What changed your mind?

[Sweetdeath]

Some guy offered me ten bucks and a coupon for a free 44oz. Slurpee at 7-11 if I'd renounce my faith and deny the holy spirit and be an atheist from that point on.

Totally worth it. Just glad he wasn't a scientologist.

God I love slurpees.

This is freakin genius.

[DaemonWulf]

My parents didn't have me baptized, because they both believed I'd make up my own mind when I got old enough. When I was about 13 or so, my mother got involved with the Jehovah Witnesses and I joined as well. I was seeking something at the time, and that looked like it might be it. I spent a couple of years with the JWs, didn't have any issue giving up holidays or any of that, but then began to question the dogma. The biggest stumbling block I came across was the title of one of their books... "Live Forever in Paradise Earth". The belief is the apocalypse is gonna kill off all the non-JWs, and then all the JW survivors will spend 1,000 years rebuilding the Earth. After that, all the dead JWs get resurrected and everyone lives forever in paradise Earth. My problem was two-fold... living forever would get terribly boring after a while, and anyone born in paradise would be ignorant to it by virtue of having no source of comparison. I stuck it out longer than my mother, but gave it up after just a couple of years.  I found Wicca in my later teenage years after a very genuine spiritual experience, but remained a studier rather than a practitioner. A few years ago I dug a bit deeper after being introduced to some information by an evangelist (of all things) only to learn the "religion" was not what I thought it was. By this point I had come to the intellectual conclusion that organized religion is a tool of the powerful that is stifling our evolution as a species. I don't begrudge people their bogeymen if they genuinely feel they bring some joy and meaning into their lives, but I can't encourage such beliefs. I believe if God did exist, he/she/it wouldn't need to assign intermediaries for people to speak through, and the mere fact that the church has become an empire unto itself only proves it is a product of man. Sorry if I've been too long-winded. 

[Sandra Craft]

I started out by researching to make my faith stronger...it had the opposite effect.

Pretty much the same story for me.  I grew up in a variety of very conservative Xtian churches (my mother was the type who went to whatever church was closest to her -- she was definitely a Xtian but didn't practice brand loyalty) and always had questions, esp. since I was taught to take everything literally, and always got the same answer: you'll understand when you're older. 

Well, I got older and didn't understand any better than when I was young so I decided to research on my own, starting with reading the bible from cover to cover.  No matter how much I re-read some passages, or tried to make things fit, there was no getting away from the fact that the book didn't make a lick of sense.  Esp. taken literally.  I don't ask a whole lot from life, but I do ask that things make sense -- I don't have to like them, I don't have to benefit from them, but I do need them to make sense.

I wasted a few more years on the assumption that it was only Xtianity that didn't make sense, and went looking for a religion/spiritual philosophy/whatever that did.  That was pretty interesting, but I finally realized that, at least from where I stood, none of them made any sense and the problem wasn't with a particular religion but with all religions.  Or maybe it was just me, in either case I was clearly an atheist.

Having written all that, the answer to the original question -- what changed your mind? -- is the realization that I didn't have to believe just because I'd been told to, and everyone else around me did.  It was a very time-consuming lesson for someone with a disposition as . . . well, let's be kind and call it easy-going . . . as mine.

[Siz]

After growing up in a non practicing Christian home, I was never fully convinced. Then in my teens I met some soul-savers that I respected who gently convinced me to look for god. I looked and was surprised, and a little disappointed to find noone there. Then gradually over the years I became very comfortable with living without a god. And eventually realised the liberating joy of life in a godless Darwinian world. And reading Dawkins has helped cement and organise my own beliefs.

Coming to terms with being proudly and openly Atheist in the face of cultural conditioning was a joyously liberating experience. I have vowed to be a conscientious Atheist and not be bullied by the religious...And more importantly, not be bullied by the weak-minded non-religious who subconsciously tow the religious line.

[fyv0h]

Education. A fascination with mythology which inherently morphed into theology (hand-in-hand). Reading the bible in basic training and thinking "wow, total....effing....insanity." I remember trying so hard to believe. I didn't want to not believe. It was like trying not to like beer and porn. I simply couldn't do it. I just love beer and porn and not believing.

[Siz]

Education. A fascination with mythology which inherently morphed into theology (hand-in-hand). Reading the bible in basic training and thinking "wow, total....effing....insanity." I remember trying so hard to believe. I didn't want to not believe. It was like trying not to like beer and porn. I simply couldn't do it. I just love beer and porn and not believing.

Cool, so in touch with your personal Satan! Respect!

[LukevanVeith]

Logic, common senses, unfairness in life, selfishness of religions, etc.

[KingPhilip]

It surprises me, but I can remember the exact moment it all began to seem like lunacy to me. I was in 9th grade, homeschooled, and we were using Christian schoolbooks. In the history one it was describing how the Grand Canyon could have never been carved from the Colorado River in the short time the earth has been around, and that hard working Christian scientists have determined that it was actually a channel for the removal of water from North America during the Great Flood. Only this massive amount of power from the Lord could have created such an immense canyon. I believe that's a near exact quote from the book.

Needless to say, even as a fairly believing Christian, I called BS. It was all downhill, or uphill rather, from there.

[Denty420]

9/11 was the turning point for me. I'd had doubts before, and it took another ten years after 2001 for me to completely reject all the brainwashing I'd been subjected to from childhood onwards. Penn Jillette's book God, No! was also a factor, because reading that made me realise just what a load of crap I'd bought into all these years. The barbarism of Islam, the hypocrisy of Christianity, the pointlessness of Buddhism and the greed of Scientology also made me call bullshit on the idea of religion.

[BullyforBronto]

By the time I was 15, I had left behind my Irish Catholic upbringing for skateboarding and the Dead Kennedys. But, what really put the nail in the theistic coffin was education. In other words, I blame my atheism on Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Steve Gould, Ernst Meyer, etc... Believe it or not, studies in literary criticism/theory can make one an atheist pretty fast. Couple that with studies in the history/philosophy of science, theism stands no chance. In fact, academic pursuit of any kind, in my opinion, cannot be reconciled with any sort of subscription to religious beliefs.

Now that I've reached middle age (read: old), I really can't remember a time when I actually believed in the supernatural. I mean, I went to "Sunday School" and even was "confirmed" as a thirteen-year-old Catholic. But, it was more out of tradition than actual belief. I often wonder if my parents and extended family really believe what the Church espouses. The Catholic mass is very mechanical and ritualistic, and I sometimes doubt that the congregation actually thinks about the words that are uttered during the service. Though this may be a generalization based on my experiences, many seem to attend mass because it's just something they've always done.

Moral of the story: Go skateboarding, listen to punk rock, read some postmodern philosophy and eat meat on Friday, preferably a fried pork belly BLT.

[SatanicBurrito]

The angry penguins at my cadechism child abuse sessions scolded us that we should read the bible.  I actually listened.  Reading the bible cover to cover without someone interpreting it for you - pretty much the freeway to being an atheist if you have a few brain cells firing.

Real nail in the coffin was college. Biology teacher walked in and said "oh and by the way: we come from monkeys. Evolution is scientific fact, not a "guess", it's fact.  Religion is bullshit, god has no place in science, and I have no time to discuss any of that in my classroom.  If you have a problem with that you should drop this class right now and run off to church.  The rest of us, we'll be learning the real truth about life on this planet."  He was the first real atheist I ever knew who spoke openly about religion being bullshit.  

[Asmodean]

"oh and by the way: we come from monkeys. Evolution is scientific fact, not a "guess", it's fact.  Religion is bullshit, god has no place in science, and I have no time to discuss any of that in my classroom.  If you have a problem with that you should drop this class right now and run off to church.  The rest of us, we'll be learning the real truth about life on this planet."  He was the first real atheist I ever knew who spoke openly about religion being bullshit.  

Was he perchance gray and round..?

Because I think we might be related 

[Sandra Craft]

The angry penguins at my cadechism child abuse sessions scolded us that we should read the bible.  I actually listened.  Reading the bible cover to cover without someone interpreting it for you - pretty much the freeway to being an atheist if you have a few brain cells firing.

Whenever the religious urge people to read the bible, I back them up to the hilt.  I strongly encourage everyone to read it cover to cover and on your own, without anyone leaning over your shoulder saying, "what that really means is . . .", because there are 10 million different guesses as to what anything in the bible really means and no ones guess is going to be any better or worse than yours.  The bible has created more atheists than any other book in the world, esp. since the fundys started insisting that it be taken literally rather than metaphorically. 

The funny part of this (well, funny-sad, really) is that I've met Xtians who absolutely, flatly refuse to believe I've ever read the bible because they are so convinced that reading the bible unfailingly creates belief in its truth.  It doesn't matter how familiar I am with this, that and the other story, that I know some passages well enough to quote them from memory, that I may even know passages they didn't know -- they think I just happened to hear it in passing and was lucky enough to remember it or some other nonsense because it is impossible to read the bible without believing it and therefore I'm just another lying atheist. 

Bear in mind I'm not telling them that a god of some kind, maybe even their kind, does not exist because how would I know a thing like that?  All I'm saying is that reading the bible does not result in automatic belief, that I know this from personal experience and I've heard the same from a lot of other atheists but that's still too much contradiction of the approved version of reality for them to accept.  It must be awful tough going thru life chanting "la la la" with their eyes squeezed shut and their fingers stuck in their ears.

Real nail in the coffin was college. Biology teacher walked in and said "oh and by the way: we come from monkeys. Evolution is scientific fact, not a "guess", it's fact.  Religion is bullshit, god has no place in science, and I have no time to discuss any of that in my classroom.  If you have a problem with that you should drop this class right now and run off to church.  The rest of us, we'll be learning the real truth about life on this planet."  He was the first real atheist I ever knew who spoke openly about religion being bullshit.  

I hope that somewhere along the line he got a Teacher of the Year award.

[KingPhilip]

Where was this teacher? I may be switching colleges.. >.>

[Guardian85]

While my family and I was living in Germany, I was bullied a lot in school since I was the outside kid.
Lacking in self-esteem and friends to lean on I turned to religion for help. Somehow it made it easier to bear the hardships of everyday life if I had divine back-up. At this point I was 10.

By the time I was 14, I had built up my self-esteem with Judo, while I also grew quite a bit bigger and broader in the shoulders.
At this point, no longer requiring the divine crutch to get through a day, and increasing understanding of how the world works, that is where the faith was shaken. By the time I was 16, I didn't call myself atheist, but I pretty much was.