I remember there was a time when I couldn't date anyone who didn't believe in god, or at least defined themselves as spiritual, but I didn't think I was delusional or an idiot.

Now, I think anyone who does believe, is totally delusional, and their arguments for religion are idiotic.

I can't tell you exactly when this transition occurred, but I can confess, when it did, you'll have to agree it made me a bit of a jerk.

Sunday school, age 6.

A bald headed teacher, told us a story in Sunday church class about the bald headed Priest.

In the story the Children were laughing at the bald head of the Priest. So the Priest ask God to punish these children for laughing. God sent down a bear to shredded these children to death.

I could not stop laughing at the story. So the bald teacher threw me out of class. Never looked back.

6, in catholic school. The nuns and I had an "issue" with theology on the regular. I had a problem believing that you are born a sinner when you are a baby. Babies don't do anything.

By 15 I was agnostic, but may not have known the word.

Bought it hook, line and sinker as a kid. Was a non-practicing adult. After retiring at 62 and had the time to think about things... the questions began.

It was never a question... my envolment at an early age was family/cultural but I never drank the cool-aid.

I was around 15. I started asking myself questions like, how can a being of a mortal plane see a being or speak with one of a higher plane? If someone says they spoke with god, why just them and not everyone at once? God is all powerful..."it" should be able to speak to all of us(Yes, I said "it" because people somehow assume God is a man lol" ). The other thing that came to mind is if God loves all of us...why send us to hell for eternity rather than help us better ourselves? Where's God when a huge disaster strikes and kills hundreds? Are some people so hungry for love and acceptance that they'll seek it from a fictional being created by a group of believers to help fill in that void or provide them with a since of belonging.etc?

I remember reading books in elementary school ... maybe second grade, about Thailand. I wondered that if you had to be Christian why nobody told them.

I was 11 years old when I started to really question the existence of god(s). Some of the thinking was inspired by my father, who was raised Jewish & married mom, a Catholic. I was influenced as well by comedy recordings from George Carlin, Robert Klein, and their contemporaries. Although I have tried to embrace both Christianity and Judaism during crisis points in my life, I'm pretty certain my non-belief is permanent. (Note: I remember I was the first kid in school to question the existence of Santa Claus as well.)

28,29 I gave up on religion stuff. Religion should not exist in 20th century. It's useless and will only create hate, difference and groupism

I believe I always questioned god but I didn't become agnostic until I was probably 16 or 17 and I wasn't aware of that term back then. I started to use the term atheist when I turned 21 or so.

I questioned it right from the start at my conception !

I was sort of questioning religion at 26 and then questioning god at 27. By 28, I was done, though I was far from comfortable with that fact.

Growing up, I was pretty deeply brainwashed and lacked sufficient push for critical thinking about the basis of my beliefs, so it took a lot of learning to cross those bridges. But the house of cards was fragile.

That's not to say I never had doubts prior to 26—just that I never had them aimed in any important way at my own core beliefs—only at other, minor things.

L first rejected the idea of God at about 12 or 13. After deciding there were too many contradictions in the christianity I had grown up with I sorta explored a bit of other religions, mostly paganism, wicca and buddism before deciding they were all just as silly. By explored I mean I spent months reading books from the religion and new age section of the local coles book store.

For years after I strongly identified as an atheist, until in my early 20s I started to call myself a Satanist. At that point, my idea of Satanism was pretty juvenile and reactive. It could be summed up by the Bakunin quote from God and the State "IF God truly existed it would be nessasary to abolish him." Basically I didn't feel atheism went far enough, and I liked the charachter of Satan. At some point in late 20s I sorta revertted back to just atheism.

But then in my later 20s I also began to know people who were rad people who had religous views or spiritual views that were a big part of the good activism they did. Some radical christians, and Indigenous activists. The folks at the Jesus Radicals were certainly part of what made me more open. This made me rethink some of my biases and become more open to other ways of seeing. At the same time I also began reading some post-left anarchist chritiques of science and atheism that I felt had some good points. I became just as critical of modern amaerican atheism as I had been of religion -- but still I didn't believe in a god, soul or afterlife (the idea of a soul has always been particularily problematic for me). I also started to see some of my views as being able to be described as spiritual. And so I for a while called myself a spiritual atheist for lack of a better term.

The next big shift happened recently, a sorta coming home you could say. Over the last 2 years I kept seeing news articles about the brilliant activism of The Satanic Temple, and so finally decided to look up and read on them.I actually didn't even realize at that point they were a different group from LaVey's CoS; and having read interviews with LaVey I thought of CoS as pretty right wing and Ayn Rand-ian, thus not something I would be into... But when I read about The Satanic Temple, which is extremely different from CoS I was inspired. I loved much of what they do to fight religous hegemony and challenge the extreme right; but more than that I loved the 7 Tenents. It was like someone had written down and beautifully articulated my own values.
The final turning point for me was an argument with a right wing christian who was arguing against transgender people being able to access hormore therapy and SRS; this pushed me into the decision I was already most of the way on board with to join. The Satanic Temple has this one particular foundational tenent that says "One's body is inviolable, subject to ones will alone" and after that argument this line was all I could think about.
And thus I joined The Satanic Temple -- which for those that do not know is atheist as they reject the idea of supernatural powers and dieties and argue that religion shouldn't be defined by beliefs in superstitions and that we hold our values and beliefs just as deeply as anyone and thus should have the same legal protections.

Around 30. Smh. Its embarrassing.

14 years old. Made waves in my catholic school for sure!

I was just about to turn 20 and it happened during a youth retreat. One of the speakers told us to take our shoes off because the ground we were on was holy. Something clicked in me and I refused to take my shoes off. It was most likely because I was in a big tent and we had coarse gravel under our feet. I might have been one of the only ones out of about 200 in attendance who didn’t take their shoes off. That incident commenced a few years of soul searching and questions regarding god and the afterlife.

Probably 12 ... I remember not liking how the hellfire and damnation sermons made me feel and I never felt any sense of positivity about it after
that .

I don't really remember. I just remember thinking when the bible says the world is flat and the sun and the moon are the same size obviously the people who wrote the bible had no idea what they were talking about.

When I was very young and in a plane and didn’t see god or heaven in the clouds like my gran said there was.

At conception!! Seriously, probably a young teenager. Things as explained to me in church and by my parents just didn't add up.

High school years, 17 if I had to guess exactly. This was after a year of Catholic school, then a year abroad with my folks in Europe, but I don't believe those were factors. I just dared to consider the possibility, and things began to make sense.

It feels a little silly saying this... but I think I was close to 18. I was feeling really lost and not sure where to find happiness. I watched a documentary called DMT the spirit molecule and it totally reframed my mind. Im so happy I stumbled across it.

About 13. Was diagnosed with anxiety induced depression at that age. If we were “truly created in God’s image”, I Figured had a sick sense of humor if he wanted me to be depressed and anxiety was one of my triggers.

In my late 20s