Were you always an atheist? (punishment, Christ, experience, agnostic)

[Travelling fella]

Do you have been an atheist your entire life or something made you become one, if so what was the reason?

Are you a believer? do you have an atheist past? if so what made you change your mind?

I was an atheist for a significant amount of my life, I was one because I always disagreed with the guilt, fear or dogma of eternal punishment in hell, I also disagreed with the closemindness of a lot of people regarding evolution, scientific evidence, etc, or the lack of answers based on personal experience, people were always quoting scripture which made me remember those days in school where you just memorized the answers of the exams, but didn't really understand what you were talking about, I started to believe because I've always been a curious person who wants to know more about how things really work, this curiosity lead me to the discovery of advanced phillosophies that filled my spirit with something I had never experienced before and that was superior (to me) that anything else I had experienced before.

Love and Light!

[MontanaGuy]

I've been an atheist since my mid teens which over fourty years ago. I can't say that I was ever a believer, I was just doing what my friends and family was doing and that was being involved in various church activities. I became an atheist because I realized that what I was hearing in church was impossible and downright preposterous.
I've said before that I think the great majority of people who finally make up their mind about whether or not they believe in God will generally stick with that belief or lack of belief for the rest of their lives. At this point in my life there's not even the remotest possibility that I could become a believer.

[Amy S in PBC]

I've always been an agnostic/nontheist! My parents let us kids make that decision for ourselves. And it wasn’t like we weren’t exposed to religion - our neighborhood was very diverse and all our friends went to one church or another.

My brother liked this girl who went to a Lutheran church – so he started going and still goes to this day. My sister was in some weird culty religion where they spoke in tongues. I went to a Catholic church with my friends on Sundays just for ha has. I thought it ridiculous then, and just pathetic now.

My parents were flawed and made a lot of mistakes with us, but letting us decide for ourselves something so deeply personal – I thank them every day!

[emi__]

I was kind of herded into Christianity when I was a kid, some years back. Then I started to really read the Bible and I looked around me. Stuff didn't match up. After that, I went into an agnostic phase and now I'm a weak atheist.

[GCSTroop]

Even from the time I was very, very young (perhaps 4 or 5?) I doubted the existence of God. In fact, it did actually take me longer to doubt Santa Claus than God. Imagine that!

With that being said, there's an interesting connection between the two - Santa Claus and God. I remember when I became pretty certain that Santa Claus was not a real entity at around five or six and I didn't want to tell my parents for several reasons. For one, I didn't want to break the bad news to them and secondly I was a little bit scared that they might be disappointed in me. So, I held onto my "belief" in Santa for quite a while because I thought it was necessary.

Knowing that God was supposed to be a more important entity than Santa Claus, I certainly had that same sort of attitude towards it. I didn't believe. I can't say I ever really did really believe. I certainly had questions about the existence of the Christian God from the time I was very young but it wasn't until I was older that I started to ponder about a more Deistic viewpoint. But, in the end, even that made little to no sense to me.

So, yes, I guess you could say I have always been an Atheist. I think that I tried very hard to believe at different points in my younger years but I just couldn't do it. The thing that gets me are the people who say you have to read the Bible, ask to be spoken to, will yourself into the arms of God... It always makes me feel that when people say this that all they're trying to do is get you to force yourself to believe. I suppose this is why people recite the Nicene Creed, they pray every day, they read the Bible every waking moment, they ask and they ask and they literally convince themselves that it's true. It's like a self-reassurance of doubt. I'm really not into that. If it doesn't make sense, if it can't be tested for or observed than why is there any reason to believe it?

[Tricky D]

Because of my parents I have always had faith in love, so I guess I never was an atheist.
Or maybe I’m an atheist who doesn’t have an organised religion (or philosophy).

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by GCSTroop

I suppose this is why people recite the Nicene Creed, they pray every day, they read the Bible every waking moment, they ask and they ask and they literally convince themselves that it's true. It's like a self-reassurance of doubt.

That is such a great point. I feel that any religion that people are truly devoted to becomes such an integral part of their life because they train themselves to focus on it to the point that they believe in something that they may even have not believed in before.
The "eastern" religions are generally a lot more positive than the "western" ones and it seems so backwards when people choose to meditate on things like the destruction of Earth and terrifying punishment for sin.

EDIT: forgot to answer the OP question:
No, I have not always been an atheist - far from it. I was raised in a Pentecostal Assembly of God church. I believed in God for my entire childhood, and I don't really remember believing in Santa Claus. I think my parents de-emphasized Santa, but he was certainly not banned from the house - my family is really very open-minded despite participating in a church where people regularly speak in tongues. Up until I was about 13, I believed that everything in the Bible was true.
All it took for me to "lose my faith" (I use scare quotes because I don't think I ever had faith - I just believed the Bible, my church, and my parents) was to learn about other religions, cultures, and societies in depth. Around that same time I read the book, "A Separate Peace" about a dying kid who was "agnostic". I had never heard the word before so I looked it up and realized that I was also agnostic. I didn't believe that God could be proven. That was the beginning...

[Haaziq]

I was raised in a Baptist family, but I was always more of a deist. I've always disliked organized religion. I became an atheist around 15 years young.

[coosjoaquin]

Hi my name is Joaquin and I've been religion free for almost 4 years now.

[Tricky D]

Originally Posted by coosjoaquin

Hi my name is Joaquin and I've been religion free for almost 4 years now.

Yep, that's what all the addicts claim; denial often is the 1st sign of addiction.