Atheists: What is your religious background and how did you find out the truth?

Question

I remember when I realized it was all b.s., sort of like the main character in Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

Christians always talk abou their moment of awakening, but I have often found my moment of awakening (i.e., realizing church teachings were just lies and fabrications) as a special moment of liberation.

Answer 1

I was raised Catholic and went through the Catholic school system. I was not baptized however.

This led to me being persecuted by teachers in a fashion. So I always was made to feel different.

Then I discovered dinosaurs. I could not resolve why the bible said the earth was 5000 or so years old and the text book said billions. So I was left with so many questions, none which could be answered by blind faith.

Grade 7 was the year where I finally resolved the conflict and realized that the bible was not history, and that the probability of some of the events recorded happening required simple blind belief.

I wrote my grade 11 religious studies honours thesis on the non existence of god - which garnered me a 90% grade and a long talk with my teacher.

I never looked back. I hate ignorance.

Answer 2

This is a great question.

I agree with someone else that it is a process rather than an event; however, there was a moment for me when it all coalesced.

I was about 9. I already knew Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were adult white lies. God similarly didn't make sense to me. Despite my Sunday School teachers' best efforts at obfuscation, I could never rationalize a God that

a) Did things that if done by humans would be considered very bad (i.e., killing, drowning, etc.) or

b) Chose to let Satan do bad things.

c) Why God needed to kill his son to save me of sin. Why didn't he just say, "Son, you are saved." The whole thing became ludicrous.

It just made no sense and the greater the effort for others to explain it, the sillier it all sounded.

BTW, I am now in my 40s and Christians often accuse me of "taking the easy way out" by being an atheist. I always point out that having to find one's own way has been harder, but more gratifying. Who wouldn't want to believe in immortality?? THAT, seems to me is the easy way out. But I know in my heart and mind that it is nonsense.

Answer 3

I was born and raised christian. I went to church and sunday school until i was a senior in high school. I had always believed, because everyone around me believed. It only seemed to make sense. But I was never in to the hole organized religion thing. It didn't make sense how there could be so many different versions of what was supposed to be the same story.

It was some where between my senior year of high school and my freshmen year of college that I just went wait this doesn't make any sense. I layed awake all night just thinking about some of the contradictions like the whole creating an unliftable rock, and being able to lift it thing.

After awhile I just stumbled onto more and more of my own contradictions that didn't make sense, until I got to the point were I realized that my religion couldn't possibly be right. From there it was easy to see that it didn't make sense for any religion to be right, or for any god to really exist. At least not one that needed to be worshiped.

Answer 4

I was a practicing Christian for over 30 years. I never questioned my religion or faith as a child.

But, when I approached middle age, I began researching the issue (before the Internet) and discovered the bible is a book of mythology. Christianity and bible based religions are based entirely on lies.

And, there is no credible evidence whatsoever to support God belief, or believing anything the bible has to offer (from a historical or factual viewpoint).

There were no mighty Hebrew empires or anything else the bible claims.

Becoming an atheist was a process, it was not an event.

Answer 5

I wasn't religious at all growing up, my parents didn't make us go to church bc they were forced to as kids and hated it bc of it. They gave gifts for X-mas and such, but never forced anything on us. I was tricked into christianity by people at school, they simply got to me at a time when I was really vulnerable. I stayed that way for a couple years, still didn't go to churc though. I then realized how stupid it all was and Atheism was the only right way.

My life has been a million times better since I became Atheist.

Answer 6

I was raised in a Catholic boarding school, then became a Christian Scientist for around two decades, then explored Quakerism, Mennonite, etc. I was at first an agnostic, then an atheist took me to an atheist meeting. I was a little scared of going because I thought it would be a bunch of militant atheists who would be intolerant of a questioning person like me. When I walked into the meeting, the guy chairing it welcomed me & said I was welcome there no matter where I was in my questioning of religion; I didn't have to be a total atheist to be welcome there. I immediately felt welcomed there.
An atheist biologist I met who knew I was raised Catholic and knew I was still into Christianity, gently asked me if I believed in virgin birth, if a virginal woman could give birth to a son. I said I really didn't know. She said that tadpole eggs can be fertilized without sperm, that they could be fertilized by jiggling them about, but that the hatchlings will always be female, as no sperm was present. Saying literally, that parthogenesis is possible, but not as the bible story tells it. That virgin births could never produce a boy without sperm. I accepted that.
Atheism attracts my intellect. Religion always had had me by my emotions. It always seemed that religion satisfied my intellect, but I found that to be an illusion. When atheism came into my life, then my intellect was really widened. I have never walked away from an atheist meeting uninspired and I have always learned something important about the world I live in with them. At times there was arguing among us, but it was about objective findings and objective ideas that were impartial, and they too were informational. Religion cannot be impartial in its discussions and cannot be debated among its followers for it is about one book interpretation and must be followed by faith. To question was to show weakness so you wouldn't dare do it.
Atheism intellectually satisfies. And being away from religion has been emotionally healthy experience for me.

Answer 7

I was raise in a black methodist church. I played the organ, was a member of various boards. Despite all of this, I never bought into the bs I was getting shoved down my throat. Finally I started thinking about all of this and decided that what was being done was nothing more than brain washing tecniques and that the worst trick that their satan has played on mankind was making people believe he existed and the devision of religion into more than 30,000 what I consider cults. I have returned to my African roots of spirituality that pre-dates Christianity. Now I just revel whenever they call me a witch or some other nonsense.

Answer 8

I never believed. My parents were non religious god believers when I was a child.
I remember at age 4 that my neighbor told me that god was everywhere all at once all the time. I immediately realized that it was some bizarre fairy tale. So I guess I have always been an Atheist. I even went through a spell when I really, really wanted to believe, but just couldn't.

Answer 9

I was a Christian for nearly two dozen years. A critical reading of the Bible NEARLY did the trick, but extensive research into the history of The Church finished the job.

Answer 10

And you've read the Bible how many times? You have done a lot of in depth research, right? Is your liberation of not believing in God, of not being a Christian, because as an atheist you can do nothing. You believe in, you worship, give thanks, have salvation in nothing! Oh boy. Kick back. Relax. Who cares about ten commandments and eternal life anyway?