This is just a kinda curiousity question. I was wondering how old you people were when you first decided to become athiests, and what it was that made you change your mind.
For me, I was 12, and my older brother (he was 16) had a bunch of web sites under his favorites about athiesm, and all the contradictions and errors in the bible. I read them, and was absorbed by the sheer number of contradictions, impossible things, etc. Then, one night I woke up and walked out to the computer where he was reading these sites. I asked him what he was doing, and he said “God isn’t real.” I realized I was athiest when I wasn’t shocked or appalled. Him and I had a good talk that night about it.
I don’t remember a defining moment when I “became atheist”, but I remember being about six or seven and learning about the first rule of Christianity – God exists because the Bible says so. Even at that young age, it didn’t take me but five seconds to spot the hole in that argument: “How do we know God wrote the Bible? Maybe some idiot got drunk and wrote the whole thing one night?”
A bit off on the details, but in the end that basic skepticism has kept me atheist all these years.
I don’t see how this can be. If you don’t believe in God, then you are an atheist. If you believed in Him at one time, and something bad happened and you blamed God for it then you definetely believe in Him you just don’t love Him.
Like rjung, I can’t recall a singular moment where a light switched on (or off, heh) and I became atheist. I was brought up in a fairly religious household, attended church regularly, went to Bible Camp, and was even treasurer for our church. But I don’t think I ever really believed like others did. I do remember when I was really young, I’d lay out on the lawn and watch clouds go by, trying to pick the one that God was sitting on. Then in school I learned what clouds are and how they come about. I also learned about evolution, chemistry, physics, and math… and most of it didn’t agree well with the Bible.
Over time I just came to believe that the Bible and other religious writings had their base in our primitive minds asking “Who are we, why are we here, and what’s all this other stuff for?” A kind of primitive science, even. The authors had no previous knowledge to leap from… no Big Bang; no evolution; no electrons, protons, atoms, or even molecules. They were looking for God up in the clouds. I think they did alright with what they had… we wouldn’t be discussing things today if they hadn’t… but I don’t believe God sat in dictation sessions with anyone. They gave us a decent moral code to live by, even if it is ambiguous.
I sat on the fence a long time, half-believing that God could exist, but never believing that we could ever wrap our minds around what He is. What pushed me to atheism was probably everyone I’ve met who stands in the face of all modern knowledge and shouts “It’s BULLSHIT! Only the BIBLE is the truth!” People who use their religion to subjugate others. People who still think the earth is 6000 years old, flat, and has the universe orbiting it, y’know? Crusades, inquisitions, picketing funerals… zealotry in general. I just wanted to tattoo “Your god sucks” on my forehead or something.
I dunno, maybe I’m still not fully atheist - maybe just agnostic. I find myself wishing God would pick these people up & smack them around a bit. Maybe somebody out there has it right. But I think a lot of people today are just Kissing Hank’s Ass.
I’ve always been an atheist, since my parents were atheists. Some of my friends tried to convert me to Christianity when I was really young; I tried praying a few times (foolish prayers, as you would expect of a 5-year-old), decided it didn’t work, and continued in my unbelief.
I was about 15. My family was never big into the religion thing. I quess like most Americans, we were generic protestant and never really paid much attention to the details. We paid it lip service but never thought too much about it.
Anyway, aound this time, my older brother had some major personal issues going on and found religion in a big way. Since he brought the subject up regularly, I was pressed to actually apply my mind towards things I’d always taken for granted. Once I did that, it became obvious what nonsense religion is.
I’ve been atheist ever since, though depending on who’s asking I sometimes call myself a godless heathen, just to get their goat.
Sometime in grade school, while attending CCD classes, I was bothered by the statements that “We’re right, and everyone else is wrong.” And then they started changing rules when convenient.
Once you discard your first God, subsequent ones come easier.
My parents never went to church, but sent me to a church-run preschool/daycare. I eventually realized that religion doesn’t really make any sense. It’s a great way to make money, though.
Oddly enough, lately mom’s started going to church and trying to civilize us kids. I politely refused.
One day, at about age 15, I realized that it was all a great big lie, existing so that people could make themselves feel better about all the horrible things in the world.
I have a funny story I’ve been dying to tell someone and I guess you guys are it: one day this past summer I was out in the yard when this 60-ish lady - dressed like she was going to a garden party - comes up my walk and says she wants to leave some literature about her church. I politely told her thanks but it would just be wasted since I wouldn’t read it. She asked if I went to any church and what religion I was and I said I didn’t believe in any religion, whereupon she said, with a great big smile and a sweet voice, “Well, that’s why you’re going to burn in hell forever and ever. Have a nice day now.” And then she sashayed out the gate. It was so incongruous I burst into laughter.
I just discovered that I had always been one, but it took a while since I was brought up in a deeply fundamentalist Christian household. I thought for the first 18 years that it was a problem with me, that no matter how hard I prayed, studied the bible, and sought God that I just wasn’t worth his trouble. Then one day I realized, hey, not only do I not beleive in a supreme being, I never had all along! That blessed feeling of everything falling into place was indescribable.
Of course, most of my family thinks I’m going to burn in hell. Jokes on them.
I never believed in Santa Claus, either. I didn’t activly disbelieve, but when mom said she was “on the phone to Santa”, I just smiled and nodded and assumed that it was some sort of metaphor. When I got money from the tooth fairy, I was always happy to find a quarter under my pillow, but I never really though that a wierd fairy came in during the night and put it there. I never really thought mom did it either, but many things in the world don’t make complete sense to a first grader so I just assumed it was one of those.
I don’t really know what it is like to believe anything. It sound pretty wierd.
I was probably 12 or 13 when I knew for sure religion was bogus. I was raised Roman Catholic, went to Catholic schools, and went to church but I wasn’t particulary devout.
One of my friends was an altar boy and one day he took me “backstage” before mass. I saw this bag full of communion wafers and I was like “What’s that?” He tells me they were the communion wafers and I felt so betrayed! This is kinda embarrassing but you know the part during the mass when the priest holds up the big communion wafer and breaks it and then everyone goes up to get some? I had always assumed that God was magically making enough wafers for everybody at church. I mean, even though the priest went to the whattayacallit to get a chalice with the wafers I was convinced it was the power of God that had made enough for everyone. Hadn’t Jesus done the same with fish and loaves of bread? I never even questioned it!
I was already on the fence after my prayers for superpowers continued to go unanswered so that was just the last straw!
No real reason, I was never religious at all…Actually saying to myself I didn’t believe in God didn’t seem like a big deal. I think I just sort of assumed that there was a god when I was little, but really never prayed, did anything like that. I do sort of remember in ninth grade, learning about all the religions, and thinking after awhile how boring it all was. I think I had some contempt for organized religion…it all felt too structured, no meaning. And I just questioned some things- does God apply to animals? If so which- are primates fair game for heaven/hell? What about plants? What about all the millions of different kinds of life- are we really so arrogant to believe that God only came around for our species?
So to sum up: too many unanswered believes, and just a lack of any emotion connected with god.
