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How old were you when you declared yourself an atheist?

I remember telling my dad at 14 or so. I did not come from a religious family so he was a little bummed but not distraught or anything. This has helped me be free-spirited in all of my thoughts.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Wood on July 29, 2011 at 12:38pm

I began to think atheist in 1954, with the addition of "under 'god'™" in the pledge. I announced a couple of years later at age 12.

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Permalink Reply by Jedi Wanderer on July 29, 2011 at 12:41pm

Pretty cool, Brian. I also began to call myself an atheist at age 12, but this was only as far back as '89. Good to know there were many before me, and still many more to come.

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Permalink Reply by Atheist Andrea on July 29, 2011 at 7:07pm

Brian, I recently watched a clip on the pledge and could not believe how wonderful it sounded before they added 'God'. Even after Einstein's theories came out you would think our nation was getting away from religious beliefs. p.s Love how you added the trademark there. :)

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Permalink Reply by Daniel PD on March 23, 2012 at 5:58pm

Woah, you had to live in the dark ages of atheism? Congratulations on keeping your sanity.

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Chase on July 29, 2011 at 1:35pm

I was about 18. After a brief flight of fancy when I was 16 or 17 about going to seminary I started paying closer attention to my faith. What I found were a lot of questions, not a lot of satisfactory answers, and a huge amount of rationalization. I would say a series of realizations, events, and reflection transformed me from believer to agnostic to atheist to just shy of strong atheist. Though due to problems of definition I still consider myself a technical agnostic because proving a negative is quite challenging.

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Permalink Reply by Atheist Andrea on July 29, 2011 at 7:10pm

This is why Chrisitanity tends to be so vague: If you get into too much detail in the bible then the story will seem even more like a fable than it already is. Good job seeing things with eyes open.

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Permalink Reply by damian on July 29, 2011 at 8:24pm

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Permalink Reply by David Anam on July 29, 2011 at 8:52pm

I wasn't really raised religious, but I was probably around 8 or 9 when I started realizing that Christianity was a load of crap. That led me to my Buddhist phase, until I acknowledged to myself that I didn't know anything about Buddhism. After questioning my previous assumption that everyone has a religion, I began my life as an atheist... except I had never heard the word "atheist" until I was 17.

So if you want to be technical, I was 17 when I declared myself an atheist.