People who have become Atheists, were you influenced by anyone or did you reach it alone?

Question

I was born into an Atheist family and it has always left me curious about the situations that lead people to leave a religion.

Answer 1

I reached it alone. I consider that one of my biggest accomplishments.

Answer 2

I was born into an extremely religious family, they call themselves non-denominational but they are very close to the southern baptist variety of Christianity. After sitting through unbearable services 3 or more times a week, I started to question things when I was about 9. As I got older(11 or 12) I realized that none of it made any sense. A little later when I started understanding physics and science in general any lingering beliefs collapsed.

Now I wouldn't call myself an atheist, It seems to me that saying that there is no god is just as ignorant as saying that there is a god. Frankly we have no way of knowing either.

To answer the question, you could say that the only influence I had to make me a non believer is the religion itself. For me to believe in anything, it has to make some kind of logical sense and let face it no religions really make sense if you look at them analytically and objectively.

Answer 3

Ultimately it was me driving it, but I suppose some people inevitably influenced me along the way, whether or not they knew it at the time.

I was raised under a particular religion, rejected it by the time I was a teen, hopped around to different other religions. I was very devout in other religons along the way. Atheism just came about gradually as I found myself taking less and less of an interest in the topic of deity. A lot of this had to do with moving out of my parents place and into college, where I no longer had to defend my beliefs every day, finally started having a social life, and found other ways to get things like personal identity, the joy of ceremony, etc.

Answer 4

Yes.

I was influenced by many sources, but ultimately it was my own conclusion to reach. I was raised a Christian but had questions. I actively looked into the various questions and talked to many people, including religious and non-religious people about them. I also read a lot, including the Bible, and other literature about the various religions. I can't point to a single thing that ultimately convinced me that gods just don't exist, but I finally reached that conclusion.

I've been an atheist now for over 20 years.

Answer 5

I come from a mixed catholic, protestant and spiritualist family, with a mum that converted to Wicca. I never believed in any of it.

Having written that, I'm reasonably psychic like Chris (answer above). The only way I could accurately describe some of the premonitions I've had is that it's like hearing the word of god, or having the whole universe shout at you with one voice. So what I'm saying is that I acknowledge that there is a something 'other' out there, I just don't think any current concept of god has any resemblance to 'it'.

Answer 6

Yes. My family, actually devout Christians, influenced me.

I was raised to fear anyone that did not fear God. Growing up, anyone that did not pray daily, love, and praise God, was not considered "worth" my love, respect, and kindness. Anyone that didn't share our belief, was to be shunned, and pushed from our lives.

However, in their efforts, my parents managed to alienate me from any such people. I have never met an atheist in person.

Before long, I realized that, all this time, I'd treated Christianity as a game. I didn't really believe; I'd simply followed what I was taught.

So, I studied religion. Anything and everything I could find, I read it, I disected it; regardless of whether it was fact or opinion, I devoured it all, just the same. I already knew what I DID believe, but I wasn't sure what category of religion it fell under.

After much thought and searching, I determined that I am primarily atheist, with tendencies of both LaVeyan Satanism and agnosticism.

Then, I began to branch out, without the knowledge of my parental units. I changed everything from my musical taste, to my friends, to my choice of reading material.

Before, my friends were "s*uts." I listened to "socially acceptable" music--rap, hip-hop, that sort of music. I was not ever satisfied by this, but as I had been raised, what society accepted was supposedly more critical than what I wanted, and therefore, I followed trends. I was a "normal" child, or at least, I presented myself as one, publicly.

Now, I have better friends. In this age group, no one will ever be likely to satisfy my lead to intellect, however, my friends are better, just the same.

I listen to music I enjoy. Music with meaning.

Believe it or not, I read the Bible now, and yet, before "leaving" Christianity, I did not.

I am a better person, overall.

And I owe that to my oh-so-religious family. Their attempts at segregating me from the non-religious were so strong that I noticed easily, and quickly came to find how entirely wrong they were/are. That is was prompted my studying of other belief systems, and that is, overall, why I realized that, in heart, I am and will always be, an atheist.

My parents do not know of my atheism, and as far as I'm concerned, they don't ever need to know. As long as I don't betray my own beliefs in order to hide my atheism, I'll simply avoid the topic of religion.

Because, I'm happy, now, in the religious sense.

And that means more to me, than anyone could ever know, or understand.

Answer 7

I call myself an atheist, but I have my own little beleif structure about how the big bang got started, however it has nothing to do with a giant sky-daddy. Anyways, I came to it on my own. It makes you wonder when people are forced into religion by peers or the fear tactic and others come to atheism of their own free will.

Answer 8

I was raised Catholic, but I had an open environment where my studying of other religious traditions was encouraged. It was through this study that I arrived at Buddhism. Although I will admit that even as a child being raised Catholic, I did not believe the Bible was to be taken literally. There are no other Buddhists in my family, so I would have to say I arrived at it alone.

Answer 9

I was born into a mildly christain family but was an atheist by the time I was 8. All the descisions I have made were made by me alone.

Answer 10

I was raised to believe in what I believe, and have no outside influence. I never went to church (because they wanted me to arrive at my own conclusion) and if you try and flame me (or my parents) for not going to church, did you ever go to a synagogue? No, so shut the f*ck up.
I went through phases, then I realized I really had no clue, and became agnostic, then studied science more, and then realized that religion was made by man, without any "divine' intervention.
And since there was no evidence of God, and any "evidence" that they may have, is flawed or can already proven by science, and existence is manmade (in other words, if we can't sense God, then he doesn't exist, like a hundreds of years ago, they couldn't sense atoms, and then they didn't exist, but since we have microscopes, and can see an atom, it exists now).
So by that logic, God does not exist, he may exist one day, but currently, he does not, and I don't think he ever will.
But to answer your question, I sought truth INSIDE, and didn't rely on any outside influences, other then my observation. My mom wasn't too thrilled when I told her I didn't believe in God, but, she doesn't mind now, and still believes in God, but not religion.

Answer 11

I came of age in the company of a gang of racist white Protestants whose primitive embrace of religion included handling snakes, talking in tongues, washing each other's feet, and rolling around on the floor screaming and crying about Jaysus! But a greater influence to me on my journey toward atheism was reading, at age 9, the Holy Bible.