I had what I would call a weak belief in God as a child but somewhere around 12, I had the sudden realization that it was no different from Santa Clause or other childhood beliefs.

I had a strong belief in ancient and present alien visitation when I was in my late teens. I didn't need to do anything about it. I encountered scientific and logical arguments it which I could not refute and that was the end of that. I guess that period lasted maybe 3 years.

In broad strokes, although I was raised by Christian parents, only one of them was a nut job about it - and he wasn't around much. Left to my own devices, first I filled out a concept of God which I liked a lot and very much assumed to be true. Then I doubted it and rejected it in late elementary school .. so maybe 11 - 13. It wasn't difficult. I never had to defend my position as an atheist to anyone. And since no one knew, no one tried to coerce me into belief. I had it easy.

Thank you for your answers. I don't see why a new thread about this would hurt, though. I believe that an intelligent person would have something new to say on any topic, or at least a better, refined way to put it if he put his mind to it everytime he was asked about it. But that's just me.

I can see that a lot of you say you were always atheists. I suspect that this isn't always the case, despite what you're saying, and I'll offer my own experience as an example.

Depending on how you look at it, you could say I was always a skeptic and an atheist, really, but I only fully realized it once I entered my teens and was able to think more reasonably about the world. In fact, I can remember being as young as 4 years old and thinking before going to bed that if I was Jesus on that cross, I would be ashamed to be naked in front of all of the people who were crucifying me. It was just a random thought, and I don't remember why I had it, but I somehow felt like I wasn't supposed to have it, like I was being bad or something. It didn't stop me from having similar thoughts about other things related to religion throughout my remaining childhood, though. And I can very well remember isolated cases where I was being skeptical about certain religious practices my mother was making me do. Add to that the fact that I was absolutely terrified of the fact that I would die one day, ever since I could think, more or less, and that religion never even once came to my mind as a possible help or solution to it while I was going through that as a child and I think you've got a fairly good picture of how un-theistic I really was.

But I think this is biased. I think a child can't be either a theist or skeptical about god belief, not in any meaningful way, anyway. I think it is only much later that we are able to actually consider what's on the table and only then can we take an actual position on such things. Consequently, I would more accurately say that I became a self-aware atheist about the time I developed critical thinking.

(December 22, 2015 at 6:05 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: In broad strokes, although I was raised by Christian parents, only one of them was a nut job about it - and he wasn't around much.  Left to my own devices, first I filled out a concept of God which I liked a lot and very much assumed to be true.  Then I doubted it and rejected it in late elementary school .. so maybe 11 - 13.  It wasn't difficult.  I never had to defend my position as an atheist to anyone.  And since no one knew, no one tried to coerce me into belief.  I had it easy.

Lol, that's word for word my own story as well.

My atheism was a process that took a many years to fully complete.  I was raised baptist and I held beliefs that were somewhat in line with typical teachings.  I rationalized what I would later perceive as nonsense by calling it metaphor.  

I started out simply skeptical of obvious bullshit like magic, ghosts, and psychics.  I don't think I ever bought into any of those.  I could never before or even now understand how anyone could truly believe in such things.  The people I was exposed to at church often talked about demons; another nonsense I never could swallow.  Statements like 'the devil made me do it' have always, even in my most religious days, seemed like a cheap excuse for a person just doing something they weren't proud of and not owning up to it.  Lame.

I developed a strong interest in science, particularly astronomy, and began teaching myself.  I bought a telescope and started learning from books, the internet, and podcasts like Astronomy Cast.  (That last one, podcasts, will prove very important to my de-conversion later.)

I also developed a taste for punk music.  Particularly the LA Hardcore variety.  There are a lot of bands in this genre that express hard left political views and anti-establishmentarianism... Categories into which religion does not fit well.  Specifically, bands like NOFX, Bad Religion, and Propaghandi etc... were frequently on my playlist. 

One day I was searching for a new astronomy related podcast and I stumbled upon The SGU... This introduced me to the skeptical movement and more pseudo-scientific topics that I ever thought existed!  From there, I began looking for more skeptical podcasts.  Some of the content had atheist themes but I wasn't ready to accept that just yet. Skeptoid, Rationally Speaking, and TWIS along with the SGU became what I would go to when I got bored.  

I went on digesting all this new information for some time while largely ignoring the atheist content.  I learned a lot about pseudoscience, proliferation of myths, and logical fallacies.  I started talking to my friends and family about these topics and I was surprised to find that pretty much everybody had an irrational belief in something! I figured out that changing minds can be a difficult and painful chore; so, I decided to leave them alone unless the subject came up without my intervention.  In retrospect, this decision was wise.

As for turning away from religion, I can't remember a specific moment.  A combination of all of the above cooked in my brain like a rational stew.  It happened slowly as I applied my newly acquired critical thinking skills to my own beliefs.  I began ignoring the atheist content less and actually started seeking it out.  I became more comfortable with the idea that I might not believe. Then began to realize that I didn't believe and there wasn't much choice in the matter.  The day I said out loud to another person that "I'm an atheist" was scary and I was fortunately met with acceptance.  I think it was a day or two later that I joined this forum. 

I wrote a nice little story and hit post and it went into the void i guess...

let's see if this post is allowed by 'the man'

..........

(December 22, 2015 at 6:23 pm)mediocrates Wrote:

I wrote a nice little story and hit post and it went into the void i guess...

let's see if this post is allowed by 'the man'

..........

Yeah, I got a notice and then there was nothing here.

Weird.

(December 22, 2015 at 6:24 pm)excitedpenguin Wrote:

(December 22, 2015 at 6:23 pm)mediocrates Wrote:

I wrote a nice little story and hit post and it went into the void i guess...

let's see if this post is allowed by 'the man'

..........

Yeah, I got a notice and then there was nothing here.

Weird.

Oh well. I'm out of time now. Maybe I'll write it again later. :/

(December 22, 2015 at 6:30 pm)mediocrates Wrote:

(December 22, 2015 at 6:24 pm)excitedpenguin Wrote: Yeah, I got a notice and then there was nothing here.

Weird.

Oh well. I'm out of time now. Maybe I'll write it again later. :/

Can't wait.

I changed the title of the thread from 'Why are you an atheist' to 'How did you become one[an atheist]', since I think it's a better way to put it.