Why are you an atheist?

Question

I really, truly want to know. Not bashing or pushing Christian beliefs. Thanks for answering!

Kjelstad: I said I truly wanted to know, which I do. I am asking it as a "lifestyle" question. I am a member of the LDS Church, most people on here know that. While I hold fast to the gospel's teachings, I also accept that there are many people with differing beliefs, I actually want to know someone has the beliefs they have. I'm not trying to use anything against anyone.

I want to know *why* someone has the beliefs they have.

Answer 1

I have great respect for the truth and nothing but scorn for unsubstantiated superstition. I know with certainty that the physical realm is reality, as first proved by Galileo's physics. I know that Aristotle's Solipsism, which maintains that subjective experience is the basis of reality, is utterly false. I know that Plato's Idealism, which maintains that thinking and knowing requires telepathic communication with the gods, is also false. I know that St. Augustine, not Christ, invented the concept of the immortal human soul (about 390 AD) and that without both Idealism and Solipsism, Augustine's imaginary Soul is utterly impossible.

Even though religious superstition brings some comfort to those who believe, that does not justify the tremendous harm religion has done to humanity over the centuries. A quick survey of history demonstrates that organized religion is a very poor foundation for human civilization and has led to numerous brutal wars and countless genocidal crimes against humanity.

On a personal level, both my parents were fundamentalist Pentecostals who were not fit to raise children. My father was a paternalistic sadist who enjoyed administering brutal beatings to "teach" me proper respect for his (and God's) authority. My mother was a full-blown hallucinating schizophrenic who alternated between her favorite church and several state mental hospitals. When I was twelve, I was made to attempt to kiss a live rattlesnake's head to prove my faith in Jesus. The snake struck at me, missed, and the minister proclaimed that his "sacred snake" had discovered another insincere Christian lurking within the faithful congregation. I was so terrified I pee'd my pants, fled the church, and then I ran away from home. I turned myself in to the juvenile authorities, begging for protection from my parents and their insane church. A juvenile court judge issued an injunction, prohibiting my father from ever administering corporal punishment again, and a second injunction preventing him or my mother from ever compelling me to attend a church again. It's been 48 years since the rattlesnake and I still get the creeps every time I even think about entering a church. (When my sister got married, I had to watch through an open door.)

Answer 2

My father is an ordained minister and a Christian, so that's how I grew up. I don't know if most churches are like the one I attended but I felt the people were hypocrites (i.e. pastor drives $70,000 car and wears $1k suits, divorce/adultery/malicious gossip were rampant amongst the congregation). I went to school with a lot of the kids and have known most of the adults all my life and saw their two personas, whereas I'd get bashed because I doubted even though I came pretty darn close to living the "christian" life. Then there were the answers to my problems (getting raped and molested, being depressed): they told me I have the devil in ME. I couldn't take that...I believe in higher powers and predestined fate, but I no longer believe any one religion is right.

Answer 3

my family is apart of the LDS/Mormon church. When i was younger i grew up around it and didn't really think to much of religion. As i grew older, i started thinking about why people took religion so seriously. I studied religion in school and it raised even more doubts in my head. So like 6 years ago, i lost faith all together.
it just doesn't seem to be doing what it claims (love and peace).
Most followers, for the most part, are closed minded.
I have yet to see any proof that leads me to believe in God.

So now i just enjoy my life, i don't worry about tomorrow or my after-life. Each day is a new day. i live without regrets and live as i see fit.

Answer 4

Because religion had nothing to offer me, my Bible study proved to me thata the Bible was manmade, and without any truth of the Bible for a background or basis of belief, god was just a superstition. There is no evidence that the Christian god is real, and if all the other gods who ever were are imaginary, then so is the Christian god.

atheist

Answer 5

I became one, really was cornered into becoming one, after fifteen years as an adult, bible-believing, accepted-Christ-into-my-life Christian.

It was in studying the bible, its history and also church history, in order to teach Christianity properly that I realised that, at core, Christianity wasn't what it claimed to be.
It took several years to realise there was no real honest accommodation possible between the world as I saw it and what I found in the bible, and faith in a deity as I had originally encountered it.

I didn't run to atheism, I was driven to it.

Answer 6

currently not but being brainwashed by atheist =P
i don't know why but i have been curious about life since i was 3

i simply cant accept the idea of God just POOF out of no where and suddenly earth POOF and human POOF out of no where. because the idea of what is b4 god will forever haunt me. it sucks

i rather accept the idea ' we dunch know why we are here , we are trying to find out why '

my parent arent christian , apparently christian is one of the major religion that cast good moral people who didnt believe in jesus/god into hell and no matter what you do , you stay there. thus i refuse to convert to christian despite my friends preaching and stay as another religion with my parents.

yes you may start telling me why it is reasonable for god to punish someone eternally for a crime he did in one's lifetime. but i cannot bear the idea of my parents burning in hell while i am in heaven enjoying ? seriously how many people can still go party if someone they care about is being kidnapped and toture with a high chance of being killed?

and yeah i will have replies that no memories of parent in heaven . thus this would also mean that if i have any memory , there would be a big void since i spend most of my time with my parents . and so i can safely assume that i would have literally no memory , and thus no idea why i would go heaven /hell. seems pointless again.

being atheist we can show you how something is done , not some excuse or make up or twisting of truth , you may not do it , but many does , i mean seriously people can just find any thing out there and tell me its work of god . i will not say i believe but seriously i just cant force myself to believe . i cannot believe it any more than you believing me that i am spiderman . no matter how i try to use text to explain to you i am spiderman . you will nv . even if i tell u thats y spider exist

Answer 7

I was born and raised Presbyterian. Later in my teens I read The Origin of Species, Cosmos and learned all about the environment, cosmology and Biology. Once I learned all that, the bible seemed weak, silly, falsified and nothing more than a fairy tale.
That helped me see the truth in life, and so I am an atheist.

Answer 8

I have always struggled with belief in deity. It never really felt right to me. I began questioning my thoughts on deity and I came to the personal conclusion that deep down inside I held no belief or regard for them.

Answer 9

I'm not a true atheist. I'm more of a Deist with certain Christian beliefs. But I consider myself that because it is impossible for me to be a Christian and believe in a second coming and sin and heaven and all that...it is like when you are in a relationship and you tell yourself that you love this person when in the back of your mind you don't, you don't really love them...but more of the idea of being in love.

Answer 10

Because I have no reason not to be. Just because someone runs up claiming, "Hey, my imaginary friend is real!" doesn't mean I'm going to believe them. I wasn't raised in a religious family, so religion naturally seems a foreign idea to me.