Did atheists or theists contribute most to you becoming an atheist ?

Question

I realise this is simplistic and there are probably many more factors and that my question doesn't necessarily address the main issue for you, but if you had to pick one which one would it be?

This question has no relevance for theists unless you are a 'rebeliever', so please feel free to not answer it.

Please qualify yes/no answers.

Answer 1

Well it was discovering inconsistencies in the bible. Asking questions and not finding answers. But I guess I'd have to say theists to a certain degree because they did not have answers to my questions. They just told me I lacked faith when really they just lacked logic and answers.

Answer 2

Theists, I think.

Well, I left Christianity at an early age, but I believed in a God for many years as I followed various paths of spirituality. Then once I was reading a Hari Krishna book describing near-death experiences of people not raised in Western culture, and after having read many that were from Western culture, I saw striking similiarities - not in what happened but what the description seemed to symbolize.

It dawned on me then that everything, spirits, angels, deities, and all those things, were not actually real but *symbols* of something more abstract, and far greater and more sublime. I held onto this idea for a few more years before studying Taoism, which was a great description of what I was thinking spiritually. In Taoism, you can be a Taoist and other things too, because *all gods are manifestations, symbols, of aspects of the Tao*. This really solidified my thought and I've been very happy with it since.

So after studying religion, I'm a strong atheist - I believe there are no gods - but I'm also a Taoist (and a pagan, for fun).

Answer 3

I started as an atheist, and when I researched religions the actions of Christianity kept it from ever being something I would've considered as a valid faith.

(I'm not a rebeliever, but I am a theist, just not an abrahamicist, or a monotheist.)

Answer 4

Theists. I was comfortable with the idea that there was a God, even if he or she were undefinable to me, until I saw the assault by the Christian Right on those who believed differently that they did. I was horrified at what reminded me of a political and cultural Inquisition as the line between Church and State began to erode in my country. I began to see religion as mostly based in the fear of mortality, not as a way to become a better ethical human. I realized I could be an ethical human without religion, but I had to stop fearing death. When I got to that point, the tension of trying to believe left me, and I was free. I am now at peace with the lack of a God in my life, but follow the principles of the Dharma because it works for me. I just don't believe in an after life or in an omnipotent being.

Answer 5

Well I was born an atheist, wasn't I? And I guess my parents contributed most to that, and they're atheists. So I guess atheists contributed more. As for why I remained an atheist after I was born, that's probably mainly the result of a lack of religious indoctrination during childhood. It's a lot harder to fall for that stuff if they don't get you when you're young.

Answer 6

neither actually. i'm buddhist and buddhists by nature are atheists because we don't believe in a almighty god or creator.

what contributed the most to my change from christianity to buddhism was my own common sense. i simple did my own research and went with what was in my heart. i just couldn't deny science but science didn't fill me spiritually so buddhism was the natural middle way between theism and atheism.

if you want me to choose, i'd have to say theists made the change easier because of all of the judging and preaching just didn't feel right to me.

Answer 7

Absolutely theists. In my life, I have seen people who refuse immunizations for their children because if they die, it's God's will; people who kill their children and others because God spoke to them and told them to; the killing of athiest leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her two relatives, which I find outstandingly ironic considering her killing violates a few commandments from God; the killing/beating/torturing of homosexuals and the general inability of Christians to live and let live; David Koresh; religious war and the perpetual deadly fight to prove one's deity over another's (this one really gets to me); speaking in tounges, which any translator on the planet could tell you is gibberish; people who have God use their mouths and speak through them; Catholic priests ('nuff said); the advocation of slavery and torture in the Bible; blatant xenophobia, particularly of Muslims, despite the fact that there are probably more extreme radical deadly Christians on the planet than extreme radical deadly Muslims (see David Koresh); pastors that beg for offerings for starving children in Africa and then use the money for personal gain; "mega-church" pastors who write off their mansions as a "gift from the church" and other purposeful tax evasions and criminal acts by "men of God"; churches that have a big serious meeting and then determine that, due to current events in the news, the rapture will occur THIS WEEK (and then it doesn't, and that doesn't faze them at all, so they make the same prediction a month later); the rapture itself (come the rapture, can I have your car?); and hundreds of other little pieces of evidence that I witness every day of my life.

I do respect Christians who are nice, non-violent people who are Christian simply because they believe and they want to be good people. I understand that I should not turn my nose on the billions of people -- about 35% of the WORLD'S population -- that are Christians, so I certainly have many Christian friends and acquaintances and a Christian wife. But personally, I choose not to believe, and despite what anyone tells me, I know I have that right and that anyone who tries to infringe on that right is not acting appropriately.

Answer 8

I was not influenced by an Atheist one bit when I decided that I did not believe 100%. Later in life I did seek out other Atheists to converse with but it was all the church that contributed to my seeing the light.

Answer 9

Neither -- a complete and total reading of the Bible, multiple times and with multiple theologians, was the most powerful contribution to my becoming an atheist.

Answer 10

Theists, I was religious and when I started questioning and looking into things I realized how competely wrong I was. So theism led me to be atheist I guess.