How many years have you been an atheist?

[Whateverist]

I was a Roman Catholic for most of my childhood.

I left the corruption of the church and became an irreligious Christian.

Then I became a Universalist upon studying Revelations because I couldn't resolve the problem of evil.

I converted to Misotheism when there were too many contradictions in the Bible to ever support a loving caring God, and started to believe God was an evil monster. My belief-system in Christianity eventually collapsed into itself when I could no longer rely on the Bible as authoritative.

Believing all religions were man-made I converted to Pantheism/Pandeism and started alternating between the two positions constantly. Ultimately I had to accept I had no basis for renaming the real Universe as "god".

I realised if any god existed it didn't care about human affairs or our lives, period. I converted to deism, however I soon had to accept I had no evidence and no good reason for thinking such a creator being exists at all.

Soon, I couldn't even define God so I became an ignostic.

The belief in a creator or deity imploded soon afterwards and I fell into depression when I confessed there was never any being who was benevolent and cared whether or not I lived or died, it was just me and my own imagination projecting what I wanted onto my own mental construct. My egocentric views of reality were abolished promptly after understanding this.

I honestly truly didn't know what I was at this point. It took several years for me to identify myself as an atheist when I got off my lazy backside and applied a little research and quick study.

It's like the deeper it gets into you, the longer/harder it is to get back out. Religion can only get so deep into child dragged to church. But when it lasts into adulthood, it can really permeate so many other beliefs about the world and ourselves. You've paid a steeper price for your freedom than I had to.

I have to remember that some anger toward theists is really anger toward the institution that had us under its thumb. So telling a theist to piss off can be cathartic. If that can't happen here, where can it happen? Perhaps something to that effect should be part of the welcoming advice given to theists wishing to post here. (Hmm .. perhaps it is. I never read it.)