Some people call him Jesus, or Yahweh, or Marduk, or Asshur, or Allah, but for the sake of simplicity, I've settled on a more universal "deity" that everyone can understand, and possibly even believed in as children: Father Christmas. Whatever you choose to call him (Jesus/Father/Holy Spirit in my parents' tradition), at what age did you grow up (if you did) and realize that Father Christmas was an incredibly dull imaginary figure created to satisfy/stimulate primitive human ingenuity?
I remember when I was around 12, I was a really diehard Christian and would debate atheists online, often finding myself unable to answer their criticisms. I read many apologetic works until I eventually realized that I could better pre-empt their attacks if I read their own material; I picked up Atheism: The Case Against God. It planted the seeds of doubt that grew and grew over time, despite my parents' repressive attempts to see to it otherwise, eventually sprouting full blown into the proud and confident atheism I espouse today. Along the way, I have experienced a few brief relapses into faith or mystical fascination, particularly during times of emotional duress, but whenever I come back to rational thought, I find the case for atheism far too overwhelming to deny. How old were you when you realized that religion was nothing but a series of lies and myths built on fear?
I remember when I was around 12, I was a really diehard Christian and would debate atheists online, often finding myself unable to answer their criticisms. I read many apologetic works until I eventually realized that I could better pre-empt their attacks if I read their own material; I picked up Atheism: The Case Against God. It planted the seeds of doubt that grew and grew over time, despite my parents' repressive attempts to see to it otherwise, eventually sprouting full blown into the proud and confident atheism I espouse today. Along the way, I have experienced a few brief relapses into faith or mystical fascination, particularly during times of emotional duress, but whenever I come back to rational thought, I find the case for atheism far too overwhelming to deny. How old were you when you realized that religion was nothing but a series of lies and myths built on fear?
