Dropping my supernatural beliefs was a process that took a few years of research and curiosity to even consider how absurd and contradictory my beliefs were. After that I was able to deconvert from Christianity relatively quickly. It was a very calming experience and all of my anxiety and pointless inner monologues aligned in My head and i started focusing on things that were real and actually important to me.. there are still (non -supernatural) beliefs and worldviews that are deeply rooted in my subconscious. After 8 years I'm still rooting them out.. logic and reason helped me deconvert from Christianity. secular humanism is helping me fix social issues and world views that pop up and I realize that I still subconsciously hold inaccurate or inappropriate views and opinions.. luckily I am now open minded and I have the appropriate tools to know right from wrong, truth from fallacy, and someone being ill-informed from someone being deceitful.

I claimed myself a Christian for about 3 months. I was very annoying for the church asking far too many questions from a great curiosity. I had far too many hard questions , that were mostly answered with, ......you have to have faith. My reply, that is not good enough answers. Once science came into it, it was all over.

It took me a long time, too. Even as my belief in hell diminished as long as I saw it as even a remote possibility it was very disturbing. That is, as long as I thought there was even a one percent chance of eternal torment I could not dismiss it.

You have yet to reach the milestone of blazing anger at the liars, fools, psychopaths and irredeemably evil bastards that rammed their own vile shit down your throat.

Were you in a nursing home or an orphanage for 30 years? Was it operated by the likes of illogical atheist Jim Jones?

Religion ... pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption. James 1:27

I think your observation is spot on. Life is a process and most things don't change overnight. In my deconversion process, I struggled with the same scenarios coming to the same conclusion multiple times before I decided that if a God would punish me eternally for honestly trying to work this problem out, then he was no God worth my consideration much less praise and worship. From there, I was able to proceed with considering the possibility of other Gods and realizing I had no more evidence that these were no more real than the one I had left behind.

To get away from it all 100% may not be possible for everyone.

I was a christian from the age of 5 to 15. I read the bible at 15 and left christianity. I became a wiccan/pagan for over 23 years. Then I became an agnostic from a few years, then I became an atheist. I have been over religion for for several years. I don't miss religion at all. I live free of the guilt of sin and the fear of hell.

Seems to me the most hardcore atheists are often people who were the most hardcore religionists. Hardcore people seem to remain hardcore.

None of it ever made sense to me and I quit going to church as soon as I had the option - around 12 years of age. The background assumptions/doubts/fears still followed me around for a few years until I displaced them with a scientific perspective.

Now I see the biological significance of religion, so I neither hate it nor fear it. It’s just one of the many quirky things humans do, and often do poorly. But once it is understood scientifically, it can be practiced to good benefit for the individual and for the group. It’s not about the beliefs. The beliefs vary from culture to culture. You could even replace the beliefs with scientific ones. It is the practice that is universal in application.

I have never been, and remain not hardcore pro or anti religion. I am now aware however, of the potential usefulness of a regular practice that counterbalances the effects of evolutionary mismatch.

So leaving religion can be hard, but that’s not the hardest part. Understanding it is a lot harder. For those who were traumatized by religious malpractice, it is understandable that once out, they may never develop a curiosity to explore further. That’s the most destructive aspect of malpractice - it disincentivizes healthy practice.

I was “raised Catholic”, but not very. I was sent to Catechism classes and church, but my mother (the only parent I had) did not attend church, mostly because she was divorced. (I also attended one year at an all-girls Catholic high school, which was more than enough.) By the time I was seven years old I recognized the hypocrisy of religion and it’s adherents. And it was plain to see that prayer was ineffective…for everyone. To my knowledge, Catholics do not study the Bible. (Now, maybe I missed that the adults do, because I left home at 17 and had “skipped” Catechism for most of secondary school.) I never really was part of the church. My sister is a Catholic Sister. The things she does that are inconsistent with that vocation are considerable. Things I know about priests I knew are inconsistent with that vocation. I have never feared any aspect of an afterlife, and have no regrets about not practicing a religion. I do not care to debate religion with anyone, as I do not consider myself knowledgeable enough about ANY religion to do so. I think most everyone is delusional about SOMETHING, so have no objection to others practicing religion, AS LONG AS THEY DO NOT TRY TO IMPOSE IT ON ANYONE ELSE. And I want religion OUT of politics, and for churches who cannot prove that they spend their income for charitable purposes to be taxed.

Well I may be a bit different than a lot of folks commenting on this post, because I never really bought into it to begin with?!
My earliest memory of going to church, was around 4 or 5 years old. By time I was in first grade we were attending a Protestant church every Sunday, including Sunday school classes with volunteer instructors.
By time I was 7 or 8, it started to become a choir for my mother to get me to go to church on Sundays. I was around 10 the last time she forced me into the car on Sunday. I still remember my words to her that morning to this day, as she fussed at me to get ready for church!
“Mom, it doesn’t matter how many times you “force” me to go to church, I’m never gonna belief that horseshit….”
She gasped at me for cussing, and called me by my middle name which meant I had clearly shocked her a bit. There was no mention of me going to church the following Sunday, or any other Sundays….

For me it was a very gradual process. From the time I was a toddler, I saw very little meaning in the "traditions" my family felt obligated to follow, so I opted out as often as possible when I could get away with it. As an adolescent I tried harder to understand the "meaning" but it always felt false in one way or another. Still I could not articulate why it felt false until I was an adult. As a young adult my questions became more detailed and pointed, searching for any "truth" behind religion. The more I searched, and the harder I tried to believe, the more the whole "fabric" of religion fell apart for me.

So there was no definitive "when" for me. But I stopped going to church voluntarily as a toddler. I asked uncomfortable questions as a tween and adolescent. I pretty much ignored religion as a young to middle aged adult, divorce finally convinced me that ignoring it was not sufficient distance from it. So now, I am quite outspoken about it and I can be a bit of a jerk when debating the issue.

Well, at secondary school, when I started having philosophy classes, I had a teacher who encouraged us to think. From that point on started getting away from any religious and belief in God. I can't exactly give an exact time as it was a process for me. Now, I don't even bother to think about it.

Glad you've ''come through!"

When I was about 12 years old, I had to go through a confirmation class at the United Methodist Church. I did not believe any of the nonsense in the Bible at that time. That was 44 years ago. I never took it seriously from the time I could think critically, which was some time before 12 years of age.

This is a pretty good question. I drifted away from Jesus at age 28 (35 years ago) but it never affected my family relations (which were already spotty and distant). I was a Deist for many years but few know what that is so I claimed my Jewish blood but synagogue wasn't satisfying, either. I drifted into Taoism (which I was aware of in late 20's) during the Pandemic.

After over 40 years, I still feel the emotional scars left from having been raised religious.

I think what has been hardest for me, is that most of my siblings are still religious, and it seems to be impossible to have a conversation with them where they don't talk about some church event or happenings.

At first I thought I simply had the wrong beliefs and explored "new age" thinking, but in the end I rejected all of the supernatural altogether.

I think what was hardest about leavign religion was the loss of a sense of community and going out on my own. I think it is the loss of feeling one is part of a community that makes it difficult for many to leave, and is also the reason why after leaving people may go back to religion. I think it is because humans evolved as herd animals that gathered in groups for safety, and that instinct of gathering in groups is hard wired into us. By belonging to a group, we feel a sense of safety and security, because we evolved to be that way. The one semi-positive religion provides is a sense of community and belonging, which we have evolved to crave, as it was advantageous for the survival of the species at large.

It began at around age 10 when I read about ‘Noah’s Ark’. I began to think to myself how did that thing stay afloat for nine months, as the Bible said, and stay afloat without bilge pumps? Not to mention the claim that there were 1 of each sex of all living animals on it also. And the claim that the ark was about 500 feet in length, about half the size of modern Cargo ships and Ocean liners. And it also had no rudder, no chart plotters, no radar, no sonor, or ventilation. And my grandparents weee very religious as well as several aunts and uncles. But it wasn’t until age 27, after quitting a 3 pack a day cigarette habit as well as a heavy drinking one was when I finally declared myself an Atheist. And even during first recovery days many relatives, friends and colleagues still kept saying that ‘God’ gave me the strength to do it. But I knew it was strong willpower and mind over matter. Because if ‘God’ was that powerful, all addicts would successfully recover, and that’s far from the case.

My parents didn't do church. My sisters went and I dragged along. By 6th grade, I knew it was pretty much bs. By 8th grade, the church people seemed happy to have me go as they could not answer my questions, even the innocuous ones. In HS, still curious, I studied and read on multiple religions; that was enough to get me totally gone.