Christianity is real, just like all philosophies are real, whether or not they are based on reality.

So, in answer to your question, as @Triphid stated, I was born an atheist, then became religious by accepting indoctrination, and finally chose to be atheist later in life.

I did not choose logic, i think a series of unfortunate events made me recognize it

Well the point is to never be content with any answer until u have sufficient evidence.

Good question! I think if we say that a Christian is a person that believes in Christianity at that particular time they are a Christian at that particular time. If they choose another competing world view, then they cease being the former and become the latter. And if they change again the same thing.

To me it circles back to the problem of labeling people. We’re much more accurate in my opinion when we ditch labels and describe actions, thoughts, beliefs, etc. So replace the Christian label with “person who believes in Christianity” and the original label-definition problem disappears and we gain a better understanding with what’s going on with that person.

Do you agree? Thoughts?

As soon as I was "aware" I didn't believe in any kind of God, it was forced upon me by school and I was sent to Sunday school needless to say that didn't last long ? they don't like it when you ask questions they can't answer and don't do as your told, Lilith is no longer spoke of in the Bible but she was actually Adams first wife as I'm sure some will know.

We're all aliens just because we choose to label ourselves as human has no bearing on that, well I say we choose but let's face it we're told we're human.

For one thing, we all are born with no religion embedded in our brain. It's indoctrination what take us there and eventually some will choose to bail out

I was sent to Catholic school because my Mom was Catholic and both my parents wanted us kids to get a good education. I was questioning everything and getting myself in trouble from VERY early on.

I believe it depends at what age you became truly curious and if you always asked shy questions, or if you started at an older age

I think you may be overthinking it a little. I imagine there exists many motivations for becoming an atheist. For me, I was 19 and in college and an Intro to Philosophy class got me thinking. I realized there was a bigger world and the old explanations just were not working. Need to change my paradigm. Voila! That was 45 years ago.

For others it may be the result of a bad experience that made them question their previous beliefs. Lots of reasons.

I still feel like this statement is invalid because you are Christian by believing you are one or by believing Christ is your savior versus just believing you are physically an alien. Christianity just requires an active belief which can't be examined physically while claims of being an alien can so I don't think those two things are equivalent in comparison, but you do choose to be an atheist just like you choose to be Buddhist (to an extent).

You combine the knowledge that you have with how you think life works which creates your life philosophy (or religion), but with any new knowledge or outlooks you can believe in a different religion and identify yourself within that religion. This means that you did identify or associate yourself within that religion regardless of a change of opinions at a later time or if the belief was disproven. Beliefs don't have to be true; they are only beliefs........ Sorry for running on...

I think all folks, including myself, should make themselves available to change--

It's the nature of the 'beast'!
Child, adolescent adult, etc.

If someone wants absolutes, it seems it becomes a matter of doctrine; your choice.

Confusing or not it means that you have realized something that others have not. The big question is why do they not see it? My answer is fear. Fear would take over all aspects of their lives to admit we are in this alone and nothing is supernatural.

*Thought provoking thesis as to who Wee really are fundamentally all along; rather, than agree with the brilliant thesis tis worth an academic effort to set up some contrast via antithesis viz: religion is a set of false, naive beliefs forming a system predicated upon superstition...Religion is a subjective, infantile experience for those who can not tolerate mature uncertainty opposite to the educational pursuit of philosophy which requires an open, intelligent, critical mind desiring to go beyond the superficial and commonly found and seen in today's society and to get to the bottom of things; and philosophically & scientifically achieve a tentative, theoretical conception of reality only to be revised and improved by other's in improvement of the present reality model...The subjective experience of religion begins by brain washing or indoctrination by the religious fanatic or zealot - followed by suspension of "disbelief" similaire de ce calibre to that which occurs when reading a work of escape when the subject is washed away into a world of "fantasy" much like taking a drug that impairs the unwitting experimenter to contact with objective reality...Thus, if one can accept blindly the religious nonsense, at that point in time, she/he begins being a duped, religious compromised human being who may some day wake up from the dream and contemplate reality as a free thinking, critical person who enjoys Truth & Reality...qed.... ***Excellent thought provoking question by Anna, indeed...

Look at it this way. If you were born on a small Pacific Island and never even heard the word religion, would you believe in God?

Indeed. You don’t choose to stop believing in Santa Claus, you just realize he can’t possibly exist and everyone’s been lying to you!

No one chooses what to believe. But there are many hypocrites who act like they believe to reap some benefit.

Also, I believe If you accept the statement "there is no god, therefore religion (Christianity, etc) is false" as true, is backwards to the usual order of things. I think I would be strange for someone to arrive at the conclusion that there is no god before realizing religion is false. From what I hear, people find flaws in their religion, and then question the existence of gods.

I don't think you're born to be anything. When you are born, you haven't been socialized. I think belief and non-belief are part of the socialization one learns over time. It's how open you are to applying free will and to the expansion of your mind to new ideas and concepts.

A person gains their personality through trial and error, I suspect. I don't think the concept of belief or non-belief get to fly under the radar any more than any other social construct.

I have had beliefs change over time, as my awareness of the world around me has grown. But, I don't think I can really decide to believe 'X' . It results from information I have.I have had beliefs change as I followed information I had thru to its logical ends. Without the knowlege to back it up, i cannot decide to believe in say... 'The Force'. I just cant.

The difference between not being convinced God exists, and , convinced that no god exists, may be revelant here. Personally Im pretty sure no gods exist.

Belief, attraction, fear and other emotion driven thoughts are not choices. One can choose to overlook any of those and with repeated exposure they can affect those emotions. However, the initial reaction is still valid and was never a choice.

Belief is not voluntary. we believe one way or the other based on our understanding of the evidence, and the conclusion that evidence causes us draw. some people accept bad evidence.

You do not have conscience control over the conclusions your brain comes to. We do not choose to stop believing rather we discover we are no longer convinced. We do not choose whether evidence is convincing or not to us. You can choose how you act but you can't choose what information your brain accepts as true or insufficient

i never was a christian. i was raised as a very secular jew. i wasn't an atheist. i believed in a vague way in a personal god, who functioned as a kind of witness to my lonely childhood. that was comforting. when at the age of 15 i realized there were no gods, it didn't even occur to me that this meant rejecting judaism, since the parts of judaism in which i was raised had nothing to do with god's wanting or requiring me to do this or that. being jewish meant being kind to people, helping the needy, using logic (look up "pilpul" ), stuff like that, which doesn't depend on the existence of a god. of course, judaism and jewishness are not the same thing, interconnected though they may be. judaism is a religion and jewishness is an ethnicity and culture. so i cannot say i either was an atheist all along or that i made a decision to become one, nor that i rejected religion per se (or at least jewish identity), though christianity has always seemed odd to me (and which as practiced these days seems actually evil in many respects).

g

As young as i can remember maybe 4 or 5 i couldn't understand catholic church. At that age did i make a choice ?

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