Atheist Forum

Like the subject says, why are you an Atheist? Have you been an Atheist all your life (never pushed into any religion) or have you been converted recently?

I was a Christian for the first 11 years of my life, but it was something I was forced into by my parents and school etc. It was when I moved to secondary school (at age 11) that I started to doubt God and religion. There are just too many religions out there with completely different beliefs, it is impossible to know for sure which is "correct". So I turned agnostic, but later realised that I literally couldn't believe that any form of God existed. You only have to take a look at the world to realise that.

I have always been an Atheist as my parents before me. After an acceleration of my knowledge from an early age, I have always drawn the conclusion that an almighty being just popped out of nowhere and made the universe. The Big Bang theory seems highly more likely than religious beliefs. Also, I have witnessed many fights or arguments over religion, a person who's life could have been saved if not for religion and many who have been pressured by religion, including my great-grandfather.

I'm not quite an atheist, although I assumed I was one for a long time. Rather, I'm an anti-dualist. I have no problem with any transcendental religion or interpretation thereof that believes spirituality comes from accepting the physical world, and transcending it. Any religion that preaches an alternate reality in heaven where some pure God rewards those who do "good" (another illusion) and smites those who do "evil" (also an illusion) is to me, immature thinking, and should be mocked if not outright nailed to crosses and murdered

I am sick of seeing humanity led around by the nose for these fantastical, immature, Abrahamic beliefs and I don't shy away from saying it. That being said, I think there can be transcendental versions of any religion except outright materialistic ones (Judaism, Scientology).

My ideas are generally only for those who are very mature about facing truth, and dedicated to reality. Anyone else is a dualist, as far as I'm concerned.

Im not an Athiest, Im a Christian here to be the public enemy. We all need enemies.

Well we can't have discussions without people who have a different viewpoint. I don't think we should refer to each other as "enemies" though...unless you are here to cause unneccesary trouble.

I've been an atheist for about 4 years. I became an atheist when I realised that I didn't believe in the existance of any sort of deity whatsoever. That's about it.

I'm an atheist because, well, the idea of god is for me self-contradicting, and redundant at best; also, I regard "evidences" such as the holy scriptures, miracles, mysticical experiences false.

I'm an atheist because I have no choice....I'll start a thread for that. Please pipe in with your thoughts.

When I was seven, my mom lived with a Christian man. His friend came over and "saved" us. From then on, it went downhill. I was forced to pray many times a day and recite certain prayers out of fear that I would go to hell. I could only watch Christian television, or television that was pre-taped and viewed by this man to make sure there was nothing "sinful" about it. I was only allowed to listen to Christian music. Anything unChristian resulted in severe beatings. And the church approved of this! He frequently beat my siblings, and my mom and myself.
When my mom talked about divorce, the church backlashed against her and called her a "devil woman", and a "witch".

It wasn't until I was about 12 that I finally got over my fear of damnation and actually gained the courage to research something I have always been interested. Biology and science. It took a while, but the more I read, the more I began to doubt Christianity. I started asking myself, "Why is it that only Christianity is right, but not Hinduism? What's the difference? And if humans are the only ones with one right religion, then that means every other animal is going to hell, and a fraction of the entire earth population of the human animal is going to heaven." Stuff along those lines. I thought, "How absurd".

My mom had remarried and it was to another Christian man. But this guy was different. By this time, my mom was practicing Wicca, and I was a practicing nontheist. This Christian man supported both of our views and we all lived in harmony. He prayed, and allowed us to follow our own paths. He also believed in theistic evolution. All in all, he was probably the best Christian individual I met, simply because he was so accepting and never tried to discourage our separate paths.

I am very interested in science, and I personally don't believe in theistic evolution. I find that it's impossible for an intelligent force to guide a natural process simply because if it took billions of years to produce remotely intelligent life, why is it that this "being" was around eternally? This entity had to have come from somewhere with all of its complexities already intact. It's simply irrational.

While I can't say 100% that there is no entity, I believe that there is far greater evidence against said entity than there is for it(none).

When I was a child religion wasn't ever mentioned in my house. None of my parents are religious (altough my mother has had some new age stuff aroud like Feng Shui), and I always went to secular schools. So I can say that I hardly knew anything about religion. I remember feeling uncomfortable on the few ocasions god sneaked on a class, but it wasn't something concrete.

Then, when I was 14 I started reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and a few months later my mother gave to me The Antichrist (both by Nietzsche). It was then when my beliefs (or lack of them) became clear to me. I started reading about both religion and atheism, and my ideas became more clear: I am 110% sure that there's no god, and that won't change unless I see REALLY convincing evidence.