts, and I’m a happy atheist for 10 years now, at 25. My eyes are open, my vision clear, and with no beam in my eye, I’m ready to remove both motes and beams from the eyes of my brothers.

My observations of religion in practice have lead me to believe that it is simply a tool for controlling the masses.

Why define yourself with a negative?
I have never “believed” in any god, bogey man, faeries, etc etc, but I’m not defined by those non-beliefs.
I consider myself extremely fortunate to have not been brought up in a religious environment having seen the mess it can make of people. To get into someone’s head and control their thoughts is true power and how it’s been abused.
I think religion is great for people who don’t want to think for themselves, all the difficult decisions have been made for you already and you can devolve responsibility.
I’m not too impressed with Jahar’s “physical disgust” at people with religious beliefs, that’s a dreadful attitude and very intolerant. However, when I find out someone has religious beliefs it does diminish them in my eyes, I instantly have less respect for them. But you’ve all got to get along, I’m sure many people feel the same way about me when they find out I’m an atheist.
Just follow the path of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and it will all make sense! http://www.pastafarian.com

First, let me say “thanks” for publishing this blog.

I am 60 years old, and I was raised by “born again” parents who loved to go to revival meetings … but weren’t so keen on attending church regularly.

I was indoctrinated into the “accept Jesus as your personal savior or burn in hell” mindset from the beginning. But, despite “being carefully taught,” in my teen years some serious doubts began to surface. Why? Simply put, this stuff didn’t make sense.

As a child, I dutifully sang the songs, “God Will Take Care Of You” and “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.” But, even as a child, I could see that these ideas were untrue.

After moving out of my parents’ home, I quit attending church, but still would have called myself a non-practicing Christian for many years. I just set it aside and didn’t really think about it … but the guilt was still there, especially while my mother was still alive!

My “conversion” to true atheism came about from reading Sam Harris’s books, as well as those from Bertrand Russell, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.

I’m absolutely convinced that religion does much more harm than good. After all, 9/11 was a faith-based initiative! The only truly civilized people are those who do not believe in the medieval claptrap called religion.

I happened to find this blog and have read through a large number of these comments, and I can’t help but seeing a similar theme in many of your responses. It appears to me that many of you have sought a religion of some sort or another before turning to this religion of atheism. All I see of this is the apparent denial of one man-made endeavor to pursue that of another. If you are content to think that men (those beside you) can reason a belief unto themselves then I feel you are sadly mistaken by an empty pursuit. What has occurred through history? Where have the actions of men lead? If indeed man can atone himself in this life or another, then what gain will I have? What is my purpose?
I want to challenge you to consider deeply these thoughts you present and see what substance there is to them. Then once you have consider this, consider one more thing – The Person of God. Have you yet been in His presence? Have you sought truth from the TRUTH.
Do not be content to follow the ways of men! Search out the reality of a living God before you so easily dismiss Him.

As a resource I am embedding this video for your consideration (especially those who have been raised with a Western World mindset.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8&hl=en&fs=1]

I was raised in Assembly of God – very evangelical with the whole speaking in tongues, faith healing, etc. I was quite involved as a young teenager…it gave me a place to hang out with others, since at school I was a bit of an outcast (an early form of geek). That was the hook that kept me in, plus enormous pressure from my family.

Once I reached a junior and senior years of school, I began to expose myself to other ways of thinking, and to a lot of science. At this point I began the critical analysis of what I had been told was true all my life, and then one day I decided that what I had been told was not true.

At that point I was more agnostic, and began to read a lot of philosophy as I went through my college years. After college, I didn’t really pay much attention to this anymore. I was still interested in science, but never gave “the god question” much thought…

Until about six years ago. I had a major personal event in my life that caused me to once again take a look at where I was. It was then that I saw how apathetic I was. I then started to get caught up on skepticism, critical thinking, etc.

Now, I like to say I’m an atheistic agnostic, and I’m quite involved in the issues that concern us (politics, school, etc).

coolrad @ 84

I’m sorry you’re having a hard time. Everyone does. Religious people feel this way, too. They just have a big community to help them through the darker times.

Most atheists and agnostics don’t like to tell others how to live. In fact, it’s not up to us to find your meaning or purpose. It’s your job.

You could try reading some Spinoza. Or Richard Dawkins. But I’d start with Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’. The world and universe are around you. They’re real. And there’s enough majesty and mystery in these before we need to go making up invisible skydaddies.

Dammit, what works best for me when I feel that wonder about what my life means is to RELISH it. That’s the excitement of freedom. I make that meaning – no one else. I can choose my family as my meaning. My friends. The beauty around me. Trying to make the world a better, brighter place. And I do find meaning in that. More than enough. That’s daunting and exhilarating in itself – I don’t want religion getting in the way or adding to that bounteous burden. And it’s FAR from cold.

But if you really, really need to feel awe and majesty find out how a sun works then go out, by yourself or with friends, and stare up at the night sky for an hour or two. That just blows me away every time. And the only offering you have to make is an inquiring and open mind.

There are other ways to find meaning. That’s just my way. But it’s up to you to find them.

@Klow

Just an observation:

Have you yet been in His presence?

Um, no.
That’s the point, really.

Have you sought truth from the TRUTH.

From context I assume you’re asking if we’ve prayed for faith. Which is like driving a car with an empty tank to buy gas.

I’d quite like a reason to actually believe, as it would mean I wasn’t continually struggling against my childhood conditioning. So I welcome any actual proof. But believers have no proof to offer. Millenia of legends, circular argument, and appeals to emotion or ignorance seem to be all there is.

“Do not be content to follow the ways of men! Search out the reality of a living God before you so easily dismiss Him.”

I doubt I am the only one here who showed contempt for “the ways of men,” rather than contentment, and “search[ed] out the reality of a living God” passionately and continuously, even to the exclusion of other life considerations. As far as “easily dismiss[ing] Him,” if years of fervent prayer, tears, Bible study, speaking with trusted spiritual advisers, attending church regularly, and risking the security of my Christian marriage to share my doubts honestly with my husband-who-used-to-do-missionary-work are easy, I would very much like to know what an agonizing dismissal would look like. Agony is what losing my faith, my secure feelings of the love of Christ, and the most cherished part of my identity has been. You would do well to withhold your assumptions about the sincerity of spiritual beliefs, practices, and ecstatic experiences of those you are not acquainted with.

I was raised Christian from two relatively devout Christian parents. I think it basically boils down to me not ever buying into the whole belief thing. Faith has always seemed so irrational.

I remember attending chapel service (every morning, actually) at a private Christian elementary school. I would always wonder to myself, “how do these people actually know what they’re saying is true?” Inconsistencies in the bible and other strange rituals (eating the ACTUAL body of Christ) always made me think about what I was being told. I remember struggling through high school being an atheist. Young high school kids can be so ignorant and so cruel.

All in all, I’m happy with my decisions regarding faith. Atheists suffer a lot of unnecessary persecution and hate, but I think it’s worth it to suffer through the junk. It feels great to be an atheist.

I was brought up Roman Catholic, including going to parochial school, and was quite into it in my pre-teens – altar boy and all that. Reading the Bible and the various extra-scriptural stuff, I just couldn’t find a way to make it make sense. I tried, though. I even rewrote many of the parts that didn’t make sense, which didn’t go down well with the nuns.

Finally I gave up on Christianity. I examined other religious traditions, hoping they’d do better. They didn’t, although I did have to admit they were interesting to learn about (and made me realize anew that the Catholic tradition I’d grown up with was as weird as any of them). I wasn’t concerned much with community, but I love mythology and ritual. I just wanted it to make sense, and none of it ever did.

Giving up the ‘belief in belief’ was the hardest part. Syncretic paganism satisfied me for a while, rolling my own rituals and riffing on any mythology that appealed to me at the time, but I couldn’t really escape the fact that I was just making it up for the fun of it. I slowly shaded over into purer types of fun, like Discordianism and Sub-Genius.

Finally I just left it behind, coming to enjoy my little rituals as pure OCD indulgence instead of trying to force them into meaning anything, enjoying the myths on the same level as any other type of fiction, and drawing on science and hard-headed skepticism for compiling knowledge.

I’ve been much happier and more centered ever since.

from my blog entry where I introduce myself:

I was raised religious. My mother was Baptist, and my father was Seventh Day Adventist. When I was young, we moved a few times, so we were always sampling different churches in the area to find the right fit. I went to Calvary Chapel, Episcopalian, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Latter Day Saint, and Catholic church services. When we finally settled down, we decided on a small Baptist Church in our rural town.

As a young girl, I was very familiar with Bible stories, I prayed often, and went to church regularly. I accepted everything that my family and the church told me because I trusted that they knew best. I remember being so concerned with not sinning that I would pray for forgiveness if I let a mean word slip or if I was disobedient to my mother.

When I was 15 I went to a Baptist summer camp. It was a great experience. I was surrounded by other young people who loved the Lord, there was great music, and lots of fun. During an emotional sermon I stood up and “accepted Jesus into my heart”. I cried, and everyone cheered for me. I felt completely filled up and good.

When I got home from the camp, those feelings soon faded as I realized I could not maintain that kind of elation in my daily life. I began to discuss baptism with my pastor, but everything seemed hollow and meaningless. When I was baptized at 16, I felt nothing and knew something was not right. I stopped taking communion and started doubting the things taught in my Sunday school class. I remember sneaking onto the computer one afternoon when nobody was home, and googling “atheism”. To me it seemed like a dirty, evil word and I was frightened of being caught. But I just wanted to know, did they have any valid points? But my guilt over this urge was overwhelming and I didn’t look any further.

At 18 I went away to college and during my freshman year I took a course on the religions of the world, anthropology, and geology. Learning about the many different religions in the world made me wonder, how could all of the others be wrong when they were all so convinced of their beliefs? In anthropology and geology class I discovered that the real world contradicted many of the stories in the Bible that I had been taught to interpet literally. The world was millions of years old, and humans had only been alive for a fraction of that time! At first, I began to accept the fact that perhaps the Bible was not to be taken literally, but that God was still important and my faith was not at odds with science.

But the more I learned about science and the world, the more I realized that my religion was just plain wrong; my Bible was filled with cruel and ignorant stories and it could not explain how the world began, and my fellow believers were sometimes intolerant and hypocritical in the name of God.

This is when I realized that I was an atheist. Since that point, I have never regretted this discovery. The only time I have felt a loss, is when I instinctually begin to pray at moments when things aren’t going my way. I have to stop and laugh when I realize I am talking to myself.

My parents weren’t religious, so I wasn’t exposed to it much during my formative years.

I went to church a few times a year when I would visit my grandparents. They were southern Babtist (I don’t know if that has anything to do with it), but I always thought it (church) was very strange, and that the other people there were somehow different than me… because they feel the need to believe in a story that is unbelievable.

My parents never discussed religion with me, so it’s not like they told me it was wrong or anything.

I would be very curious to read a study that found out the rates of religious people vs. non, and if they were raised with a lot of religious influence, a little, or none.

I would guess that mostly, people raised like myself, would take the same path of questioning, rather than devoting faith blindly.

When I was little, I barely even acknowledged the existance of God. My mom stopped going to church when she got married to my dad (whom I would like to ask of his religious beliefs sometime…), so being that she was religious at one time, I eventually figured out that she was Methodist, and for awhile, if asked, I replied that I was such. I’ve never gone to church with my family since I was born, so this helped greatly, I’m sure, in being atheist.

However, my mind is rarely at rest. It leaves to me constantly think about things that I really don’t want to think about, but I do anyway. One of them being religion. For the longest time, I always thought, “So, Greeks had their gods, but they’re OBVIOUSLY false. Who’s to say the current generation of religions isn’t as well?”

Also, another turning point was once glancing at a list of religions. It was long. I simply sat there thinking, “How are you ALL right? I know you all believe in your own religion, but you’re not ALL right.” That led me to being agnostic. The only thing keeping me from being an atheist was the Big Bang Theory. I just didn’t think it could be possible to create everything we have now out of nothing.

The road to atheism was simple. More thought. I contradicted my own Big Bang Theory by saying that our modern science can’t tell us everything…quite yet, and maybe the Big Bang theory isn’t right. After awhile I simply thought, “No. I simply do not believe in a Star Wars Force-like being who controls all things and has a grand master plan for everything.”

As for enforcing my atheism, I’ve been given hell for not believing. From “being worried about you going to hell”, to just being plain stubborn and ignorant about the Bible being an all knowing book of sages.

For anyone trying to prove a point to a die-hard Catholic, tell them this. “Ok, let’s go find a die-hard Muslim. You can argue who’s right.” You can guarantee everything your Catholic friend has to say about them being right will be shot back at them by the Muslim. Have fun.

And I forgot one of the points I was going to make. Which is this:

Though for a while after I left christianity, I would say “I used to believe in god”, I now actually don’t think I ever did, deep down.

I think I convinced myself that I did, so I could get to hang out with some people I liked, and give my life a bit of focus. Focus which, of course, I’ve since found in a multitude of other things.

I was dragged to church as a child. I don’t remember a specific ah-hah moment when I quit believing, but it happened slowly beginning perhaps when I was 6 and by the time I was maybe 13 or 14 I was pretty convinced all the church crap was bogus. My mother suffered from a mental illness and “saw” Jesus and witches, etc. I came to realize that people that people can “see” and believe in things that are not real. At some point also my mother told me that my uncle thought the Bible and all that stuff was fairy tales. At first I was shocked and horrified because that was the first time I had ever heard of an adult expressing disbelief. I lived in a small rural community dominated by the “church people.” When my mother was mentally ill, they came around and prayed for her and preached at her, etc. On some level even though I was very young I understood that they were feeding her illness and delusions and it made me angry. Then when I was 12 Star Trek began. Leonard Nimoy would probably crap his pants to hear someone say this because he is not an atheist, but I was infatuated with the character of Spock and he was all about the logic. I was dismayed later in life when Spock was portrayed as believing in God, when I think that if there were such a thing as Vulcans, they would surely be atheists. For a long time I barely admitted to myself that I did not believe because, due to the church brainwashing, I believed that made me a bad person. After I admitted it to myself, for most of my life I would not admit it to anyone else. As I get older I care less and less about what others think is socially acceptable and “normal.” I just recently let it be known to my coworkers that I am an atheist, although I had often confided in another coworker with similar beliefs.

For the most part, political liberalism led me to discover that I am an atheist. At a young age I felt very uneasy about the fact that politicians on the American right seemed more like evangelical preechers than government leaders. I started to become really passionate about church/state seperation during the Clinton impeechment, when sound bites about morallity and family values were pouring out of the American media like water from a hydrant. I was just very offended by the hypocricy of all it, and that really made me question the legitimacy of the whole enterprise of organized religion. It was around that time that I started calling myself an atheist. It wasn’t until years later when I read the Origin of Species, as well as several books by Richard Dawkins, that I started to look at the case for religion on an evidencary basis rather than through a political prism. It was then that I realized just how redicilious it all was. My political world view is very different now; I call myself a secular conservitive, but I am at peace with the fact that there is no god, no heaven nor hell, and I am quite certian that nothing will ever change my mind.

I was raised a Catholic and went to church all of my life. I always believed in god. I always had a slight fear of going to hell when i die and everything like that. But I never took a chance to sit down and question my religion. I always just accepted that there was a god and that when people die they go to heaven if they are good and hell if they are bad.

My doubt in religion ironically started from being around a very religous friend of mine. One day she told me the world was 10,000 years old because the bible said so. She also made comments hinting that evolution was a lie and science is a lie. This was the first time in my life I ever heard someone say that. Even though I beleived in god, I never thought that evolution was a lie. I always tried to squeeze god and science together in the same room. After talking to my friend, I started doing alot of research on the culture war between science and religion. I watched hours of documentaries and read books. And slowly but surely it became very obvious to me. I learned that most americans dont believe in evolution to this very day. I learned about the battles in different school systems around america to teach “intelligent design” in science. I thought to myself “why are these religous people so threatened by a theory that is obviously fact? What does that say about religion if it teaches people to be ignorant of science at a very young age?”

Once the seeds of doubt were planted, there was no turning back. I looked at alot of other issues with religon, like the countless ‘holy wars’, the idea of endless damnation, the bigoted views of homosexuals, the idea of praying to a god, and the fact that “holy books” were written by mere mortals. I realized that it is all bullshit. And I was actually happy to admit to myself that there was no god. I felt like a burden was lifted. My life without religoion is a better one. My mind is now free because i had the courage to challenge what people taught me before I had a chance to think for myslelf. Before this happened I had been led to believe that atheists are devil-worshipers, or rude, unhappy people, and, if anything atheists are more open minded than others.