Hello Happy Atheists

[ONZero]

Didn't you know long before you called yourself an atheist that you did not believe in all the religious nonsense?  I would usually answer 'none' all the times I was asked my religion.  I must be a little more true to myself and make the moment a new beginning, or at least let the credits start rolling.  My name is Robert and I am an atheist.  Hello to all and I feel it is good to be among you.

[Will]

Didn't you know long before you called yourself an atheist that you did not believe in all the religious nonsense?

No, but to be fair I was still playing with legos and transformers.

Welcome.

[myleviathan]

Welcome, ONZero. I was raised in church and spent a lot of time there. In fact I spent the majority of my life calling myself a Christian. However when I look back on it, I can remember specific moments of unbelief that later came to full fruition. It was always there, but I couldn't fully identify with it until about three years ago. One of my grandfathers and great-grandfathers were atheists. So maybe there's a genetic influence?

[Evolved]

Welcome to the forum, ONZero.  I, too, had questioned everything since I was young.  Welcome to the land of the thinking.

[Whitney]

I was a deist that still liked some religious concepts until not really that long before I realized that was just as false as the form of Christianity I had discarded in high school.  For me, realizing all religions are false lead to the quick realization that the idea of god (being born of religion) was equally false....so no, I can't say that there was much of a gap between my realizing the global extend of the lies of religion and that leading to the conclusion of atheism.


Welcome to the forum.

[rlrose328]

Welcome, Robert!  Have a good time here!

[Versprechung]

hello Robert!
I'm Troy I'm only 13 and i've been questioning religion since I was very little.

glad to see another open minded person with common sense!

[karadan]

Hiya.

I can't remember ever pigeon-holing myself in any way. It was only as i passed through school that my personal belief structure was termed 'Atheism' by a teacher.

I didn't call myself it, someone else did. I kind of like the way it sounds, though.

Hello by the way.

[SteveS]

Hey Robert - welcome to the board!

Didn't you know long before you called yourself an atheist that you did not believe in all the religious nonsense?

Yes!

I would usually answer 'none' all the times I was asked my religion.

Ditto.  Sometimes I said I was agnostic.  Both answers seem to piss people off less than "atheist".

[MommaSquid]

Welcome to the forum, Robert.  I, too, questioned religion from a young age.  I feel fortunate to have waded through the nonsensical dogma and come out the other side to reason and free thought.  

I hope you enjoy your stay here.

[McQ]

Welcome, Robert. Yep. I knew for a long time that I didn't believe in lots of things godlike before admitting it out loud.

[Kylyssa]

Welcome aboard!  

I was fortunate enough to have been raised by freethinking parents so I never had to "get over" religion.  My first encounter with religion wasn't until I was nearly five.  I had to ask my parents if this God business was something people really believed in or were they just pretending.  It never once crossed my mind that any of it might be real.

[crocofish]

I was fortunate enough to have been raised by freethinking parents so I never had to "get over" religion.

I was raised similarly.  I didn't have to recover from religion, but I did have some religious relatives and my parents had some religious friends.  When visiting religious homes, I always dreaded having to do the prayer thing at the dinner table.  My home was nice though; never had to say a single prayer at home when growing up.  

When I was a little kid, I was occasionally taken to church by a relative, and it was a very foreign experience.  Adults were saying all kind of weird stuff like eating the body of Christ when eating crackers, drinking blood which was really grape juice, and the holy ghost.  And the Bible was written in this weird English.  It was quite confusing as a child when you don't have all the indoctrination to prepare you for the church experience.  I kept thinking, "this is all pretend, right?"

I also figured out Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny at an early age.  I remember my parents laughing when they asked me if I thought Santa was real when I was about 6 or 7, and I told them, "No, but I thought you liked pretending to be Santa, so I kept pretending since I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

[McQ]

.....
I also figured out Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny at an early age.  I remember my parents laughing when they asked me if I thought Santa was real when I was about 6 or 7, and I told them, "No, but I thought you liked pretending to be Santa, so I kept pretending since I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

What do you mean? What about Santa? You got something against Santa? Everybody knows the Easter Bunny is a sham, but don't go messin' with the fat guy in the candy-apple-red suit!
If he wasn't real, then how come NORAD tracks him every year? Gotcha there, don't I?  

[crocofish]

What do you mean? What about Santa? You got something against Santa? Everybody knows the Easter Bunny is a sham, but don't go messin' with the fat guy in the candy-apple-red suit!
If he wasn't real, then how come NORAD tracks him every year? Gotcha there, don't I?