What Religion, If Any, Were You Before You Became An Atheist?

[ragzy02]

I was TOLD I was Christian from a very young age, so I never had a chance for being anything else as a child, and it's against all odds that I'm here at this wonderful forum here today. I'm 29, and it wasn't until a few years ago that I converted (first to Agnosticism, then I "grew balls" and turned atheist.) My interest in Darwinian evolutionary theory led me to the answers I had longed for for many years. Once I opened my mind just a "tad bit," truth took over, and I've never looked back. It pains me and embarrasses me to admit that I was once a "believer," but now I just feel like I am SO fortunate to have ever left that life. Constant guilt, constant stress about tithing, constant enslavement. (And you can't say Goddamnit!!! That's my favorite phrase for stress relief!!!) I live in Oklahoma so it's VERY, VERY against the norm here to be an atheist, and I get the feeling that people think I've went crazy, but I started a blog about my conversion, and since then, I've had several friends and family members tell me that they think I'm on to something. Churches are big business here in the south, and I just feel that it's important to free others from the "intellectual slavery" of religion.