Atheists, what was the final straw for you?

Question

if you used to believe in God, what was the final piece of evidence or life event that convinced you there was no God?

Tom, does it look like I am trying to convert anyone? Does it look like I even said which religious affiliation I belong to or that I even belong to one???

The reason I was asking was because I myself have struggled with the existance or non-existance of God, and I was trying to figure out what ultimately drew others to their conclusions. I know the faith side, and I was wondering the non-faith side. No subtle attempts to conversion intended in the least bit!

Answer 1

Good question.

Answer 2

For me it was seven years of convent school, and having religion thrown in my face for every little thing. Not once in all those seven years did anyone ever give me a reasonable answer to anything that I questioned concerning the bible. It was always the same answer "if it says so in the bible then it must be true" . I always found the bible to be a confusing book that seemed to be filled with untruths and ridiculous claims, that clearly had to be nothing more than myths. I could never understand why so many people in the bible apparently lived to be hundreds of years of age or how Sarah gave birth at ninety years of age. Pretty stupid stuff. Common sense tells a rational person this cannot be. Not to mention it's content consists of vast amounts of downright cruelty and violence. Need I say more! Thats my own experience on how I became an atheist.

Answer 3

It has been a very progressive thing for me. I was raised Lutheran and converted to Catholicism in my teens. Having lost my mother at the age of twelve, made me question life. I really never believed that there was a God and that Jesus loved me. I just followed the crowd. Once I was out on my own, I realized that even those who were supposed to be good Christians, weren't. I fell away from the church and started to really look at what caused people to want to believe in a Deity. It just grew from there. I started to see that religion was brain-washing people. Like a bunch of cults, people convinced themselves that God exists. The whole time I was a 'Catholic', I was a sinner. I didn't feel good about myself at all. My self-worth was almost non-existent. What kind of thought process causes you to think you are worthless. Well, Christianity did for me.
I now think that religion only in the mind of those who believe and that is OK. Let them. I just want to believe the way I do now...there is no god(s).

Answer 4

I'm still teetering on the line between believing and not believing. I grew up Catholic, and always believed. Over the years, though, the idea that there's some "being" in the sky watching us just started to seem more and more ridiculous. Like the way we sort of laugh at the Roman and Greek idea of the gods. Why is their idea silly and ours not? It just has started to seem sort of cavemanish to believe in a god. Also, the constant stream of hatred and intolerance put forth by people in the name of God has TOTALLY put me off. I want nothing to do with that. It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about all the wars and evil that fills this world because of religion.

Answer 5

In all my life I never had a piece of evidence or event which could have persuaded me there was a god in the first place. I was never baptized and am an atheist all my life. So you could call birth the final straw :)

Answer 6

i'm an atheist wiccan even however wiccans can have confidence in God I chosen to no longer. i think of the final straw grew to become into while my Grandma grew to become into speaking approximately an arranged marriage for me and that God will chosen my suitor. i grew to become into 13 on the time. It scared the s**t out of me. i grew to become into no longer wiccan on the time yet i grew to become into agnostic. Then that shifted my total view on God to atheist. If God grew to become into going to make me do something like that then no thank you. i realize it sounds ridiculous yet heavily while your a woman interior the united kingdom who's a feminist it may scare you.

Answer 7

Christianity? That the resurrection accounts in the bible horribly contradicted.

God? An earthquake in Turkey where some children lingered for 5 days.

Answer 8

I thougt it was funny that all the other religions were wrong and the one that i just happend to be born in is the right one, so i wanted to change and seen that all religions think thier right so i quit believeing.
I also look at the sciences and seen it makes the most logic sence.

Answer 9

Actually, it wasn't like I just got up and said, "hey, this is it! I'm an atheist".

It was much slower, more progressive. I think that's how it is for most people, definitely Julia Sweeney (Letting Go of God on CD).

I stopped going to church when my family did, in my teens. Just over life, I realized in my early 20s I simply didn't believe in any God. There was no sudden revelation or .. "religious experience" .. that did it.

It's sort of like when you slowly come to learn that you're a human. At 3, you didn't realize, "hey, I'm not like puppies!"

Answer 10

I never believed, but was raised Catholic. The freeing moment came when I realized other people also didn't believe in this deity thing. Accepting that it was okay and even normal to not believe, was a huge step for me.

Answer 11

each time i prayed life got worse. Each time i dropped part of the christian belief my life got better for i was focusing what was infront of me instead of fictional ways. Then i looked into science and common sense and became completely disgusted by religion for it has no use in the world except false promises, i saw no need and that it was a waste of time.

That and too many people acting like retards trying to convert me (note: i believed when i was young)

The more attention i paid to the religion the more stupid it became, science can disprove everything in the bible. It's morality is pointless....