Atheists, What led you to think the way you do? Please explain thoroughly?

I've always been the kind of person who wants to understand things. I was the kid who took apart his Nintendo after beating all the games I had, just to see how it worked. I'm now the 'kid' who stops in the middle of conversations to look up something I'm curious about. I have an undying thirst for knowledge, and an unbridled admiration for the world, and the universe, in which I live.

It just amazes me to no end. So much so, that even if there IS a creative force behind it, I don't think humanity has ever given it enough credit.

My atheism is not based in me claiming that there is no god. Rather, it is based in my refusal to lay claim to knowledge which I do not own. I do not feel the presence of a personal god, and I never have. There is no objective evidence for any model of a god, and there are so many models of a god that it seems entirely obvious that humanity has created every god it has worshiped.

I tell people that I'm the most open minded person you may meet. I will literally believe ANYTHING you tell me, so long as you show me convincing evidence. I'm not closed to the idea of a god, or a creator as it were. But I've yet to be convinced and I refuse to let myself be convinced by anything but real evidence. I won't force my mind into a belief system because it has the scariest negative consequences, or because it has the most appealing positive ones.

If I do indeed end up in Hell, I will end up there as an honest man, who died true to himself.

I think it's also important to dispel some of the wrong answers about what leads atheists to atheism: I have no desire to sin, and I'm not afraid to be held accountable. I don't hate god, I don't hate religion. In fact, I'm married to a Catholic and it isn't that uncommon for you to even find me in Church, listening to the Priest's Homily and reflecting upon how it applies to me, as a human and as an atheist. I find a lot of things about religion fascinating.

I just don't find them factual.

Do i comprehend what brought about the massive bang? Hell no. Ask Stephen Hawking. I particular desire which you do no longer think of that loss of expert scientific wisdom of an journey ought to translate into information of God's life. And what if even the professionals don't comprehend the respond? Does *that* symbolize information? the approach that which we do not have the scientific wisdom of is right now assigned to divine introduction has long been held, yet then new scientific analyze create awkwardness for faith. a minimum of interior the western international those days they are able to't throw you in reformatory for putting forward as actuality something that contradicts wide-unfold religious attitude like they did with Galileo. you would be able to desire to argue the commencing up of the universe factor infinitely in case you quite needed. whether the government grant an answer to what brought about the massive bang, then you definitely would respond what brought about the reason, and then what brought about the reason for the reason, etc. i'm particular that throughout the previous the "massive bang" theory existed, many human beings claimed that God exists because of the fact how else would desire to you clarify how the universe began?

From reading about other cultures as a kid. All of the so called "primitive peoples" of the world had their own religions to explain the unexplainable. Their creation stories and other myths seemed just as legitimate as Christianity.

Also, I couldn't get over how isolated Christianity was, such an important event (a hook-up between the creator of the universe and a Jewish teenager, resulting in the birth of the savior of all of mankind....somehow) only being heard of by a small number of people in a small geographical area. This happening didn't affect other cultures until it got spread with a believe or die attitude.

I only talk about Christianity because that's what I was surrounded by.

Acceptance of a supernatural claim tends to promote cooperative social relationships. This communication demonstrates a willingness to accept, without skepticism, the influence of the speaker in a way similar to a child's acceptance of the influence of a parent. By encouraging this kind of behavior where the most intense social relationships occur it facilitates the lack of skepticism and deters more open minded thinking.

They are christian, Muslim or the other religions depending where they were born simply because they were indoctrinated by their parents as very young children. They will go on to indoctrinate their own children and those will go on to indoctrinate their grandchildren!!

Atheists have the intellect to see through the conditioning and escape into the real world!!

Agnostics have the intellect to see through the conditioning but lack the courage to throw of the conditioning entirely.

Sadly Christians are still held firmly prisoner by the self perpetuating brainwashing!!

But try looking at the average christian post on here!!

Intolerant, egotistical, hate filled and bigoted!! Eschewing education, science, evolution works of fiction and much, much more. Christians are the only religion opposing human rights and persecuting gays, pro choice and so much more - but far worse whilst they demand freedom of religion they deny it to all non Christians and persecute them!!!

That drives not just non believers away but also drives decent people out of the church!!

If you want to be able to talk to people then you will need to believe in the idea of a loving god and act like it!!

I'm an atheist because I've looked at religion in depth and found it not believable. I've been a believer as have most atheists, then gone to agnosticism, and eventually to atheism. I suspect you'll get down that path eventually.

The problem with religion is science. You come to understand eventually that religion in general was invented by men to try to explain our existence and our place in the world. They had no science as such that was able to explain it, so something had to invented to fill the knowledge void.

From many thousands of years ago, there was this belief in a god or gods of one sort or another and they all demanded the same thing............FAITH. You have to have faith that this god, whichever one it was, not only existed, but was able to influence all sorts of natural phenomena from sickness to exploding volcanoes.

Man has now got a handle on many of these natural occurrences like sickness and now understands all of them and how they occur and why. It is now very evident that religion has absolutely no bearing on any of them whatsoever. You can pray to your god until you die, but it will have no influence except to maybe make you feel better that you have done 'something'.

A university double blind research project a few years ago, looked at the influence of prayer on the heath outcome of very sick people. It actually found people prayed over had worse outcomes that those who weren't. Maybe because the non prayed for people relied on their own resilience instead of some mythical god.

Science has now found out how life forms from that primordial ooze, and are now studying it happening in the early stages in a methane atmosphere on one of Venus' moons. No gods, just natural physics. When the conditions are at all favourable, even in what we'd term a highly hostile environment, life forms from the compounds available. No gods involved at all.

Well for starters I was brought up in an atheist family of mainly scientists in a mostly atheist or token religious community in Australia. They explained to me how some people believed in some very old stories of a god who created the world, but that this was just an old myth similar to the Greek myths. After plenty of deep thought and plenty of exposure to Christian views in my late childhood decided that they were right.

I was interested in and studied scientific disciplines myself. I have never come across anything at all to suggest to me that this religion is anything more than a myth. I find scientific explanantions for the development of life and the universe and other interesting topics deeply satisfying. I find it really odd that people persist with what to me are bizarre beliefs despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and a complete lack of consensus amongst religious people as to what they actually believe in.

Growing up I didn't understand God but I said I believed in it. As someone gets older they start to think for them self and they either choose to continue on the path of ignorance or they start to ask real life questions; where do we come from? Who am I? Why are we here? What will happen when we die?... You may blame drugs and rock and roll, as I will admit they both helped speed up the process of eliminating God, but we love everything that promotes free thought and not ultimate consequence for not doing what you're told.

Assuming we didn't already believe you were all idiots before, if you ask enough of the right questions you will eventually come across the impossibility of religious speak. And of course there is no way to say that there is no creator but most of us just see your "God" as ridicules.

Religion is nothing new to our world. It has been in control for ages. I believe that it is time for you to evolve and live with us not against us.

Hard to say, religion never piqued my interest as a child and now that I'm an adult with the mental capability to pick apart arguments, I've stayed that way because Christians are, generally, condescending and full of crap about things I know and have either seen myself or demonstrated in action, or have nothing to offer me that I don't already have in my life (i.e. emotional satisfaction).

I've brought up the fact there's a verse in the bible itself that states, along the lines of:

Don't talk crap to people who know better, you do yourself and your faith a dis-service by making yourselves and all of the rest of us look foolish.

I forget where the verse is, but it's in there.

Well, the inconsistencies in the Bible and religion to start with. Then the sheer lack of evidence. The contradictions, violent histories and learning how the Church really covered up everything about Jesus real life and attempted to destroy all documents and lineages pertaining to it. Just for starters.

Among other things, a realization that while looking at the world (and everything in it in terms of the cosmos, nature, society, individuals, etc.) and pulling out 'God' and looking at the world (or universe) again, nothing changes. If you remove the concept of 'God', the world (or universe) remains the same. So why does 'God' need to be in the picture at all. 'God' doesn't. The simplest explanation of why things happen does not require any supernatural influence. So, in my mind, in my version of the universe, 'God' does not exist.