Comment by conniegdfbm on October 20, 2009 at 8:10am

for me it was two things. one, the complete randomness of prayer and bible stories. just like you, i became a young closet atheist while in Sunday school.

it was the story of Noah's ark, and i just remember trying to digest that the entire world was flooded and every animal was at Noah's doorstep - and that he could reasonable house and contain them all, feed them, etc. not to mention that god killed so many people for not loving him. vain.

it was silly, and i felt as though the other kids in the class knew this as well but they never dared to question what their parents or authoritative figures think.

even to this day, i feel like Noah's ark is a prime example of a Christian's "Achilles heel". the story (upon inspection) is laughably ridiculous. and if you can get a Christian to acknowledge this, the rest of the bible is soon to follow.

if one story is wrong, then couldn't the others be?

Comment by TaLia Ruiz on October 20, 2009 at 8:33am

I'm 14 and I realised how absolutely hypocritical Catholicism and Christianity was a mere year ago.

I asked my CLVE (Christian Living and Values Education) teacher about the beginning of time and etc. She said 'God works in mysterious ways, we should not question him.' and at the time, I was already Agnostic and I had been doubting for quite a long time. After than incident, I had begun to do some research on my own, after finding substantial evidence of 'god' and his/her/its non-existence, I finally made my decision, which, I think is quite obvious.

Comment by Nix Manes on October 20, 2009 at 8:37am

For me it was when I couldn't find out whether dinosaurs were kosher or not because they aren't mentioned in the bible. ;)

Seriously, I didn't have an 'ah-ha' moment. It just gradually snuck up on me after years of not really caring about it one way or the other. It just seemed like the natural default position, if you will, and nothing has convinced me to change. I don't think I ever will.

Comment by Reggie on October 20, 2009 at 10:02am

Well, it can be argued that we were all born atheists.

The closest thing I had to a "a ha" moment was when I read The God Delusion. However, I was well on my way towards atheism at that time, but Dawkins pulled over and gave me a lift further up the road. At that point, I was shedding the last vestiges of deism and considered myself, somewhat jokingly, a "militant agnostic". Turns out, I was really an atheist and just didn't know it.

Comment by Dave G on October 20, 2009 at 11:41am

Much like Reggie or Nix, it came upon me gradually. From religious believer, to anti-religion believer, to deist, to agnostic, to atheist.

Comment by iamtheblog on October 20, 2009 at 12:05pm

For me also, it was a gradual process. This process was helped along unfortunately by two close relatives getting cancer within a year of each other. I started to wonder how God could do such a thing, and the more I looked, the more it seemed like there was no answer because there was no Christian God. I looked into a number of religions and they all had their flaws, so no religion seemed to make the most sense. Now it's hard to believe that I used to believe!

Comment by Aric on October 20, 2009 at 1:39pm

I think at some point I just realized that the claims made by Christianity are completely absurd. However, I never told anyone about my atheism until after reading The God Delusion and God is Not Great.

Comment by girlatheist on October 20, 2009 at 3:49pm

I have always been a doubter. When was 40 years old, a friend mentioned that religion was historically used to control the masses. I started investigating further and decided, by age 41, that I was really an atheist. At first, I said "agnostic", but now I admit the truth.

Comment by bocakiki on October 20, 2009 at 7:43pm

I never had an incident that made me a non-believer. I never believed, even as a child with a traditional Jewish upbringing; I always knew I could survive very well without the supernatural. I have not forsaken my Jewish heritage because that would be like giving up my Italian or British or Irish heritage.
I find a lot of people just don't get that.
But, here I am, a Jewish atheist; and loving the Rapture blogs, listening to Hitchens, Dawkins and the other geniuses, enjoying the rantings of the fanatics and all the rest. The fanatics, especially, keep me occupied when I need a laugh.

Comment by Bob on October 20, 2009 at 7:52pm

by the time I got to around high school, I was largely agnostic, and I stayed that way throughout. Throughout most of college I was also agnostic, but leaning more towards atheism. Instead of not knowing whether god was real or not, I thought it was more probable that god started everything and left than he directed everything at constantly, but I didn't know for sure if it were so, so I stayed agnostic. I also thought being agnostic should be the default of scientists. Then, I started watching the videos of AronRa and DonExodus2. AronRa, IIRC, very clearly explained how the Big Bang theory says the universe began, and how it existed beforehand. DonExodus2 very clearly and with great detail, showed how the current theories of Abiogenesis cover how life could have arisen out of simple chemistry. Then, I started reading PZ Meyers' blog Pharyngula, and he explained how atheism should be the default of scientists, as it requires proof for any claim, just like science itself (why I didn't think of that myself, I have no idea, but, there you have it). So, thanks to those three men of science, I am now an atheist.

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