I didn't choose to be an atheist. Becoming an atheist isn't like converting from one religion to another.
I believed in 'God' when I was younger, but my parents brought me up to be skeptical and a critical thinker. Over the years, as I really started critically examining my beliefs, I came to the conclusion that they were just not supported by demonstrable evidence & reasoned argument.
I went from being a theist, to a deist, to a pantheist. At that point, it occurred to me that everything I was calling 'god' was the universe. I figured, we already had a perfectly good name for the universe, why call it god?
Basically, my atheism is a byproduct of my skepticism.
I believed in 'God' when I was younger, but my parents brought me up to be skeptical and a critical thinker. Over the years, as I really started critically examining my beliefs, I came to the conclusion that they were just not supported by demonstrable evidence & reasoned argument.
I went from being a theist, to a deist, to a pantheist. At that point, it occurred to me that everything I was calling 'god' was the universe. I figured, we already had a perfectly good name for the universe, why call it god?
Basically, my atheism is a byproduct of my skepticism.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
