Becoming Atheist - Your Experience

[TheVeganAtheist]

Tell us your story on how you came to self-identifying as an atheist.
Was it a long drawn out process?
Did you receive support from family and friends?
How did you come to the conclusion that you no longer believed?


My story:
I was brought up as a Catholic. I went to Catholic elementary school and high school. My parents were not particularly religious, and we rarely went to church. My extended family is/was much more religious.
Growing up I had issues with institutionalized religious bodies, and I thought most of the bible was hardly credible, but I believed in some form of a god. I considered myself a Catholic (traditionally) but really was more of a deist. In university, i did a minor in religious studies, and one course that started my road to atheism was Psychology of Religion. I really started to doubt the existence of god 4 years ago (years after university), and began by watching every debate I could find on youtube, and listening to as many podcasts as I could find. The more I heard and learned the arguments on both sides, the more I realized that I agreed with the atheistic position, and rejected the "evidence" of the theist. At that point I had to admit to myself that I am an atheist. At first, it was a bit scary, but over time I now consider it a source of strength and intellectual honesty. My parents now consider themselves atheistic, however have leanings into the new age spiritual stuff. My wife, a believer, is respectful and we have spirited discussions at times. I have not told my extended family as I don't need to relive the same nonsense I had to go through when years ago I went vegan.

[Neptual]

I grew up in a Christian household. My mother who wasn't particularly religious, and my grandmother who was a pastor. I didn't know of any "God" until around the age of 5, and didn't really care much about it until it was introduced to me. At first I doubted the stories in the bible and asked a lot of questions. My questions seemed to be answered. Until I was in 6th grade when I had my first friend that was atheist and he was the one who triggered my thought about my religion. At the end of that year I considered myself agnostic and continued to go to church. I stopped believing the next year when I started I got interested in biology. What I had read about and learned in school completely contradicted what I was taught at home. I asked my teacher about it and he had shown me all of the evidence that evolution had behind it. And explained to me the contradictions the bible contained. At that point I explained to my parents that I was atheist. They didn't take it well at all. My mother had even called me the "Anti-christ" but I understood that she was just in shock. I had told my grandmother as well but she still denies that I am. That is my story

[thebestofenergy]

I wasn't brought up Catholic, for my fortune. My mom believed/believes in some sort of spiritual stuff, while my dad believed that there was 'something out there, but that we couldn't possibly know'; he was always doubtful.
While I believed what my mother believed when I was a kid, she always taught me to think with my own mind. So it hasn't been difficult for me to critically think about it and realize that I was an atheist. I don't actually remember when I started defining myself as such, but I've always been skeptical, and I've always considered organized religions as ridiculous.
Just as the way my classmates in elementary school despised me for not believing in Santa Claus, they despised me for not going to catechism and to church. However, my parents (especially my mother) have always supported me in my choices.
My extended family (from the part of my father) is arrogant and they are striclty believers aswell, so I don't even bother talking to them. I have been baptized because of the pressure my extended family was putting on my mother. However I've not received other ceremonies because I refused myself.

[itsund3rmykilt]

I grew up as a Lutheran. My family went to church every week, and I even wound up going through catechism. The funny part is, the longer I was in catechism, the more it all smelled like bull. If I'm to be honest with myself, I probably stopped believing when I was somewhere around ten years old (about the fifth grade), but it took me longer to realize it and adopt the term. During college I learned about Humanism (though not through college itself), and have since adopted that as well to explain some of my line of thinking.

At one point when I was twelve or so, I tested the waters by telling my mother I was atheist. She reacted rather poorly and told me that for some reason I would have to go "speak" with my pastor. Not wanting this to turn into drama, I quickly just pulled it off as some terrible "April fools" joke. She let it slide. Not too long after, however, my family didn't go to church really anymore, and when they did, they didn't pressure me to go. (Later [by about 10 years] I found out that a lot of it was drama with our pastor for other things, like spreading rumors about me, and the fact that our church had a lot of cliques. That place was a mess.) We don't really talk about religion, and I think my father does it on purpose because he doesn't really want to get into it with me. I'll take that for what it is, because he likes to get into everything else with me anyway.

So, I guess that really, I simply just felt that it wasn't right. The more I learn about religion, the more ridiculous it sounds to me. There's absolutely no real logic to it, and I overall find it pretty frustrating when I see people post things about that big 'ol sky daddy day to day, and it's become very hard for me to tolerate it. I may have become an atheist 14+ years ago, but I'm becoming a stronger one every single day.

[DDDx8]

My story is a little unconventional. Sure my mother was raised catholic but was not practicing at all by the time I came along. I did live right next to a church. I only remember like two things: asking who created God and if I would go to hell because I saw the devil in the movie "Tales from the Hood". My mothers ex-husband was religious and he told me about Jesus, can't remember exactly what he said, I "gave" my heart to Jesus with him. That was probably the last active part religion had in my life. I identified as an atheist very young, one person shook me and told me I had to believe in God. The topic of religion never really came up so I only dealt with that once. In high school I said I was an atheist, my teacher asked me If I knew there was no God or If I just was not sure. I said I was not sure so she said I was an agnostic then, I said okay and went with it, for all I knew it seemed reasonable. When I did think about God, I kept on thinking that God couldn't be anyone's specific God but was most likely impartial to us. Then one day I spoke to a former pastor in passing, and I engaged in mostly friendly probing questions and want not. I know the second I began to drop the agnostic and Identify as atheist is when finally he could not engage in witty rebuttals anymore and said "Dion If you really want to find God you have to look inside yourself". I was pretty upset I said "But I would believe anything if I did that! How do you know the truth then!". Then took some atheism classes and got more familiar with the "players" and arguments and yeah.
Oh yeah, my immediate family didn't give two shits, sometimes a cousin or aunt argues for more "open mindedness" but that's it. So yeah I am a pretty naive atheist I don't really know what it is like to be rejected for my beliefs yet, I am eagerly looking forward to that moment.

[Free From Religion]

My story is very similar to many I have heard. Notably, my experience was similar to that of Bertrand Russel and Richard Dawkins, differing in only minor details. I was raised Catholic, and went to church and sunday school until I finished 8th grade. I was confirmed and everything, and at the time would have told you I was a believer. I had not yet actually thought about it though. At the age of about 15, I started to very seriously consider why I believed the things I believed, and this led me on my road to non-belief. After considering all the stock arguments for the validity of Christianity, I became a deist. Then, during my senior year of highschool, I met a girl who was an outspoken atheist. Once again I thought very seriously about my position on the subject, and once again I changed my mind. Since then, however, I have taken it even farther in my own mind, thanks mostly to the speeches and writings of the late Christopher Hitchens. I am now an anti-theist, and I see religion as a problem for humanity which must be overcome in order to secure our long-term survival. I am against all forms of unjustified belief actually. Religion is just the most prominent issue at hand currently.

[brimstoneSalad]

I'm afraid my story is uninteresting.

I was raised in a not super religious household, and I was never particularly religious in any way.
The cultural zeitgeist of supposing there was something like a god rubbed off in the same way Santa did, but growing up I ultimately came to think of them as stories in the same sense. Unlike Santa, which came up at a particular time and became painfully obvious, I didn't think about god much until somebody brought up religion as a reason I should or shouldn't do something- at which point I more actively rejected it.
I didn't think much about it for a long time.

Eventually I adopted the term atheist in school, and occasionally used agnostic, though I've probably been calling myself an atheist mostly for maybe 25 years.

Of course, it took 9-11, and a lot more after that, to really teach me what a problem religion could be in society.
I've probably only been actively involved in debate for the past 13 years or so.

[bobo0100]

I was raised Catholic, my parents are both of that persuasion. Early in life I remained skeptical, and was against the idea of my time being wasted in church. This however changed, pressure began to mount for me to join the religion (for real). I had received negative comments about my atheism. this was from people close to me, who at the time where few and far between. During this period I went into depression, it was clear I had to change something if I wanted to survive another year. So I did 2 things. My theism. I guess the logic was here's an accepting community all i need to do is agree with them and they'll let me in, this failed miserably. I also changed the school at witch I attend year 10. It started off well I met new people who didn't assume they didn't like me, as they would have at my old school. However the whole being a Christian thing caused peoples, people where less willing to accept me, and I slowly lingered out to the very edge of my friends. Than I found a youtube Chanel called "spirit science" and instantly thought the mystical stuff was cool. This took me away from the Catholic Church, given enough time I did not identify as such. Witch brings me to where I am today, witch brings me to where I am today, lonely, still depressed, but no longer a total reject from society. On top of this the person who was mocking me before in the story says she also no longer identifies with the church, Altho she's a theist still. On top of all this I have joined the internet subculture furry , witch is one of the most atheistic sub cultures out there. So everything seems to be on the up and up, aside from the fact that I still find myself lingering on the edge of every conversation that's not about theism or animal rights. And still get ridiculed as an outsider by everyone I know for more that a year.

[Shadow Fox]

I believe I was lying in bed when it just hit me. Like an Epiphany.

I was thinking something about how much it sucks magic does not exist. Magic does not exist therefor X does not and therefor X does not and it was not long until I was thinking about the BS stories of the flood etc, then I realized that...God is a fairy tale.

This happened when I was 13. Came from a family that never talked about it. I only went to a church or church like activity maybe 3-4 times maximum ( but thought it was the most fun thing ever at that age since when I did go I was like 5). That is pretty much it. Never told my family until it got brought up somehow and I told my mom I do not believe in fairy tales. She made a tiny fuss about it but nothing big.

They fully well know and don't seem to care.

I think the award to the easiest coming out as an atheist should go to me.

[EquALLity]

On top of all this I have joined the internet subculture furry , witch is one of the most atheistic sub cultures out there.

óÓÒò