Atheists, can you remember the moment you stopped believing in god?

1. 86

   M. T. Dremerposted 9 years ago

   Atheists, can you remember the moment you stopped believing in god?
   
   Obviously theism and atheism aren't switches that can be easily turned on or off. These kind of decisions are made after a lifetime of knowledge and experiences. But, as an atheist, can you remember the moment where it all added up? What experience was most influential to your current viewpoint?

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2. 59

   Donald Ogbaposted 9 years ago

   I now don't consider myself an atheist, but an open believer. So, my belief is that while there are believable arguments about His existence, yet there are many signifying facts about the possibility that He doesn't exist. I however remember when I first started entertaining the thought of the possibility that God doesn't exist. My Church in particular failed me, with some happenings in it that weren't as Godly as always preached. Secondly, some personal life events happened within the same period of time, which again I had always been told God will never allow such to befall me. With both of these, I started entertaining the possibility there is no God.

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3. 60

   Link10103posted 9 years ago

   Cant really say I ever truly believed in god to begin with. My mom has gone to church on and off since baptizing me and dragged me along. Never understood the sermons so I basically just went to sleep until she started sending me to the kids daycare the church had, where we just watched Veggie Tales all the time.
   
   I viewed god much the same way I viewed Santa Claus. I asked santa for something specific and within reason but never got it. I prayed to god for help when my mom said someone she knew randomly got shot and ended up not making it. Must have been just another story.
   
   It has only been in recent years where I have seen the arguments for and against god on the internet. The arguments for god never really make any sense, and when they do make some kind of sense, they dont entirely match up with the bible, which in itself doesnt seem to be a source of knowledge.
   
   The arguments against god however, which usually pick apart the bible and show the blatant contradictions and overall immorality of the bible, usually make plenty of sense.
   
   I have come to the conclusion that Christianity's god does not exist, nor do any of the other gods of the major religions of today. I am open to the possibility that no god exists, or that some non specific god who doesnt actually intervene with day to day life could exist (not deism exactly).
   
   Hence my label as an agnostic atheist. Its actually very recently that I have even considered myself an atheist of any sort, but even after explaining my stance on things I am continually told that I secretly believe in god and wish to be saved because I point out flaws in believer's logic.
   
   An interesting cycle, to say the least.

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4. 75

   cathylynn99posted 9 years ago

   i was a committed christian, president of church youth group, worked at a christian summer camp as a counselor, read the bible every day, etc. one day my college roommates and i were practicing witnessing. so they could practice, i was playing the part of the non-believer and winning all the arguments. this created doubt. i didn't give up my faith until seven years later when i had been working in medicine a few years and not one (anyone's) prayer for a medical miracle was answered. at this point, i still respected other's religious beliefs. now, twenty years and much reading later, i see no reason to choose one god over another other than upbringing. i see all religion as ridiculous. my basic moral of, "do unto others as you would have done unto you," hasn't changed with my change in belief.

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5. 60

   B M Gunnposted 8 years ago

   There was no one moment when I no longer believed in God. My de-conversion was a gradual process. I started out as a hard-core Christian, but I slowly became more freethinking. I was always into science,  so I knew that a literal interpretation of the bible was ludicrous. Then, as I peered farther through the veil, I realized that the whole Christian religion was illogical. I, desperately clinging to the notion of a god, explored other religions, but still saw the same fallacies encountered in Christianity. Out of desperation, I briefly was a pantheist, believing "nature is God". That quickly slipped into agnosticism, and the change from there to full on atheism was painless.

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