How do you become an Atheist?

[Strongbad]

For me, there is no “one” reason that made me decide I was an atheist. I was raised in a Catholic family, went to Catholic schools, was an alter boy, etc. I remember thinking about religious teachings, even as a little kid, “this seems like the stories I read in my comic books”. I also remembered something that we were all taught as children – “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is”. As I entered in my teens, I began to doubt even more that what I was being told was true. At about age 15, I finally thought to my self, “this can’t be true, and I don’t believe it”. Although I probably hadn’t even heard the term “atheist”, I officially was one.

From then on, I never really gave religion much thought at all. I really only became aware that there were other people that shared my thinking with the advent of the internet (I’m 51, and I vividly recall the pre-internet world). Atheist forums such as this one have corroborated my beliefs (or lack of beliefs), as I realized that there are people far more intelligent than me, that think way deeper than I do, that have learned a lot more about science and history than me, but arrived at the same conclusion as me – a “god” is not believable.

I think that most atheists became atheists over a long period of deep thinking, not all-of-a-sudden or based on some single proof or event. Evidently, a science education also leads to atheism, as the vast majority of all scientists share atheist viewpoints.

I’d like to turn this question back on you – why are you a Christian? Why do you believe that the bible is the word of god? Why don’t you believe that the Quran is the word of god?

I’ll defer the philosophy questions to the philosophers.