A question for Atheists?

I was never a theist,insufficient evidence to do so.Can I ask you did you become a theist based on evidence,or other reasons?

I was once a theist, yes. I flirted with turning to deism but I think I was just so let down by theism that I had to go to the other extreme. I quit being a theist because of logic and reason. You can actually reason yourself out of the biblical god. I have no ultimate proof that the biblical god is false but for the biblical god to be real would be just the biggest letdown I have ever experienced. Martin Luther called reason "the devils whore"- or something similar to that. I let reason into my life and reason won. I started thinking about the validity of the biblical story and concluded it MUST be a myth. Thinking things like: The creator of a Universe could not be so mad as to create a universe and then ask the only things living to kill each other with rocks. Theists are also some of the least educated, least wealthy people in the world and I concluded it must be a crutch, or, as Karl Marx said: religion is the opiate of the world. When you find meaning in the world, religion seems very silly.

I was raised Catholic. When I started reading the Bible cover-to-cover when I was 13, I wasn't so sure that the church was really in-line with what the Bible said. However, after a couple of readings I may no longer have been Catholic, but I still believed in the Christian God and salvation being only possible through faith in Jesus.

However, during my teenage years, I was typical in that I questioned a lot of things in life. I decided that there was really only one path to take: toss out everything that I think I know and start building from the ground up.

I went to church services of various denominations. I looked into the natural sciences. I looked into new age mysticism. I looked into the occult. In college, I picked comparative religion and philosophy as my majors. And after college, I never stopped learning.

It took five years to even form the first principles by which I was certain that knowledge can be obtained, but once I got there, I began constructing. In the past decade since then, I have not found a single credible reason to believe in a god, so I do not do so. I do not consider my quest for understanding and information to be over; it probably never will be. However, without a single good reason to believe in gods of any sort, it isn't a belief that I'm going to pick up.

I only realized that the term "atheist" applied to me after several years. It was merely a word that fit my description, just as "male," "bipedal," or "blue-eyed" fits a description of me. It's as simple as that.

I was born to a family without religious belief but went to Sunday school with a friend and became a Christian - I was baptised at 10 and confirmed at 12. My parents did not mind. I took my faith very seriously and divided the bible up so that I read the whole of it (except Numbers) every year for four years. By the time I was 16 I was completely confused by the contradictions and traumatised by the violence and death. I began to feel that this could not possibly all be true and God seemed very changeable - overlooking murder and incest in some cases but not letting Moses see the promised land because he slammed his staff down in anger??? The four gospels said different things about what Jesus said and did and even his last words. I felt lost and bewildered for several years, kept going to church but found I simply did not believe anything that was being said. I stopped going and felt very sad because Christian people are warm and welcoming but I find it all so very very unlikely.

"This is your opportunity." Little full of yourself there, don't you think? We're not on trial. You are not an authority. You're just some person on Y!A posting a question that no one will read again when the best answer's chosen a few days from now.

I simply spent time away from the people who were reinforcing my indoctrination, and realized that none of the defenses for theism made any sense at all. Every single logical argument for them is fallacious, and has been repeatedly debunked left and right. Every single phenomenon we've ever actually found an explanation for *hasn't* been explained by a deity. Why continue expecting everything else to be explained by one? And every single claim of evidence for a god has either been a fabrication, misinterpretation, or just blind faith.

I was raised in a religion. I was a child, I had little knowledge, so I just went along with what the authority figures around me (parents, church leaders, etc.) told me.

By the time I got to be around 12 years old, I began to notice that reality didn't match up with the claims made by these authority figures about a "god." I started doubting, but didn't yet have the critical thinking skills or knowledge to make an informed decision about it, so I still just went along with what I was told.

From about 19 to 21 years old, with more experience and education, my doubts became more tangible. It was clear to me that many of the claims were simply ridiculous, and where shown false by observable reality. Finally, at 21, I decided that I had to resolve my doubts -- I actually embarked on a quest to find evidence to show "god" was real, so that I could put my doubts to rest. Trouble is...I found none. Instead, I found that many religious claims were demonstrably false, shown so by ample evidence. I found that all claimed "evidence" for gods were nothing but fallacies and bare assertions. And I found quite a bit of evidence showing all claimed "gods" were nothing but fanciful myths. So I decided to give claims about gods existing no merit whatsoever, and not believe them.

Atheism isn't a "declaration that god doesn't exist." It's simply a lack of belief in other people's claims that a god DOES exist. I reject those claims because they have no supporting evidence, and lots of evidence showing they're false. That's all. It's the same reason I reject claims about leprechauns, little green men from Mars, metal bracelets that can cure arthritis, etc.

Peace.

I was born into a very strict Protestant Christian home. When I was younger, I simply accepted that everything my parents and church taught me was the truth. However, when I was in middle school we were in a church that was very abusive. I was shunned constantly and told that I was a heathen and a pagan, even though I was a very good Christian at the time.

This treatment made me very angry. My anger made me decide that Christianity was a hoax. The people were not loving and I didn't want to believe in a higher power that wanted and allowed people to get hurt.

Finally my parents allowed us to leave that church. In our new church, I got over my anger at religion at began to study a variety of religions and philosphies and lifestyles. It was there that I began to evaluate myself. I gave up being an atheist and became a weak agnostic.

That church turned out poorly as well when the pastor started to peach genocide. I left it (since I was 18). My parents made me choose a new church, so I did.

I continue my search for knowledge in this area. I have read the Bible from cover to cover, the Quran, the Hadith, portions of the Tao Te Ching, and other religlious/philosophical materials. As a result of this contuined search I have changed to become a pragmatic agnostic, meaning that I border along the lines of being a deist.

I was never really a theist. I considered myself a Christian through young adulthood, but wasn't really interested in church or religion. From various sources I begain learning about different religions and then early religious beliefs. What made me realize that religion is just a form of superstition is that there are so many forms of it, but the roots of all religion go back to people basically worshipping the sun and we all know the sun isn't a god, right? Beliefs evolved over time and now we have people believing in one god for the most part. Basically, it all changes over time and while I find the concept of religion interesting, I find it utterly ridiculous that some people actually still believe in any kind of supernatural god.

"This is your opportunity to tell your story from your point of view, and explain the logic of your thinking."

I don't owe anyone an explanation. Not you, not anyone. I'm accountable only to myself. That's what it means to be an atheist. I don't believe you meant to patronize anyone here, but just in case, there's my disclaimer.

I was raised by fundamentalist Christians. They are very devout protestants who raised me to accept the Bible, literally and word for word. I was punished for asking questions about Christianity. I never really believed in any gods or accepted the Bible as truth, but I identified as a Christian until I got to college. I tried very hard, against all reason, to believe in the Christian gods, but I was unable to believe in any of them. Yes, I get the whole trinity thing, no I don't buy it. I know that the gods of the past have become mythology and I believe that Christianity and Islam and all the other religions of today will become mythology as well.

No I was never a true "Theist" I thought of god much in the same way I thought of Santa Claus. It was after reading the bible several times, in several ways, in several versions that I realized that the bible is nothing more than poorly written mythology. It is no different from any other mythology except most is much more interesting and exciting.

When one compares Christianity to other myths/religions, it is easy (for me) to see just how silly it is. Once I discovered Taoism, I quickly understood that it represented how I had thought my entire life.

Taoist/Atheist

Well when I was a theist I always thought that people had real evidence of God. I never thought it was just blind faith. I figured God was going to contact me when I was older and ready for his personal instructions or whatever.

Then when I was around 13 I started talking to my very devout grandparents (who had spent their life savings to open their own church) and I found that they hadn't had any real communication with God and no real evidence that he existed. Their biggest evidence was "the earth is so complex" etc. etc. I was dumbfounded that even people as old and devout as them hadn't had real face to face communication with God. I was agnostic for a few years after that and I didn't think much about God.

When I came here to Y!A and found all the other Christians parroting the same false "evidence" and I looked other places online and I concluded that no one had evidence of God, or communication with him, or any real reason to believe at all. Thats when I became atheist.