I was born skeptical. At age four, I inwardly scoffed at ridiculous Bible stories. They were like Grimm's Fairy Tales to me.

At age 13, I told my mother I'm an atheist and don't want to go church anymore. I realized the Bible is just a book of stories written by men. I was in sixth grade.

"That's fine, honey," Mom replied. Dad never went to church. Years later, Mom told me, "I've been an atheist since nursing school, when I realized a woman cannot turn into salt." She laughed. Mom was raised Catholic.

Michigan had a hard winter when I was 13. Bored and restless, my little brother, 10, and I read the World Book Encyclopedias together. I was inspired by rational philosophers Descartes and Spinoza, who were bravely anti-theist (anti-God), anti-church and anti-clergy in the 1600s, when heretics were burned at the stake. Descartes and Spinoza had to go into hiding.

These rational philosophers inspired the European Enlightenment period of the 17th and 18th centuries that emphasized science and reason over faith and superstition,and strongly influenced the American colonies in the eighteenth century.

I don’t think so. I am interested in points of inflection. I find most Christians asking me to accept a Jesus, I.e. to reconsiderI might be wrong, get deer in the headlights when you ask them to model that same behavior, especially if it’s where other Christians can see it

One of the things that you didn't mention is the deism, there is also a big step to progress from theism to deism.

Not very.

No.
Very little, if they are religious.
They follow their parents beliefs, usually.
Life occurrences.

Generally speaking, not very. They only know what they've been told and they've been told not to question, that 'God is not to be tested', and other such tripe since their early childhood and can't find it in themselves to apply logic to this situation as they would any other.

Religion breeds ignorance.

What religion you choose if any is mainly tribal/geographical rather like your sports team.
There is a theory that the likelihood of you believing in a god and to what degree, may depend on how strong your grandparents were in your life. The thought process goes - "My parents look up to a higher being and they are like gods to me so...?"
Sociological pressures may be a large factor too. If religion is a major part of your society or if times get suddenly hard (no atheists in a foxhole) that can determine the amount of belief in a group or individual.
Sometimes it can be just a single event that can tip the balance. My dad became an atheist after one. He was in the royal navy and this happened in Malta where incidentally I was born.
A large fishing boat was docking and one one the crew fell into the water between the harbor wall and the boat. The sea was quite choppy that day and the vessel was crashing against the wall. My father was with some ratings and they rushed to the scene. Three of them sat on the wall with their legs pushing against the boat whilst a forth lowered a rope to the hapless fisherman. It was at this time that my dad noticed all of the overboard guy's shipmates were on their knees praying and making the sign of the cross. From that day forth dad would have no god or religion. In his words "If you are more intent on saving a man's soul than his life? then you can stuff it"

Not very. Most people got it from their parents who got it from their parents, etc., etc. It's indoctrination starting at a very young age. It usually takes a pretty significant jolt to shake one of these believers from their mythology. Education makes that easier because a well educated person can see the illogic inherent in all religions, the internal inconsistencies, the uneven application of its rules from one group to the next. Yes, you can have well educated religious believers but they still cannot actually define their deity and have no means of objectively demonstrating the truth of their beliefs. The compartmentalize for the most part, and keep reason and religion in their own separate little cubbyholes.

NO

The definitions put out by this website under Learn are helpful. For me the long road of life experience plus an ingrained scepticism and desire to know the truth has been my guiding light. I remember asking for a guiding light too when I was in my teens and early twenties. This was as to ‘what am I going to do with my life (career wise) as much as any religious request. in those years I wasn’t clear on god, Christianity, apostolic guiding taps on the shoulder and such. We all run into every type of individual. Extremes in all directions. Many worship obvious false gods of man,egs. Money,drink, sex, etc. That’s not to say, other then a real one. You easily see that that’s not the way to go. Plus there are no shortage of good books. Just stay out of the religious section. They’re overtaking some bookstores. I like the philosophy section. Religion and philosophy are almost inseparable.

If a God thingie were to decide to use it's all powerfulness to slap the ever living shit out of you and not give any way for you to prove it because you are not all powerful, what would you believe?

Which people?

If i feel most do or most don't, without having for referral a well conducted study on the subject, what should it take to change my mind?

g