Comment by Aric on June 2, 2009 at 12:44am

Well, whatever your reasons for becoming an atheist are I'm sure they are better than most religious peoples reason for being religious, which is of course because that's how they were raised.

Comment by Misty: Baytheist Living! on June 2, 2009 at 1:05am

Yeah.. cheers, Aric.
The problem with blind faith are those two words.
Blind. Faith.

Comment by Richard Spencer on June 2, 2009 at 1:10am

Aric, you should be careful about generalizing theists in this way. There are plenty of atheists who were raised without religion just as there are many theists who were either raised in nonreligious homes, were raised in a religious environment contrary to the religion they now hold, or were raised religious, became skeptical, then went back to religion. The bottom line is that few people will actually say, "I'm believe in God simply because that's how I raised."

Comment by Shermon Burgess on June 2, 2009 at 1:34am

Religion is just an excuse for adults to have imaginary friends : )

Comment by Cara Coleen on June 2, 2009 at 4:40pm

...why does it bother you for someone to ask this? I haven't actually had this conversation with a Theist yet. My "conversion" was much like yours: it was a process. It's definitely hard to put the spotlight on the exact moment because there was no MOMENT. But, I like trying to lead people down the path I traveled to get where I am. I think every step was relevant, even the steps where I was still a Christian simply "having doubts".

Comment by Richard Spencer on June 2, 2009 at 8:15pm

Cara,

It's not that it bothers me to be asked the question, but as I indicated in the title of the blog, it's not really the most pertinent question. I certainly appreciate anyone who would care enough to ask the question and be willing to listen to my answer, but my reasons for being an atheist now are stronger than they were when I first changed. In fact, I think some of the reasons I had for becoming an atheist were bad. I only dislike the question because I'd rather be talking about my reasons for being an atheist now.

At least this is the case if the context of the question is more of a debate. If the purpose of the question is solely to gain biographical information about me, then that's quite different.

If I tried to lead people down the path I took, there are many bad steps. I think I can lead people down a better path than the rocky one I took :)

Does that make sense?

Comment by Aric on June 2, 2009 at 11:51pm

All I meant was that most people who are raised religious remain religious and they usually remain a part of the religion they were raised with rather than changing religions. Of course, that doesn't apply to each individual case.

Comment by Reggie on June 3, 2009 at 12:20am

Richard....why are your reasons "stronger" now than they were before? Do you fear that you have rationalized your conclusions and entrenched yourself into a belief (or unbelief) system much like a theist would do?

I ask because you seem to have welcomed questions regarding your reasons for being an atheist now.

Comment by Richard Spencer on June 3, 2009 at 12:17pm

Reggie,

I don't fear I have "entrenched" myself into unbelief. Rather, my reasons are stronger simply because I'm better informed and more versed in the debate.

Examples:

I found definitional disproofs of God's existence very convincing when I first encountered them. Questions like "Does God know what it is like to feel fear?" challenged my ideas of omnipotence and omniscience. Now, however, I see that the debate runs much deeper than I superficially took it initially and I'm uncertain that I would have come to the conclusions I did if I had been familiar with more technical definitions of God's attributes. I still think these attributes hold many difficulties though.

Also, I became an atheist without studying evolution. I was more or less a creationist as a Christian but never got heavily involved in the debate regarding human origins. It was only after I left Christianity and I continued to hear questions like, "so where do you think we came from?" that I took the dive into the creation/evolution debate. As it turns out, viewing the world as a morally neutral playing field for evolution by natural selection makes much, much more sense than theism of any sort. By coming to understand this a couple of years after my deconversion, my reasons for being an atheist became stronger.

These are just a couple of examples. Let me be clear that I'm not saying it is pointless to talk about reasons for leaving theism; I only mean that, if I had to pick one, I'd rather share my up-to-date reasons for believing what I do since I have continued to learn over the years.

Comment by Reggie on June 3, 2009 at 1:00pm

I hope my question didn't come across as snarky. That was not my intent. I did however phrase my question about entrenchment of beliefs in way that was quite Freudian, now that I look at it again. I do have that fear for myself and I am constantly challenging my own ideas. It helps to see how others have come to similar conclusions via different routes. I do like your answer about being more informed and I agree wholeheartedly.

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