The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

Q) Who convinced you to become an Atheist?

I am writing an opinion piece and would like participation in this informal survey. I know the question is fundamentally wrong, but it is to help keep the selection narrow:

How were you convinced you to become an Atheist?

(Select the most applicable single answer)

A) A billboard

B) A book

C) A miracle

D) I’m not an atheist

E) I don’t know

F) I wasn’t convinced, it was a realization of who I was

G) A specific person (not an authored book)

H) I was mad at my god(s)

I) I have always been an atheist

J) My god is an atheist, therefore I am an atheist

K) By physical or verbal threats

L) I signed a contract and now I’m stuck being an atheist

M) I had to become atheist to marry my spouse

N) Atheists are cool, and I wanted to be like them

O) Other (please explain in one sentence)

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Richard Healy on January 3, 2011 at 2:28pm

F, B and O

I was never strong in faith at all but things lingered. I first encountered attitudes hostile to religion at university, until then I don't think the notion that one could be hostile had ever occurred to me. It was just there even if I wasn't particular devout in any sense. It was also at university that I encountered arguments for gods existence and was immediately troubled that not one of them made a lick of sense.

Many books later (mostly science) and I arrive at the conclusion of the trajectory I'd been following and recognised myself as an atheist having
lost all reason to maintain my former beliefs which had already pretty
much atrophied it was in the end just a realisation that I no longer
believed.

Permalink Reply by Apeman Jim on January 13, 2011 at 4:44pm

O) Penn and Teller. I was watching an Bullshit! when a series of statements they made throughout various episodes clicked together with what I had learned throughout life. My world came apart.

No doubt, I owe Penn and Teller my emerging capacity for rational thought and will be greatful for the rest of my life.

Permalink Reply by Veronica Drantz, PhD on February 14, 2011 at 5:09pm

No one but myself.

Permalink Reply by Harry Meyer on March 27, 2011 at 10:01am

G, my 7th grade science teacher! I don't even know if he was an atheist!

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on April 18, 2011 at 5:31pm

I think G.,N. ,& O.

I saw what great thinkers could do once they cut loose from the religious jargon of mental fog bank religion holds forth as knowledge. If this were compressed into a single person it would be Carl Sagan. The grace of proper perspective can't be faked. Religious people keep appearing to me as full blown dumb asses who evade causality. The software upgrade bombed. Luddites seeking more luddites bore me.

Permalink Reply by James Cromb on April 24, 2011 at 3:15pm

I would say F. But also have to include B. When I was much younger I decided to actually read the bible. Didn't take long to realize what utter BS that it contained.

Permalink Reply by Vulpes on April 28, 2011 at 3:31pm

This is a late response but I'd have to say F, B ( though it was multiple books), G , and O. Since for most people ( in my observable experience) come to the realization that they are atheist after long dragged out periods of time it is difficult to pin it on one event.

As for O, things I saw and read on the Internet. The Atheist Experience and info on the Council of Nicea to name two off hand.

Permalink Reply by pkchari on June 6, 2011 at 1:10pm

Mostly F)... I was more interested in facts of science and mathematics as a child, and matters of the divine seemed useless to me.

I would say, though, that much of my later exposure to expressions of religion (particularly after I entered the U.S.), and many of the typical atheist literature did inspire me to be more vocal in my disapproval.

Permalink Reply by Rob van Senten on June 6, 2011 at 1:44pm