Why did you choose Atheism?

[Kevin]

I am just wondering why you all chose Atheism, or Agnostic.

Me, this will sound funny... I was watching George Carlin's "Religion is Bullshit" clip on youtube, and it got me thinking.
From there, it started to get me thinking, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how much bullshit religion is (Specifically Christianity).
Then I started thinking about my faith about there being a deity, and the more I looked into it, the more I realized I would be considered an Agnostic Atheist.
I wouldn't say that I chose to be one, it was just me opening my eyes to the realization of it all.

EDIT: I decided for the hell of it to add my religious background, and how it affected me.

I was not really raised in a religious family. My parents didn't go to Church that often. I don't know if it was because they didn't want to, or didn't have time. But my grandparents have always been very religious. My Father's side, his mom (His Dad died when he was like 9) is Penecostal, and raised my Dad penecostal. My Mom's side didn't become very religious until around the time I was born (1992).
My Grandfather on my Mom's side would invite us to VBS (Vacation Bible School), and we would go sometimes.
He became a preacher, and baptized me around 4 years ago (I was 12, I think). He wanted me to, I can't remember my thoughts.
I use to pray sometimes, just when I felt like it. We would go to Church when my Dad would play drums at our local church.

But then, as I mentioned, I finally thought about it, I didn't want anymore of this. I talked my way out of going to VBS, and stopped praying. I realized that all of it did nothing. I never felt anything when I got baptized besides getting wet, and all I did while praying was talking to myself. This is where I am now.

And me and my Dad have talked about religion, just a little bit. We share a lot of the same views. I don't know for sure what his view on a god is, but we have basically the SAME views on religion.. I was so glad to hear that we both see it as a tool and there is something messed up with it. My Mom I know believes in some kind of god, but does not necessarily believe in the Christian god. She believes in a creator though, but not the idea of a god watching over us every second of the day watching every move we make.
^ Kind of long, but that's me

[rlrose328]

I know there's another thread about this somewhere, but I never tire of posting my story...

I was raised Lutheran... confirmed, baptized, the whole nine.  Never really believed, but tried REALLY hard.  I read the bible, I prayed, I took communion, I sang in the choir, I taught VBC and helped teach Sunday School.  I knitted and crocheted for the annual bazaar and gave to charities and the needy.

Never once did I feel ANYTHING in my heart or soul or whatever.  All I felt was conflicted.  And this was when I was too young to have done any of the acting out I've done since.  And my parents were both very devout.  Dad was so devout that when the men on the elder council, on which he sat, started cussing and yelling at each other during a meeting, he got up and walked out, never to return.  Said he could praise god on his own time without all of that crap.  (Good for him!)  Mom has always been the church organist and choir director... even got a degree in liturgical music theory and classical piano.

So I stopped going through the motions when I was about 17... said I just wasn't going anymore.  And I didn't, except during the Christmas season, to listen to Mom's annual Christmas music program.  It ate up so much of her time from September through Christmas, it was one of the only times I saw her until after New Year's.

I stuck with agnosticism through my 20s and 30s for two reasons... I knew if I said I was an atheist, I'd lose all of my friends, my family and everything.  I wasn't willing at that time to do that.  And second, I didn't really KNOW what label I should adopt.  I read everything I could find at the time... books on Judaism, Mormon, Catholicism, all manner of protestantism.  Buddhism, Islam (what little I could find at the time) and Taoism.  The more I read, the more like BS it all seemed.  The contradictions.  The same stories as Christianity but predating CHristianity... it made no sense.

Finally, in 2004, right after Shrub was re-elected, I stood in front of a mirror in the bathroom and formally said outloud:  I am an atheist.

And boy, the peace that flooded through me was amazing.  Like a balled up piece of paper being ironed flat again.  I felt I could breathe again.  I wasn't scared any more of what might come after because I'm sure there is nothing after.  And that's okay.  I helps me make the most of my life now, with my family and social causes.  I give because I want to, not because the church tells me I should.  I treat people like I'd like to be treated, not because some ancient book written by nomads says some invisible being wants me to but because I KNOW it's the right thing to do in this life.

The peace comes and goes, depending on how many religious people cross my path on any given day... but for the most part, I've never been happier.  

[Kyuuketsuki]

Hi Kevin,

I wouldn't say that I chose to be one, it was just me opening my eyes to the realization of it all.

Like you I didn't choose to be atheist although I now choose to define myself as "atheist" ...  by that I mean I simply stopped believing but it was only later that I realised what I was but more to the point am willing to declare myself as atheist rather than many who don't seem to like calling themselves that and prefer to use the term "agnostic" instead. TBH I don't think it is really possible to choose to become atheist but then I don't consider atheism to be a philosophical position, merely a label.

I won't go into detail as to how I became atheist; it's all over at my UK Tech Portal Blog linked in my signature below.

Kyu

[karadan]

I never actually believed in any deity or afterlife. I've always held the same basic beliefs and have lived by the same principles all my life. I never actually chose to be atheist, it's just a label someone else applied to my method of thinking.

So, i guess, atheism chose me.

[MariaEvri]

I never actually believed in any deity or afterlife. I've always held the same basic beliefs and have lived by the same principles all my life. I never actually chose to be atheist, it's just a label someone else applied to my method of thinking.

So, i guess, atheism chose me.

same here. I didn't actually "choose" to be an atheist. I just use my common logic to see the world around me. In fact, I didnt know the term "atheism" till late highschool.

[Asmodean]

I didn't. I have never been a theist, thus I didn't "choose" atheism any more than I chose my skin color.

[Whitney]

I consider why I don't believe in a god to be separate, yet related, to why I am not religious.  

I was raised with a religious background but pretty much had left the religious stuff behind by late high school.  Later in college I started to think about belief (whereas I had previously just lost interest in organized religion) and realized that there was no reason to think that any one religion is correct.  But that didn't make me view myself as an atheist, that just made me more of a deist.  When I started to think about the concept of god again I came to the conclusion that an involved loving god could not exist otherwise all this religious craziness wouldn't be allowed to go unmanaged.  If god is not involved then I don't think it ought to be considered a god.  So, then we're just left with does a creator exist.  I don't think we have a reason to assume a creator and therefore I don't believe in one...that is not to say I think it is impossible that something we could call a creator exists, I just don't think we should apply the term just to pretend we have an answer.  So, in a nut shell...that's why I'm an atheist.

[curiosityandthecat]

I didn't. I have never been a theist, thus I didn't "choose" atheism any more than I chose my skin color.

Ditto. Though, I did choose my skin color: I'm a clone, created in a lab, using the DNA of my former self born in 1946.

Or was that a movie I watched... oh well.

[Stoicheion]

I grew up around Catholics and i went to Sunday school and all that but we never really went to church. I started questioning God in about 6th grade, about the same time i figured out that i liked girls (though there isn't a correlation between the two). And MAN, when i was still in high school i had my fare share of people saying "well no wonder you're gay! you need Jesus in your life!" (I'm pansexual but whatever. Its so hard to explain that to some people, especially Christians.

[Stoicheion]

BTW Kevin.... i LOVE your icon

[Asmodean]

Ditto. Though, I did choose my skin color: I'm a clone, created in a lab, using the DNA of my former self born in 1946.

Or was that a movie I watched... oh well.

Having trouble finding out which reality is real, eh?