What made you become an atheist?

[robvalue]

That was the same day I needed to go to hospital to have my sides re-attached

I didn't actually read any of it in detail for quite a while, it wasn't until I took a firm interest in atheism and wanting to get involved. Up until then it wasn't something I thought about, it was just "Whatever, enjoy your story book."

[QuarkDriven]

When I moved last year, my brother came to see my new apartment and my girlfriend's gothic looking cross (from her old bedroom) was out on top of a box and he remarked "thats very catholic of you" in a sarcastic manner and I didnt think anything of it but I guess it stayed in the back of my head. I cannot remember what I started looking at/for online but I came across debates on youtube... Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, etc... and I started listening to these debates and the more debates I listened to, the more religion and especially the one I was brought up in, Catholocism/Christianity, didn't make sense... I was never a devout catholic. The only times I actually attended church was when I was younger and slept over my friends house and his parents made me go with them or when there was a funeral or wedding... but none the less, I believed there was a god... the more I listened to people defending the notion that not only is there a god, but that THEIR god was the correct god, the more I realized it was all man made bullshit... I went back and forth for months, I think mostly because I felt guilty as if I was turning my back against god. Finally in December of last year I realized I wasnt turning my back to god... There simply isnt a god to have a back turned to. That is when I officially gave up what ever little faith I had and became an atheist...

I hope my little story offers any kind of help to anyone going through what I struggled with internally last year. I'll end with saying I was 31 when I stopped believing in fairytales so it's not too late for anyone who was brought up in it and thinks it is...

[PhilliptheTeenageAtheist]

I studied the debate for a couple months and decided I couldn't put up with the cognitive dissonance in my mind anymore. That's pretty much all it took.

[Exian]

I'd like to say, before the crypt of this thread closes again, that I am an atheist by the will of God. He has seen fit to elevate me above Himself while becoming nothing at all to me. God is truly great.

It was that translating ear fish argument, wasn't it?

[abaris]

Who unearthed that three year old baby?

But anyway, it was a gradual process in my case. Mostly because our schools teach science in biology classes and the factual pieces didn't go well with the fairy tales and because I discovered intolerance and bigotry to be the root causes of evil in this world. I hate both with a vengeance and often times religious or pseudo religious believes are at their core. So me not wanting to be a part of that equalled not wanting to be part of organised religion anymore.

[Whateverist]

I'd like to say, before the crypt of this thread closes again, that I am an atheist by the will of God.  He has seen fit to elevate me above Himself while becoming nothing at all to me.  God is truly great.

It was that translating ear fish argument, wasn't it?

Umm .. I'm being thick here.  Not sure what the ear fish argument is but I'm intrigued.  

[robvalue]

Haha I know the ear fish one This is from memory so don't blame me for any slight errors

"I refuse to prove that I exist", says God. "For proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"Ah!" says man, "But the babel fish* is a dead giveaway isn't it. It proves you exist, and so therefor you don't. QED."

"Oh dear I hadn't though of that..." says God and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"That was easy!" says man. He then continues to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next pelican crossing.

*A fish you can put in your ear to translate any language into your own, an "un Tower of Babel" fish, if you will.

[Iroscato]

What made me become an atheist?

My exceedingly low threshold for bullshit.

[Jenny A]

Haha I know the ear fish one This is from memory so don't blame me for any slight errors

"I refuse to prove that I exist", says God. "For proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"Ah!" says man, "But the babel fish* is a dead giveaway isn't it. It proves you exist, and so therefor you don't. QED."

"Oh dear I hadn't though of that..." says God and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"That was easy!" says man. He then continues to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next pelican crossing.

*A fish you can put in your ear to translate any language into your own, an "un Tower of Babel" fish, if you will.

From, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

[robvalue]

Of course, yes I should have written that, thanks Jenny

[Via the memory of some twerp on a forum hehe]

I wonder how accurately I remembered it? Going to have to look it up now.

Adams is God and sadly God is dead

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OK well, memory wasn't too bad but I forgot some stuff and made a mistake So here it is properly:

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The Babel Fish Argument for the Non-Existence of God

by Douglas Adams

The Babel fish is small, yellow and leech-like, and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with the nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish.
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen it to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets killed on the next zebra crossing.
Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys, but that didn't stop Oolon Colluphid making a small fortune when he used it as the central theme of his best-selling book Well That About Wraps It Up For God.
Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.

http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~bakovic/camba_fil...lfish.html

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