What did it?

[Napoléon]

"Philosophical theist" lol, as opposed to those other theists who try to use facts right?

As for the OP, always been an atheist, started using my brain properly at the age of 11/12, realised just how stupid organised religion is, one thing led to another. Now I know for a fact atheism is the only rational stance (due to my awesome critical thinking skills) when it comes to thinking about the existence of god. Does not mean I rule them out completely, but they are as far as I can see very unlikely. Evidence has a lot to do with my position, or namely, the lack of evidence for a god.

[LastPoet]

Someone told me about god, and repeated it untill I thought it was real, then I saw thundercats and he-man and thought those were real too. But then I grew up and don't really believe in magic stuff, that includes god(s). By definition, if x doesn't believe in gods then x is an atheist. Nothing really special about it, meh.

[Mister Agenda]

What made you stop beating your wife?

I don't beat my wife. Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.

Don't ask loaded questions and you're less likely to get loaded questions. Your question was loaded because it included the presumption that atheists are 'naturally inclined towards God'. That makes it impossible to answer your question without also addressing your assumption. I know many muslims think eveyone is born a muslim, which is nice for you, but our experience is that everyone is born an atheist and remains one until instructed in a religion. Some of us never were anything but atheists because we weren't exposed to religion at a young age.

The discussion will be more productive if you address the posts that make you think rather than the ones that inspire you to use a ROFL smiley.

As for those of us who were relgious at one time, whatever the path that got us here, we just need at least as much evidence for God as it would take to get us to believe in ghosts. 'Some people wrote this down 1200 years ago and a lot of people believe it' isn't going to cut it with a skeptic.

[The Magic Pudding]

What caused you to avert from your natural disposition and turn to atheism?

Yes of course my natural disposition was subservience to the Christ creature. It started small, I'd do little things I knew I shouldn't but he did nothing. I saw others doing big wrong, they weren't smote by lightning and babies looked so tender and tasty.

[Mister Agenda]

Some information about God's existance

Independent Non Christian sources on the existence of Christ Jesus
1 -Cornelius Tacitus Non Christian (56 – 117AD) historian and Roman Senator in a passage ‘Annales, book 15, verse 44’ refers to Christ, Pontius Pilate and a mass executions of Christians. General scholarly view considers Tacitus to be authentic.

2 – Flavius Joseph a Romano-Jewish historian (37-100AD) Book 20 Chapter 9,1 "the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James" Modern scholarship has almost universally acknowledged the authenticity of the reference

This is evidence for the existence of Jesus, not God.

- How does one explain what happened in Portugal at Fatima in 1917, “The Miracle of the Sun” which was witnessed by an estimated 30,000 – 70,000 people? Witnesses included Masons, Communists, Atheists and Christians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun

Yes, if you stare at the sun long enough, it will appear to move, no matter how many people are stupid enough to do it. Fortunately for them, our brain is hard-wired NOT to look at the sun too long, after a few minutes our eyes make small involuntary movements to avoid looking directly at the sun, which create an illusion of movement.

- How to explain the Apparation of Mary in Egypt Cairo 1968 witnessed by thousands called Our Lady of Zeitoun?
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Zeitoun

There were strange lights in the sky, and those who were already predisposed to do so interpreted them as Marian, others saw only lights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptions..._phenomena

- How to explain the miraculous healing of people in Lourdes France and in Bosnia-Hercegovina in a place called Medjugorje where 100,000’s of people go annually.

It would be miraculous if they could heal amputees, but miracles seem to extend only to conditions that we know can heal or go into remission naturally.

- How to explain the wounds on the hands, feet and side of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina
(1887 – 1968) which were those of Jesus & his ability to read people and physically heal people all in the name of Jesus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pio_of_Pietrelcina

You know, if you read those Wikipedia articles all the way through, they get to the alternative explanations.

- How to explain how Holy woman Alexandria da Costa (1904-1955) survived for many years only the Eucharist. Verified by independent doctors on a 40 day monitoring program
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandrina_of_Balasar

Died at the age of 51, only weighed 73 pounds, had been bed-ridden for 30 years. I honestly don't know how long someone can survive on wafers with barely any physical activity. If it was 13 years, it's clearly not an efficient form of suicide, but it worked eventually. That's assuming the report is accurate for the whole 13 years, not just the 40 days she was monitored.

- How to explain how Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774 – 1824) had wounds which were those of Jesus on her body.

This is just a small sample of unnatural phenomena all attributed to God.

There's plenty of phenomena attributed to Buddha and Ganesh, too. Does that make Ganesh real or does it mean that lots of people attribute strange things to their gods?

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We're all born atheists. We're exposed to religion through culture. Some of us remain atheists in spite of this exposure, while others conform to their culture for a time.

Hello Futile,

It's interesting that many atheists hold this position that atheism is the defaut position of the non-thinking. Wouldn't you rather hold that your position is a well thought out, well reasoned position an infant is incapable of forming? Otherwise you could post a sign, atheists wanted no intelligence required.

I don't hold my positions on what I'd rather, but rather on what is most likely. Babies are nominal atheists, but they can't be explicit atheists. Explicit atheistm is a thought-out, philosophical position. Given your childish taunting, I wonder if you can say the same of your theism.

[Question Mark]

I was born atheist, learned about religion in school, then became an atheist again once I'd determined that the evidence for all of the religions I looked at were lacking.

The question also implies that atheism is not the standard position, which is false. it is the standard position.

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What caused you to avert from your natural disposition and turn to atheism?

Yes of course my natural disposition was subservience to the Christ creature. It started small, I'd do little things I knew I shouldn't but he did nothing. I saw others doing big wrong, they weren't smote by lightning and babies looked so tender and tasty.

You are one hoopy frood.