My Mum said 'most people think god is male'. I was maybe about 4 years and thought to my little self, 'what a load of wank'.

Never had a belief in god...so no first time for me. Being atheist is completely normal to me, never been a secret or a problem for other people, but then I don’t live in the USA.

I don’t really have a story for this. It’s like asking me the first time I saw a dog.

There was no first time that stands out. Just lots of questions and arguments using common sense. The time I really stood up - 11th grade, before school started, in homeroom. A friend and I were entertaining our classmates with dumb jokes and imitations, like Nixon, when it hit me and I did a drunk Billy Graham "high on Christ, his new elixir" My evangelical English teacher and I had a tiff in which she said things basically threatening me with Hell vengeance. I challenged her with who would inflict such punishment - "her" god. Thrown out for the entire day of no English. She was awful; she censored one of our novels. I refused to read the censored version.

In college, I took a Great Books class for four years (I've told this story on the site before, FYI). One of our professors was a major Calvinist. He had been some kind of minor radio personality, and had a deep, commanding voice. Anyway, we eventually got to the bible. We didn't read the whole thing, of course, but a handful of books.

In high school and the beginning of college, I labeled myself an "agnostic". But in discussing the bible, the nature of Satan, evil, and absolutism entered the discussion. I asked the Calvinist professor if evil could be described as destruction, disease, death, etc. He said yes. I asked if that wouldn't mean that an absolutely evil Satan would be absolutely destroyed, diseased, and dead--that is, nonexistent. No, he said. One being could be absolutely evil, and that being was Satan. Well, that didn't make any sense to me, I told myself, but whatever--I would accept it for the sake of argument to keep the conversation going. But then it occurred to me... I asked him, well, if God is absolutely good, and Satan is absolutely evil, then they are just in a stalemate forever (and that wasn't my understanding of Christian belief--ie, Christian belief certainly wasn't that Satan was an equal, if opposite, power to god, and would live/exist forever next to god). To the stalemate idea, the professor said that was right--until the end of time when God throws Satan in the Lake of Fire.

The illogic had gone one step too far, and I really felt a shift or an internal click, that could have been accompanied by the word "bullshit". It was just one irrational step too far, and I couldn't accept any of it, even for the sake of argument. It was "stupid" in the most basic sense of the term--ie, there just wasn't any sense in it at all. It was just people pretending there was sense in it, and trying to get me to pretend also.

After being born severely cripple and spending my childhood with surgeries, casts, braces, corrective shoes!
Being ridiculed and harassed for my deformities during my youth!

No god would prevail with such horrid treatment of those who have none nothing wrong in their lives!
I am a adult, I have been anti war, to war, have been shot, stabbed, blown up, shot down, and survive with out any assistance from any mystical being!

By my own will and perseverance I have achieved what many want or possibly dream about, others have gained and achieved so much more!

My faith is my own, I owe no one for my life and being!

I have survive without any person of mystic god(s) or faiths co-opting me!

I had hit rock bottom and been there for a long time before I finally let the notion that there might not be a god enter in. It was an earth-shattering change that took me months to fully accept and left me floundering for meaning in my life for years afterward. I am only now barely coming back from that. I know I can't really blame anyone because my parents and society were doing what they believed was right but it is incredibly frustrating at times. I just hope I can turn all that chaos into something good in the remaining few decades of my life.

I can never remember nto hvign doubts about the existence of god.

I came out as an theist at the same time I came out as beign gay. My goal was to take away all the ammunition my religious relatives would throw at me for beign gay, by letting them know that I also did tno believe in god or the bible. It worked otu better than I expected. Without religion they had no ammo left.

Please take note I was already a grown adult who had moved out of my parents house by then, so there ws nto much they could do. I would not recommend my strategy for someone who was still living with their religious parents.

Was never a believer. Always viewed church with amused skepticism.

At 13, I became an atheist when I realized the Bible is just a book written by men.

Michigan had a hard winter. Bored and restless, my brother Lee, 10, and I read the World Book Encyclopedias. Lee started with A; I started with Z.

Rational philosophers Descartes and Spinoza inspired me. In the 1600s, they were anti-theist and anti-cleric, at a time when heretics were burned at the stake. They bravely defied the Church.

It came a little late, at 18 to me because I grew up in a very conservative, oppressive, religious environment filled with extended family, teachers, close friends and colleagues. I had doubts and was itching to stop doing anything about religion but had no courage for the fear of retribution, being a social outcast and being called a smart ass at a young age.

Do you have the time?

I was not indoctrinated into any religion so I’ll tell my Santa story

I was 5 and I got a remote control car from Santa. On the box it said “8&^”. With the ^ being an arrow pointing up. I asked my mom what that meant and she told me it was for kids 8 and up. NO WAY!!! There’s no way Santa would give me a present that wasn’t appropriate for me! Santa wasn’t like that. It made me think. Then I thought about elves making the toys and in all the Xmas specials on tv they used hammers saws and nails to make wood toys....no elf made THIS electric car! I new then that it was all made up. I told my mom I knew and she said “well I guess Santa won’t be bringing you presents anymore”. Hmmm. So I pretended to believe for 3 or 4 more years. Kinda like when people loose their faith but still go to church.

I was 5.2 when I realised that all the religious stuff was just a hoax. About 6 months prior I had decided to have a go at praying. I thought it was a good idea to hide from my brothers and so I made my attempts to connect to the divine authorities under my parents bed. There was probably crap reception. The steel frame, the wire mesh and the coils probably acted as a faraday cage and the heavy mattresses muffled my murmured prayers. I explicitly prayed for a red bicycle without trainer wheels. It was early autumn. Ok … perhaps I didn't pray hard enough and probably not often enough; only prayed a couple of times for the add-ons: the bell, the handles etc.
Christmas came: the bike was blue and had trainer wheels. I never regained my flimsy faith.
I must say that I grew up amongst a bunch of religious non-believers. Nobody in my family ever mentioned god, but we were all baptised.

When I was 19 I had to go to a magistrates' court of have my name erased from the church register. When I got the court verdict it solemnly declared that on behalf of the people it was judged that I was no longer a member of the church.

There was no "first time"...it's been a gradual - dare I say evolutionary - thing?

"The night was.....moist".........

Was never very religious to begin with but felt like jobe with the plague of boils(yes remember Sunday school) that and a heavy scientific background one son already atheist other not religious so a general progression for years

I really can't remember a particular moment, event or experience. I just know that I lost my belief somewhere in my mid to late 20s.

No.

When I found out Santa was a myth. I told/tell anyone who brings up the god myth. Kindergarden.

When I first started, aged about 8 years old, to question what the Priest/Minister was saying and got myself EXPELLED for doing so.
One of the BEST things that ever happened to me I'd reckon.

One fine Sunday morning my parents and we children arrived at church that my very religious grandparents made sure we attended to find that it wasn't open for services. Found out that the reverend took off with the money and had headed south to become a tent evangelist. Everything else in life was just protocol to avoid being ostracized.