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Permalink Reply by Mike Haynes on October 19, 2011 at 3:59pm

That's basically how it went for me. I was raised Baptist. In my 20's I decided Christianity was bunk and was more-or-less a Mystic/Deist for a number of years. After realizing that I was never going to find any satisfactory answers in any religion, I became more agnostic, struggling with the ideas of no "gawd" and no afterlife. Once I came to terms with those two issues, I basically realized I had no reason to believe in any supernatural creator or afterlife and declared myself an atheist. It seems that fear was the final hurdle I had to get over in order to accept my own disbelief.

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Permalink Reply by booklover on October 19, 2011 at 4:10pm

I was raised without religion.  I 'tried' to believe for a while, and described myself as agnostic, but I just couldn't do it.  I'm definitely an Atheist.

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Permalink Reply by Jim DePaulo on October 25, 2011 at 3:47pm

The same is true for me except I never tried to be a believer. I did, however, define myself as an Agnostic for a time but then considered it just a wishy washy cop out.  The lack of even a scintilla of evidence for the existence a god guy or even a reasonable speculation of same, convinced me that he/she/it ain't up there.

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Permalink Reply by leveni on October 19, 2011 at 7:15pm

Hey Jonah, how are things?

 

Agnostic: a person who believes that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God.

Atheist: a person who does not believe in the existence of God or gods

 

I don't think it matters if you are a Christian, agnostic or an atheist. We believe or don't believe things for what ever reason. 

 

Me, I'm a pure atheist. There is no God. There can be no God. It is impossible for God to exist. I have the ability to think the words 'I maybe be wrong about God', but deep down inside, I honestly know there is no God. In my mind there is lots of proof that God doesn't exist. And there is no proof that he does exist. But that is not why I'm an atheist, I was born an atheist, and was never really indoctrinated in any religious manner, and I think this is why I'm an atheist.

 

But if you say, you know there is no God, like I do, you then have to define the word 'know', or 'knowledge'. You then fall into the world of Epistemology, of which I know very little. And this presents a problem: How do I know what I know is true? 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Markcincy on October 23, 2011 at 8:54am

I was maybe 12 years old. I started to say my bedtime prayer and it hit me then that I was praying to no one and nothing. I was sad that night. Since then I have known that god and Jesus are bunk. I agree with treefireguy. Agnosticism is a cop out. If  I see god I will believe in it?   Evidence of god does not exist . It would be illogical to believe there might be a god. To me you either believe in god or dont believe or you are incapable of making a decision.

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on October 25, 2011 at 4:41pm

But you can say that evidence does not support the existence of god.  We can certainly ask the honest question: "Where is the evidence?"  Faith alone is not evidence.  

 

Yet we know that many believers will just come back with the response 'beyond all human understanding' and think that should be sufficient.

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Permalink Reply by mojo5501 on October 23, 2011 at 10:28am

For me, my atheism was a gradual awareness that gods were created by human beings and that there are no supernatural deities outside of the human brain cavity.  The 'nail on the coffin', so to speak, was the fact that so many cultures overlap in their religious belief systems, rituals, and holy scriptures. No single religion could conclude or convince me that any of their explanations were the 'one true path'... as much as they often competed for center stage and world domination, often resorting to murder, bloodshed and torture along the way. 

 

Like yourself, Jonah, college courses in biology and the social sciences (psychology, anthropology, sociology) really gave me the opportunity to seek my own answers and to overturn my previous assumptions about religion and Christianity and humanity.  I was raised in the Evangelical Lutheran faith and found myself questioning the whole definition of 'sinfulness' and 'human nature' as preached from the pulpit as 'authority'.  Now that I'm a freethinker, I can debate the notion of 'one true path' and what it takes to be a decent human being.  In my way of thinking,  there are many paths and it doesn't take a god or an external, supernatural force to discover them.

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Permalink Reply by Lisa Schmidt on October 23, 2011 at 11:47am

My understanding of agnosticism is that it is not a "middle ground" between theism and atheism.  Theism/atheism are about belief, gnosticism/agnosticism are about whether or not it is possible to know.  You can be an agnostic theist, an agnostic atheist, a gnostic theist, or an agnostic atheist.  I am a gnostic atheist.  I do not believe that gods exist (atheist) and I am of the opinion that it is possible to know whether or not gods exist (gnostic).  An agnostic atheist will not believe that gods exist, but will be of the opinion that it is not possible to know for sure one way or the other.  You might find this article helpful:  Atheism vs. Agnosticism

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on October 23, 2011 at 12:47pm

While in college studying for a degree in math I went to two meetings of the student atheist club and heard people say they knew no gods existed. I had broken the ties that twelve years in Catholic schools had made, and there I was hearing from students who had no more evidence for their non-belief than I had had for my former belief. I chose agnosticism.

Fifty years later I climbed down from what hadn't felt at all like a fence. That was five years ago and in personal relationships I told people of my atheism. Two years ago I spoke of it in a Toastmasters club and people have been okay with it.

 

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Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on October 23, 2011 at 9:53pm

I wrote "Fifty years later I climbed down from what hadn't felt at all like a fence...." and Caroline wrote "you can't sit on the fence forever."

Briefly changing the context, I've told people that perhaps because my dad was a registered Dem and my mom was a registered Repub, I was unable to see one party as good and the other as evil. I became an independent and took a seat on the fence. In time I came to see one party as soft-headed, the other as hard-hearted, and myself as having to choose between them.

When the Repubs recruited southern Dems it got their racism. When they recruited fundies it got their ignorance and their need to obey. The fence became uncomfortable.

 

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Permalink Reply by Hope on October 24, 2011 at 12:07am

I am Agnostic now I was a Muslim before..

Agnosticism is not that far from Atheism.. I can call it a type of Atheism... so, I think I can consider myself an Atheist why not..

I like to take a quiz from time to time to see if I developed myself on Atheism..

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Permalink Reply by Amanda Schneider on October 24, 2011 at 1:03am

Maybe you could call 'agnosticism' a gateway drug. I honestly think it's an easier and more socially acceptable term. MOST people don't mind people questioning things. As long as... they come to the 'right' conclusion. Either way, if you call yourself a skeptic or a freethinker or whatever, if you exclude 'god' as a possibility if the evidence was presented to you, then you're not rational at all. I think most atheists would agree. To me, it's important to call it what it is, ATHEISM, in order to proliferate acceptance of it. The 'gateway drug' IS a copout if you don't really think there is god/gods.

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