Atheists: What fact turned you away from religious belief?
817399
Personally, I feel that organized religion is dangerous. As well-meaning as people can be, any church organization becomes a bit cult-ish at one point or another. It's very easy to become the victim of blind faith, and even easier to lose yourself. My beliefs lie within the universe and nothing else. I pray, but I don't need any church or pastor/minister whathaveyou to direct my life in an uncomfortable way. Some people may need the structure, but it can also be very damaging. It all depends on who you are.
294673
I was baptized as a Christian, and I believed in God during my younger childhood years. But my family has never gone to church since I can remember, and religion now is not at all a part of my life. I don't believe in any religion anymore. I rarely even think or wonder about God, or whether or not there even is one. I might consider myself agnostic, but even that could be going too far because I really have no feelings about religion at all.
757356
You bet I did. I've probably been atheistic in my beliefs for 10-15 years, but only managed to truly embrace it this year.\n\nI struggled off and on with my doubts fo years, too, since I was a teenager. I grew up in a small Midwestern town of less than 1500 people. Everybody knew everybody else and everybody was either Lutheran or Catholic. Growing up, I didn't know ANYBODY who wasn't either, let alone didn't believe at all. Kids made FUN of those who didn't go to church every week. No, I wasn't one of them, I just knew kids who did.\n\nThe atmosphere here is still, in a way, like things were back in the 50s. People are generally polite, friendly, and trusting, honest folk, God-fearing. People unfortunately also keep some of those lingering prejudices from those days, even those that are my age. For example, my best friend in high school is a devout Catholic. Nothing wrong with that, was never an issue. However, within a year or two of graduation, she was pregnant out of wedlock. This was a gal who, as a teenager, denounced her own parents to me because they had her older brother out of wedlock. She loved her son and the father stayed with her and they eventually married.\n\nBut the point is, they didn't have much money to get married right away. When I saw her maybe 6-9 months after her first son was born and she showed me her engagement band, she told me that her son "would now have a father". Didn't outright use the b-word, but you know damn well what she meant. I don't know ANYONE my age who would still call a child of theirs born out of wedlock a b-strd, nor insinuate it. But she did. So that's an example of some of the outdated things people still have around here and it's worse for atheists.\n\nGrowing up, having another faith besides Christianity was bad enough, it was worse to NOT have faith at all. There was a stigma(and still is to a point) that atheists are selfish, sinful people who like to drink, smoke, do drugs, sleep around, etc. They also have the lovely stigma that atheists are Commies(more proof that people still think like it's 1954 around here at times), worship Satan, sacrifice babies, and burn Bibles.\n\nTo a point, I grew up thinking that atheists were angry, dark, evil, frightening people. When I started doubting, I fought it and I fought it hard. I didn't want to be associated with that sort of stereotype. I didn't want people to think I did those things because there's no WAY I'd do any of it. I'm not that kind of person.\n\nSo I doubted and desperately tried to find faith, find any reason at all to believe in God and like what I was taught. Didn't find it. So, seeing as how I was grown up, in college, had lots of friends from bigger cities who were of different faiths, I tried that. I tried looking into Buddhism and Wicca, hoping that if I couldn't find God in Christianity, I could find it somewhere else. Didn't work either. I was scared of being stereotyped, scared of letting the family down, scared of letting God down if he existed, wondering at times why I was made to doubt if God created me and wanted me to believe in him. The usual stuff.\n\nAfter several years of it, I just gave up caring and trying. I figured I'd let religion find me instead of exhausting myself trying to find it. Figured that sooner or later, if there was a religion for me, I'd find it. Lots of fights with the family, lots of humiliation and strife over me being "not Christian".\n\nThe final "puppet string" as it were, I suppose, was my cousin. Up until this February, I kept it quiet, just didn't care or worry about it. I've dealt with lots of nastiness in the family about being not "good enough", even when I WAS a believer and my cousin and his mother were the two biggest instigators. They were the ones who kept attacking and demonizing and humiliating me in front of the family.\n\nMy aunt,
848400
I disbelieve on the grounds of lack of evidence so short of proof being forthcoming I couldn't say I believed God existed. Convictions or subjective opinions don't come into it-it's purely down to a lack of valid evidence.
760177
I was raised catholic and taught not to question. - but never told it was a sin. When I became sort of evangelical I was encouraged to question "why do I believe what I believe". I even studied other religions over the last 15 years because it seemed like religious faith was a significant part of who many people are at their core and their cultural background. It was very fascinating. But, I also discovered there are absolute truths out there.\n\nI think some religious leaders think it is dangerous to "dabble" a little bit in a whole bunch of different religions because it's a "smorgasboard" approach. The danger lies in believing that we are all ultimately believing in the same God - (which would be very comforting) - but in fact we are not. There are fundamental beliefs in each major religion that just are not compatible with each other. For example, it is not logical to believe in BOTH reincarnation and the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. You also cannot claim to be monotheistic and accept the polytheistic religions' gods at the same time - as you may be insulting one or some of the gods by doing that. \n\nIn the end - it is good to question. Just be very thorough in your research and questioning rather than just picking and choosing based on what's easiest to believe in (or finding something "better"). Frankly, it's probably easiest to be a hedonistic atheist - than a follower of ANY religious faith because most want you to be a "self-LESS" person dedicated to a higher moral way of life. Please note that not all atheists are hedonistic.\n\nThere ARE absolute truths out there and if you are earnestly seeking the God that is historically correct and proven through thousands of documents - then you CAN find the One True God.
919797
i was born an atheist (without belief in god(s) as everyone is, taught Catholicism (Christianity with saints), and then born again atheist for 20 years.\n\nbelievers are born without belief also, but they are taught to believe in one form or another, usually starting at early childhood.\n\nit's hard to shake the effects of brainwashing when it starts so young. some, like myself, are lucky to break free of the superstition.
994638
im an athiest,a true athiest and all I can say is that many people become so called athiest when they want to hate other faiths or when something bad has happend to them and they choose not to believe in god.My reason for not believing are though facts.I respect all faiths but fake athiest tend to want to bully and self-assure them self though disrespectul and aggrisive questions.Bottom lilne no matter what you are,stupid people who cant respect will be on both sides and you need to know the 2 important rules in life;\nNEVER ENGAGE IN A RELIGIOUS OR POLITICAL DEBATE!
776091
atheist means that you don't believe in G-d. thats all.
1075309
That happened to me.  I guess at first I felt totally betrayed, mad, I didn't know what to do or what to think.  Then I started trying to educate myself to "make sure" that I was correct that my belief system was based on lies.  The whole process has taken several years, but then I started researching many other beliefs and religions and found out that most of them were also.  So I am no longer a part of organized religion and I have discovered my own beliefs.  I'm still on my spiritual quest but my current beliefs probably lean toward New Thought.
148007
I can't believe a faith based on a book that is flawed in many ways.  I can't believe in something there is no way of having real, tangable, physical, scientific proof of.  I can't believe in something that is based on the words of people that may well have had a delusional disorder.  I can't believe in something that contradicts it's self and leaves alot of things open it can't realistically explain.  Science is in the process of proving something else entirely and has more evidence than religion does on the matter.  Which should I believe?  I tend to lean to the logical side of it which leaves religion out.  Until someone can conclusivly, scientifically prove some of these things I will not believe.
199435
An Atheist is a believer.  However, they do not believe in the correct religion.
828379
Did you ever lose your faith?
817574
I started out as a Methodist(christian) I was horrified the older I got how hypocritical people were and two faced!!! I stopped believing in God and became an Atheist But after several years I realized there had to be someone or something responsible for all the good things in the world we couldn't just be in this inconsequential universe could we?? I found Wicca later and it seemed cold and hollow to me... Now I believe in god but not organized religion I just worship in my own way and try to be a good person and that's all I can really be...
700225
I have been on both sides of this issue. I was raised to believe, but rationally I could not except the idea that God was the judgmental insecure fruitcake my religion portrayed him as.\n\nSo I stopped believing.  Then this happened to me.\n\nSeveral years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away. \n\nWhile driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.\n\nThree days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to. \n\nI feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.\nDuring the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible. \n\nI can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.\n\n I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings. \n\nYour brother don
597105
In my experience it is far more likely that a religious organisation will try to persuade an atheist that they should believe in God than vice versa.\n\nAs an atheist myself I have no problem with you believing in your God. I cannot prove that your God does not exist so I have no right to deny you your right to believe.
864219
Did something happen to make you believe in God?
843465
I just cant make myself believe it...I tried, tried very hard indeed for years and still could not overcome doubt. I was raised christian but no matter how much I tried to force myself to believe, in my mind I knew it wasn't truth, wasn't reality and sounded more like a fairytale than anything else. I finally gave up and accepted myself for the Atheist I am whose mind was and is apparently not weak enough to throw logic and science out the window and buy into the god theory.