What made you decide to become an atheist?

[Simslover92]

My baby cousin just passed away a few days ago and while I'm still very much Christian, I find my faith being tested every so often.

My family is heavily religious and while I believe that prayer can help, it doesn't cure depression alone. She needed professional help. I'm not sure what was her cause of death yet but she suffered from depression and alcoholism and we want to say she died from that. Possibly an overdose.

I just wish that more families who are deeply religious would see that medicine and therapy are things that are needed also with someone in a deeply depressed state. Maybe she could have been saved if she got the care she needed.

I don't want to put my family down because I love my family and I do believe in God still, but I find it hard sometimes when stuff like this happens.

[Lynx122]

I'm sorry for your loss and that it came under such difficult circumstances.

I answered the question below just based on the title so it doesn't really fit but maybe it can give you a different perspective while you're pondering.

I never believed in god. Even when I was 5 years old and my parents told me about christianity and god I was like this makes 0 sense. So I didn't really have a choice lol. But later on I did understand the value of religion more in how it kept society running and families together in the past and I don't have a problem if any kind of spirituality works for someone. But it never changed anything about me believing in a god.

Like you can believe in a benevolent universe, that every struggle in your life is meant to help you grow and flourish, but it doesn't mean that there's an actual beeing that is planning your life out for you. It's just a positive mindset. You can have a positive attitude towards life without believing in any higher power.

I believe in just the world that we see thein everyday life and that's enough for me. It doesn't make me sad or depressed. I don't need there to be some deeper meaning or hidden truth to it. I was born from my parents and now I have a limited time here and then it's over. I'm fine with that. I'll live my life as well as I can and then I'm done.

There's more than enough depth and things to do in life. So I just keep moving forwards. But I've never seen something in my life that made me question reality or if god exists.

[Simslover92]

Thank you and thank you for sharing.

[Lynx122]

Thanks for MHO
Big hug

[Simslover92]

You're welcome
Big hug

[Orion84]

I didn't make a concious decision to become an athiest.

I was raised as a Christian (Lutheran, to be precise), and my parents took me to church every Sunday. When I was about seven years old, I realized that the whole thing was a bunch of crap, and I never believed it. I just went, 'cause they made me.

Everyone kept telling me these stories about God, Jesus, Moses, etc, read me all the Bible stories, and I just sat there thinking, "Are they serious? I've read Dr Seuss stories more realistic than this garbage."

It just never made sense to me that all these people, all these adults, believed that nonsense. I didn't understand how that was possible. I kept waiting for someone, anyone, to prove ANY of it, and nobody ever did.

They told me I had to have faith, and I didn't understand how religion was any different that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. I didn't believe in them, either, and I didn't see how any of these people could believe in God.

So, at the ripe old age of seven years old, I begged my parents not to make me go to church anymore, because it was just soooo dumb to me. It's been 33 years since then, and I've never seen/heard anything to make me change my mind.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

I never became a full atheist, part of that had to do with growing up in the church and the fear of what might happen if I completely denounced God’s existence. They do a good job of telling you that you’ll be eternally punished for going against what they say. It wasn’t until I started to really deconstruct what I was being told that I started to question what the church was really doing. If god was so loving, why did He punish me for saying he didn’t exist? Wouldn’t God just forgive me? If God encouraged kindness and forgiveness, why was the church at the forefront of denying the right to marriage and adoption for families just because they’re gay? Why were women not allowed to be priests? Why couldn’t men be nuns? I questioned enough to realize that even if Jehovah exists, he’s not the god I want to follow, neither do I wish to follow YHWH or Allah. None of the abrahamic religions hold the kindness and love they claim, in my opinion, not in the big picture of it all. I ended up not really believing in any specific idea of God until I allowed myself to say that I wanted to find who God truly was. I’m much happier now that I’ve found God in multiple ideas and spiritualities, the infinite possibilities of the universe that empower not only my ideas but others’ too. I’ve found the God I was meant to find, the one I always knew existed but wasn’t allowed to call out to until I finally left the church and came into my own.

[7Phoenix7]

Whoa, I am so sorry about your cousin. You have my condolences. It is so freaking painful losing family like that.

Im not an atheist. I do believe there is a higher being (God). I also believe in science and medicine. It's a big thing for some religious people to have so much faith in God and they forget about the importance of doctors, scientists, etc.

I'd hate to lose anyone in my life because they didn't get the proper medical, mental health care they needed. It really sucks...

[Simslover92]

Thank you and yes it is a shame when people especially family that are deeply religious forget about the importance of doctors, scientists, etc. It is very important indeed to not only use prayer but medicine and therapy if you can. I know not everyone has access to it but that's when you have to try to put things aside and try to pitch in and help those that can't do it on their own. I had no idea she was that bad off.

Had I known maybe I could have helped. I feel so awful. I know what it's like to have depression and it's not a pretty picture. I've been in a place where I thought I wouldn't get out of it and was suicidal but I managed to get out of it. I hate that she didn't though I'm not sure if it was suicide or just an accidental overdose. I'll probably find out soon. But regardless, she needed help and I just wish my family were more knowledgeable about mental health.

[7Phoenix7]

I understand. Depression is no joke... it can take down anyone.

It's even harder to deal with when your family is very religious. Because sometimes they are expecting you to magically be okay after prayer alone.

[7Phoenix7]

My family was also religious and i didn't really have much support during certain situations because of that.

[Simslover92]

I'm sorry. That sucks. It really is hard to deal with sometimes when you know that you need more help than prayer. And yes depression is definitely no joke.

[FunkyMonkee]

Proof and facts.
Have you ever seen the movie, "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit"? It's about a highly religious married couple in England and they adopt a little girl and are VERY strict with her. One day, in school, she gets very sick and collapses and, instead of getting her the medical help she badly needs, they decide she's possessed by the devil and they pray over hor. Her illness causes her to go deaf for a while. When she finally does get well, they treat her as if she's some sort of miraculous being that can do wonderous things.
My parents used to be good friends with a couple that eventually became jehova's witnesses who were very strict on not using medical help (all 3 of my siblings needed blood transfusions when they were born and this couple tried to talk them out of it claiming it's the way god intended them to be and they should just let them die or live a horrific life, if they DID survive! At least for my two sisters, I wish they WOULD'VE listened to that couple!!) and then had a little girl of their own with some kind of screwed up pelvic bone but, rather than just let her deal with it and be crippled for the rest of her life, they took her to a doctor and he had her bones realigned and she was in a lower body cast the first year or two of her life.
Hypocrite much?

[BCRanger10]

I'm very sorry to hear about your cousin 🙏🤗 We will pray for you, her, and your family this evening.

I've not. I am a practicing and believing Catholic and will continue to be. I can only speak for myself. I could explain why and how I've maintained my belief through difficulties and suffering (I've had plenty of my own), but I don't particularly think it would be appropriate to explain here; long story, don't have the space or time to tell, complicated theology or quotes from saints, personal details I'm not ready to share publicly, etc.

[Simslover92]

Ok that's fine. And thank you so much.

[BCRanger10]

I could share in DM though

[Shiprex]

Sorry for your loss @Simslover92 it's always sad when young people lose the battle for life and act in self destructive ways. All to much conflict and confusion around without the necessary support systems in place to prevent people getting into bad habits.

In answer to your question, I've found out the history of what the primary religion is when I grew up and realised it was way to control the behaviour of the masses without giving them power. It's a tool rather than a reality. Mind control through fear and of course they use morality to apply it and tie it all down with superstition so I never got into it. I have to say I enjoy singing and all that at Christmas time and the stories are fun and many have good morals at their core but the whole spirits and deities thing is too much

[Simslover92]

Thank you and thanks for sharing!

[Shiprex]

Hang in there and you're welcome, any time.

[Simslover92]

Thanks I will.

[Kaneki05]

I didn't decide, I rationally thought about the idea realized no such thing as god due to many reasons. Then others called me an atheist. And a satanist whenever I mock god.

Gonna give one of the reasons below why god does not exist.

The paradox of perfect. Perfect is not something that can exist, as perfect is a relative term to what you perceive to be perfect.

So if one tells me they believe in all perfect entity all they told me is they believe in something that can't actually exist.

[Kaneki05]

Oh yeah and I hated religion from the start. Nvm god. The belief is wrong but what's much worse is the system of religion that causes such delusional laws and living.
Like as you described here, thinking just praying will work.

[OneViewpoint]

What made me decide to be an atheist? At about age 13 I was able to put together all the pieces and understand that gods and religions are the creations of man, not the other way around. And the flaws in "gods" always mirror the flaws in the humans who create them. The inconsistencies and hypocrisy (Christianity specifically) were comical even to a 13 year old kid. Add in the fact that no one has ever actually seen one of these magic invisible sky fairies plus bad shit happens to good people all the time and well... god = bullshit. Or their god is an asshole. I'm not gonna waste my life on lies.

[DryGermanGuy]

Sorry to hear about the loss of your cousin, especially under these circumstances. On the topic, I grew up with the last four generations of our family being nonreligious. I think everybody was just too practical and too busy to have much time for practicing a religion. They were not expressly anti-religion though, I still remember we visited the church with my grandparents on Christmas because they liked the Christmas choir.

[Simslover92]

Thank you.

[Pohjolan]

More agnostic than atheist. I just don't believe that any of the existing religions are anything but man made.

A real God wouldn't have been restricted by geography or human knowledge at that time.

Like the bible should have recommended using boiling water, fire or strong alcohol to cleanse something of a bacteria disease instead of using dead birds.

Also the discrepancies between the old and new testament are pretty strong.

Not to mention other discrepancies like there being only one God but pharaohs priests having magical powers as well.

[slatyb]

Atheism is a way of life -- living without religious practice. Atheists do not assert that there is no God. We believe that the existence of God is unknowable.

[Pohjolan]

@slatyb
Technically that would be agnostism.
Atheists believe that there is no God.

[slatyb]

No, we don't. Atheist live as if there is no God, without religious practice, but very few assert that there definitely is no God. Agnosticism is the belief that there is no way to know whether or not there is a God. Atheists assert that there is no evidence for the existence of God. Almost all atheists are also agnostics.

[Account]

I wasn't raised in a religious household. In my mind, if something that is of higher power exists, it has absolutely nothing to do with the way human beings imagine it. If such thing (s) exist (s), we are unable to figure out/perceive, how it looks or how it behaves due to our biological restrictions.

[Bricealan]

@Simslover92 During a Youth For Christ meeting when I was a teen, the speaker said that he could talk and preach all night, but "if this does not make sense to you, I am wasting my time"

Many, most things about the church, sin, death, Resurrection, have never made sense to me, and I believe I will die as an atheist.

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

health care, in the broad sense, is compatible with well-rounded religious views. However, it is strictly incompatible with extremism or fundamentalism.

I didn't become an atheist, I have agnostic views, and an anticlerical approach in general. Which comes from observing how churches, in general, value their own rules way more than people. Especially in the mental health area.

[Agape93]

Not atheist, but I stopped believing in God, when I realized he made everything in creation, he chose to make it. Rape, murder, genocide etc. Even I'd make a world where rape simply isn't a thing, because it's horrific. But he couldn't be bothered to not do that. So he became unworthy of my love.

[SixFootSexy]

Uhhh, you realize all those things you mentioned are what immoral people do right? You could've said plagues, natural disasters, etc. Evil exists because humans have free will, which is necessary for genuine moral choices and love. God allows evil to preserve human freedom. We're all just rogue AI bots with flesh suits.

[Agape93]

He still made this reality, explicitly allowing people to do that. He could have made a reality where it simply couldn't happen. You can even invent a world with free will, without those things even being possible. And if you say you cannot, then you must also contend with the fact we also cannot do many other things we could do if free will was as absolute as God makes it seem.

[AndrésC64]

Nothing made me "decide" to be an atheist. It's just that believing in something without any evidence is not something I can do. It's kind of like I didn't decide to not believe in Zeus. I just don't. I'd be willing to bet that it's the same for you with regard to Zeus. You didn't decide to not be leaving Zeus, you just don't.

[strateguy632]

I can't because i can't make the claim "god is not real" nor reject god i have no basis for that claim.

Can anyone be sure "no passenger in a car with tinted windows ". Of course not.

[Massageman]

Your title and the four paragraphs that follow really aren't congruent. (I am not an atheist). God does not promise an "easy life". What He DOES promise is His presence if you obey His laws, and redemption of sin of you accept Jesus as your Savior.

[slatyb]

A promise not fulfilled until we are dead. That's a pretty easy thing to assert, as it is untestable.

[slatyb]

Untestable propositions are unworthy of discussion. We may as well argue about the invisible unicorn in my closet who supplies me with magic food -- it's delicious and has no calories so that I can eat as much as I want.

[Bklynbadboy12]

God helps those who helps themselves depression is definitely something that you can learn to cope with but you have to work on it like everything else there's no miracle cure for these things you can't just say one or two prayers and think that everything's going to be great you have to actually work on it

[DonaldDarko]

It just became obvious that talking snakes and the like don't exist. I was one of the new atheists in the 90s. Now I don't much care , atheist just means someone who doesn't believe in a God. It means nothing else , there is no dogma there.

[strateguy632]

First about "dogma" you wrote, but any "ism" is a principle including athe-ism. It is faith, without any investigation just BLIND FAITH that god is not real despite the possibility.

[strateguy632]

If you "don't believe vampire " you aren't-avampire but not believe god IS atheism.

[strateguy632]

2, about talking snakes, eve saw it in a dream. In dreams animals can talk same as donkey talked to balaam in dream.

[DonaldDarko]

@strateguy632 There was no mention of a dream in the King James bible. And atheism isn't a belief it's a lack of belief it isn't a dogma it is the lack of one.

[Anonymous]

I'm very sorry for your loss, my condolences, I know what it feels like... losing a family member because of depression and alcohol.

My family is mostly atheist, so I was never actually religious.

[Simslover92]

Oh ok and thank you.

[slatyb]

I didn't decide. It was a conclusion based on the complete lack of evidence for God. Did you decide to not believe in Odin or Zeus or Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy?

[slatyb]

Also I found Christian dogma completely absurd, no less absurd than the Book of Mormon, Scientology, or even the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[NicholasRedone]

The Anglicans and the Episcopalians are the best Christians - followed by cafeteria Catholics 💖💓

[NicholasRedone]

@Simslover92 always seek professional support if it's a difficult time lady

[NYlatefun]

I just couldn’t make sense of a world where god exists and there are so many injustices. I can’t fathom the idea of children being murdered, starved to death, born with fatal diseases where a god exists. Doesn’t make sense to me.

[strateguy632]

Injustice? You think nobody sins? Sin brings suffering in the world. Blame those who insult god. They caused all the suffering.

[NYlatefun]

@strateguy632 do babies bring sin? Wow! No wonder religion is opium for the masses.

[Babygirl_S]

I was an atheist but then I realised someone must be controlling things in my life more than me because I can’t. I blame him for my failures because I can’t control everything.

[Panthero80]

I'm sorry to hear about your situation and will pray for you and your family.

[Simslover92]

Thank you so much.

[Godihateyou]

All atheists are insufferable and intellectually dishonest pricks. Thats why they are miserable and a meme

[AndrésC64]

Tell me more old wise one.

[Godihateyou]

I can tell id waist my time on you young ignorant one.

[AndrésC64]

LOL. Nice dodge. I guarantee I know more about atheism than you do. And FYI, you really shouldn't be talking about young and ignorant without looking in the mirror.

Give me one reason, ANY reason at all to believe in the existence of some "god", ANY "god".

[AndrésC64]

And how do you figure the I, as an atheist and being intellectually dishonest? Can you tell me that? Course you can't, because I'm not.

[Godihateyou]

It takes a lot of ignorance amd faith to believe that all of existence came from nothing.

[AndrésC64]

It sure does take a lot of ignorance, that's why you believe that your invisible friend just "poofed" everything into existence out of nothing ex nihilo. While people who don't need faith don't say anything like that. Scientists say that we don't know what happened before The Big Bang. We don't even know if before the Big Bang is a coherent idea. But what every scientist says is that "we don't know". But you think following an old book written by ignorant unknown authors has the ultimate truth. Talk about gullible.

Again, give me one reason, just one reason to believe in the existence of your god.

[Godihateyou]

You just described the big bang id15ot

[AndrésC64]

🙄🤦🏼‍♂️ It's quite obvious that you have no idea what you're talking about. Theists are the ones who believe that their invisible friend poofed the universe into existence out of nothing. Literally. Science makes no claims about what happened before the Big bang. We don't even know if the idea of before the Big Bang even makes sense. Because that is the point at which science/math breaks down. It's kind of like asking what is north of the North pole. So who's the silly one, scientists who will admit that they don't know something. Or theists who like to make up answers?

[Anonymous]

I decided to be an irreligious at because all religions are nonsense. I don't want to rent out my mind.

[strateguy632]

Mostly you are right, like math 99% of possible answers are wrong same religion, but one is right. Same as math

[Opinion Owner]

Thanks but even comparing mathematics with religion is a big mistake. Mathematics is a science, religion is a nonsense.

[AngryCarl2]

I didn't, I just got disillusioned with being a Christian.

[Petra07]

People weaponizing religion. Using as an excuse to hurt others. I was like if that religion I want nothing to do with it.

[jahaims]

Religion doesn't work as well for coping when you can think for yourself

[DrPepper12]

Logic, reason and natural observation.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

Because I'm not stupid.

[Flower7]

I didn’t know you’re an atheist.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

@Flower7: I misread the question.

[Flower7]

I thought so…I would have been really surprised by that.

[CubaPirate]

God knows lol 😆

[wkhan_87]

No , I am not atheist.