Atheist when did you find out you where an Atheist?

Question

Very respectfully,
Muslimah

Answer 1

Somewhere in my late childhood (9-12) I already didn't feel religions made sense to me. Then I gave that feeling a more theoretical background.

Answer 2

After I became Agnostic I searched for a "reason to believe". I found the opposite. I am a person that by nature requires proof. I traveled to different countries and let me tell you, everthing I saw, and experienced since I've travelled has cemented my beliefs.
I didn't wake up and decide. It was a gradual realization for me.
I'll list a few reasons:
1. Myths about religion have been found untruthful over time. For example, early people thougth weather was a sign of God's discontent/satisfaction.
2. Heaven was in/above the clouds.
3. Sex is sinful. This one really got me, I must commit an act of evil to have children?

So much of religion is hypocritical. And people abuse it and misuse it. People can't, I repeat Can Not agree about it. And finally, All religions say that their way is the right way. But, when people don't like the way religion is being practiced, then they change it. (People change the rules because they do not like it) Who changed the rules? "People" did. I don't think God ever changed His rules after the flood did he?

Its impossible to communicate all my emotions, logic,and reasons I am Athiest. But "when" Atheism made more sense to me than Theism, I became Atheist.

I spent some time in the Mid-East. That more than anything has strengthened my conviction of Atheism.

Answer 3

For me it was a gradual process. I started really questioning in my teens. I was raised Christian and many things didn't make sense to me but it was so much easier to not question since my family and friends were Christian. In my early twenties though I started studying science and because I yearned to know what was true I started studying comparative religion and Biblical criticism and scholarship. Based on everything I learned I really stopped believing at about 22 I think. From what I know about science I can't believe that any one was born from a virgin or rose from the dead. From studying all the religions and mythologies of the world I also know these sorts of stories are incredibly similar to other older God stories. I think humans struggle to understand the world and how to live in relation to each other and from that struggle religion is born. I guess I am not a hard core atheist in that I don't deny the possiblity of something higher than ourselves I just don't think it is likely or that humans know as much as they think. I think it is possible to be a good and moral person without being religious. I do respect others rights to believe whatever they wish, I just get worried and even scared when any group starts becoming so sure they have it all right that they want to enforce their beliefs on others.

Answer 4

i am not an atheist but i beleive with the advent of science it is imperative that atheism would increase, as in the early years when there was no science and humans were scared of natural elements like rain, thunder, fire only with science did we come to know that they were not by god but by nature and can be suitably predicted , there was a time when religion was very powerfull but after the sepration of the church and the state everything changed.......in the same way the day most arab countries give up theocratism which I think would likely happen in 2 decades thier would be increase in atheism there , I guess there best example is turkey which is relatively modern and is trying to control the hardliners and there is a growing amount of young people who are essentially quite liberated. You should try to read thinkers like voltaire and nietzsche who have actually preducted that science would lead to the demise of religion.

Answer 5

When I was in High School, I started learning about other religions. I was Jewish and I didn't think that my religion had any better answers than another religion. So I started questioning. Then I though about how illogical it was for an all powerful god and an all loving god to allow evil, the problem of evil, and I started doubting. Then I learned about genetics and evolution. And I started disbelieving anything that was overly contrary to that. Not saying evolution as we know it is an end all answer to how we got there. But when you tell me that we came here because a being poofed us into existence 5000 years ago, I look at evidence to the contrary.

Answer 6

14

Answer 7

As all humans are, I was born Atheist. I then was raised Catholic.

When I started to ask rational questions about existence and our expected behavior that no one could answer satisfactorily, I started to doubt what I'd been taught.

When other Christians and Catholics tried to intimidate and shame me into believing nonsense that they couldn't rationally explain, I decided that this whole "organized religion" thing was a bad idea and embraced the notion of being Atheist.

Answer 8

Went to university-studied Christianity and the enlightenment as part of a humanities degree. Read Voltaire's criticisms of Christianity and clericalism and from that point on it snowballed. The more I look at institutionalised religion the more I become aware of how meaningless it really is.

Answer 9

I remember one day in religion class in second grade when I realized for the first time that these people expected me to actually believe all these stories. I couldn't believe it! I thought that was crazy, even in second grade. I guess that means I've always been an atheist.

I don't think I truly realized I could NOT believe in God, that there were people out there who didn't follow religion, until high school.

Answer 10

I was raised without religion, and decided to give it a try when I was about 11. After going to several different worhsip centers of several different religions, I realized it simply wasn't for me.
So in a sense, I've been an athiest since I was born.