Atheists. When and how did you realise the clothes have no Emperor?

Question

I was about 12 I think.

Answer 1

I can't actually remember a time when I didn't have doubts, so I suppose my suspicions started when I was ten or twelve. Sometime in high school I realized that religion is nothing more than mythology and that going to church was something I did because my family did it, not something I would ever do for myself. But I was in my mid-thirties when I finally noticed that I wasn't even pretending to believe in any god.

Answer 2

I went to a Presbyterian church when I was little and that left a bad taste in my mouth. I became sort of agnostic at an early age (11 maybe) not sure what I believed and that worked for me until I was about 16. Then I saw a show on Discovery channel called "Testament" and it explained (logically) about the Israelites wandering in the desert, trying to establish themselves as a tribe. They wanted a strong leader who could not be corrupted, so they made up God to be their leader. Then they wrote the first 13 chapters of Genesis to be the "pre-history" of their tribe. It all sounded so perfectly logical and plausible to me, that was the moment that I really gave up on God as a personal deity. An archaeologist pulled back the curtain of mystery and it all became clear to me. Half the world worships a phantom that some men just thought up about 5000 years ago. This is also the moment that it dawned on me just how stupid the average person is.

Answer 3

religion doesn't make sense to me. too many to chose from , how can all of them be the right one? I was raised christian, alot of questions, still no answers. The Hindu faith makes to most sense to me as far as re-incarnation of the spirit, but the best explaination I ever saw was when I watched a PBS program, where a guy talked about a source energy that we are all connected to and as long as we are in harmony we flow naturally as energy and as energy we've always been and always will be, the body being a vessel that carries us through live. If you live outside this harmony. everything is against you, everything goes wrong, etc... So go with the flow. Too many people are killed over religion and which one is best. STUPID. Religion will start the next world war, alot of people will die. So call me a student of old and new ideas, doesn't hurt to study about this. But the more I know about "God" the less I believe in what I've been taught growing up. So call me agnostic waiting for for God to show himself and take his place in the world if he's real, I don't believe in fairy tales anymore. As for when I started thinking like this, I'm still working on it.

Answer 4

I went through an agnostic phase from roughly 18 to late 20s, fell into fundyism for a few years, and then finally read the damn Bible for the first time in my life. It left me with a sick feeling. I read it again hoping that would clear up my confusion, but it didn't. That gnawed in my mind for about a year as I sank deeper into the pit of fundamentalism, until I finally decided to prove the existence of god once and for all. I was sure the proof was there and just had to find it to finally get over my doubts.

...shortening things a bit... not only was the proof not there, but I had exposed myself to knowledge that made me finally realize it was all just ancient mythology. That was about 5 years ago at age 36.

Answer 5

I was about 16 when I realized that it wasn't just a bunch of nonsense. Some things that make be believe that it's all true include the Dead Sea scrolls- remains of the Bible found by the Dead Sea that were written thousands of years ago- all very close to the translations of the Bible that we have today. Also the fact that Jesus's followers were willing to be beaten and even willing to die for what they believed- who'd do that for a lie. Where you end up for eternity is such an important decision- this is something that you really should be sure about and research for yourselves.
People lie and cheat- yes, even people who say their Christian do horrible things. But that doesn't change who God is. Don't let people make you loose your faith in God.

Answer 6

At 13, I had questions and started studying the Christian religion. The more I studied, the sillier it sounded. I went through a brief phase of studying other religions, trying to fine one that made sense. By 14 or 15, I was a full-blown atheist.

These days, I'm more of a Humanist, but I find it's easier to call myself an atheist and drive away those who think they might be able to convert a Humanist.

Answer 7

I wasn't raised in a religious family, but I think I was about 16 when I had doubts, 18 when I realised I didn't believe and called myself an athiest (I have the courage of my convictions so I never said I was agnostic).

Answer 8

And your emperor told you that you would be absolutely right about absolutely everything for eternity?

I thought the same thing when I was 12, but I grew up.

Answer 9

I was about 18.

Answer 10

I was never religious, but I was raised to believe there was a god and heaven. I never really believed it. But, I really figured out I was agnostic at 12 as well. I was starting to get into science and realizing that evolution makes a lot more sense than religion. I believe that our universe was made as someone's science fair experiment more than I believe in religion.