When did you become an atheist?

[Thy_Mushroom]

I was raised christian , but never really felt I could say I believed it and be honest with myself . Once I started researching apologetics and theology after about 5 years of teaching myself philosophy and participating in various debates online and off with people ranging from the webmaster of tektonics apologetic ministries to the local priest ... I decided that my suspicions were true and officially called it all bunk . And when I looked at other religions I found most of them had similar problems - total lack of proof .

The real problem I noticed that stuck out like a sore thumb is how apologists from every religion ( not just christianity ) operate . Whenever a problem with their faith is brought up , they dont actually disprove it but rather they try to push it from "This is a huge problem" to "This might be a huge problem" and then they transform from philosopher to preacher and claim that pushing the issue to "This is definatly not a problem" is all a matter of faith . In my book , thats called straw grasping . Desperatly trying to hold onto a faith with no proof - I cant live like that . Im too honest with myself to not be an atheist .

Heck , not even that . I officially labeled myself non religious sometime after middle school . From then I went from atheist , to deist , to agnostic , to deist , to what I am now - a weak atheist/agnostic .  

[Zambimaru]

When I was little I was curious about god and if he really exsisted. I was never given a good enough answer and I always got a difforent one. When I turned 10 I thought whats the point of devoting my time and life to a being that onley exsists in peoples heads and I became atheist.  

[EmmaRaikou]

As far as I remember, I've always doubted the existance of God(s). My problem was that I like things to make sense whether they be people, ideas, or math equations, they need to make some sort of logical sense in my brain. The stuff I was told in Sunday school and what I read about religious sects in history =/= sense.

I didn't understand why all the religious groups were after each others' throats, 'specially the Big Three. Judeism (sp?), Christianity, and Islam have always been pretty vicious towards each other. Which is stupid because their beliefs are so similar.

I didn't like how institutional religion used their god as justification for things like mass murder, while at the same time condeming it. A paradox which my heretical mind just couldn't seem to grasp.

So to make a long story shorter: Man created God, not the other way around. That's the conclusion I came to.

Edit: To answer the question, about a year or so ago. (My brain ran away from me, I apologise. sweatdrop )  

[Satan is my Bitch]

Lilly Dark

I became one in November of last year

Wow fraky thats exactly when I became one also! Weird. (note i was already sorta questioning my religion as it was and wondering "Hey God! I've prayed to you why aren't you answering my prayers!" And then really shitty s**t happened and i was like DAMNIT! and that made me start thinking.... "Hmmmm... God supposedly answers all prayers.... He no answer me..." Then that lead to my long thought of Human nature and the reasoning that humans made God to put them at ease about death, and to make life easy and not have to explain the world around them with science instead just say the whole "God willed it" bullshit.)
So that is my story!  

[PickleBoy]

Ummm... *smacks lips* Lets see here... Yeah, I was probably always agnostic, having always been into science and stuff. Never really believed everything the preachers told me, having always seen the Bible as just a book. Uh... And then when I started learning about history and all the other religions out there and the religious wars, etc, etc, I started to think that maybe God/Allah/Yaweh etc was just a being that people made up to support them in their endevours of killing each other. After all, if you're killing your grandma cause your boyfriend will forgive you, its okay, right?

Then when I was 11 my mom got really, really sick and was transported to the ICU. Our priests and church community was with us through the whole thing and it was really great and I cared for them all so much for it cause it was such a hard time. Yeah... and then a week before my mom croaked our priest took me and my step sister to the side and told us that "God was taking her to a better place cause he needed her in heaven and blah, blah, blah." Yeah... I started to wonder if God was the same person I thought he was and the same person she was claiming he was and at the end of October when my mom finally died, I was like... there really can't be a God if he's going to promote love and yet create so much pain.

Maybe there is a god, but I don't believe in him/her. I won't tell a christian/jew/muslim/pagan (although I love pagans and was contemplating going down that path just last year)/hindu/buddhist that there isn't a God/God(Yaweh)/Allah/Mother Earth (But if there is she rocks my socks)/Ganesh/Buddah. Only cause its impossible to prove there isn't one. I'm just not gonna believe in one myself.

And that is the long/boring/terribly told story of how long I've been an atheist. If there is any question as to wtf my story means in a nutshell, ummm... I've been a outright proclaimed athesit for about 9 years.  

[TofuDreamer]

I've been an atheist up till 7th grade. My parents never really talked about God(s) so I never really thought about it. Up until Junior High there I realized that most of my friends were Christians. People don't really bloom until Junior High and High School eh? That made me think much about myself. I then TRANSFORM into an agnostic.

My friends still think that I'm going to hell and I still think that it doesn't exist. They think that I'm too good to go to hell. They say don't want to see me go down. It's funny how they always have a prayer night, or a special event to promote their "rightness" for Christ. Atheists and agnostics have nothing. Of course we have nothing to show or fear.  

[Tiptoer]

Hmm...
Well, where to begin? I was raised believing in God, didn't know what denomination I was though(it was Catholic), and wasn't told much about God, except that he existed. I really did believe in him too. I mean, I would pray to him every night. Hell, I remember that one day in 3rd grade, (Yes, 3rd grade), I prayed that some girl will like me and go out with me. Well, the next day, I got a note that was actually a list of all the girls that liked me in my class, which was about 7, I might add, lol. So, my faith only grew stronger. But, my mom never took me to Church, so it was never forced down my throat. Around when I was 9, I was pertty much more logically intelligent than anyone around me. I'm not sure how this happened, but I think I then became an agnostic because I felt He was listening to me, I thought of some contradictions, or something like that, but I was agnostic. I enver told anyone, but when I was 10, I emt my older brother for the first time, and he told me he was atheist, so I told him I was agnostic, and he was cool with it, which made me feel so much better. Now being more comfortable, I startd thinking about it....a LOT. And in about a month, I became an atheist, but I was fresh, so I wasn't too stable. For the enxt 3 years, I remained unstable on it, and sometimes went back to Christianity...for about a day. I came out with when I moved, but I only told me friends, never any relatives. then, my great gandpa died, and I was in this big church for his funeral, and I don't know what happened, I just reverted again. I actually almost lasted out the day a Christian, but I just kind of brushed of my shoulder. I met this Super-Christian girl, and she knew, but she was cool with it, we even dated. Well, she began to like hate my atheist friend for no reason, saying he was hopeless, so I asked, am I hopeless. She said no, but eventually said yes. We became friends again, but whenever we talked religiously, I realized how close-minded she was.I ascended into a whole new plane of thinking. I began to hate Christianity for all that it was because it was just a shitload of lies. It was then that I became a FULL-FLEDGED atheist. I reluctantly told people I was atheist in 7th grade, but in 2005, when I became full-fledged, I came out with it easily. Due to some questioning, my uncle and aunt found out, but they were cool with it I guess. I just made sure they didn't tell my mom. So all my friends know, my aunt and uncle, and now my dad......
He found my xanga and read it...all. I'e had several xangas, so it wasn't so bad, but he prolly knows I'm atheist, and wetalked about girls and depression and s**t for an hour last Saturday. So he knows now, but he never brought it up, which was cool.


/rant  

[decaZetta]

I come from a non-religious family where the subject of religion is very rarely brought up. Because my parents rarely ever talked about religion I was free to look into what ever I wanted, and it was this searching that led me to being an agnostic atheist.

When I was much younger (pre 5th grade) I thought that in order to go to heaven one had to do good deeds. This belief was partially do to childhood innocents but mostly do to The Simpsons. Then (at the begginging of my 5th grade year) my parents moved me into a small private lutheran school because 1) they abhored the TAAS test (a test that use to be administered to all the students throughout the state of Texas before the invention of the TAKS and TEKS test, if you failed the TAAS test you were held back a grade regardless of your school grades) and 2) my mother feared the middle school that I would be attending, the school was notorious for pregnat pre-teens, drugs, and gangs. To them(my parents) the choice was send me to a school where I could be harmed or to a school with a more kid friendly environment even though my parents disagreed with the religious views; they chose the kid friendly environment.

It was at this small school that I went to that I stopped believeing in religions. At first I learned many things like how my beloved tv show had given me the wrong impression of christianity and how "faith" is the answer to every question that can't be answered. At the time I despretaley wanted to believe in the religion being fed to me however a few worng answers to some very important questions killed christianity, or any religion that blindly follows a diety with out true proof, for me.  

[iviary]

decaZetta

When I was much younger (pre 5th grade) I thought that in order to go to heaven one had to do good deeds. This belief was partially do to childhood innocents but mostly do to The Simpsons. Then (at the begginging of my 5th grade year) my parents moved me into a small private lutheran school because 1) they abhored the TAAS test (a test that use to be administered to all the students throughout the state of Texas before the invention of the TAKS and TEKS test, if you failed the TAAS test you were held back a grade regardless of your school grades) and 2) my mother feared the middle school that I would be attending, the school was notorious for pregnat pre-teens, drugs, and gangs. To them(my parents) the choice was send me to a school where I could be harmed or to a school with a more kid friendly environment even though my parents disagreed with the religious views; they chose the kid friendly environment.

Ah, good old TAAS. x___x Not. When I was in elementary school, they couldn't hold you back for not passing the TAAS test. Well, I guess they started making that the case for the 3rd graders when I was in 5th or 6th grade, and had it move up with them. I have to pass the TAKS in order to graduate from High School now, but umm.. I'm definitely not worried about it. I generally ace it. I'm just not looking forward to having to get to school an hour earlier than usual, since I have 1st period off.

My parents almost put me in a private school for 6th grade, because it looked like our district was going to go to crap, but luckily I convinced them that I would be fine remaining in public school. And actually, I had 2 of the best teachers I ever had in elementary school. The third had been my lunch lady for the previous 3 years, so that was interesting but.. you can't have everything be right, eh?  

[Prince Rilian]

I was always some kind of atheist. First an implicit atheist, then an explicit atheist. I was an explicit atheist by the time I was 5, but I had some relapses in middle school due to peer pressure.  

[Lycos]

As a kid, they pushed religion on me like crazy, so as a teen I pushed back and became athiest  

[Amphex]

Early in life I was a Christian, but as time progressed and as I observed my world more often, I drifted towards agnosticism, then as I became more pessimistic, I went atheist.  

[Kommisar_Kowl]

I wasn't raised under religion, but after trying to practice Christianity, I went agnostic.  

[Joey Bishop]

I never really knew about religion. My parents never talked about it, in school we prayed (or I just sat there wondering what was going on) and that was about it. When I learnt about religion I could hardly believe people were strongly devoted to a character much like santa or the grim reaper.  

[DivideByZero14]

Absentis Terminus

I never really knew about religion. My parents never talked about it, in school we prayed (or I just sat there wondering what was going on) and that was about it. When I learnt about religion I could hardly believe people were strongly devoted to a character much like santa or the grim reaper.

Hear hear.

I was lucky enough to have parents who didn't exactly hold the idea of religion in high regards. I became athiest as soon as I learned the word.