Probably some combination of familiar Bible stories not making sense logically once I hit the age of being able to think logically and an unwillingness to want to give up listening to rock music or watch popular television and movies to fit into the “Moral Majority” mold of Christianity. I think I was just on the fault line of the “culture war” in Virginia at the time and chose to be on “liberal” side, as in the one that offered the most freedoms.
I wasn't raised with any religion. My parents were both academics who met in college. They had to elope due to religious background differences objected to by one set of grandparents. My dad was a philosophy professor and taught me the evil in the world argument very early. It made logical sense so I didn't really question it.
The first time I went to church is when my grandfather died. I stayed over the weekend at a friend's house so was taken to church with them as I was a little kid. I remember thinking how ridiculous it was and how could anyone believe in this ceremonial BS.
I've always had doubts and hesitancies of one sort or another; they mostly came at a constant, minor rate. I just thought eventually I'd get the chance to probe deeper and then the doubts would become less of a bother. I didn't expect they'd go away exactly. To keep the story short, I probed deeper on a few areas and the bible fell apart for me. After that it's been slowly trying to dig out from the rubble.
Around the time I was 20, I was always curious as to the existence of higher powers yet never found any evidence supporting it. Part of me would like to believe there's a god out there, but I take 1 loom at the world and realize it's very bleak for one to exist.
yes I went to a free school when I was four and there was no religious education in that learning space and we were free as long as we worked to work on whatever interested us. I opted for reading as I was reading from a really young age - so I escaped all the indoctrination that I heard went on in state schools.
9th grade world history. It would be about 6 years before I fully shook the indoctrination, and the process was similar to addiction recovery, but I like to think I came out the other side stronger
When I was going through confirmation classes in my parents Methodist church. I told them I didn't believe and they told me that was good with them and I never went back.
My father's mantra was "thank god I'm an Atheist". My mother was an agnostic. I cannot remember a time when I took religion seriously.
At about 13 years of age but it was never pushed in my life. Both parents came from Switzerland & they are a more open society. My father played mental gymnastics at the dinner table to open our minds.
At nine years of age I started to doubt what I was being told. At eleven I rejected it entirely. Over the years I have on a few occasions pretended to be religious in order to avoid unnecessary conflict in the family.
When i was a kid, for the longest time i thought Christmas was SANTA CLAUS'S BIRTHDAY!!!LOL!
I was 10 years old watching my younger brother die from cancer laying in a hospital bed. I couldn't stop wondering why god would cause so much pain for him and our family. That doubt never left my mind and followed me into adulthood. It's preached at a very young age that god is powerful and loves everyone. If that were true then why is the world full of so much pain? Why kill innocent children and make them suffer? When someone dies, especially a child it just pisses me off when people say " They're in a better place" or " It's gods plan". God's plan my ass!
I was in Sunday School, and the teacher was telling us that God wants all of us to be saved. I asked if God wants everyone to be saved, why is the majority of people in this world lost. He said that God loves us so much that he wanted to give us the free will to choose him, That answer totally didn't make any sense.