Another question for our atheist fellows here, when do you become an atheist?
I may guess that mostly it was later in life not unless you also grew up with atheist parents. It could be a nice thing looking back how it happened. :)
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I'm became an atheist when I was around 18. I started doubting god around 16. It was a huge shock to me. God was my best friend and it felt like I was losing a part of me when I lost my faith in him.
Becoming a humanist does not means that I no longer believe that a certain god exist. What I no longer believe is the biblical god and gods of any religions. It happened when I learned that the bible is more of a crap.
I think one stops believing in god when they realize they begin to realize the whole concept was simply made up! when they start to see the contradictions their faith has with the real world their pillars of faith begin to crumble.
I think that many of us have our doubts and there is a specific instance in our lives when we finally convince ourselves that the whole idea of it seems unrealistic.
I don't think it can be tied down to an exact moment, I think the idea of a God slowly fades away for some people.
I was born an agnostic, and never really got the point of religion. So, I don't think I ever really *stopped* believing in god, per se. It's like asking non smokers "When did you quit?"
Always had a curiosity from a young age, as an adult my curiosity had surprised me, and within the last year and a half I discovered Richard Dawkins among many other atheists and my sincere beliefs are confirmed
I do hope more and more people will be awaken from their holy dreams and move forward to reality.
You have to stop extending your logic to everyone. I became a solid atheist at 8 years old with devoutly religious parents to deal with for another 9 years before I left home. No big deal. Once I knew I was emotionally okay to dispense with the notion of a god, the rest of it was simply a good exercise and training in patience. At first I was a lot like the adamant atheists who "preach" their non-beliefs, for a time, before I realized I might be attaining religious-like tendencies of my own about atheism. Couldn't have that. So, I simply got it out of my mind and learned to live and let live.
Why do I say this?
Most people cannot deal with the idea that their lives have no purpose. That comes logically to the atheist but is not within the capacity for the majority of people hoping for some kind of immortality. Let them have that because that's what they build their lives around. It's the nobler thing to do, too.
My family was never really religious though they were spiritual (Christian types). I think because i was such a nerd and into science that helped me decide by the time I was 8 or 9 that the concept of God could not exist because as a human you must be able to sense in some way that it is "around you" but i didn't know what it was called this feeling of disconnect from God. This was a hard thing to maintain as my parents by that time i think were sensing i was losing my "spiritual side" and sent me to a private Catholic school, which backfired. So if i had to answer, i would say about 5 years ago i had decided to completely distance myself from the concept of God. Though, I do like the FSM concept.