I posted my story on how I left Islam.
I would like to hear other perspectives.

Like every other human I was born an atheist. Didn't get indoctrinated so I never "found" a religion.

Parental divine neglect.

Transmogrification.

Actually around age 13 reason and rational thought set in. Plus a smidge of rebellion.

Attempted indoctrination by Catholic primary school resulted in the realisation they were lying by age 7.

(March 20, 2017 at 8:11 am)mh.brewer Wrote: Transmogrification.

Actually around age 13 reason and rational thought set in. Plus a smidge of rebellion.

Yeah, like Lewis Black says, thoughts can really fuck up faith.

(March 20, 2017 at 7:25 am)Lebneni Murtad Wrote: I posted my story on how I left Islam.
I would like to hear other perspectives.

I barbecued kittens, recorded the NFL without their permission and ripped the tags off my mattress.

In all seriousness, it isn't that one "becomes", it is more that one arrives at a conclusion. On thing about human language is that we create lots of shortcuts. When people talk about positions such as religion, political party or even the job they have they falsely use "I am a". When it comes to a political party, economic view or religious view, those are not your DNA, but mere positions one holds. "off" on god claims is the position I hold currently. The only thing "I am" is a human. Outside that I hold positions.

I hold the position currently that liberal economics and liberal views on social issues are better for society.
I hold the position that all current and past claims of god/s and religion are false and superfluous.
I like writing poetry, poetry is what I do.

I have said "I am an atheist", but that really is not how we should say it. If you walk into a room and the light is off, you are not the switch in the off position itself, you are observing from your point of view, that the light is off. You don't "become" anything. If you get introduced to religion which most humans do in their youth, you don't "become" a Christian or Muslim or Hindu or Jew. You are merely taught the positions of your parents.

Conversely, if you no longer buy into a claim, you don't "become" something new, you simply change your position, like flipping a light switch. 

I came to to the conclusion that there is no valid reason to hold a position that a god exists, but that took me years. For some that happens quickly for others it can take weeks, months and years. For me, I cant remember the very moment I started saying "there is no god", but lots of peices that lead me to that conclusion was because of lots of questioning and refusal to blindly swallow the apologies of theists. The more I questioned the less sense it made. It became like a dimmer switch on a light to the point it finally when out to "off".

I started thinking and acting for myself instead of just being who everyone expected me to be.

I failed to not have questions. I had questions for days and apparently that's too many. so when I was told I wasn't trying hard enough.

All I wanted was answers, so I gave up. I realized there were no answers because there was no god. and I kinda dived right in to the atheist pool.

I was brought up in a traditionally Catholic country, Portugal.
People never shoved the thing down my throat, but there was the overlying sense that everyone believed in the existence of a god, the christian god.... and I was oblivious about other gods...so... that was the one worldwide god, as far as I knew...

Then, one day, listening to the radio, they said they had footage of something that happened on some remote Chinese village... and I thought "wow, they have cameras everywhere, nowadays" (this was way back in 1990... so imagine now!)... "hey, you know what else they say is everywhere? god.... how come the two never meet?".
That was the spark.
About 2 years later, I find that there's a name for people like me: atheist. And up to some 20% of the world's population are atheists?! wow... I'm not alone, anymore!
My mind then set out to make sense of why people believe this stuff.
Well, I'm still trying to make sense of it... but most of it is clearly from childhood indoctrination.