The very first thing was when I was about 8 years old and was told that African Americans were cursed by god...that started the whole wtf thinking...then later I met an atheist who according to my religion would go to hell and that person was a very kind person and I couldn't wrap my mind around how god could send someone like that to hell just because they didn't believe..then I read the bible..really read the bible...the amount of egotistical cruelty etc. horrified me. I decided that even if this god existed it wasn't worthy of worship.

I realized how similar old testament stories were to what was in other stories generally described as myths.

I do not think it is jus tone thing for most of us, but a lot of things accumulating over time. However, there is always that last oen thing that is like the last straw that breaks the camel's back, or pushes you over the hump into free thinking.

The same one thing as I started paying attention to detail..... This is BS, that is BS, this other whatever is BS...etc etc etc

I realized how patronizing Paul's statement "Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope." (1 Thess. 4:13) was to those who've lost loved ones. Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, it is crucial to your mental health to grieve well when experiencing loss, and the assumption of hopelessness about those who don't have the (likely) artificial basis of hope in an afterlife, just struck me as appalling. It made me genuinely mad at the ideas of heaven/hell because of how twisted it can get the minds of believers experiencing tragic loss.

Realizing that there is absolutely no evidence for anything supernatural. So gods are the most unnatural thing in the universe - no wonder they don't exist!

Is there really such a thing in the first place I only hear from so and so only

Would god punish me?

I didn't have ONE specific moment, but the closest thing was the way I started to feel when I thanked god for things. I realized, how can I thank god for ANYTHING when there are starving people all over the place, people without clean drinking water, etc. How can people say "god blessed me" when that means god chose to treat you a certain way and chose to give others a life of pain and misery. I started realizing how arrogant the whole thing was. There was a lot of other stuff, but this one was the first step, and the strongest single thing I realized.

Reading the Sumerian texts.

Dinosaurs. I've always loved reading about them. Saw plenty of evidence they existed. Saw nothing to prove the bible stories. At one point while still a kid I started telling myself that god was just somehow responsible for it all...until I came to the conclusion that that was just silly. That notion just spread all over the rest of the ridiculousness that is religion. It wasn't too hard after that to just dismiss it all.

Realizing that who your parents are and where you live has more to do with your religion than the truth of any doctrine. Born in the US you are most likely Christian, In Iran you are most likely Muslim, India Hindu, etc. etc. That would be rather strange for a god that wants everyone to have the "Good News"

A nervous and emotional collapse that I believe was the precipitate of trying justify ideas that I had been fed since I was small. Self-contradictory dogma that I hadn't noticed previously, the arbitrariness of just about everything, revealed in the face of mythical "order" and manipulation through fear. The new awareness of the emotional bonds that had been strangling me for years.

Studying for the ministry or not, I think today that it was my parents who "called me to preach." I knew religion had to be real because of all the people who believed in it, but I never really could please my parents. As I dropped away from church I went through years of agony over this. It was almost heart breaking. Tears, booze, and much guilt. I "ran away" as a grown man because you just could not please them. I got away from it all including my parents.
By 2012 I was into You Tube videos and found former Pentecostal preacher Jerry DeWitt. I couldn't believe my ears. He was speaking to me and telling the truth. My burden lifted and my guilt went out the window. Next was Christopher Hitchens and a few others. I knew I was free and no longer a theist. I've never felt better about it in my life.

I was indoctrinated young and forced to attend Church of Christ till I was about 15. I love science so that had me questioning but I wasn't able to shake that fear of hell till I discovered the gradual evolution of Satan in the bible (chucked out Christianity) and the evidence of nothing but single celled life for billions of years on earth, was the final coffin nail for theism all together.

Wow that was so long ago. I always doubted from a very early age. I think I was just exposed to enough different ideas early on to realize no one theology is 100% correct. No one idea of what a god is seems to make sense to me. I recognized early on that if adults can't even agree on what's true and what isn't, how was I supposed to ever really know for sure?

I spent time in various religious studies, talked to members of many of them, and pretty much came to my own 'semi-conclusion'. I honestly feel there is something but I don't think this world is quite ready for it yet... whatever that something is. But I also don't think that matters. People will be and do whatever they want, believe what they want, trust who they want to tell them what they want to hear and life goes on. Only those who really dig will get anywhere but only just so far.

Incredible Cosmic Powers
itty Bitty Living Space

When I found the courage to be honest with myself.

If god loves us so much then why is there so much evil in the world?

Honestly, binge-watching Christopher Hitchens debates was what finally made me realize I was no longer a theist.