I'll tell you the same thing I tell other people that ask me why I'm atheist.
Around the time I turned 11 or so, my Dad made me start going to church, which I obviously hated going to because I was a kid, and it was boring. I went every sunday for a while, I even got "saved" at one point. After about a year of hearing all of these stories and such from the bible, it started to take it's toll on me.
Fast forward, now I'm 12 years old, it's a Sunday night, I'm laying in bed not being able to sleep, my mind's just wondering all over the place, mostly about what I heard in church. I remember just laying there thinking how ridiculous it was that I was to believe there was some man in the sky, who made everything in existence, who watches everything I do, hears everything I say. Then I remember how afraid I was thinking about how at church I learned when I died, I would go to some magical place with everyone I loved in life, FOREVER. That idea of forever scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, that's about the time I decided that this was all nonsense.
I never considered myself an atheist though, just because it seemed like it was some kind of cliche thing a young, angst-filled teenager would say. But, over the past few years I've gotten into reading alot of Richard Dawkins, Spinoza, and the made me feel comfortable calling myself an "Atheist", Christopher Hitchens.
Sorry for such a lengthy post, I know most people wouldn't be bothered to read it.
Around the time I turned 11 or so, my Dad made me start going to church, which I obviously hated going to because I was a kid, and it was boring. I went every sunday for a while, I even got "saved" at one point. After about a year of hearing all of these stories and such from the bible, it started to take it's toll on me.
Fast forward, now I'm 12 years old, it's a Sunday night, I'm laying in bed not being able to sleep, my mind's just wondering all over the place, mostly about what I heard in church. I remember just laying there thinking how ridiculous it was that I was to believe there was some man in the sky, who made everything in existence, who watches everything I do, hears everything I say. Then I remember how afraid I was thinking about how at church I learned when I died, I would go to some magical place with everyone I loved in life, FOREVER. That idea of forever scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, that's about the time I decided that this was all nonsense.
I never considered myself an atheist though, just because it seemed like it was some kind of cliche thing a young, angst-filled teenager would say. But, over the past few years I've gotten into reading alot of Richard Dawkins, Spinoza, and the made me feel comfortable calling myself an "Atheist", Christopher Hitchens.
Sorry for such a lengthy post, I know most people wouldn't be bothered to read it.
