What factors are at play when a religious person becomes an Atheist or an Agnostic?

Question

Disclaimer: I'm an agnostic, not trying to convert or disconvert anyone.

So, what happens in the mind of a person who stops believing in "God(s)"?

Is it really as simple as "Oh, Evolution, ok well then there is no God is there"?

Obviously the Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection are much deeper than just "vhala"; but you get my point I hope, is there a scientific understanding of the universe that is prerequisite to Atheism/Agnostocism?

Answer 1

Believing in god is not something you are born with.
it is something people are taught.
I look at it, not as disbelieving the bible, but as being a good person.
There is no prerequisite to a person's own opinion.

Answer 2

I'm somewhere between an Agnost and a Deist. I believe that there is a God, just that he cant be explained.( I guess that's more agnostic)
Anyways, I was raised protestant, and always wondered how Islam, Christianity and Judaism could believe in the same God, but hate each other like they do. Or how do we know where right?
I think the straw that broke the camels back for me, is realizing that my mother would force us to go to church, and then outside after church would bad mouth and gossip about other ladies in the church.
I decided, I wont cant choose sides. Here are these Christians, claiming to be so holy and their horrible human beings.
So now I'm agnostic and very happy. I pity the folks who are narrow minded and see only the one idea/option.
Theology does interest me, but I dont feel any of it is right or wrong.
I'm happier now then I was in my christian upbringing.
I cant understand how the mind of an atheist works, personally I believe there has do be some sort of higher being, but I dont begrudge them for that. As long as they are good individuals who dont harm others, I respect their choice.

Answer 3

Well, I think both evolution and natural selection can be. I also think reading religious texts, and just opening your eyes and seeing what is around you can be another.

For me it was actually being told what I couldn't do. I am probably the only person to walk away from their own baptism so it never did happen. When I was fifteen I walked away entirely. At that time I did not have the knowledge of evolution and natural selection I do today. I could not stand being told that I had no choice in my own life. I knew better than that.

Answer 4

Religious people who become atheists do so because they seek the "truth". Religious people who want to be sure they are following the right path, will study and research their beliefs, until they are satisfied that they have found the "truth".

But the fact is, if one studies and researches religion, there is no "truth" to be found. This is blatantly obvious. And people that delve this deeply into the study of religion have no choice but to become atheist/agnostic.

And that is the only difference between an atheist and a theist. Atheists are not satisfied with easy answers. Theists stop studying, before they discover the truth. They simply learn enough to make them comfortable with their beliefs, and then they will not listen to anything more. Rather than seek the truth, they will sit in an area where they can be comfortable, and remain ignorant of the rest of the facts.

Atheists value the truth more than comfort, though. The religious person who became an atheist was not content to sit in the dark, when he knew there were other answers right around the corner. The atheist continued studying, while his religious peers stopped. And in doing so, the truth was revealed, and the blind follower became the atheist.

It's been my experience, to put it plainly, that atheists seek the truth, while theists seek happiness. When an atheist finds the truth, he calls it happiness. When a theist finds happiness, he calls it the truth.

Answer 5

I was raised in a catholic family. I guess I believed as a small kid - it was what my parents told me was true.

In school, I took the usual basic science courses, and saw the obvious differences in dates - IE, fossils were millions of years old, stars were formed billions of years ago, but the bible thumpers said the earth was only 6,000 years old. Someone was wrong, obviously.

I tried reading the bible several times. I came to realize that it was basically the same as the other religions that modern people dismiss as explanations by people who didn't have knowledge of how the world worked. These were explanations like thunder was the the god's bowling, the sun was pulled by Apollo's chariot, or that the world was created during the dreamtime. I also saw the sexism, cruelty, and racism that was justified in the name of religion in the past, and in the present too.

I learned also that the scientific process is one of constant questioning, of testing, of working towards verifiable results. When I asked about how did we know if events in the bible were true, like if miracles could be done now, I was told that I just had to accept that it had happened, and to not question authority.

That was a wrong answer to give me - I like to question authority - I like to know how something works. I've ruined tools and items before by taking them apart, and not being able to put them back together again. But I learned something in the process of doing that, and I learned that if I can understand the process, I'm more likely to believe in the principle.

So I got to the point where I decided to reject religion, and believe in the scientific method. Yes, there are holes in the theory, and in the evidence. But if you want proof of evolution of species, of the creation of stars, of planet-wide extinctions, you can find them in many different sources. If you want proof that 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish fed a multitude, you have just one source. And it contradicts itself.

Answer 6

Starting point for me was learning specific religious claims I'd been taught and accepted were provably false. That began the process of questioning. Then came critical thinking and empirical analysis before which all mere assertions fall. In the end, all religions rest on mere assertion and claims that cannot be tested, thus the requirement to "just believe" and "have faith." If you believe that mere assertion is not relevant to life you will end up an agnostic or atheist.

It seems plain on the face of it that the most important aspects of life should not be founded on mere tradition, assertion and untestable claims, because we cannot hope to succeed in anything based on false, misleading or irrelevant information. But people are generally more circumspect in choosing which toilet paper they will use than in which culturally programmed religious fantasy they embrace and defend. 99.9999999% of the time it is not a choice that was considered at all, but purely a matter of what culture they were born into and socialized to accept. If that's sufficient for someone it's a waste of a perfectly good brain and a limited life span, but their choice. I've chosen to live in reality instead.

Answer 7

Many Christians can cite the date and time when they suddenly decided that they were "saved". Atheism is a longer, more thought out road.

It's amazing how strongly Christians want to believe that all of us atheists have gone through some kind of trauma to lose believe in any gods. In fact, I've seen many more people suddenly grasp at the superstition of Christianity because of some trauma. I can't think of one athiest I've known who has become an atheist because of some kind of trauma or disappointment. There have been a few who have later developed quite a disgust at the tactics that religions use to keep their "flock" and the tactics they use to control others. Much of it is quite disgusting.

As for me, I came to atheism after years and years of study and introspection. I studied my belief, the belief of my church, other religions, and even the nature of belief. I talked with many people and came to my conclusions after considering a lot of information.

Answer 8

I actually am one of these people. It took a while. I didnt decide there was no God, I just ended up realising there wasnt one. I actually had an experience of some kind and realised iwasnt important, and that was liberating.
I sought truth AS A BELIEVER. I prayed to God , and believed God was not scared of the truth. It took many years. I Studied christian literature, books, prayed, sought to get people saved, fed the poor, reasoned daily. when I came to the truth, i felt like thanking God, but the truth was there is no 'God' as I always envisioned.
One of the main things for me was seeing that 'strong' atheist/agnostic are more sensible, polite, inteligent, human and free.
It was sad at first, but I knew truth was better (I still had the 'words of Jesus' inside me saying "Seek the Truth"). I gave up my best friend, who I finally knew was a myth.

Answer 9

This is a really BROAD question and will deal with a lot of diverse answers. To narrow it down a bit, I will go with the two or three which comes to mind more often when I run into these situations.

Many times, it is precipitated by a traumatic event in the life of the believer. They lose a child, they lose a business, they fail at marriage, etc, or all these things at once and they develop an attitude that there must not be a God since He is not doing anything for me, does not answer my prayers, does not care. I have wasted my time all these years.

Another thing I see is the slow development of this attitude from the heart of an UNBELIEVER who has been just more or less "going along to get along." They are suddenly free of mom and dad, siblings, etc, and they will exercise their freedom which they have dreamed of having their whole life. They never were believers.

Others will be vibrant and zealous believers and Satan will come along and put many, many stumbling blocks in their way and they fail to grow and can be persuaded to follow any type of idea.

NOW, for those Christians among us, you see where this is going? The Parable of the Sower. Jesus tells this parable, and then explains it in Matthew. Thing is, He was absolutely right. This is precisely HOW the world works with religious thought.

Answer 10

I believe that Agnostics and Atheists mistakenly equate people with God. God is perfect...people aren't. They try to rationalize everything that goes on around them in human terms, instead of God's terms.

They see a lot of pain in the world, hypocrisy committed by religious people, evil...and decide that God couldn't possibly permit such things to happen...so He mustn't exist.

But they rarely look at the opposite side of the equation. There is far more love in this world than there is evil. Most people spend 99% of their time NOT doing evil. How often do folks ask themselves "Why does God allow so much love in the world?"

It's very important to understand the difference between God's Will, and mans' free will.

God is love. He loves us so much that he gave us the gift of free will; that is the ability to choose to do His will. The opposite of free will would be slavery...that is God FORCING us to do His will. Slavery is the complete opposite of love.

Because all humans are imperfect, we often fail or choose to ignore God's Will.

Atheists and Agnostics believe that because people frequently choose to exercise their free will in a erroneous manner, that God's Will is faulty. But again, it's man that is faulty...not God.

As for evolution...mans' mind is very limited. (That's part of the problem...some men believe that we can know everything that God knows.) Since God created everything, this means that he created science. It's completely reasonable to believe that God created evolution as being part of science. The issue isn't, and never was, HOW man came to exist; the issue is that man DID come to exist by virtue of God's love. If God had chosen to make us from Poppin Fresh Dough, that fact wouldn't change His Truth or His reasons for creating man one bit.