This is for the ones who were into religion, but now is Athiest?

Question

if you are now an athiest and you use to believe God!
how do you or did you just stop believing in God?
What did it take for you to feel that way?
im curious so im just asking....

Answer 1

An education is key. The more you learn about history and science and anthropology and ancient cultures the more you see that religion is just a man made folly to answer questions that were unanswered at the time.

A good course in Logic and Ethics also helps. Also a thorough study of the Bible, Koran and other religious texts will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are man made nonsense.

Religious belief is for myopic fools who cannot see the world beyond their own little paradigm.

Answer 2

I am agnostic, not atheist. I was raised Catholic.

When I was still a believer, I came to this realization that there are reasons other than God's existence for being a moral person. I also realized that I could not worship a God who sent moral people to Hell just because they were not believers. Those two facts led me to the point where it no longer mattered whether or not God exists -- at least in terms of how I live my life.

Since there was no longer a reason why I should or should not believe, I finally admitted that I really don't know if there is a God -- and in terms of how I live my life, I don't really care.

I hope there is a God, and pray that he isn't anything like what the Christian extremists think he is.

Answer 3

It was just a natural progression for me..... Kind of like the way a kid learns that there is no santa claus. Things in church didn't make sense..... the contradictions & inconsistencies in the bible were becoming more and more apparent..... the questions i asked went unanswered or i was given vague answers like "it's god will." When i started reading about the history of primitive religious beliefs that's when it all started making sense. Religion is a failsafe device in one's mind to ease the fear of death and comfort the grieving for loved ones who have died. I like to call it "he/she is in a better place now-syndrome"...... It all started making sense to me..... In the beginning of human consciousness and awareness i'm sure they had believed that mystical creatures controlled the rising of the sun, the weather, the growing of plants, the creation of animals...etc.... And there were no atheists.... but as time passed and people started testing nature, finding answers.... atheists started branching off. Religion was put in place to explain the inexplainable. When the inexplainable (miraculous) has an explanation.... it is no longer a miracle, it is nature. Primitive people thought hurricanes, tornados, volcanoes.... were all punishments from gods for misbehavior so they sacrificed lives, human and animal, to appease their god(s).

Once i realized what a primitive idea religion was I became an Atheist and my life has been great ever since. I do not fear death, and I live my life the way i believe it is meant to be lived.

Answer 4

Learning about science made me question my religion. (Christianity)

So I set out to learn more about science, to prove to myself that the bible didn't contradict it. That was an exercise in futility, as the more I learned, the more clear it became that Christianity was false.

So then I began studying Christianity, as I figured I must have been misunderstanding it, because there HAD to be a god. I figured I had just been taught the wrong things, or that the bible was mistranslated, etc.

Once again, studying the history of the religion, it became even more clear that it was false.

So I studied other religions, attempting to understand the overall worldview of "god"

And once again, it made the mere existence of god highly questionable, as all of the major religions had nothing in them to separate them from any other mythology.

All through this, I prayed fervently for "god" to help restore my faith, and give me the answers I was seeking, or the wisdom, or strength, or whatever it took to keep my faith.

There was no answer, because there was no god. And I had to reluctantly admit that to myself. That was over 20 years ago. And I have no regrets.

Answer 5

Well, I would say it was a gradual thing. I actually started doubting when I was about 10, but accepted everyone's answers as truth. When I was old enough, I started looking into some things and then, just recently a friend finally gave me the push I needed to see things clearly.

I now do not believe there is any god, and this is my personal belief.

Answer 6

Well, I'm agnostic but I my parents tried to raise me christian. I say try because I never bought into what was being told to me. I questioned everything much to the annoyance of my mother, the sunday school teachers and the reverend. At 15 I had enough and walked out for good.

Answer 7

I used to be a Catholic.

I used to believe God talked to me and all that.

I decided that I would read the Bible to get to know him better and when I finished I realized it was a story book.

After that there was nothing but the grim reality of atheism and the hope of finding out the truth about existence...

Answer 8

I was raised in the church but it never totally felt true and I never quite fully believed it. But it took me a LONG time to overcome the indoctrination enough to admit it. In the end it simply took meeting someone who called himself an atheist, then I realized there ARE other people like myself!

Answer 9

Well, when you start questioning the things that don' t make sense instead of accepting "God Works in mysterious ways" for an answer, you're on the right path.

Answer 10

A friend of mine stopped after reading The God Delusion and then thinking for a couple of days.