Question for Atheist?

Question

I was wondering if any of you would be willing to share why u are atheist. I'm sure this question has been asked many a time before but I would still like to know individual stories. I am looking for legitimate responses not sarcastic one liners. ANd if u don't feel comfortable sharing your story then I understand but for those who do I would like to know. Thankyou

Answer 1

Individual story? There is nothing interesting about why I became an atheist. It was a long process, first to find out that all religions are nonsense and second the process to accept it, since being an atheist ain't very acceptable in my country. I see no difference between current religions and what people call "mythology", it's all myth for me, I have no reasons to think otherwise.

If I can't explain how the universe came to be, I just accept I ignore it instead picking up the first fairy tale I'm exposed to as "the true about the universe" from people who obviously have no idea either. What the bible proposes about the universe and humanity is as valid (or invalid) as what the greek, maya or nordic mythology proposes or any god people would come up as their "own interpretation" of god.

Bye,

Answer 2

Certainly.

Like most American atheists, I was raised Christian, and I firmly believed as I was growing up. However, God never appeared, and none of the magic I'd grown up expected ever occurred.

I had a good enough education to recognize that the various things that people present as magic were either deliberate scams (e.g., the faith healers) or simply everyday natural occurrences.

If there was a single experience that was signficant, it would be the experience of programming computers to simulate bacteria growth (the standard "Game of Life" assignment often given to introductory programming classes). I played with that quite a bit, and was very interested to see the intelligent-seeming, intentional "behavior" of patterns on the screen generated by simple, non-intentional rules. I could imagine a person looking at the screen asking me how I'd programmed that large pattern of dots to chase that smaller pattern of dots, when in fact I'd done no such thing: the "chase" behavior had simply emerged from nonintentional processes. Rock-solid proof that such things are possible, and that pretty much ended my false belief that only intentional processes can produce complex results.

Later: Hey, look - you got good answers.
My respects and thanks to you for asking the question respectfully, and without any side insults. As you can see, we rise to the occasion.

Answer 3

I was a Christian (Church of Christ) for decades. I ignored the inaccuracies in the Bible thinking that there was no way that there could be any error in it. After all, wasn't God the ultimate author of the Bible and of course, he could not have any error.

I was quite skeptical about MOST things. Modern-day miracles? Show me proof! I believed that I should demand proof of all claims of spiritual things; that is, except for the Bible. I believed that even to THINK that there might be mistakes in the Bible was blasphemy.

Then some Jehovah's Witnesses came around and wanted to talk to me about Matt 24 and the "signs" they were sure indicated the so-coming end. I pointed out to them that it said that those things would happen in that generation. At this, they asked me if I had heard of "dual fulfillment" prophecies, prophecies that could have a fulfillment at one time and also a later fulfillment. I told them, "yes", and pointed to Hos. 11.1 that is quoted in Matthew regarding Joseph and Mary taking Jesus to Egypt. It was clearly talking about something that happened long before that, yet the Bible said that it also was about Jesus coming out of Egypt. Since the Bible said so, it must have been so, right? So I asked them why I should believe that Matt. 24 is also a dual-fulfillment prophecy. They couldn't answer and soon left. Then I thought, "Why should anyone believe that Hos. 11.1 is dual-fulfillment?" Clearly, a non-Christian would have no reason to think that it was anything but a case of Christians trying to explain away a clear contradiction in the Bible.

After that, I decided to check out the Bible more completely and not assume that it was inspired. My eyes were opened as I found contradiction after contradiction that could not be explained. Sure, there were those who would claim that these were "scribal errors", but how could they know that? We don't have the originals, so how can we be sure that these contradictions were not in the original documents. We can't!

Since there was indeed error in the Bible, the next question was, "If the bible has error in something that can be checked out, how can I be sure that it has no error in matters of faith?" The answer is simple. We can't!

With my faith in the veracity of the scriptures gone, I began to wonder if God actually existed. I could not find evidence for that, so I concluded that without such evidence, there is no reason to believe in God. To be sure, I can't prove that God doesn't exist, but I can't prove that he does either.

That's where I am today.

Have a nice day.
.

Answer 4

The major thing that started me down the road of atheism was noticing how many different religions there are and have been through the course of human history. On top of that what i learned about the earth through the study of science didn't seem to jive with what religion teaches. This got me interested in studying different religions and from there on it was a no-brainer. All of the contradictions between religious beliefs, learning about how history has influenced religion and vice versa, hearing the reasons for why people believe and learning the psychology of what makes us prone to believing certain things. Studying the weaknesses of apologetics. Finally and most compelling is the sheer lack of evidence or rational explanation of and for god.

Answer 5

I was raised Christian, but as I got older I realized that religions are all about the same. They worship something that has absolutely no evidence of existing, they use the same techniques of brainwashing, they all cause the most extreme forms of violence ever experienced on the face of the earth, and they are all there to take advantage of human beings' insecurities in dealing with mortality and feeling accepted.

Just for the record, I am not an atheist. I don't believe in god but I do not say that there isn't one. I am agnostic, my stance is basically this - I don't know if there is a god and I don't care. I don't feel obligated to be the expert on something that has no evidence, unlike the large majority of the weak-minded people on our Earth.

It isn't that people aren't intelligent that makes them believe in these fairy tales for grown-ups, it is their insecurities. This is a sad state of affairs and I think that as the human species evolves, religion will die. That is, of course, unless the deadly mixture of modern weapons and religion doesn't bring about our untimely extinction.

Answer 6

I was taken to church and Sunday school as a child, but became atheist at around 11 or 12 when I began to read Greek mythology and came to realize that if those gods were made-up it was likely that my parents god was too.

As I got older I became very interested in the supernatural and paranormal. I read and read anything I could get my hands on about mysticism, mythology, spirituality, etc. It eventually led me to read about philosophy, anthropology, sociology. I began to understand that every culture of every generation has a body of myths and that while these myths are poetic and fun, they are just myths. After reading more material by skeptics, it became clear that the supernatural world is completely imaginary.

Recently I've begun reading about biology and genetics in attempt to learn more about the real world. Not satisfied with saying 'scientists have proven..' I need to know how they proved it.

Answer 7

in the beginning, there was nothing but constant existence, no thought of a startpoint

then after learning language and rediscovering former religions, man relearned communication (I mean men and women)

one day in the 60's my parents discarded their brains and embraced the Jesus movement, I and my siblings were born into metaphysical christianity of health and wealth teachings of Kenneth Hagin/ Copeland and other con artists

about 1993 I began to challenge the validity of these claims and elitism and began asking question regardless of thier disapproval to even have the authority to challenge thier god and belief structure

after reading "Christianity in Crisis" I began to see my parents were in a cult

not long after, and many books and questions later, I realized my own religion of christianity was a cult, thanks to Paul and his inventions and teachings that conflicted with Jesus

in more recent times, I challenge all religions and claims, reserve the right to ask questions and demand an explanation outside of

I said so, 'god' said so, or because

a-theism is simply the challenging of theism, or belief in a divine being

I do not believe, I know

I know that I have done things to benefit others, some say loving or divine things, and see that others can also be Good Samaritians and show love without having any religion attatched

I am also searching out spirituality without the stigma of religoin to think it means "god" but rather just learning more about Humanity, Self, and each other as we are, not as religion tells us we were or will be

being in the now and just loving others transcends religion

Answer 8

As you can see from most of the serious answers, it is a coscious, rational decision some thinking people come to after having considered "religion" on a philosophical plateau.
And actually when you think of it, one never has to worry about people who do not have the answers, the seekers of truth. The problems in the world are created by those who "know". And they are the ones that truly worry me.

Answer 9

Analytical study of various religions (most heavily Islam and Catholicism, but by no means the only 2), study of science, logic, philsophy, Paganism, old religions, anthropology, archaeology, Wicca... and finally came to conclusions that there really is no creator god. Buddhism's logic and philosophy merely clarified my belief in a way that knocked me on my skeptical, fat tushie.

_()_

Answer 10

You could read "The God Delusion". but a very short summary:

no evidence whatsoever
if any gods exist, which ones? and what are they like?
they're doing a horrible job of managing the world
the bible especially is a terrible horrible book
the effect of religion on the world is horrific (I can cite many, many examples - the war against science in the states being one we see examples of every few minutes here)