Atheists. What was the defining moment when belief in god(s) fell away and you became atheist?

Question

Was it a book you read (which one?) or a conversation you had (about what?) or a gradual growing unease with the claims of religion?

Answer 1

No real defining moment that I remember.
My family was supposedly Catholic but nothing was fully explained to me in the first place. I was only told a little bit about who God, Mary and Jesus were (less stress on Jesus). I was told the story about the manger/Bethlehem only because it explained Christmas. There was a brief mention of Adam and Eve and a rib. That's pretty much it. We never talked about it unless a pet died and my mom would say they were in heaven. I always thought the story had major holes in it since I never went to church, read a bible or learned much more about it than what I saw on TV. I ended up learning more about science than religion so it was never an issue. When I learned more about different religions I realized that they had conflicting stories. I just decided no one really knew anything for sure.

*also, every time I asked a difficult question about it my mom couldn't give a convincing answer or would respond with "This is why I should have taken you to church"

Answer 2

When I was ten I had a really crappy year at this school I was attending...
So I was probably ten and a half when i realised that an all-loving and empathetic god/deity couldn't exist and be all-powerful or there would be no suffering. I also found out what a sociopath was that year. And an all-loving entity which thinks of all as equal wouldn't make them.
And if it isn't all-powerful, then it can't be a god, can it? So, logically, god cannot exist.

Answer 3

I'd say it was the fundamental questions about God that could I could not be given a straight answer to.

Every time I asked a question that couldn't be answered, I got, "That's where the faith comes in," and it just sounds to me like religions try to explain everything, and instead of admitting they can't explain everything, they say things like, "God works in mysterious ways" or "We can't understand the workings of a being as great as God," and I just can't be like other people and swallow that and believe blindly.

It's cool that people can be fideists, but I need some kind of logic or something concrete, not just something I was taught. If my parents never told me about God, I wouldn't have figured it out by myself; God is a learned concept. I figured there's too many religious people who go against their own teachings of being "good" in the eyes of their God. I figure I don't need to believe in God to be a good person.

Plus there's way too much evil in the world for there to be an all-perfect God in existence.

Answer 4

About 8th grade, When I was old enough to really think. I had a friend who was an atheist. He pointed out some flaws with religion. Simple as that. I am 39 now.

Answer 5

For very few atheists who were theists before was the process sudden. So few, in fact, that I'm aware of none. For most, if not all, it's a many year process in which one completely and utterly devotes himself or herself to the study of their own religion, then of other religions, trying desperately to find a way to hold onto faith.

Answer 6

After a religious education I grew up and realised that it was just used as a means of social control and had no relation to reality.

Answer 7

I think I was about 8 or 9.
My grandma read me the story of Lots wife

"And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. . . .

" The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." (Gen. 19:14-17, 23-26)

Up until that point I was a product of my environment.

Answer 8

I was born an atheist, and never accepted any of the god stories that were told to me.

Answer 9

I've never believed in anything religious or about god. Most people I know who did believe in god when they were little changed their minds and became atheists when they went to university.

Answer 10

I was born an atheist, just as everyone else. I just wasn't force-fed all the crap.