whats the biggest reason you left christianity?

[Cecelia]

Biggest reason?

I realized that I didn't really believe any of the 'beliefs'. I might have agreed with some of the philosophies. But I didn't need the woo to do that.

[Ivan Denisovich]

Idiocy of it and lack of evidence supporting this pyramid scheme.

[Mr Greene]

Not sure if I ever was, I noticed that the priest, nuns and assorted believers at my school (Catholic) were talking out of their backsides about the age of 7.
First time the question came up I had to say; no I didn't believe.

[FatAndFaithless]

Besides sending me to Sunday school for a few years out of a vague sense of Catholic guilt/duty, my father never really pushed Catholicism onto my brother and I (my mom was a nominal English Anglican, but really didn't give a shit about it). We moved to many different countries while my brother and I were growing up, so our religious 'education' kind of just fell apart. The strictest it got was around my dad's family, many of whom were still strict Catholics besides a rogue aunt who went Baptist to please her Georgia husband (my dad himself was one of 10, and his mom had a handful of miscarriages because she barely spent a year without trying to have children).

With the rather lax environment of religion at home (we even stopped going to church after I was about 10 - it just became a boring family hassle), combined with the fact that I was lucky enough to attend good schools which encouraged high levels of critical thinking, plus that I had access to a lot of literature from all sides of the argument, I just kind of found my way out on my own. Considering the arguments, looking at the evidence for a proposition versus the lack thereof for others.

Still strange to see the shadows of indoctrination in my dad though. Whenever we travel and go through a Catholic church to look at the art and architecture, he still does the hand signs and dips his hand in the water and yadda yadda, and he's still instinctively resistant to criticism of the Catholic church, despite the fact that he doesn't believe any of it anymore.

[Exfundy]

I got tired of making up excuses for  a literal and inerrant Bible. Christianity doesn't resemble Jesus' teachings, so what's the point?

[Rextos]

its kinda cool to see how this old religion is dying, like i used to go to christian forums a lot (im 27 now, was going there back when i was like 18 and desperate for help with my depression) and a huge part of my mental scarring came from the shit people told me. like they would reply with all kinda condescending bS, then end their posts with "Praying for you." - but im happy to see now that the traffic numbers at CF are greatly sinking, and so much that they put a nag pop up to try to get people to turn adblockers off lol maybe there is a god!

[robvalue]

Yeah, I can't help but find the decline of Christinaity and the spiralling desperation hilarious.

[CWoods]

If I had to choose one, I'd say that most of what i learned about Christianity just didn't make sense to me.  

But if I listed all the things that caused me to think that, it would be a very long list. The list would include the following: 

Reading the Bible (cover to cover several times) and finding contradictions, absurdities or things that seemed senseless or incredible.

Hypocrisy: people claiming to be "good Chirstians", then acting in cruel, racist, intolerant ways about various groups of people including, LGBT and those who practiced other religions. My father told us to claim we were 11 because the price was higher for for 12-year-olds, apparently forgetting that was a form os stealing. My parents church chose to "adopt" a Cuban family after Castro took over.  Yet several dozen people got up and left the church when the family visited and they discovered the family was black. 

As to intolerance of other religions. My father became a church organist. His first job was in a Lutheran church. My parents invited their parents to attend his first service even though they belonged to a different Protestant denomination.  My mother's parents attended, but my father's parents wouldn't because "Lutherans are really Catholics in disguise."

Being judgmental: My parents were especially good at this. One neighbor was no good because she was divorced. Another was immoral because she drank beer. Any woman who bleached her hair was a hussy. Anyone who smoked was a terrible person.  Most of these labels were directed against women.

The more I learned about history, the more I realized how much cruelty, death and destruction was committed in the name of one god or another.

_______
I wrote an article a while ago, summarizing a 2006 book trying to answer the question of why people turn to atheism.  The book is worth reading, but you can read my summary here: 

Moderator Notice
Link removed due to 30/30 rule -Alex

In addition, I wrote a 3-part article about why I am an atheist.  This is Part I:

Moderator Notice
snip

At the bottom, there is a link to Part II and from there, to Part III

[tjakey]

I realized that is wasn't true.

[account_inactive]

I was never part of it in the first place.