Question for serious atheists only please.?

Question

Could you please explain to me if you can, the series of steps that led you to be an atheist. In a previous question, an atheist answered that if you are beginning to ask questions, you are two-thirds of the way there and there is no turning back. I'm thinking there is a natural progression that occurs to get to that point, I just would like to see the steps of this progression. Thanks for taking the time to answer in advance!

All I can say is you guys are awesome! I don't think I've ever gotten so many intelligent answers from a group of people in my life! Obviously, from my question, you can see that I'm on my way, I just needed some feedback to kinda see where I was. Thank you to everyone who is taking the time to share so much, I almost feel like crying!

Answer 1

How I became an atheist (or - my religious history)
I was born in to a basically non-religious family. I was baptized as Lutheran and just went to Church occasionally. Around the age of 8, I met a nice Christian man who became a sort of father figure for me. He told me about Christianity and how I needed to be saved, and how wonderful Christ was. Of course I wondered immediately - with all the religions out there, how could anyone know which was the correct one.

I attended the Baptist church for almost two years and listened as carefully as I could. I prayed many times, as sincerely as I could, for Jesus to show me the way and for the Holy Spirit to enter my heart - all I ever got was silence in return. I realized that no one in the Church (including the preacher) had a good answer to the question. So I became an agnostic.

As I began to study more religion from that time on, I found myself drawn to Buddhism, especially because of its non-reliance on faith. After-all, it occurred to me that if you claim to know what you know through faith, then faith in one religion is just as good as faith in another.

At age 24 I had a spiritual experience through meditation that told me that if there was a God, it would be much more like the Pantheistic version of God and certainly NOT like the Christian God. But by that time I was in College and studying science and critical thinking. I knew I had to have the courage to apply the most critical thinking to my own experience. I eventually came across the book "Why God Won't Go Away" which describes my spiritual experience as a function of the brain (specifically as a temporary shutting down of the anterior, posterior parietal lobe that orients the body in space and time).

My experience was the best reason that I knew of for the existence of a God. Yet if it could be explained as a function of the brain, we couldn't conclude much from it.

But there was always a part of me that thought there must be a good reason that so many people believe in God. How could it just be a mass delusion? It was when I started reading books like "Breaking the Spell" by Daniel Dennet, "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief" by Francis Collins and I talked to Christians more and more as well as reading the Bible (I've read most of it), that I realized that Christians really did not have a good reason for their belief.

I also talked to Creationists and read books like "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer that made me realize that otherwise rational people (Mormons in this case) will believe anything no matter how irrational.

Mostly, I learned that there were two definitions for atheist: 1) Belief that there is no God. 2) No belief in God.

So, that's where I am - No belief in God.

Can I tell you with certainty that there is no God? No, of course not. But I can not tell you with certainty there is no such thing as Unicorns, Leprechauns, Zeus, Poseidon, Quetzalcoatl, or any other of the thousands of Gods that have been said to exist.

Answer 2

You will get many different answers.

I was sitting in Sunday school when I was about ten and they were putting the creation story on the board. Well they put plants before the Sun. Now, I was only ten but I knew that was crazy.

So read the whole Bible. I found many things that were crazy. On top of that the god in the Old Testament was horrible and they kept telling me how loving he was. So I just decided that it was all a myth.

I had a tough time with it for a while. I mean I didn't know anyone else, and I kinda thought the whole world was crazy for a while there. Finally I found Carl Sagan and hearing a very bright scientist say what I thought was reassuring.

Answer 3

Well, i started off as a believer...... being put through the confirmation classes at the local catholic church by my mother... studying the bible... answering the silly questions about what we read in the bible...etc... At first it was all fine and good for me........ but i was young & believed whatever was told to me by people i thought i could trust.... thinking their words were true. I got to the age where most kids start to question a lot of things and that is when i started asking questions about things in the bible. Nobody could answer the questions and they kept giving the same answers. I think priests go through some kind of ignorance training so they know how to answer the questions in the most cryptic way so they are on the borderline of being believable, but if you really analyze what they say you'll know it's bunk. Anyway, there were just a lot of things that the priests said during masses when they spoke to us all that just didn't make sense to me and i would get those same "cut & paste" answers like "god works in mysterious ways" or "you're taking it out of context"..... The funny part about the "context" excuse is that they can never really fully explain the true context of the passages i had questions about.

Anyway it was a gradual process that lead up to me realizing (through studying other religions and the history of religions in general) that it was all non-sense and i was better off without it. I've been happier and i've been enjoying life a lot since then. Before that i was a bit depressive and i felt i didn't have anything good going for me in my life but since i grew up past the superstitions and fear tactics of the catholic church i felt like a new happier person. It was incredible. I've never regretted the decision to move away from that...... although I wouldn't really call it a "decision" because i didn't choose not to believe..... it just didn't make enough sense to me for me to continue believing.

Answer 4

there weren't any steps, really, for me. i understand that many people became atheist because of things that happened to them concerning their religion, but i am atheist because i found all the religions to be too "out there". i just couldn't accept the fact that a god made everything the way it is. if you think about it, really, the idea can seem quite silly sometimes. and all those religions like buddhism, christianity, etc. they just make me more skeptical about there being a deity. and it's not as if anything godly ever happened to me, anyway, so that doens't help much either. what most atheists want, i think, is just to see some evidence. give us the second coming. show us some godly miracle. if they can't supply it except through the bible or whatever, it doens't prove anything. so basically, the reason a lot of people are atheist is just because it's hard to believe in something when there's no proof for it. a silly comparison, but it's like believing in the easter bunny.

Answer 5

1. Was born and raised in a religion.
2. Noticed the doctrine has too many holes and didn't make a lot of sense.
3. Started to do my own research on the religion.
4. Learned about numerous lies I was being told.
5. Started studying other religions and found that they were all about the same: Money Making Businesses selling fear.
6. Became Agnostic.
7. Came to the conclusion that there is not evidence that god exists.
8. Became Atheist.
9. Now require testable results for outrageous claims such as the existence of god.

Answer 6

No atheist KNOWS how the universe was created. The theory of the big bang currently fits what we do know however about the expanding universe. Now the theory of the big bang was originally brought up by a catholic priest so it is really not in conflict with religion per SE. The problem with your statement that everything requires something to create it is that you do not really KNOW that either you just believe it with the evidence you think you have in front of you. The idea that god existed without a creator should give you some idea how we can believe that matter exists prior to life as we know and may have literally forever. The big bang could have happened billions of times contracted and happened again according to some theories. The invisible hand of god is used as a default here, by saying since we do no fully understand the creation of the universe than it must be attributed to an invisible being. Well the early cultures did not understand the sun and they attributed it to a fiery chariot driven by a god. same premise in my mind simply because I cannot conceive of something at this stage does not make it impossible, but I do not have to resort to the default position of attributing it to a god.

Answer 7

For me it started when I was a kid. I felt it was all make believe.
As I got a little older I realized the Bible didn't jive with reality on things like the age of the earth, miracles, the great flood, the Virgin Mary and many other "details".
And there was also God's blood lust.
As an adult it was obvious that religion was out of touch with the real world, wanting those who did not believe to suffer for eternity. I also couldn't understand why one would need to worship, have faith, need to be told how to think, or be told what's right and wrong. The genesis of the Bible was also telling, the fact that it was written by people with ulterior motives and little to no understanding of the world around them.
As I get older I continually come across new insights. The latest is how religion can retard self-esteem.

Answer 8

iv been raied in an essentialy non religious family, not baptized or anything, went to church a few times when i was younger coz i just like the atmosphere of religious buildings.

came to the conclusion that it was illogial to believe in a *sky fairy* as someone put it and selfish to think that there was an afterlife and spend my limited time on this increadible planet living for myself and living according to my own morals and doing what i believe is right.
maby i will have a pleasant suprise at the end.

i find the idea that this world made itself fills me with more wonder and amaizment than the idea that is was created by some cognitive being.
i guess im more agnostic really. but i think iv also come to piece with the idea that there is nothing and im fine with that i wont be concious i will cease to exist.

there will be no more of anything. so live and expierence all that you can.

Answer 9

The fact that there does not need to be a supernatural explanation for anything. There are things that have yet to be scientifically explained, however the answer to these questions is "We do not know. Let's find out" rather than "God did it!"


Realization that the dogma of god -> bible -> god must be true is just dogma and not a valid proof.

Realization that there is as much supporting evidence for Santa, the tooth fairy, Zeus, Odin, dragons, mermaids, etc. as there is for god.

Seeing the reasons behind all religions. The desire for easy explanations of the universe. The desire to live for ever. The desire to be one of the good group of people (Us) rather than one of the bad (Them). The realization that this has nothing to do with reality, just to do with human hopes and conceptual limitations.

Answer 10

I think there is only one step. You either have unwavering, blind faith in your religion, or you do not.

The moment you stop relying on blind faith, you are on your way to becoming a non-believer of some kind.

It's that simple, because without blind faith, it is entirely too obvious to see that the majority of the religions out there are completely false. (And that's when you start asking questions)


(FYI, I was a devout Baptist growing up. I started questioning things when I was around 13. But it took me until around the age of 19 or so before I could bring up the courage to admit I was an atheist. The hellfire and such kept me scared enough to let doubt linger for a while)