I was 15. i was raised as a secular jew (i had to phone my folks long distance, as an adult, to ask them if they believed in god, when someone asked me about it and i didn't know!) and decided, at age 14, to become more religious. after a year i decided that i liked judaism but not the jews my age i encountered in shul. they seemed to be there to prove something; i was there to learn something. about a year later i discovered that something my parents had told me as fact wasn't true: boys with long hair were dirty and rebellious. i could see that this was false. i had believed them! i wondered what else i believed that wasn't so? i did a bit of belief-examination and god went out the window pretty fast. i promised myself to reexamine my beliefs periodically and i have been true to myself. i still like the humanistic aspects of judaism, and will always culturally be a jew, but as i age i am more and more disgusted with what i call superstition, and i very much doubt i will "find god" (i'm not looking!) even on my deathbed.

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I was a very religious person until I was 29, I had been raised in a Baptist church. It was all I ever knew, I thought since I was little that this was the ultimate truth. Slowly over time I started to challenge this in my mind. My wife became very ill and over the course of three years and endless prayers for her health, she passed. I had felt cheated, I felt my faith rattled to my core. The immense pain I felt was never quenched. I was left empty and adrift. I started to mediate, I began to question my being. A friend offered me a sacrament, after this profound experience, everything began to become clear. I realized after this that everything was connected. The universe, you me we were all one. There was no presence that was benovelt. We are all equal, together as one. My life changed, i wanted peace. I wanted to spread love and understanding. I have never looked back, and I don't feel empty anymore.

When I was four I took money out of the collection plate. I didn't view it as stealing, as this was money that people had willingly thrown away. The idea that there was an actual god didn't occur to me - it was just another one of the lies that grownups told kids.

Wow... how I wish I had shed my religious beliefs at an early age like most of the responses I have read here, I was brought up in the pentecostal religion, I was told from birth that if I didn't believe and live right I would burn in hell for ever and ever. I was 49 years old while listening to George Carlin's routine about the biggest scam ever ( religion ) that I completely let go of my religious beliefs and what a great day that was! I need to add, I never felt comfortable at church probably because I really believe that God was real and expected a real God to enter in to me, people all around me speaking in tongues jabbering the same repetitive sounds, afterwards talking about how the holy spirit made them fill, I watched hands laid on crippled people again and again but never seen a miracle, yet all the church people always talking about miracles they had seen. I hold no religious beliefs but do try to be respectful around religious friends and family!

Being a late bloomer, I was 30 when I left the Moron (oops, Mormon) church in which I was raised. I still explored other Christian religions, and was 34 when I finally came to the conclusion that God is a myth and religion is a scam.

I am careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are some good ethics in religion, adopted by religion from non-religious sources, no doubt. I think that it is good to "Love your neighbor as yourself," for example. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) has some good ethical teachings in it, too. I discard the fictitious myths and bad teachings in the Bible (there are plenty!), but I acknowledge that some teachings are helpful. It's like Aesop's Fables. The stories themselves are obviously fictitious, but there are valuable moral lessons to be learned from them.

I can't remember. Even as a teenager it didn't make sense to me so I can't recall a time where I really thought that there's actually a god up there in the sky. I treated it more as part of the tradition and didn't really think about it.
I became self-identifying as an atheist probably around the age of 20.

No religious beliefs left.

I started doubting at the age of 18.Reading the Bible I discovered the jealousy and bigotry of the Christian God. And when I started thinking about the resurrection of the flesh myth, I had enough. Human fictions can brainwash people powerfully.

Around 17, and total confident rejecting any religion and existence of gods or devils by age of 22 . Holding onto nothing .

I was about 8, at a bible camp. I had asked of of the counselors.. “how do you know, if there is a god?” The response was, you just feel it. I felt nothing. It made no sense. The stories in the buybull made no sense. My doubts grew from there. I left the church by the age of 13 and was agnostic until I was in my 20’s. Finally becoming to my current state of thought.

Went to Sunday School when I was little. I thought that the stories were great...even said prayers every night.But, Innocent naivety lost to curiosity and scepticism at an early age. With regards to religion, I’ve never biased my children in any direction !

I started my movement away from religion at age 15, and completed it in my 20s.

17 years old; I was a junior in high school. Going to a private Christian school from pre-K to 12th grade probably had something to do with it.

I haven't held on to any religious beliefs

First glimmer of disbelief came at about 10 or 12, but didn't give denial or belief much attention either way. Parents went, so I had to go, and girl I had a crush on went to church with me, that's where my focus was. Teen years more interested in sex, drugs, rock n roll. After Marine Corps, was back in school, raising 2 daughters after divorce, taking care of mom with MS and recovering from heart attack. Needless to say I was overwhelmed. Started back b/c always told God handles your problems that you can't...so figured I was being prideful (see how they get you in with guilt and lowering your self esteem)? After being back in, really trying to live the life, finally accepted it was a load of crap and no amount of praying or faith would fix my problems. Was in late 30's when I finally stepped away for good. And no, don't believe any of it.

I never believed even as in elementary school it did not make sense or feel right. Took a theology class or two in college as I was interested. My focus was always more on the outcome of my behavior but that was also how my grandmother, a Quaker raised my to be. Paradoxical.

12. None. It's a complete myth. Don't even think twice about it anymore.

Well, not sure if it is "religious" per se but a lot of "moral" values from my religious days have been engrained in me and hard to shake them loose.

One of the books by a catholic author said, in essence, if a child half way around the world is starving it is because I did not share my food.

I saw the truth of it, and I still carry that with me.

I told my mother I was agnostic when i was 16, my ex was super into religion, so I went along and got involved, when i started working for the church, I saw first hand the hypocracy that was practiced. Once we were divorced, I went back to who i was and she became a unitarian and my son is an atheist,

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

No residual, religious superstitions.

Started questioning the Catholic nonsense I was raised with as soon as I can recall. 7 or 8 I think. Never considered myself a believer but went along so as not to disappoint my mother. Early 20s when I stopped participating.

I think the guilt might still be with me. Ugh!

I don't remember ever believing. I toyed with the concept as a child, but fortunately I rode a school bus with two very religious girls. They would always talk about bible stories and god. All I could think was, 'Do you even fucking hear the bullshit you're spouting?'

Thanks Brenda and Angie. You made it all so clear.