For atheists - how did you come to this conclusion?

I just figure that they heard some rhetoric somewhere in their group or peers and assumed that someone turned away from their idea of god.

So, people who are immersed in their religious practices simply can't imagine living a life without their god as a part of it, thus it's difficult to fathom someone who just doesn't.

In their minds, their simply has to be something that happened that was bad or devastating or horrible to become a non believer.

So, I can only answer their questions or assumptions with, "that's not me and that's not what happened with me."

It wasn't science.

It wasn't something bad.

It wasn't a thought in my mind about leaving a belief in god.

There was no planning of it.

There was no concrete set way of doing it.

It just is a human being who simply does not entertain the thought of a creator, god or gods or supernatural or higher power or anything.

That I'm not any more less impressed with all that is around me.

That I'm not in any less in awe of all things and the stars and life itself.

I just am a voice telling you that I'm not any preconceived ideas you think I am.

That I'm not any less loving than what you are to your family and friends.

That's all I can do.

as for my opinion, the religions in western society remains only one of the ill-constructed and complicated hoaxes, much like the conspiration theories. The more complicated the religion is, the more likely it fits my opinion. for the people who have no access to the science, and reasonal cognition of the world, the religion answers most questions through a less probable and more complicated way. Even if the answer to virtually everything might be "goddidit" which obviously is tremendously simple, the all concept behind makes it far more complicated than the scientific answer.

I mean, if you live in a clay den, and know a s*t about the physics, the gods are reasonable origin of lightning. the further you progress, the further your gods retreat, at the beggining they are omnipresent. then living in the heaven once you start to fly, you realise they do not live in skies, either. so only the second hand inputs from them remain, like all what other people do is gods' deed...

well if your wife is cheating with the neigbour, is it neighbour's falut or some divine entity's ?

that is my opinion. Religions have its place in human culture, yet they are not necessary.

I knew Christianity wasn't for me when, as a child, I attended only because my mother said I had to. Not to mention that I never listened to a word. Instead, I studied the architecture and other things inside the church building. I could not figure our why we needed to be there ever Sunday if god knows what you are thinking all the time anyway.

And the miracles!!! I honestly thought that EVERYONE knew they were allegory and metaphor. It's obvious. It wasn't until much later in adulthood that I discovered some people were taking every word literally.

Although I find my blood pressure rising from time to time, I've gotten past that arguing stage. If someone has trouble with hard archaeological evidence for various things, they should know how I have trouble with their version of god.

It's the same thing.

I hope it wasn't just flaws in what you were raised to believe that convinced you there is no God. I'm christian but I also believe that the bible was written by the hand of man and shouldn't be followed blindly. Question everything, but lack of evidence isn't proof that something doesn't exist. Also remember that the vast majority of stories in the bible are just that, stories, meant to teach some sort of lesson or provide guidance for some situation you might come across. Of course the world wasn't created in 7 days. Thats just rediculous.

Lack of evidence for far out claims that fly in the face of reality as we know it. Also, studying the origins of the Bible, where it is not corroborated, the questions of authorship, early church history and compilation of Bible, no original texts existing, politics involved, etc... It just got to be too much to take on faith, especially when some of the stuff they preach sometimes goes against my common sense and compassion in regards to human sexuality, treatment of gays, women's rights, etc... You don't hate what you don't believe exists. Saying that is a cope out said in resentment you don't see it their way. You can hate the concept people have of a god sometimes but when you don't believe in the God you don't hate them. Its like saying you hate the Joker in Batman, you might hate the character as depicted but you don't actually believe in the Joker for real. I also felt that I had "saved" myself or set myself free from something that didn't make sense. I know though that sometimes others have a hard time if they have put a lot of their self worth, meaning, and existence into the deity worship it can be hard.

I just realised that the idea of a god existing was pretty silly - on par with Santa Claus existing

and quite frankly I don't believe in fantastical things when there's no evidence to indicate they're true

I came to the conclusion after being raised in christianity and once I grew into adulthood, I studied it, in greater depth. Once I really read the bible, it just didn't hold up to scrutiny. The contradictions rule it out as a credible source.

PS: I can't hate what doesn't exist.

The same thing happened to me. I started following my friend along to youth group and I tried studying the bible and all that. The more I learned, the more it didn't make sense. I said screw this at 16 and become an agnostic for awhile, then an atheist.

well... it certainly helped that my father was an atheist.

Just the illogic of it all struck me at a very early age. Kids would just make up crap out of thin air and relate it to god, bible, etc. And as I grew older, I would see the same thing over and over. There was just no reasoning with them because they could always run and hide behind their assertion that god expects them to have blind faith.

wow, i was 17 attending a Lutheran high school, i saw how students treated non Christians so i stopped attending church to find god on my own ans with out constant religious dogma realized it didnt make sense