Question for full on Atheists?

Question

Just curious, I am not religious by the way.
I just have been reading a lot of the Q's and A's from everyone.

How old are you?
Were you raised atheist, or in what faith were you raised?
If raised in a church, did you ever believe?
If yes, at what age did you decide there was no higher power?

Thanks

Answer 1

I am 50 going on 10.
I was not raised any denomination.
I am certainly not Atheist.
I was sure something was up, at a early age, about 8yrs.

Answer 2

1) 30-something
2) No, raised Catholic
3) Yes, I believed at some point. Then I went on to go through a number of other religions.
4) It's hard to say. I always had the belief way, way back in my mind that deities were just the creation of the human mind, and that the experiences attributed to them were ultimately ego projections too. It was a long process. I probably openly rejected the omnibenevolent, Big Brother model of God by the time I was a young teen, but not theism as a whole just yet. It wasn't until my early 20s that I faced this we-created-God idea fully and embraced the atheistic stance.

Answer 3

I'm 27.... I was raised catholic.... I was made to go to church and in the beginning i believed, but I had so many questions that too many people couldn't answer and they made up excuses for discrepencies and contradictions. I tried to make myself believe in it all, but none of it made sense to me. I did a bunch of reading on other religions to see what they were all about and that's when i started coming to the conclusion that religion was just a scapegoat for life, really. People use it to explain life, give it a purpose, and soften the harsh reality of death.

I don't remember the exact age i was when I became a "full-on" atheist... I would venture to guess that i was probably 17 or 18?! maybe a few years younger!? But that's just a guess. Becoming an atheist (for me) wasn't an overnight... BANG i'm an atheist type of thing...... it was a gradual process that started with me still believing but questioning things.... When i attended a gathering with my parents at the home of a woman who claimed to see and speak to the virgin mary..... that's what finished the transition from believer to atheist. The people were insane. LOL

Answer 4

I'm 19.
Raised in an Orthodox family
Never believed, well maybe i did when I was like 5..
I just never had it in me even when I was young.. never felt anything about faith... Churches scared me. I didn;t believe a WORD that came out of the priest's mouth...
Then i guess when I entered middle school and I learned about all these other religions that competed agaisnt each other I started asking questions.. and reading books.. and ohh... knowledge is power is all I have to say..
I was enlightened. haha.. but i was sad..
And I still am, sad about the reality of this world.. but i have to admit, in difficult times, I can sometimes (rarely) become agnostic.. you can't help but HOPE in desperate times.. you know what i mean?

anywho.. what about you? Why don;t you tell us how you got to be an athiest..

Answer 5

I am not full blown atheist, but I am heading that direction. I was raised Catholic. I am 41 yrs. old. As a teenager I traveled the country spreading "the word" with the youth group at my church. I have taught cathecism. I just don't have much faith anymore. Frankly I think religion does more harm than good.

Answer 6

I am old enough thank you and by some belief systems ageless. I was raised by parents who left religious belief to the individual choice. Education was provided on most religions from Christianity to Taoism to Shamanism. I understand there is a higher power at work in the universe, however I do not "believe" in that higher power in the religious sense. Your question reminds me of the Buddhist initiate who, upon coming to a bridge said "The river is deep and wide we must test it's depth" where upon his mentors threw him in.

Answer 7

29 years old, raised Lutheran. I suppose I believed, but it's hard to tell, really. I've always been that 'question asker' that parents and teachers loathe. ("Just because" never satisfied me as an answer, and 'Why' was always my next question!)

I can't speak for all atheists, but it's not like you wake up one day and say "There is no god!" like a light bulb went on. It's a gradual process where you ask questions of people knowledgeable in the subject, turn to books and literature, and gradually come to your conclusion that there is no god, especially without proof.

Answer 8

I am 24, raised a Baptist and yes, I did believe.
Then I was raped at 14, and yet I still believed but I was hurting with God. Then, I began to realize. Babies thrown in the trash, children raped. You'd think God would protect the innocent a little more, right?
And I got tired of people who have never been held at knife point and told to have sex saying it was because I didn't BELIEVE enough and that I needed to have more faith.

Answer 9

Old enough.

Encouraged to experience all types of religion and to find one that fit my spiritual needs and beliefs.

Tried several religions over the years - regularly attended church - believed for a while.

The hypocrisy of religion/religious people turned me atheist around age 16.

Answer 10

im 32 and was christened as church of england. my mother was a methodist and my father was (possibly) christian. at junior school i went to a strict C.of.E schol, but it was when i was at secondry school(high school) i decided against the impossibiltiy of god/deities. so at about the age of 13 i suppose. and from there my atheism has been continuously proven through both my young adult life with stuff i've seen, but alo in my acedemic studies where i read biology at uni. and if you look around at todays situation (i.e 9/11 and 7/7) you realise that it is not the devil causing mayhem but religion, so i think i'm best off as i am.