What made you become an atheist?

[Atomic Lava]

I don't consider myself an atheist, however more of an agnostic. I can't say that God exists, but I also can't deny it. Because I really don't know. I'm not all knowing. But I'm curious to hear why you became an atheist, or even why you are an agnostic like myself.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Birth.

[EgoDeath]

I don't consider myself an atheist, however more of an agnostic. I can't say that God exists, but I also can't deny it. Because I really don't know. I'm not all knowing. But I'm curious to hear why you became an atheist, or even why you are an agnostic like myself.

I may be splitting hairs here, as I understand how words operate in common usage... but strictly speaking, you qualify as an atheist if you do not hold a belief in god.

Personally, I don't know that I ever "became" an atheist, but I realized that I was an atheist in my early teens. As cliche as it is, I started smoking pot and questioning things with my friends, and eventually it led me to realize that I do not believe in god. So, to be fair, I'm not sure if I ever really was a Christian; I think that I was always an atheist and simply convinced myself otherwise for a large part of my life. Among other things, I started to read a LOT. I skimmed through the Bible quite a lot, but I really started reading different authors that were skeptical of religion... among the books I read were:

God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens

A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination by Gerald Edelman and Giulio Tononi

Lord, Save Us From Your Followers: Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America? by Dan Merchant (this is actually a pro-Christian book, for lack of a better term, but it actually skewed me away from Christianity)

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche (this is a collection of writings on Buddhism, but it strayed me away from Christian thought and was my first introduction to a non-Abrahamic religion)

The Satanic Bible by Anton LaVey (an interesting take on the so-called 'carnal religion' created by LaVey)

The Satanic Scriptures by Peter H. Gilmore (a more focused interpretation of LaVey's philosophy)

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

An Intelligent Person's Guide to Philosophy by Roger Scruton

...and these are just to name a few. All of these books, in some way shape or form, helped me shape my current views on religion and god.

So, a lot of reading, some free-thinking and a copious amount of cannabis led me to realize that I never really believed in god.

[zebo-the-fat]

Everyone is born an atheist. A new born can have no knowledge of any gods, nothing in my life since birth (65 years so far) has convinced me of the existance of any gods.

[Brian37]

I don't consider myself an atheist, however more of an agnostic. I can't say that God exists, but I also can't deny it. Because I really don't know. I'm not all knowing. But I'm curious to hear why you became an atheist, or even why you are an agnostic like myself.

You don't "become". Humans are not cartoon Transformers. 

The better way of putting it would be, "What caused you to leave your prior position?".

Humans are always human, we don't magically "become" anything. Humans simply think about things, and change their minds. 

One can eat at a restaurant, and over time get tired of the food. But because you may like that food for a while, does not make you the restaurant itself. It is just the joint you currently like eating at.

What caused me to leave my prior "on" position, regarding god claims?

Specifically the food joint I used to eat at was "Catholic". But one day, working as a laborer at a construction site building homes, a carpenter(ironically) asked me "What if Jesus was just a man?".  That was a long time ago, and I now severely question that such a character existed at all, even just as a man. 

I didn't leave the food joint on the spot. Prior I always found something amiss with the fantastic claims made in the bible and by the Preacher in church, but was too afraid at the time to question. I was more concerned prior, to fitting in and wanting to belong. But something in the way that guy asked me that sparked my inner skepticism. 

It was not an on the spot, "I was wrong". It actually took me almost a decade from that question, to finally saying, "I don't need to eat at any theist food joint, I am now in the "off" position.

FYI, the word "agnostic' was a horribly cobbled together word by Thomas Huxley.  It basically means, "fence sitter" which is misleading. 

"A" in the ancient Greek prefix means "without", and "gnostic" or "gnosis" means "to know". So the word "agnostic" means without knowledge.

The problem with that word, is that it is meaningless until applied to a position. It is falsely used as a stand alone word, when it does not, by itself tell you what you are without knowledge of.

The other thing Huxley didn't take into account, were past claims, current claims, and future possibilities. 

You can look at god vs no god, as like a dimmer switch on a light, either way. You can be more certain, "BRIGHT" in your position, or dimmer "not sure" but lean one way or the other. But there is really only on and off ultimately.

For example. I am CURRENTLY "off" on all past and current claims of god/s so far. I am "technically" "agnostic" about the future, although I still see the god of the gaps answering anything fleetingly unlikely.

It is possible to hold a theist position , say a certain Muslim, or a certain Christian, or a certain Jew. But you can also hold  an agnostic theist position , which is someone who is "on" on god claims, but not certain as to what it's makeup is. 

One can also hold an "agnostic atheist" position. Meaning one can current be "off" but accept the future is not written in stone. 

But I do regardless of position, hate the words "convert, deconvert, and become". The positions humans hold, are merely what they are sold by others, but we are not caterpillars morphing into butterflies. Our labels as a species are mere positions, not our physical DNA.

[The Valkyrie]

Agnostic atheist here.

I simply realised what I was being fed couldn’t be backed up with evidence and stopped believing.

[Brian37]

My slow dimmer progression from on to off, like I said took almost a decade.

A couple years after that carpenter asking me "What if Jesus were just a man", I was taking a trade school computer course at the time a sicko went into Cafeteria called "Luby's" In Waco Tx, and murdered a couple dozen people. When I arrived to class, I was early, and there was only a couple of people there. I invited them to pray with me, but one lady looked at me and scoffed. At the time I was offended, but looking back at it now, I get it. She wasn't trying to offend me, but rolling her eyes at my cliche logic. 

But it didn't end there. Years later I went to the Smithsonian where at the time, they had a hall full of Hindu/Buddhist statues of the Angkor Wat Cambodian dynasty which showed that the two religions mixed. And that more than prior events caused me to realize, if that mixing and influence can happen here, then maybe there is nothing original about any religion, and they all stem from human competition.

EVEN THEN though, I was still a bit of a diest, or "agnostic theist". It was not until college when I ran into my first open atheist, that I realized "off" was an ok position to hold.

BUT AGAIN, even after that, it wasn't until after college that I actively sought other atheists online, and over the years learned lots from other atheists. It isn't enough to claim "off" as a position. It is extremely important to be able to argue why "off" is the valid position.

[CarveTheFive]

it’s strange to me how people think they have agency over their beliefs

it doesn’t seem to me I choose to believe or not believe anything - I just do or don’t.

Maybe I’m just splitting hairs about language but when religious people say just pray or just ask god... they must have a sense that something is listening ... it used to bother me that so many people have this peculiar mental illness but now my own life is too shitty to worry about their problems

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It was not until college when I ran into my first open atheist, that I realized "off" was an ok position to hold.

Does okayness really have any influence on what you really believe?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

it’s strange to me how people think they have agency over their beliefs

it doesn’t seem to me I choose to believe or not believe anything - I just do or don’t.

Maybe I’m just splitting hairs about language but when religious people say just pray or just ask god... they must have a sense that something is listening ... it used to bother me that so many people have this peculiar mental illness but now my own life is too shitty to worry about their problems

---

It was not until college when I ran into my first open atheist, that I realized "off" was an ok position to hold.

Does okayness really have any influence on what you really believe?

I never chose to be religious. It would have taken a conscious effort for me to believe a god, I would have to choose to reject reality.

[Fake Messiah]

Reason I am an atheist is because theists only use logical fallacies in order to supposedly prove God.