why would someone decide to be an atheists?

Answer 1

why not

Answer 2

Your question has the ring of sincerity and I will try to give you an honest answer. Most people are like children. They are easily fooled and readily believe anything they are told. Other people are skeptics and must decide many things for themselves. Unfortunately, when skeptics try to examine the evidence for the existence of God, they discover there is simply nothing there. With due respect, allow me to ask, why would anyone want to subordinate themselves to a non-existent imaginary deity five times a day? Do you imagine if you lie to yourself often enough, you can change that lie into the truth? Of course not! It's the same for atheists. No amount of lying to yourself will change that tired old lie into a shiney new truth. The sword of faith has two edges and cuts both ways. I made my decision when I was nine years old and discovered both my parents had lied to me about Santa Claus. I soon realized I was being brainwashed and that everything my parents ever said was probably also a lie. Up through my thirties, I was an active seeker of faith and visited many, many churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples. All required the same blatant disrespect for the true facts of physical reality. That's the best, most honest, answer I can give you.

Peace and Love from an old Hippie...........

Answer 3

Why would someone decide to devote their whole life to a church that just wants your money, a preacher that is telling you how to interpret a book that was written 2,000 years ago and has been translated over and over and over all so you can feel better about yourself because you are "saved". That's all religion does, tries to explain the unexplainable, used as a control and a crutch. No part of religion makes any logical sense and the bible is a book of man made up stories. We have proof that most of the stuff in the bible didn't happen that way. God didn't flip a light switch and there was light and life. We have proof evolution does exists and happens every day. So why are we so different? Every other species can evolve but we don't.

Answer 4

It's not a decision so much as it's a realization, an epiphany and insight into the world.

I can also put it this way. I'm going to guess that you're a christian. In which case you don't believe in Allah, Zeus, Wotan, Horus, Osiris, Mormonism, Vishnu, and the thousands of different gods and beliefs that have been worshiped over time. Why don't you believe in any of them? They also have holy books, several of which are far more coherent and historically accurate than yours, yet you don't find those writings compelling?

You are an atheist with respect to virtually all the religions that have ever existed. Some of us simply go one god further.

Answer 5

You don't just "decide" to be an atheist. It's not like you wake up one day and say, "Hey, I'm going to become an atheist!"

You believe what you believe. Believers in God believe in God because that's what they're taught. The God they believe in simply depends on who they were born to and who taught them.
Atheists don't believe in God for a variety of reasons that vary depending on the atheist you are speaking to. Most of the time, it's because they've just come to the conclusion that belief in the existence of a deity just doesn't make sense to them. They have seen no evidence that there is such a thing, and have no reason to just believe some other person who tells them that there is some higher being out there.

Answer 6

I'll agree with Michael, and suggest a book to you. However:
1. if your mother tongue is not English,
2. if you have only a hs education, and not a very large vocabularly,
3. nor are not particularly intelligent, don't bother...... it would be beyond you.

The arguments are tight, well thought out, seamless and flawless, but again, only if the above criteria are met. Otherwise, read something else... This book is on the NY Times best seller list in non-fiction.... And it would have been my personal preference had he dummied it down a bit. He chose not to, so at times, the reading is slow, and often a re-read of some paragraphs is necessary.....

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

Answer 7

No-one 'decides' to be an atheist - it's just an inevitable result of not believing any gods exist in reality.

Answer 8

Because they have no evidence that a god exists, and find no need to attribute what they see in the world to a being that they have no proof of.

Every physical phenomenon on Earth can be attributed to other physical causes. Nothing that you can see, feel, hear, smell or touch requires an unseen being to make it happen. As such, there is no need to attribute anything to a god. Why then, should someone believe in a god?

If we were to see apples suspended at perfect eating height for passers-bye, perfect, and without defect, for our simple enjoyment; if amputees were able to re-grow limbs when people prayed for them; if an automobile were to raise up in the air and go above, rather than hitting us .... such supernatuaral phenomena might be evidence of a God who looks out for people, but these things don't happen.

Answer 9

I decided upon Atheism, at age 10, when my Presbyterian minister failed to answer my question, 'Why is there no mention of dinosaurs in the bible?'

At 37 years of age, I still find it quite astonishing that Christian's, are unable to provide any empirical evidence for their rather absurd religious claims and/or beliefs.

Answer 10

Because there is no reason to be anything else. The atheist is typically a scientist, who will go wherever the evidence leads. Since there is no evidence to support any theory of god, there is no reason to believe in such, and it is provably useless to do so.

Answer 11

The fact that there is insufficient credible evidence to support a god belief leaves me with no alternative but to be an atheist.