Why do people become atheist's?

Question

Are they turned off by their religion , that they decide to stop following it? Do they actully study their religion before claiming that their is no God. Do they study other religions as well?
No offence, just curious.

Please no saying "they're going to hell". I just want a good undiscriminating answer.

I'm not christian.

Answer 1

There are two kinds of atheists:

(1) Practical Atheists are simply godless people who live their lives as if there were no God. He simply does not figure in their day-to-day life. They don't think about Him, they don't worry about Him... He just is not part of any of their mental processes.

(2) Theoretical or Intellectual Atheists are the more serious, deliberate kind of atheists, who have ‘proved’ to themselves that there isno God. The more famous of such men are
Ludwig Feuerback, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud and Jean-Paul Sartre. They all say basically one thing: that belief in God is
an illusion. Some of these (not all) tend to condescend to or patrionize or pity or even laugh at those who do believe in God.

I think that some people are born with a proclivity to spirituality or religion. Some people are born without a trace of it and are - eh, for lack of a better word - materialists. They simply cannot beleive anything without empirical proof. They can't help this... the same way I cannot help beleiving that there is more to life than what can be seen, measured, weighed, etc. Belief in God in the final analysis is not a matter of "proof" but a matter of Faith. You either have it or you don't.

Sometimes I amuse myself with the thought that when a "good" atheist dies and by God's grace and mercy is transported to heaven, he (or she) will be demanding of everyone: "what angels? I don't see any angels... what are you talking about? you poor deluded fools... i thought i was well rid of you Jesus freaks..."

Answer 2

we are all born atheists in the sense that we don't believe in anything except eating when we are born. It is usually at a very young age that some concept of God is introduced and sometimes forced upon us. i guess the more accurate question is why do atheists revert back to being atheists despite being bombarded with religion so much? No matter how elaborate an answer anyone gives, the simple answer to your question is that somewhere along the line they came to the conclusion they did not believe. Some have tried to believe. Some are very strongly against religion. It does not have to be based on logic, although most atheists will say that it is. Humans tend to believe or disbelieve and then use whatever arguments support whatever their choices are.

Answer 3

IThere is a small joke about athiest .pls read
There is an athiest who is walking out in the woods thinking evolution caused all of the beauty of the forest. Well along comes this 7 foot tall grizzley bear. Th e athiest turned around and saw the grizzly and screamed a bloodcurdling scream anruns up the hill. Then the grizzly starts chasing and closing in on him. Well just as the bear got ready to kill him he screamed save me God! Time stopped and a bright light shown in the sky and god said why should I save you after all these years of you teaching others I'm not real? The athiest replied, Lord it would be a hypocrocy to ask to be a christian now but could you at least make the bear christian? The Lord said O.K. Time started again and the bear took its paw away and put both together and said"Lord thank you for this food I am about to recieve Amen.The mentality of the people who think this is some kind of a parable is breathtaking. A totally fictious atheist (athiest?) sees time stop and then automatically thinks “Ahh, this is the work of God, the Christian God...” It's utterly absurd! I've news for you Christians: atheists don't believe in any gods, and most atheists don't care to distinguish between them, they certainly wouldn't automatically assume that if anything a bit weird happened that Christianity was the only possible explanation. If I faced up before something exhibiting god-like properties I certainly wouldn't automatically assume the Christians had been right all along, I'd have a lot of questions.
So now u decide is it because of some wrong reason u dont believe in god or just for the heck of it.do mail me at [e-mail]

Answer 4

What do you mean "their religion". Why do you assume someone has a religion before becoming an atheist? Atheism is the lack of belief in a god or gods, we're all atheists when we're born. Babies don't look at the world for the first time and assume it was created by a god. Many people are told that by their parents, et cetera, and since they don't know better they just believe it. Some of those people who are convinced god exists later become atheists again because they realise the pathetic stories they were told as children don't really add up as well as scientific facts.

Answer 5

I can't answer for everyone so I'll tell you what it was for me. I went to church from birth until I started college. I never liked it. As a child nothing made me happier on Sunday morning than skipping church. I went to youth group and retreats and had a good time with my friends but my heart was never in the religious stuff. I remember being in an auditorium at a retreat with hundreds of other christians listening to some christian rock performance. Everyone was holding hands and swaying, "feeling the spirit". I remember looking around thinking, "this is weird. I feel so out of place with these people". When I got a part time job I volunteered to work the Sunday opening shift (4:30am) so I didn't have to attend church.

Fast forward to college and Descartes, Nietzsche, communication theory, biology, evolution...religious faith just didn't hold up to scrutiny and I realized religion was not only a waste of time but detriment to the self.

Answer 6

Atheism is the natural state of an open mind. Religion in most cases is put into people's heads by parents, priests, or teachers, preferably when they are little children who are ready to believe what adults say. But as with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, the stories will make it only for so long, and the open mind keeps asking questions and sees the loose ends.

Answer 7

People have various reasons for being/becoming atheists. I can only answer for myself. I have always been an atheist. I have learned a lot about various religions and none of them has convinced me that there is a god in the first place, let alone that it is "the true religion".

Answer 8

I was raised with a belief in a personal God. As a direct result of that faith, (or actually the underlying need to KNOW what my life was about), I had an intense spiritual experience when I was 33 years old. I no longer believe in a personal God. I no longer "believe" in anything. I know what I know; and I know what I don't know. I am a Buddhist; which makes me by philosophical definition,(as well as I can define it), an "Ignostic weak atheist".

Answer 9

I think a person who "becomes" an atheist was an atheist all along. Rarely does a person truly believe and then turn their back on God. I hated going to church when I was young and was an atheist for years. I didn't believe until I had an experience that made me believe. You can't definitively prove or disprove God's existence. It's hard to believe based on teachings and lectures.
It's hard to let go of the innate cynicism and skepticality.
You have to experience it for yourself before you actually believe.

Answer 10

Atheists need better evidence.The bible is a book,not a warehouse full of evidence.How an atheist can assume there is no god,I don't know.Most likely atheists go through life intrigued by various religions, but again no evidence except books that have been altered hundreds of times.