Current Events > Religiously raised Atheists, do you remember the moment you became atheist?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like did you just wake up one day and go "oh wait, none of this makes sense. This is all fake," or was it like a gradual process with no real start and end point? and if so, how did you sort of know "I'm no longer X, but I still believe Y, but now I don't believe Y, but I believe Z, but now I don't believe any of it"

naw mean?
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Not really, it was a gradual process.

But if I were to estimate, the tipping point is during the couple of weeks after I finished reading The God Delusion.
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Gradual.

Or at least there was no one moment when it dramatically changed. When you're a kid you just accept what you're told.

Once you start to grow up you actually think about it. And the moment you actually think about religion is pretty much the moment you're no longer a part of mainstream religion as it demands unquestioning obedience.
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Gradient really.
Rejected organized religion. Rejected all myth claims. Rejected deism and then theism.
Probably around 14 when I came to terms with it but it was a process spurned by the absolute shit arguments religious folk use, the contradictions with science, and the bigotry coming from evangelists.
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Yeah, like posters above me, it was a gradual process, mostly in high school.

I actually relapsed once or twice into religion, but once I moved away for college, the atheism cemented.
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It was gradual, starting when I went away to college. No longer going to a Catholic school and getting dragged to Chruch every week and becoming a free-thinking adult, I had time to think about it, and it just makes absolutely no sense.
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Slowly stopped going to church, so not really having any of that influence led to not really caring about it. My mom was raised and remained Catholic for a really large part of her life but now she's pretty apathetic about the whole thing. Spiritual, but not religious, and that kinda spilled over to me. I don't deny the existence of a God, just don't see a point to worrying about it if there's no proof.
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tag

my parents never raised me religiously so it is interesting to see how other atheists get there
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Anything religious never made any fucking sense. Everything religious is literally made up by whom ever is talking.

Religious people sound like any clinically insane person.
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Gradual. Usually happened in the form of shower thoughts. I was raised Christian but when I started to think about some of the stuff in the bible I was like ehh wut?
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Around my rebellious phase.
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yea, i was around 17 or 18

i was raised in a very strict, religious household and religion just never clicked with me, i could never accept the tenets or "feel" it, and i had religion shoved down my throat as a kid, had to go on prayer retreats and things like that. i pretty much tried to rationalize religion as much as i could and find some solution that worked for me.

then one day when im like 17, i am smoking a joint with a friend and he asked about my views, so i explain this dumb ass concept i had at the time where i identified as a catholic but viewed that independent from believing in the reality of God/Jesus etc etc.

my buddy just laughed at me and said "dude, just come out and say you're an atheist already" and at that moment i knew he was right. once i accepted that i was completely done with the religion it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders
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I stopped going to church when I was 20(before that I was at virtually every sunday service, "sunday school", youth group meetings, any seasonal events, etc from age 5~ onward) but my belief had waned to nothing at some point during my early high school years. I never fully bought into religion though. I always felt like I was praying "wrong" since it never "worked", but at some point I realized it didn't "work" because it was bullshit.

Kinda sad too since I really like churches from a non-religious standpoint. Functionally, having a bunch of(usually) nice people gather for a few hours every week was fun and I enjoyed the work that went into organizing church events. Plus the pageantry of certain services and the mythology of it all was super interesting.
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Not really an atheist, more of a I don't care guy.
I'll never say that the God exists as we perceive him, but I'll never deny it either.
I see it as something I'll never know the truth about until I die, so I don't bother with it. It's something we, as a humanity, will never be able to comprehend.

As for my background, I live in a country with +90% Catholic population, nearly everyone I know is religious etc.
I just don't feel anything when I go to church. I can go there, but doesn't do anything for me.
I think I realized before my Confirmation even, at the age of 13 or so. I went with it just because of my family and the money (it's a custom for family and friends to give you gifts after the Confirmation, lol) and basically never went to church since.
I go only if I have to, weddings and funerals.

But the weird thing is that if I ever have kids, I'd like them to get baptized, confirmed, etc. If they end up like me, it's fine. Just because that's how things go in my area and everyone starts as a Catholic. If they don't follow the religion, it's fine.
My family and generally most people wouldn't pressure me into anything, they'd be fine with whatever I thell them.
Everyone is religious, but nobody is strict about it and nobody forces anyone into anything.

I guess I always was headed that direction. I hated being forced to go to ccd and church. Not really because of disbelief but because I was a kid and it was fucking boring and it was time that I could have instead spent playing Legend of Zelda.

The necessary reasons for all this shit were poorly explained as well. "You'll go to hell" they said and it became simple game theory for me at this point. I had no way of knowing that even if I tried to follow the rules I wouldn't have been sent to hell for some stupid shit. It felt insurmountable to live the perfect Christian Life and being sent to hell seemed guaranteed.

So I stopped trying. And eventually I just figured it just doesn't make any fucking sense.
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I never actually believed, just went through the motions of boring church and all that, asked questions nobody could answer, unless they hit me with a barrage of bible verses that they had no idea what the actual meaning was behind them, then eventually at age 15 I was then allowed the choice to go or not to go to church and I never looked back.
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St0rmFury posted...

Not really, it was a gradual process.

This and it always felt like a "chore" to me, not exactly something i wanted to do or believed in...
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I'm agnostic, but it was a gradual thing for me.
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When I was like, 5 or 6, I told my mom I was afraid of dying. She was trying to comfort me and was like "You already figured out that the Easter Bunny isn't re, but God is, so you have nothing to worry about".

And then immediately in my head I was like "OH FUCK, I wasn't even thinking of it in that way....oh shit heaven isn't real and you just quit existing forever. Thanks Mom!"
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Tyranthraxus posted...

ccd

did you know what that stood for? Me and my friends used to call it "coffee, cake, and donuts" because we'd get snacks, but even the teachers didn't know what it really stood for. Then right around the time I stopped going they changed the name to "wings"

Good answers to all. I appreciate it.
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I think the biggest kicker for me was listening, really listening, to how some religious people speak when they speak about God. So often, they're really just projecting their own feelings or opinions onto God to try to further affirm their own feelings about something.
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lilORANG posted...

Like did you just wake up one day and go "oh wait, none of this makes sense. This is all fake," or was it like a gradual process with no real start and end point?

The second one.

lilORANG posted...

and if so, how did you sort of know "I'm no longer X, but I still believe Y, but now I don't believe Y, but I believe Z, but now I don't believe any of it"

I don't know. I had a fairly liberal Catholic upbringing so I never felt like anything was "shoved down my throat."

Just that as I get older I started to realize there was no real basis to think that Christianity was correct and all other religions were wrong.

When I was in college I believed that maybe there was some sort of higher power that created us and is guiding us, and that all world religions are interpretations of that. But gradually I came to think that was probably just wishful thinking on humanity's part.

So right now I consider myself an atheist because I believe no god is the most likely to be true. Like if I put a number on it, I would say I think it's about 80% that there is no god, 20% that there is some spiritual form of "god" that all the world religions are reaching for and partially understanding, less than 1% that one of the world's major religions is totally right, and less than .00000001% that fundamentalists are correct.

Some people would say that makes me an agnostic because I'm not 100%, but I say that's silly. It is hubris to say you are 100% sure for anyone if you ask me. But if you decidedly think it more likely that god does not exist, you're an atheist.
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It was certainly gradual to me but I can't pinpoint any specific time when I for sure became an atheist.

When I was young all the way probably through 9th/10th grade, I went to church basically every Sunday without fail. I believed in Christianity ultimately, however, several things bothered me. I remember sometimes just sitting there listening to a sermon and just thinking to myself "How do you know that?" and "What if none of this is real?". I remember asking someone a question about heaven and their answer just seemed like made up BS to me. Sometimes I would wonder if it was just made up BS that made people with a terrible lot in life feel better. Thats what it certainly felt like because that's what I was surrounded by, a bunch of poor people that can barely pay their rent on time but constantly praising god for what little he had "blessed" them with. But back then I never really let myself get deep into those thoughts. Everyone around me believed so I at least had to wonder if maybe they knew something that I didnt.

That being said, I never "felt" it either. Going to church was boring to me except before and afterward because of the social stuff that happened. The service itself just felt like a waste of time to me. Why do i need to hear the same messages over and over and over and over again for the rest of my life? I felt like I had pretty much heard it all by the time I was probably 13. When I saw other people jumping up and down "praising" god, I just never got those feelings. I would just be sitting there while everyone else is hollering and praising god that their lives weren't any crappier than they already were. Felt weird to me.

Oddly enough, coming to Gamefaqs (I made my original account here halfway through 9th grade) was the first time I had ever REALLY heard anyone argue against religion. I remember reading through religion topics and actually arguing in favor of religion back then. As I started actually reading more topics, which led to more research, which led to more thought, I eventually accepted that I didn't believe in any of it any more. Didn't help that my twin brother was coming to the same conclusion as me around that same time.

I was definitely at least leaning on the atheist side by 11th grade. I remember talking to my then girlfriend about church/religion and the discussion came up and I can still remember that conversation today where I told her I was pretty sure I didn't believe in any sort of god. Around then is probably when I just accepted it.
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CableZL posted...

I think the biggest kicker for me was listening, really listening, to how some religious people speak when they speak about God. So often, they're really just projecting their own feelings or opinions onto God to try to further affirm their own feelings about something.

This also bothered me.
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Nah, there isn't a moment. For context, when I was 12 my mom married a minister (her second husband; my dad passed when I was 6)

I started doubting the religion at 13. That was around the time I started learning to think critically.

Throughout high school, I spent a lot of time online and saw a lot of debates about religion. This caused me to think even more critically about my beliefs.

By 17 I was mentally done with it, but still had to go to everything (three services a week and every other church activity) for the sake of my stepdad's reputation.

Moving out for college was wonderful. I completely severed all ties with the religion. It was a great feeling.

While in college, I took a course that critically examined the bible, and read lots of supplementary scholarly literature. This only further cemented my beliefs, as it turns out the church had lied to me about nearly everything they taught. (Part of services is Sunday school, which is quite literally bullshit. They don't teach facts in those classes.)

Oh, and I'm not ever going to tell my family I'm atheist. I just try to see them as little as possible. I don't need any more negative head space caused by them.
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Was raised catholic.

I had my doubts at a pretty young age. I dont remember a time at church that i didnt find uncomfortable. Stopped going with the family in my early teens.

Religion just never made sense to me. As I got older i started to look into other religions and those didnt click with me either. Wasnt comfortable with being labeled atheist until mid 20s or so.

My mom still complains at times that this is her greatest failing with me and my brother, he feels much the same.
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Was a few days before I was supposed to get baptized

Then I started thinking to myself why tf is this guy dunking my head under the water supposed to do... anything, and thats where my mind started to wander and when I started to figure out how dumb most religious stuff sounded
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When I found out Santa isn't real. The world hasn't quite been the same, since...
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Yeah I was 10. I realized being in a Catholic community drew a lot of comparisons to being in an abusive relationship, which I grew all too familiar with by having my dad around.
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It was gradual but by the 10th grade I was 100% Atheist.
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JlM posted...

She agreed and I never went again. Now my mom is some of really shitty wannabe Buddhist because she's a midlife crisis having weeb.

I'm HOWLING.
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