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Permalink Reply by Nelson on March 11, 2011 at 12:51am

hey Ben, you'll probably enjoy looking through this group: Coming Out Godless

it's full of people who have told the story of how they came to their atheism. i'm sure there'll be some descriptions of eureka moments.

i personally can't help you as i was never indoctrinated.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on March 11, 2011 at 8:51am

Thanks Nelson.

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Permalink Reply by Tim on March 11, 2011 at 11:58pm

I was born in 1952. My parents took me to church the week after I was born and rarely missed a Sunday after that. I would put on my white shirt and tie and my "Sunday clothes" and I would smile and bow my head at the appropriate times. I would kneel and say the prayers and sing the songs.

Everyone assumed that I was a fine upstanding christian young man. But I wasn't. I never really "got it".

When I was 21 or 22 I started noticing the drug and alcohol abuse, child and wife abuse,  marital infidelity, sexual perversion, lieing, stealing, and several other neurotic and psychotic behaviors by members of the church. Of course, this was all glossed over by everyone else.

I had been a long time fan of Isaac Asimov. It was at about that time I was reading, "The End of Eternity". I didn't realize until the last few pages of the book that my path through life and that of the main character in the book were very similar.

At the end of the book, the main character has a "What the Fuck!?" moment. I stopped and thought about my experience in the church and I also said, "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

I never went back..............

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Permalink Reply by Jason on March 12, 2011 at 12:19am

I have my eureka moment listed on my home page.

Easter Morning. I was six years old. I noticed the candy and treats in my Easter basket (that the "Easter Bunny" had brought) was the exact candy and treats that I found in my parent's kitchen cabinet. My parents were too lazy to even hide the candy wrappers. Then it hit me. There’s no Easter Bunny, no Santa Clause, no Tooth Fairy, no Jesus, no Hell or Heaven, and no God. All because my parents were too lazy to hide candy wrappers. Thanks Mom and Dad!

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Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on March 12, 2011 at 2:26am

I actually have a blog post on my page about my "Journey to Atheism." The short version is that I was brought up with two religions and the conflict between the two became impossible for me to resolve. I didn't have a eureka moment, but rather my atheism sort of came in stages. In stage one I still believed in God and Jesus, but just thought that religion had screwed it up. In stage two I came to realize the bible was impossible but still thought there was a God of some sort. It wasn't until stage three that I realized that my concept of God was just a vestigial concept of my religious indoctrination - it was at this point that I really began to purge myself of all superstitious stuff, although I'm sure that some still lingers.

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Permalink Reply by Loop Johnny on March 12, 2011 at 12:48pm

My eureka moment was long. It was more like an eureka week. At 16 I watched a lot of youtube videos of famous atheist thinkers. I once decided to try living as an atheist out of curiosity for a month and I never came back.

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Permalink Reply by andrew j van der veen on March 12, 2011 at 4:33pm

Interesting posting .Very eloquently done . Aiming for the right "targetaudience " is a neverending quest .

There are NO wrong questions in this matter as long as we abide by strict principles for respect and site requirements .

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