I was enlightened when I took an Astronomy course in college. I just can't see the God of the universe (if there is one) being interested in what humans are doing all day and night. In the words of Sam Harris, " Why would a God like to write books and be particularly interested in what humans do while naked?" All my life, I never understood that Jesus dying for our sins thing. In the words of Richard Dawkins "If God wanted to forgive us, why didn't he just say "I forgive you."

For me it was after I found out that my wife was having an affair with my best friend, and someone told me "it's all part of God's plan". That got me thinking that if it was true, my wife was also a victim because she would have had no choice, because she was just a pawn in God's chess game. That then got me thinking about free will vs determinism (I was Christian Reformed, which is a form of Calvinism without the loopholes). I then started reading and over the course of the next couple of years I became atheist.

That baby and bathwater line is hilarious. I tried to use the same thing when I told my wife i was atheist. I said: "honey, I looked all over the bathwater, theres no baby in it. It's just cold cloudy water."

Knowing and loving my kids. I was taught we were to admire the faith of abraham, who was willing to sacrifice his kid to show his loyalty to god. When I determined I would want to kill the god over my kids, I figured I should start taking a hard look at these beliefs I held. From that first domino to the last it was about 5 years.

You have some beautiful, happy looking kids there!

Third grade. I knew it was all bullshit when I was 8. Refused to contine CCD classes. My mom didn't make me go back.

i didn't have a belief system, per se. my family was secular jewish, which means we had strong self-identity, culturally, but i don't remember ever being told that god wanted me to do this or not do that, or anything about heaven or hell (which are not part of judaism anyway) or the devil (likewise -- sorry, no devil in judaism). i just took it for granted there was a god, but didn't think much about it. then i found out something my folks had told me (not to do with religion) wasn't so; they were mistaken. so i thought, well, i'd better think about everything i believe in and find out whether i really do believe in it. god went right out the window. it wasn't traumatic or anything and it wasn't an important enough issue for me to mention it to my folks, not because i thought they'd object (i had no idea!) but because it just didn't occur to me. i was a teenager and not used to confiding in my folks. i told my best friend, i remember, only to find out she didn't hold any gods either, so we had a good laugh about that.

g