For Athiests, What made you decide to be athiest?

Question

What happened to you for you to believe there is no God, or to be angry at God?

Answer 1

No you are mistaken Pagan.....As God also gave us free will, to think for ourselves so there is a path we are to travel and it is of our own decision to stray from that path, not God's.

SO Clair if you don't believe in GOD then why are you so angry at Christians. if they don't get it why don't you write a book about it and how you can disprove all writing in the bible. It will be an extreme undertaking, but worth it if you are successful then we can all sleep in Sundays.
Oh ya there was an atheist that wrote that book but while writing it he got it and is now a Christian....

Answer 2

Nothing bad happened to me either as some of your respondents have stated. I was brought up in a loving environment where one ordered one's life with thought and logic, kindnesses toward others and love. As I got into hs, I noticed that the christians were intolerant of anyone outside of their beliefs, which I thought was quite sad. As I progressed in hs., supernaturalism, sky fairies, and the like, appeared to be contrary to experience. DNA and evolution made more sense. And besides, if this little planet is as large as a grain of sand in an area as large as Colorado, a personal god just somehow seems childish and ridiculous. Also, in college, I read the bible--- scary beyond your wildest.... a vindictive god, drowning people, having successful warriors sacrificing their own children because he won. (See Genesis and Judges...) The list goes on.

In college I became an historian, and after a section in one history class of how the bible came about, pretty much clinched it for me. If this is the book that christians base their faith on, they are a gullible bunch. A reaffirmation of this occurred when I toured Turkey, and had a look at the Koran.... same pile of crap.

As an athiest, I and I alone am responsible for myself, my life, my deeds, and my efforts to make this planet a better place when I leave it, than when I was born. And as long as someone else's religion does not involve harming other people or other living things, If that religion makes them better able to handle their problems, even if in my eyes it is just ridiculous, it is okay with me.

And if you have time, read the book listed below. It is on the NY Times best seller list, now. It would have been nicer had he dummied down the language a bit... impatient readers may miss a few of his arguments, but the guy is a logical, tight writer...

"The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

Answer 3

I'm not angry at God in the least, I just don't believe He exists. Nothing "happened," I just always found it hard to believe. As I got older, I started really thinking about it and realized that it didn't really make any sense for there to be a God, or for the Christian religion to be true.

I don't think I decided not to believe. At the time, had I been able to decide, I'd have remained a believer. I certainly wanted to. As it was, I didn't really have a choice. I know that Christians believe that everyone has a choice, but I can tell you that my experience was that I wasn't able to believe anymore, no matter how much I tried and prayed and wanted to.

Answer 4

Atheists aren't angry with God. You need to believe in God to be angry with God. Atheists don't believe in God.
There are many reasons why I don't believe in God. It wasn't any one thing that "happened" to me. I grew up a Christian. I had very strong faith growing up. Over time, I started to have questions regarding the things I had been taught. A LOT of questions. I spoke with my religious teachers, religious leaders, and other Christians. I never got a satisfying answer. Mostly I was told to just "have faith." The questions eventually became doubts. I fought the doubts tooth and nail, but if you doubt something, you doubt. You can't control it. I tried everything I could to save my faith. I researched, I studied, I prayed. I read the Bible. Both Testaments. Cover to cover. Twice. By the time I was done, I was through fighting. I was fully atheist.

Answer 5

I didn't decide anything, and nothing happened to me. I spent the first 13 years of my life pretending to believe in God because it made my parents happy. Then, I stopped pretending. I've known what I believe all along, even at a very young age I found Biblical stories highly amusing.
And how can I be angry at god? Are you angry at the Easter Bunny?
Everyone is born Atheist, some of us just stay that way.

Answer 6

First of all, if one is an atheist then they do not believe that god exists, how then could they be angry at him. Are you angry at Zeus? You must be, you don't believe he's god, right? Angry at Leprechauns and Unicorns too i see....

Back to the topic, there was no "ah-hah!" moment at which i became an atheist. It was a gradual change from semi-religous (family indoctrination at birth) to being more spiritual (everything happens for a reason) to finally rejecting all notion of supernatural forces at work on the world.

The greatest influence on my atheism is the abundant lack of evidence for any kind of god. There are no good philosophical arguments in favor of such a being and no real scientific evidence either. The more we learn about our world and universe the smaller the cracks used to sneak god in get.

The first real realization i remember having that could be counted as an "ah-hah!" moment, though not as dramatic in reality, was the realization that there are hundreds of religions. Which one then is right? And how do you know if there is no emperical way of testing them? Faith is useless without reason, and it is for that reason that i remain an atheist.

Answer 7

I figured out (when I was about 10 years old) that the creation story was utter nonsense. I mean plants before the Sun? What kind of idiotic nonsense is that? That really was the one that got me thinking when they talked about it in Sunday school. And then I read Genesis. I actually wound up laughing, then I was utterly crushed because that meant it was all lies.

The rest fell apart pretty quickly after that. I mean if the Bible isn't the inspired word of God, then why would you follow it? I had a difficult time with it for a while there. I was very happy around 13 to find Carl Sagan. He made me OK with it.

Answer 8

I am an atheist, but I am not angry at God. I am happy to be an atheist. I used to go to a christian school, church, etc. I thought I was a Christian because my family was religious. When I got older, I began to question what I was being told and taught. I found out on my own that Christianity is contradictory and a hoax. That is my opinion though. If you want to believe, more power to you!

Answer 9

I was brought up a catholic and as I reached the age of ten, it all started to seem ridiculous.

Over the next few years, I peeled back the layers of the onion until I realised there is no need for there to be God or life after death and that the whole concept makes no sense.

There is far more peace in life when you're not carrying the baggage of irrational concepts around with you.

Answer 10

I'm not "angry at god." Come on. This same old tack? It's a trifle pointless to be "angry" at something that doesn't exist.

Basically, theism made me an atheist.

It's sad that people have been led to believe that "spirituality" involves forcing oneself to accept notorious lies as literal truths. The abstract concept of "God" is simply unprovable. The theological gymnastics involving "Original Sin" and "vicarious atonement" are actually insulting, both intellectually and morally; and spiritually they're worthless hindrances.