I was raised athiest. Glad I know the truth, but I don't think it made my life easier or better.

I had a severe kidney illness as a small child. I must have sensed in some way that I was near death. I managed to stay alive, but may kidneys were badly damaged. It caused me to be keenly aware of my possible demise at a very early age.

I feel we are in the last days but the world will get better! evil will become good!

I have always been an atheist. The subject of religion never even came up during my upbringing.

My father was Atheist, I was Atheist, got christened to shut my mother up and I think that was the last time I went to church beyond hatchings, matchings and dispatchings except when it didn't seem worth the bother to argue with whichever school I was at. It simply never took.

why? Family circumstances. I was basically shunned in SLC as I was growing up.

I grew up completely apathetic to religion, it never took root. Grew up in a catholic home, went to catholic schools, did all that communion and confirmation crap, but I was just going through the motions.

Other than the ceremonies, thankfully my parents were not super pushy in everyday life about it. Our house has religious iconography all over the place, but it just sort of blurred into the background for me. I wasn't forced to go to church all the time, no preachy nonsense, it was rather secular all things considered.

Baptism, communion, confirmation, and all that jazz doesn't count either. I didn't really do any of that of my own volition, I was roped along like all children into doing it 'because'. If I am not willingly accepting these things, then I'm no catholic regardless of how much belly aching I'll get from family.

School did nothing for me, if anything they made religion more unappealing. Learning about it was the driest and most boring class up until 11th grade when we were allowed to take world religions. At the very least world religion class gave me greater insight to other faiths and be the point of no return to being a true atheist. Other than that it was just all this routine with no rime or reason to any of it. Now all things considered, it was a more liberal and lubby dubby New Testament kind of schooling.

I'd say I was at least agnostic for a short spell, but that quickly became unsatisfactory after getting a bit wiser, thinking a bit more. I never even "wanted" to believe, I just never saw anything that truly convinced me. The conflict of multiple religions, the supreme irony of downplaying other beliefs as myth while upholding ones own religion, the ugliness that region brought out in people, the unsatisfying and childish answers. Religion as a whole was an utter failure in capturing me.

I never have as it never made sense at all. I watch and draw nature and keep dogs and fish. I was sent to Sunday school and I didn't like normal school much. I hated that pile of shit. I was the child who said why? and with religion, there never was any satisfactory answers ever that didn't end in quotes from a book obviously printed by humans and made out of trees. it's not a surprise that the human ape is the only self-aware writing creature and the only one out of millions that couldn't give a flying fuck about all that crap. I think if I see my dog praying or facing mecca etc I just mite start lol.

As a child I was uninvited to birthday parties and such because I have always been a nonbeliever and openly questioned faith. This I think has lead to some antisocial traits that I deal with daily. Not sure why I never believed. I think Ive just always had a good nose for bullshit.

I have never been religious.

I had the good fortune to have trusting parents who allowed me to make up my own mind.

I was reared Catholic, too, and, I definitely believed — and I was a conservative, judgmental prick through my teen years, so I had "righteous conviction" on my side. Of course I was right because it's what I believed — very circular reasoning — and I accepted the authority of the Church without doubt. Fortunately, I don't have a suggestible personality, so even though I believed what I'd been taught since I was a tyke, I never had the personal spiritual experiences that many other people describe. It was still difficult to part with religion when I was convinced it was wrong, because it had been drilled into me that it was the most important thing in the world, and it was a central part of who I was as a person. I honestly believe that I'm stronger for the experience, though, because I had to deal with those especially painful moments and still emerged faithless. More important, however, is how I've changed. Although I'm more irreverent in my humor, and I'll make some very non-PC jokes if I think they're funny, and I'm less concerned about treating people with kid gloves in my day-to-day interactions, I'm far less judgmental, far more openminded, much more critical in my reasoning, and a better person overall. "Good without God" isn't just applicable in my case, it's what replaced my religiosity.

Did the private catholic school until they either denied me enrollment on 7th grade because I fought too much or I convinced my grandmother that I didn't wanted to be there anymore. I think they denied enrollment... my grandmother was able to convince them to allow me to continue and I told her I really, really I don't want to be there. Received sacrament under sin like many other catholics had. Lied on the confessionary. Never stuck to me so. Is like 1 year episcopal and 6 catholic did nothing and I was good in the religion classes because it was "history" after all even if fantasy. old testament. Religion conviction never been part of me.

There was a time when I went along with family, but I can honestly say that I never actually accepted any of the nonsense handed down. I didn't know what atheist meant in those early years, but learned about it when I was probably about twelve. It fit fairly well with what I was thinking, but I didn't announce to the family and the world until I was about seventeen. I've been open about it ever since, and that was sixty years ago.