I have always been skeptical. Guess I was born this way. I just want things to make sense to me. As a child, I questioned the stories the nuns were telling, since they simply didn't make sense to me. I've looked at anything the clergy says a bit sideways ever since.

Because of logical reasoning and scientific evidence. The Bible is a great work of fiction, but it is full of missinformation. One book says one thing and another contradicts the other. I started questioning it while I was in the Army and when I came back to civilian society, I was amazed by how many hypocrites preach the bible but don't abide by what it says. Do what I tell you to do, not as I do. Many people believe in religion because it opens up the sexual relationship. Priests, preachers, TV evangelists all have one thing on their mind. Sex.

I'm very skeptical. It bugs people.

The immediate precipitating event was a personal situation, and there's nothing wrong with that, because it got me to question my faith and once I went down that road I soon had plenty of evidence, too.

No one can accuse me of being an atheist because I'm "disappointed" or "hurt" or "bitter". I was certainly disappointed and hurt (though not bitter) to begin with, but for years now I've felt quite liberated from the emotional baggage, other than some residual ideation that sometimes wants to creep back in, relating to imagined entitlement for my life to go the way I want it to.

Disillusionment is not enough to sustain unbelief, but it often serves as an impetus to question dogma.

I doubt if many people came to non belief the way that many came to religious belief. Most believers were indoctrinated from birth whilst although some non believers were never indoctrinated many were and in later life saw how nonsensical belief is.
I wonder how many non believers took up religion later in life?. Very few I would imagine.

I am a scientist by vocation. The definition of a scientist includes being skeptical as a driving force for seeking new knowledge.

I came to my atheism when I was a freshman in college and took a couple of philosophy classes. The classes gave me implicit permission to ask questions that religion up to that time discouraged. So my conversion was evidence based.

Evidence

I'm a critical thinker. Always suspected there might not be a god but only after 30 years of research did I finally call myself an atheist, because yes, I see no evidence. Starting to think Jesus didn't exist either. His story, some parts at least, is clearly plagiarized from mythology before his time.

I think of myself a s skeptical thinker.
I question the existence of gods because the world looks exactly like what I'd expect if there were none, and people just made them up to suit their own needs.

I always questioned. Always. As long as I can remember I always questioned how anybody could honestly have faith and still function.

Both.

Maybe, a lack of evidence, as well as rationality...too many contradictions that cannot be...as well as personal experience and experiences of the people of the world...but rational thought did it for me...example? humans assume that there is not just a god but god is good...why? there is both good and evil as far as human constructs exist but that is not found anywhere else in nature...so, it then makes sense that god, if one exists....is good...or evil...and the evidence? never comes down on evil ever...as we define it...there you go

Personally, my lack of belief is evidence-based. Although I am pleased that religiosity in the US is waning, I do see many of the reasons cited as problematic. For example,

• The loss of a family member
• The oppression of minority groups (e.g. gays)
• Corruption in the church
• Terrorism in the name of a religion

While these are indeed terrible things, none of them negates any existential claim made by a religious system. My own utopia would be a society where people attempt to align their beliefs with our best understanding of reality, irrespective of how appealing or unappealing these beliefs are.

the term I often use to describe myself is 'zetetic' roughly translating to 'skeptical seeker'.... I am cynical, sardonic and don't keep my thought to myself very often...

I think it is a combination of factors that lead to atheism. For me it was both feelings about a situation and rational thinking. I had toyed with being atheist several times but still was very religious. When being a theist no longer offered me any comfort I became an atheist. I knew all the arguments for both sides for a very long time when I finally gave up on religion.

I have what I consider to be a healthy distrust of authority, brought on a little earlier for me than for most people (I'd reckon) by person life circumstances. That's not to say I don't respect authority where I can handily see it is deserved. But that distrust carries over into every facet of life. That's really all "skeptical" means in this context, yanno? Once you've discovered enough bad data thrown in your face, it's only natural to start questioning it more often.

Non belief, a weird concept. Sounds like baldness is a hairstyle ! Atheist read the Bible and ask realistic questions about the validity of the events, concluded that is a misogynistic book by sheep herders to control the masses by instilling fear in their minds. So, I do not question god, the probability that a god or gods exist is extremely low and most definitely not necessary

We give rationality & evidenced based thinking too much credit. The cerebral cortex is a very recent development in evolution. The old limbic brain is the real basis of our thinking, but then we rationalize with supposed reasons.

Non belief is a belief. We may not believe in the old religious nonsense, but we find what we consider more satisfying & ego stroking new beliefs to take it's place

reading the comments here for the evidence...it was written in a book by humans, for humans to be followed to the letter by humans who wore better robes than you and had a big stick to keep you in line..
before the book there was tribes who believed that if you did not pray the sky would fall...this is the 20th centuary why on earth in this supposed intellectual time do you think that old stuff was right ...oh and those parables...condescending shit ..lol

I was raised as a skeptical thinker which, in my opinion, must produce agnostics/atheists. I didn't question god so much as I wasn't ever convinced of any gods.

More like a lack of evidence, really. I don’t “question” the existence of any gods, because the people promoting such ideas have never been very convincing in the first place, and I see nothing to support the idea in my experience of the world in which I live.

I first questioned god due to the Bibles contradictions. Once I discovered that I was an atheist I started looking for evidence. I am still looking.

There may be an invisible ( probably white ) man in the sky who benevolently watches over us. I seriously doubt it but, since I'm not up there ( yet ), I can't say for sure. I do find it particularly far fetched that this invisible man fathered his only son with a virgin for the primary purpose of being tortured to death so as to cleanse us of our wrongs and, only if we believe that, are we qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Nevertheless, I applaud Jesus for being associated with the philosophy which so few Christians seem to follow; to do unto others as you would have them do to you. And BTW, if you want to go to Heaven, there's a place overlooking Lake Tahoe called Heavenly Valley. Go there in the early spring and watch the young women skiing in bikinis, then try to tell me that there is no Heaven !

"Do you question god because of evidence"
FWIW, there's no question. There is no god because there is no evidence.

I’m pretty skeptical. There are just so many questions that arise when I hear or read information which causes me to not come to a formidable solution.