Atheists: Did anyone else know at a very young age that they didn't believe in God?

Question

This past Saturday, my dad visited and brought over a truckload of boxes of things that were mine when I was little. In one of the boxes I found a diary that I had written at 12 years old. While reading the diary, I found an exerpt that read:

"...I do not believe in God, but I go to church because my mom makes me. That makes me a hypocrite..."

I was very surprised when I read this. I was attending Catholic school at the time that I wrote that diary (at age 12). I never realized that I knew at such a young age what my beliefs were. I might not have known to the extent that I do now, but it's interesting to get this glimpse of my beliefs about religion and spirituality from such a young age.

Answer 1

The whole story didn't ring true to me, but I made an enormous effort to believe, thinking that it must be my fault that I didn't.

I recall the tipping point, however. I had a friend whom I admired and who was generous, kind, patient and embodied all of the virtues that I had been taught I should emulate. He, however, didn't belong to the same sect of Christianity as I, and, as a result, I was told, would be condemned to everlasting fires of Hell.

That struck me as rather petty and self-serving.

I subsequently made a study of theology, nearly enrolling in seminary at one point, in an effort to persuade myself that what the church told me was true. I encountered contradiction, conflict and political maneuvering in everything I studied.

Then I read Aquinas: "It seems that everything we see in the world can be accounted for by other principles, supposing God did not exist. For all natural things can be reduced to one principle, which is nature, and all voluntary things can be reduced to one principle, which is human reason, or will."

Thomas went on to refute this statement by citing Scripture, but he could not unring this bell.

Answer 2

I was taught the Bible strongly, for Mom's father was a pastor, but I was intelligent enough to have doubts at age 7 in the family religion. At age 11, I told Dad I did not believe in God and Heaven. He was shocked.

Answer 3

My parents were teachers, so I grew up reading a lot. I remember when I was about 8 years old, I was reading a book about Early Man. It talked about how man evolved from earlier primates...Homo Habilis, Cro-Magnon Man, etc....that's when it hit me. I started thinking, "How could that have happened if god supposedly created Adam and Eve?" That led to me thinking about how preposterous that sounded because if that was the case then we are all born of an incestuous relationship between Eve and Cain or Eve and Abel. Then that led to "Come to think of it, Cain and Abel had wives in the bible...where the hell did they come from!?" And then I came to the conclusion that the scientific book based on facts and fossils made way more sense than the made-up bible that was based on nothing.

Answer 4

I had a teacher who used to try and terrify God into me and the other children when I was five. She made us pray in a circle at the end of school each day and threatened us with the punishment of hell. One day I thought I'd see what happened if I didn't close my eyes and just let her do her thing. That was when I realized that she was a spiteful, vicious, hateful bully. I also realized that the idea of God was absurd.

I hope she died in pain.

Answer 5

By 12, sure. But before I was 10 or so, I really wanted to be a devout Catholic. I don't know whether I actually believed, but I wanted to believe.

That diary quote is interesting, though, because that's exactly how I felt at my Confirmation.

P.S. - To Furious - yeah, Catholic school DEFINITELY disabused me of my devotion...lol. Nothing like the nuns washing your mouth out with soap to make you love Jesus!

Answer 6

Yes, I was a C of E choirboy from 9 - 11 and thought it was all total mumbo-jumbo.

Hey, it paid better than doing a paper round (13/6 for 3 months - thats about £0.72 ) and in those days you had to buy your own toys

Answer 7

I never have actually believed in God; both my parents were atheists and I was raised as an atheist. That said, my beliefs didn't really mature until I was...well, older anyway. I don't want to reveal my age on the Internet.

Answer 8

Yes, I knew very young, even before that age. At 12 I walked out of the middle of my baptism because it was something my mother wanted rather than what I wanted.

I think many times, children do pick that up young; they may just not act on it until later years.

Answer 9

It is very rare that before the teen years, a child stops believing in God especially if raised in a christian family. In your case, you hated the fact that your mom force you to go to church, and instead of hating your mom, you hated God.

Most people become atheists in their college years (as far as I know) when they began to question the relevance of religion and God in civilization. If there is a god why is there so much evil around? Or some such similar questions.

Me? I keep my faith and put my trust in God.

Answer 10

I don't remember thinking about it much at a very young age but I think it would be pretty safe to say that I was smart enough at 10 not to believe it.