I wasn’t raised particularly religious but did some time in Baptist, Lutheran and Catholic Churches and even a stint in Catholic school. I really tried to believe but I just never did. In fact, I’m convinced that most people, no matter how religious they pretend to be, deep down don’t truly believe. Instead, they fake it in order to fit in and reap the benefits of association with the other fakers.

I looked into comparative mythology, and realised the Christian story was just one more myth, with no more particular truth to it than any other. Perhaps it is a little more cleverly constructed around historical elements, but ultimately just another story.

...I’ve never actually asked my mother ..but assume it was a fairly painful experience, for both of us

briefly, i was raised as a secular jew, which means religion was not spoken of much in the family. we celebrated the holidays. we ate jewish food. my folks spoke some yiddish. god? not really part of life. he made a nice occasional invisible friend but that was that. i don't think i ever prayed in my life. age 14 i decided to check it out more and study judaism. after a year of that i realized that while i found talmud study interesting, i wasn't making friends or feeling close to anyone at shul. i stopped going. then i discovered that something my folks told me as fact, and which i had just accepted, wasn't true. they'd told me long-haired boys were dirty and rebellious and i found out that this was incorrect. i decided to question everything else i knew, too. some stuff withstood the test. god didn't. oh well!

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Good for you, To paraphrase Hawking's statement: Yes no one can prove or disprove the existence of God. All one can do is to provide reasonable explanation based on Science. This is utterly wonderful enough to fulfill the mysteries of existence and console ourselves that God is unnecessary to live a happy,satisfying and morally upright manner.

It started in my first church school class. It was about the walls of Jericho. I just was so sceptical that marching and blowing horns could have worked. Anyway, it just never really "took".

I called myself an agnostic until I realized that even though I tried to create some religious belief that was self-consistent and compatible with physics, I still wouldn't believe in god(s).

God created the entire Universe and doesn't interfere (violating physics) using miracles? Does a god, working within the constraints of physics, deserve the title?

So now, the only time I entertain thoughts of gods is when I read about demigods in Manga or watch Anime. I even support the protagonist struggling against "entity-X" in "The Evil of Tanya".

I have been a none believer since twelve. I just thought it out...rejected the false accepted the truth. We are just high functioning animals. I do not need a God to make me feel special...or to install morals and values...in fact, I don't need a god for
anything. I am the architect of my existence, master of my destiny. So are you.

Donald trump became president so I said fuck it I'm going to be atheist ?? and I found out Noah's ark was bullshit and Adam and eve.

Saturn return changed my life. It hit me when i was 28 years, then life was with depression. It taught me the truth that god doesn't exist.

I joined a cult

I got born and I wasnt indoctrinated.

My interpretation of what "God" is evolved over time, initially. My first shift away from Christianity was acknowledging that I believed God was more of an essence than a being, or that God was simply "all that is". I maintained this view for awhile until I asked myself, "well, then, why call it 'God'?".

Prior to all that, the earliest steps were having unresolved questions about dinosaurs in the Biblical era and other obvious contradictions and inconsistencies present in Christian scripture.

I became agnostic/atheist gradually over last 10 years or so. if we are "gods children", why do frown gay people and others that don't fit the mold. Since, the world is so messed up has to be biggest proof there is no god. the bible is full of contridictions which the fools except. I have never believed in ghosts etc. Plus, I haven't put christmas decorations in 3 years. The biggest push was my mother implying I would go hell if I became an catholic. She and most my family are baptists. Agnostics/atheists are opened mind and rational people. Nobody in here has a problem that I'm attracted to men.

Reading the bible and a couple of other religious documentation things put an end to my theistic thinking. I also had a short deistic thought process but observation and love of science also put an end to that thinking.

I can't remember the exact date - what I do remember is that following a conversation with a born-again - I asked "are you bat shit nuts? I never worked for that guy again and it was quite likely mutual. It was at that point that I began to question everything - be it "God" or Aliens. It was therefore only inevitable that I would become a non-theist.

You are a product of your operant conditioning, as are theists.

I was raised from the cradle in Christianity and for all practical purposes that was in fundamentalism (my family converted to that when I was 3). If one were to look outside my house they would find gouge marks where I was dragged kicking and screaming out of that by life circumstances that forced me to admit that the Christian mental model of reality was almost exactly backwards.

There were a few pivotal points in my life that led me down this path. The first was just this "is that all there is" feeling I as i was growing up. But a hypocritical lying creep as a minister in my church sort of finished it off. There were also my hyper-religious freako relatives who wouldn't allow alcohol at my parents' twenty fifth anniversary party. They were just no fun. I think I found hypocrisy at every turn in the church as I was growing up. All of this coupled with the fairy stories just made me go 'meh' when it came to religion.

Growing up in a very religious family and going to church all the time, I always heard things that made me question a lot of Christian thought. Once I got old enough and focused enough to start researching the religion I was raised in, I started to get the answers. The more I researched the less Christian I became.