A question for atheists: When and why did you decide there is no God?

Question

Were you raised in an atheist home, or
was it a result of your formal education, or
did you suddenly have a epiphany one day, and the voice of
Reason and Logic said to you "There is no God"?

Answer 1

It happened gradually. My father had a heart attack when I was almost nine. I was pretty sure my dad would be ok, but just to make sure I asked God to make it so. My dad died and my life got so hard that I wondered why God would do that to a kid as good as myself. It got questions going. A couple years later, I had a Muslim friend that introduced me to the Koran. A lot of what he said made sense, like if the Bible is so irrefutable, why are there so many versions? He showed me the holes in Christianity. Sooner or later I saw the holes in Islam. The more educated I got, the more I saw the huge gaping holes in all the Religion I saw all around me. And I eventually started to see how very few people actually believe what they are saying about religion. I believe in our hearts, very few of us aren't atheist, because we will all do just about everything we can do to survive and keep those we love from dying, even though some of us say we think that we live our lives to earn the very Heaven we are absolutely terrified of going to.

Answer 2

I was raised Catholic and I actually enjoyed the social aspects of it -- the art and history and music (although I still think the Protestants have better hymns) and especially the sense of community, that is, the knowledge that everybody around me was enjoying these things, too.

But I can't remember a time when I didn't have doubts about the teachings of the church and the stories in the bible. I was in high school when I finally got the connection between the christian mythology and all the others; that was also when I realized that going to church was something that I did because my family did it, not something I would ever do for myself.

Sure enough, I grew up and started living on my own and stopped going to church; missed it a little at first; then forgot about it and hardly thought about it for years after that.

I was in my mid-thirties when I finally noticed that I wasn't even pretending to believe any more; I didn't even bother to describe myself as a "non-practicing catholic." That was when I sat down and read the bible, cover to cover. When I was finished, I closed it, thought for about five minutes and decided, "This is nonsense. I wish I'd figured that out years ago. Now I need a drink."

So I poured myself three fingers of single malt whiskey to celebrate my liberation from that superstitious nonsense, and I've never looked back.

I highly recommend it.

Answer 3

Excellent question. Like most American atheists, I was raised in a Christian home, and I believed in God (essentially the Lutheran version) until my teen years. I had no sudden epiphany, but instead over time became my belief faded, simply because the evidence for god's existence never appeared.

As I became more educated I came to recognize the same "weasel words" in defense of religion that we see in defense of other supernatural claims (all of the new age stuff, alternative medicine, astrology, psychics, UFOs, Jonathan Edwards, etc.). Lots of "it can't be tested", and "it's beyond science", predictions about events that have already happened, and so on. Then the claims were always so vague, again obviously so as to be untestable. When I was still a believer, I generally believed in that other supernatural stuff as well. When I outgrew it, I couldn't in an intellectually honest way say to myself "But Christianity is different". It's not.

I do think that my formal education also contributed to my eventual atheism. I have a pretty solid understanding of probablility and statistics and the philosophy of science, and I think I'm quite fair-handed about this: I also do not believe in learning styles, or the importance of self esteem, and I'm not all that convinced that there is a such thing as persistent personality. I don't think that we know enough yet to know whether or not gun control reduces crime, or raising the minimum wage will hurt hiring. In other words, I don't think that I'm very dogmatic about much of anything. I can give you clear, concrete examples of when I firmly believed something and then found later that I was wrong (my main example is that when I was in college I firmly believed that genetics have almost nothing to do with our intelligence or how we behave - man, was I ever wrong about that one).

I also came through my formal education to better appreciate the extent to which we fool ourselves. Many (but by no means all) theists seem to believe that when large numbers of mentally healthy, reasonably intelligent people believe something, that in itself constitutes good evidence that belief is true. I have learned how often it does not. In a recent question here, someone defended astrology by pointing out that people have believed in it for thousands of years. My response: So what? As evidence, that's essentially zero.

Answer 4

My family in China has never really been introduced to religion or God before, so I was raised non-religiously. In this sense, I have always been an atheist, but for a long while I was interested in Christianity b/c it was the first religion I was introduced to.

I still listen to Christian music, and many of my role models are religious people...But, about a year ago, I realized that Christianity wasn't for me, and that God hasn't really been in my life, although I have wanted to believe that he was. Right now, I guess I am still "seeking."

A misconception is that all atheists believe that "There is no God."
Some atheists do ("strong atheism"), but many do not...Atheism is not a belief, but rather a lack of belief.

Right now I am trying to practice awareness and hope that God will become more apparent, but my logic says, "It is likely that God doesn't exist..." In the end, I think that it comes down to how one defines God.

Answer 5

I grew up in a house where we didn't go to church because a clash of religions. My brother and I were able to choose what we really believed in. I went to church for the first time when I was 17 or 16 with a friend and her family. I loved it and really thought I felt God in my heart. Then I stopped going and then the calls came. The people of the church were wondering what was so important that I didn't go to church, when was I going to start being a donating member of the church, and all that. Then they began dropping by my house to harass me about donating and going back to church. I remember feeling devastated and depressed the whole while this was going on. I began realizing that religion is about control and money, not about the faith most people think. People can have faith in their own homes and volunteer on their own time, but to have people harass them about it and be judgmental is just wrong. Outer sources didn't turn me into an atheist, Christians did.

Answer 6

I was raised as a non-practising catholic in France, and I have never believed in the existence of "God".

My family is non-practising catholic too, and they don't believe in religion either lol. They only pay attention to the tradition side of it all. Noone says "God - Jesus - and so on" at home nor anywhere. I remember that day when my mother thought I bought a T-shirt with "Jesus" written on it. I said "no, it's just a celtic sign lol". She felt much more reassured then.

In the french national TV-news, they said a few days ago that actually only 4.5% of french labelled-catholics really worship "God".

My family and I belong to the 95.5%.

I am a non-believer, and I don't even need to remove my "catholic" label I had when young baptised, given that I don't even take an interest in all this. Traditions.

Answer 7

I started the thinking journey to Atheism when I was around 8 years old. I was never satisfied with the answers my family and pastors gave me. They really didn't have answers. They mostly said, "have faith" which wasn't telling me anything. So, I kept the questions in my head. I wasn't intimidated with the hell threat because I even questioned the existence of hell at an early age. If I heard someone say "You're going to hell", I thought to myself, "If it actualy exist". When I was around 12, I started using more logic and studying other religions. I also learned about the harm religion was doing to the world in my history classes. I learned more about astronomy, history, the human body. I realized that people dont believe in god because of evidence. I tried to force myself to believe it but I just couldn't. So, I stopped punishing myself and took the position of being an Atheist

Answer 8

Well, I was Christian, but then I stopped going to Church and I realized there was the alternative belief. I saw that there were other RELIGIONS (rather than other peoples, like the Jews) and pretty much came to the conclusion that they were ALL wrong. And became an Athiest.

But then I saw the light of reason and realized that it's impossible to know, as the existence of god is logically unverifiable, so I'm agnostic.

Answer 9

I was in college (in my 30's) studying history. I had been raised in a home where both of my parents had faith in God and attended church regularly, and I went to religious schools from first through twelfth grade. I felt very at home in my faith until I began dating my husband. He is an intellectual questioner, and he always asked me why I believed what I did. It wasn't out of disrespect, but out of sincere curiosity. As time went on, I read more and more, and questioned more and more, while still maintaining my ties to the church and my friends who shared my religious beliefs. Finally I realized that none of it resonated in my heart or my mind anymore. I truly couldn't answer my husband's questions--or my own--anymore.
History speaks objectively of the many religious cultures that have been with mankind for all of time. Man has always wanted to believe that he survives his own mortality; I believe that god arises from that strong desire. Early in history, god or gods were created to represent the mysteries that men couldn't explain, such as the changing of the seasons, weather phenomena, and storms and fertility (or lack thereof), and even love.
Throughout history, religious beliefs have evolved with men. In Christs's time and immediately before and after, the popular myth was one of a savior of men, one who overcame death by rising from the grave. Christianity became the most accepted of these myths because from the beginning they accepted Jews AND women--which was quite unusual in the time.
Anyway--that's what I think. And I still believe that there is right and wrong, and good and bad, and I am motivated to be good because it feels right.

Answer 10

There can be many reasons to why people become atheists. It is because of corrupt people, bad things in their lives, or because of such reasons. And it's not that atheists are not intelligent. Many atheists are clever and intellectual people. Each person has his own way of seeing god and spiritual concept. Some don't see it in god but they do have some other beliefs which makes them strong, things like perseverance, will power, all these things empower an atheist.
These are the reasons people become atheists.