When did you first start becoming a "Non-Believer"?

[Mister Agenda]

I was raised Pentecostal. I was quite devout as a child and in my early teens. So much so that I set out to read the Bible. I read the KJV cover-to-cover. Then I read The Living Bible cover-to-cover. That made an agnostic theist of me, and I started to develop a few skeptical bones around the age of 19 or 20 when I learned some teenagers had easily tricked the parapsychologists at Duke University, and that when they controlled for trickery their supposed statistical evidence for ESP disappeared. By the time I was in my mid-thirties, I was a full-blown skeptic of the paranormal, but considered myself an agnostic for the usual reasons. I returned to college to finish my degree (in psychology) and learned a little more about cosmology, and then had the good fortune of taking a logic course at the same time I was taking a course on religion with an Orthodox Christian professor who believed logic was on his side. Between watching the mental contortions the man went to to justify his faith while learning about logical fallacies and the proper placement of the burden of proof; I realized that I'm an atheist and keeping a space in my head for God is not being open-minded, it's wasting valuable head space. If a convincing reason to change my mind comes along, I will, and THAT is what being open-minded is, not hovering through life without ever landing on a conclusion.

[Minimalist]

http://comedians.jokes.com/richard-jeni/...p-catholic

Oddly, this is funny because it isn't all that far from reality.

[Whateverist]

Babies are atheists. The believe in absolutely nothing. Religion is something that is taught to them.

It probably depends on how you define each term. They can be either if you based on different definitions. I'd say babies are definitely materialists though.

But probably not agnostic since they don't know they don't know .. they just don't know much.

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I realized that I'm an atheist and keeping a space in my head for God is not being open-minded, it's wasting valuable head space.

[Simon Moon]

As others have said, like every person on the planet, I was born a non-believer.

It requires being taught to believe in gods, usually using threats of some eternal torture, to become a believer.

I started to reclaim my natural state of non-belief when I began demanding demonstrable evidence, reasoned argument and valid logic to support the claims that gods exist.

[FallentoReason]

I relatively recently deconverted and now that I've got this intellectual freedom I've been able to learn how to view things more critically. As a result, I am continually shocked at some of my real life friends and the arguments they bring up for God from time to time. I've realise how fragile their faith is and if they spent a day reading some of these posts they would most likely deconvert on the spot.

Another thing that shocked me: I brought up the subject of Gospel authorship to my youth pastor in a cautious way. I told him I wasn't so sure anymore (in my mind I'm 100% confident though) if the Apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the stuff themselves. Well... 10 minutes later when we finished the light-hearted discussion, my pastor ended with '...so anyways, I don't think it really matters what the names of the Apostles were...'. He thought I didn't notice that he made a jump in the topic and concluded something completely different. So yeah, now that I'm standing 'outside' and observing inwards I just find it scary that these people can keep a straight face after that AND sincerely believe they know the truth.

Bit of a rant... But couldn't help myself. I needed to tell someone about that one!

[Gooders1002]

I was never force feed religious crap from anybody, so atheist from birth.

[NoraBrimstone]

I'm not sure I ever really believed. I went to a CofE Primary School and a Roman Catholic Secondary School, but I don't really remember believing any of it. I remember wanting to be baptised when I was 9, but only because I was the only child in my class who wasn't and I felt left out and my mother was fine with that.

I think it helped that I never had any religion forced on me. My mother was "Catholic", but not religious at all. I don't think she cared whether or not there was a God to be honest. Anyway, she let us make up our own minds about things like that. The only time she didn't was when I wanted to go to Sunday School because a girl I was friends with at school went (I think I was like 7 or 8?) she said no and told me about brainwashing.

[Angrboda]

Fuck if I know. I can't even remember what I did last Tuesday. Why do you have to ask such hard questions?!



Actually, I believe children go through a stage in development where they are prone to imagine God like agents all by themselves. I'd have to scramble through my notes to find the reference though.

(Okay, I'm lying. I have to transfer my notes from the dead tree version to my electronic note file by Tuesday anyway. I just don't give a rat's ass.)

[Deicide73]

I was always a non-believer. Although my mother and father took us to church only for a short time until they "woke up" and finally realized that the priests were talking out of their asses. Then one day they told us that we were never going back and that they wanted us to think for ourselves and to question everything to find our own reality and our own path in life. To this day I continuously thank her.

[Taqiyya Mockingbird]

I started reading this book of nonsensical fairy tales. And realized they were nonsensical fairy tales.

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I was always a non-believer. Although my mother and father took us to church only for a short time until they "woke up" and finally realized that the priests were talking out of their asses. Then one day they told us that we were never going back and that they wanted us to think for ourselves and to question everything to find our own reality and our own path in life. To this day I continuously thank her.

WOW-- Lucky you! Very cool...