Atheists! What was your path to (non)belief?

The birth canal. Like all babies, I was born an atheist.

I was raised in a Christian home, and read the Bible cover-to-cover multiple times. Fortunately, the brainwashing attempts were NOT successful.

I was raised Catholic however my mother was a pretty lame Catholic who cared more what the neighbors thought than about the religion. The nuns were abusive, the priests told me, a lst grader that I was going to hell because I missed church occasionally, the sadistic bastards. I quit in the 6th grade. After having children, I got involved again, hearing that it had been a little bit reformed, but my heart was never in it and I didn't see much reform. The inconsistencies were still there. No point in staying. I just don't believe.

I don't think I had a path, the closest I ever came to religion was going to churches for Christmas eve when I was a child and maybe for some funerals and weddings. I have just never been able to believe that there is some kind of God, I find it much more logical to accept evolution.

All of my friends are atheist or agnostic, my mother is a christian woman but we don't discuss our beliefs.

I was never very religious, and my belief in god was more a default stance based upon what I was told, but even then I always questioned it.

To sum it up, the biggest catalyst was when I had the epiphany that it's *okay* to have a default stance of admitting ignorance given uncertainty. I quickly realized that people believe in god not because of evidence, but because of desire. I realized that this was no way to discover knowledge. And I'm unwilling to sacrifice truth for the sake of comfort.

Right after I became an Adult, and went through 2 years of boarding school and was told to read the Bible every day.

After that, I haven't been to a Church, or read the Bible, and then lived with my super religious Mother and super religious Aunt and just became disgusted.

I was raised in a Wiccan, single-parent home. Had a rough (traumatically so) childhood. I remember being about 9, and telling this lady at school, a counselor probably, and she told me that Gos had a plan for me, that the sh!t I went through was because God wanted me to. I'd been agnostic for a few years, but after that, there would be no God for me. At about 17 I became a Satanist, and I've never been happier!

. . . all "off" the . . . . on the 8th day, god invented spell examine. He/she forgot the section that a be conscious used wrongly yet spelled wisely nevertheless passes. subsequently, we nevertheless would desire to apply the human recommendations to proofread so we are able to seize those. Sorry, I worked as a proofreader for a jointly as, previous conduct dies difficult. I very lots enjoyed you little Q & A consultation once I have been given to interpreting it. I do tend to bypass on long questions because of the fact they are frequently rants, frequently, yet not continually, "christian" rants. i'm agnostic, I pay attention all the above basically the comparable and then i'm getting all the **** from the atheists because of the fact i don't bypass "each of how" deny god exists. They ignore which you will't tutor OR disprove the life of any god(s)/goddesses.. tutor Freya exists. tutor Freya does not exist. Neither section likes it once you ask for evidence, do they?

I was born an atheist to atheist parents and atheist grandparents (although my paternal grandmother was once a christian).

Pretty much all my friends are atheists and most people where I live are the same. So no one reacts at all. It's the religious people who have to "defend" themselves at times here.

Despite what goes on in your crazy country (I'm guessing you're from the US), most people who live in developed countries e.g Australia/Europe are born into atheist/agnostic households and are raised that way.

This is one of the reasons America has gone to the dogs. Has anyone realised that within developed countries, the occurence of fundamentalist religion correlates very well with the levels of violence, crime and lack of proper education...

This aside, I'm happy things have worked out in your family.

Muslim father. Christian mother. I was a huge reader of both materials, which led me to comparative religion, Joseph Campbell, philosophy, psychoanalysis (notably symbolism) and so many wonderful things. It just makes sense to me.