Calling all atheists-What made you become an atheist?Was there a reason?

Question

Mine-I became "born again" and subsequently realised that there was so much hypocrisy in the church that it was unbelieveable.I soon realised that if god could inflict supernatural punishments on people years ago,then he could do it now(after all,god doesn't change apparently)but when's the last time an evil christian was struck down or turned into a donkey,etc?The same goes for miracles-it's the having faith that heals them,NOT the god part of it.i.e-if you get healed in a church,it is because of your faith,not because of what you have faith in.

Answer 1

I was born an atheist, like everybody is.
No child is born with a religion.

Answer 2

I lost faith in the Catholic church around 9 - 10 years old.

I'd been brought in a strict catholic family and served as an alter boy several times a week.

I saw that very few people seemed to think about the strong statements they were making in mass.

I saw my mother compelled to put money in the plate twice every Sunday, even though she was raising five kids on a widows pension.

I saw them changing the church's definition of truth to suit the times.

Every week, during the readings from the bible and in school I would be puzzled by the bible's contradictions and how totally whacky the old testament was.

By the time I was 13 - 14 I'd realised if Jesus existed, that he was just a man.

I searched through all sorts of philosophies and religions trying to find somthing that seemed to make sense.

One day when I was about 18, it hit me.

There is no supreme being or higher intelligence, and when you die you're dead.

Once it hit me, it seemed so obvious. It is the only thing that makes sense and can be backed up by physical evidence.

It has given me a great sense of freedom and a realisation of just how important it is to make the most of life.

Answer 3

My dad grew up in Italy (a catholic country) and quickly became very sceptical of religion, so I was never raised with any religion at home. However, I did go to a Church of England school and we were given religious education there. I found it all very hard to believe, to be honest. I've always been very interested in science and history and I know there are things that we will probably never know the answer to (such as the origin of the universe) but I don't understand how people can just use 'God' as the answer. It's true what you say - there is no evidence that a god exists and I cannot believe in something I have no proof of. Many people like to argue that 'we have no proof that god doesn't exist' or that 'the stories originate from actual events' but I once heard the following response to these arguments:

'Imagine there is a giant teapot orbiting the sun, and the teapot is the creator and ruler of the universe. Absurd isn't it? Now imagine that stories of the teapot have been passed down for 2000 years, and that millions worship the teapot every Tuesday night at half past nine. Is that any less absurd?'

I can sort of understand how religion brings comfort to some people, but unfortunately in that respect there is nothing in me that allows me to believe it. As well as the problems I have believing in a God, I also have some issues with organised religion. Even if there IS a god (for argument's sake), are the religious books really the word of god or the work of elements of humanity intended to control others? Religious organisations have power - they have the wealth and obedience of the devoted and this is an incredibly strong incentive for them to keep things going. As a woman I am also reluctant to believe in religions run primarily by men, where women are inevitably second class (and this is true of many religions).

To believe that something is true 'because the book (any religious text) says so', seems to me to be the easy route out and, in a way, dangerous. 'The book' has no source, it has no research behind it. It is just an old text. But so is the odyssey - does that mean we should believe in the Cyclops?

Religion, far from bringing peace, has been responsible throughout the ages of causing division among people. It has caused hatred, persecution, war, suffering and death. Science tells us that, genetically, we are all very similar - black, white, gay, straight, able, disabled - we are all homo sapiens and that's that. Religion is a divide created by humanity in order to try to control. I find this unfortunate. I realise why religion was needed - it provided answers to fundamental questions but we now have better answers and to stop searching for truth and be content with what we've told is a sad state of affairs.

Also, can god (in the Christian sense) exist? There is an argument which states that in order to be a god, you must be all powerful and if this is true, why do terrible things happen? Either, God is all powerful and could stop disasters but chooses not to - in which case he is malevolent. Otherwise, if he cannot stop them, then he is not all powerful and is not a god. There are so many wonderful things in the universe and on Earth, things that are amazing and do not require - in my opinion - the existence of a supreme being. They are just permutations of natural things.

Don't get me wrong, if people want to believe then, hey, that's up to them. I personally cannot. I don't think there's actually anything wrong with believing in God, but I do think there's a problem with blindly believing without ever questioning, I think that's immensely dangerous and I think that raising children with religion and nothing else is a form of brainwashing. I think if you grow up and choose to believe then that's fair enough but drilling it into children is wrong.

As an end note, a guy came up to me on a station platform and asked if I believed in God. I said No, I didn't. He asked me what I did believe, and I said 'I believe we're glorified apes, the king of the swingers.' He looked at me pitifully, and said 'It must be sad to thing there's nothing more to life.'...

...I saw a documentary where a man stood on a hillside peering down over a rainforest and said with arms outstretched, 'What more do you want?'

The planet, the universe and the plants, animals and people within it ARE amazing - god or no god.

Sorry for the monologue, but you did ask :)

Answer 4

Almost exactly what Bramblyspam said (great name, by the way!) except I wasn't raised anything really. That is I think my parents both had/have an understated sort of belief in God (mum's Anglican but went to Methodist school, dad's from a fairly devout Lutheran family but was somewhat of a black sheep) but religion, God and all that just never really entered my life.

Yeah, find it really odd that people actually believe the sky-daddy stuff. I guess on some level I don't really believe they do. I mean I believe THEY believe they believe it - and all power to 'em, s'long as they do the whole live and let live thang - but it's just not something I can get my head around. I guess that's why I'm so fascinated by theological argument and apologetics - just what is it about this stuff that SO MANY people buy into it? *sigh*

Answer 5

I was raised in a devout Southern Baptist household. From as far back as I can remember, there were never any solid answers to the "big" questions I asked of the church. I explored other religions (Catholic, Wiccan, Judiasm), but my love of the field of genetic science eventually brought me to the point I am now. I don't believe in a "divine" power that presides over the universe. I agree whole-heartedly with your statement about faith and not some god being the driving force behind miracles and such. I do not believe in coincidence. I get a lot of flack for being an atheist, but I'm comfortable and confident in my beliefs.

Answer 6

I am not atheist but Buddhist. But I believe that I can still answer this question and hopefully be helpful. I do not believe in the conventional faiths because they are so filled with deceit and lies that I cannot put myself in the hands of such people. The major issue is that the people who are running the church and who wrote the bible are men-thus subject to the errors and human nature of man.

I go through life and see all the horrible things and wonder how this could be God's plan? I know we have free will and semi control over our actions but I cannot believe that such a benevolent God would allow such atrocities to be done.

Answer 7

Because i wasn't easily brain washed. I looked at all the facts relating to many religions and realised there weren't any ( facts that is ) . The christian god is no different from the Greek gods, pagan gods, or any other god , they all mythical entities, used in order to keep people in order through fear / threat of dire consequences should they not live as they are told. It is a measure of mans power over man not gods.

Answer 8

When I was twenty I went to live in Israel, I had since birth been bought up a christian, but living in the Holy land changed all that, seeing that not one of the bits from the New Testiment actually exists as it was in bible times, there are lots of "sites" of places but nothing else, so to me it was all fairy tales and my belief has never returned. Also if God loves everyone so much why is the world such a horrible place and people die all the time from things that can be avoided if it wasn't for religion.

Answer 9

I was born and raised an atheist. We had a children's bible in our home when I was growing up, along with books on greek mythology, norse mythology, and various other mythologies. I read them all, and felt it was obvious that christianity was just another mythology.

To this day, I'm amazed that anyone actually believes in that stuff. Belief in Yahweh makes no more sense to me than belief in Zeus. Some of the stories are entertaining, and there are lessons you can learn from them, but that doesn't make them real.

Answer 10

Like most children I was simply born without belief in supernatural beings. Without conditioning, I never felt the need for such beliefs. As I grew older I studied most religions as curiosities of past ignorance, and as archetypal myths, mingled with some distorted or questionable history. The man-made institutions built on religions are no measure of the validity, or invalidity of the religion itself being merely human constructs - but they led me to question how one might percieve one's place in the world, and ethics, and wisdom, without religious assumptions and dogma. And found all I needed in that process, though the questions we face in life are often difficult and complex - and that's why we need reason, and recognition of our own ignorance, to guide what seems most appropriate in any given situation. Dogma is no substitute for wisdom which is a life-long pursuit.

Answer 11

Raised a christian, attended bible summer camp, was a councellor and led people to the lord. Had a "walk with Jesus" during high school years but backslid when I discovered parties in secular college. Had a "recommitment" to Christ soph year of college and decided to go to bible college. I NEEDED to know everything about the bible, so I studied it in it's original languages. It was in Hermeneutics class, translating the koine greek of I John that I began to fall. The "little things" that didn't make sense in english became HUGE things in the original languages.

Like you, I was disgusted with the "morals" of a god who would punish infinately. As I went to the university, I studied cultures who believed in gods that behaved far more ethically than the christian god and this got me to thinking as well...!

The harder I dug, the more it fell apart. I decided I was being "proud" and relying on intellect, so I abandonded study and turned to prayer. Begging, pleading with god. Willing myself to believe. Two years of that and more nothing.

Eventually, through discussions on the internet, I discovered that I was an Atheist.