I was just curious to see what the last straw was for other people. What made it clear to you that a god didn't exist?
I can't remember the specific time I stopped believing, but it know when I was about 10-11 years old I found out Santa wasn't real. After that I stopped trusting everything people told me, and started thinking for myself. That of course lead to questioning the Christian faith I was raised in. Though it didn't take long for threats of hell fire and damnation to rain down from my family members, and even friends (Still I was only 10-11 years old).
So I gave up questioning god and just went with it. And for a few years I really did believe that there was a god. I didn't start questioning again until I was about 16-17, and then finally became agnostic at 18. Which very soon after lead to my firm atheism of today. :)
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I left Christianity when I was seventeen and went on to follow a number of other religious teachings. This meant I had to study their beliefs and histories. I stopped practicing any religion after a couple of years of study. I kept the study, though. :)
I studied christianity too much. The more I learned, the more I realized it wasn't what I thought it was. It was a trifecta of historical evidence that contradicted the Bible, external contradictions with science and reality, and internal contradictions in the Bible that shook my faith and sort of "knocked my blinders off." After that, I was more open to other viewpoints, and I started to realize that one religion is very much like another. And when I really started questioning why I picked the one I did, I asked myself why I believed in any God at all. And that was that. There was no reason, and once I realized that, i had no justification for continuing to believe.
You are either convinced or you are not. I am simply not convinced. That is why I am an atheist.
This won't be, most likely, seen as more than a comparison, or a parallelism of some kind. I'm from Argentina. A few years ago, a famous illustrator from "down here" died. He was known, and remembered, as "Caloi". On one occasion, a journalist asked him why did he enjoy drawing so much. He answered "I don't think that should be surprising. Maybe not a single child in the world fails to find joy in drawing, as long as you give him a piece of paper and some crayons. They all give up drawing when someone else convinces them that there are more important things to focus on. I just kept on drawing..."
I saw a display here in Honolulu during a Hispanic fair showing dolls from Argentina and both the man and woman had swords, if I only knew a, the, better name. Are peasants armed so well in modern Argentina? The N.A.Z.I.-esk George Bush, President, former, U.S.A., has purchased a big piece of land in the country Argentina, likes armed neighboors i'll say. What do the military and gangster carry for weapons or tools? I really liked Colombian commercial Mota Brah. It, is brown and very sweet, even if the joint goes out, a nice bouquet. The golds and reds are even more interesting. All Sativa's, all good, all the time. Mexican and all the Amsterdam Indica hybrids are so bitter and offensive, a proof of what greed does, exploiting the breeds for commerce, not medicine and/or life. I'd like to macerate Sativa's for Holy Anointing Oil, to use another vocabulary, and make a good food, health and life product. Can you get it going on from here???
I was in Bible college in 2009 when I had a discussion with atheists on the web. The outcome "knocked me off my rocker" so to speak. Before that time I was a conservative Bible student preparing for the ministry. Afterwards I was simply lost, lost in the sense that I didn't know what to believe anymore. I rejected Christianity but tried out several other different religions and philosophies including Taoism, Buddhism, Deism (that one several times), and spiritual paths such as psychic phenomena. Eventually I came back to Deism, which disintegrated back into atheism. And I remain an atheist to this day.
Oddly, enough I can't really say what the last straw was but when I was a kid I can say what I think made me begin to question Catholicism was a combination of events related to me being taught to use guns at a very young age, the meaning of the word catholic and the treatment of a bat that got into the parish one day.
At the age of 5 or 6 to handle guns during which I was taught about suffering and what it was to kill and to injure something. I was taught you never use a gun on a living thing unless you intend to kill it and to never leave something you have hurt injured. I was made to first shoot a rodent and then finish it off I was taught it would never come back again but this was better than it suffering.
According to what I was taught at CCD the word catholic meant universal and for all and the reason the church was called Catholic was because it was meant of all and as such all were welcome.
Finally one day a bat entered the parish the parish I belong to during mass, the perish I belongs to had multiple priest and they all along with the help of several parishioners engaged in the act of evicting this bat from the parish using brooms and mop handles. When the bat was finally injured and could not fly anymore it was placed outside the church where for the next couple weeks I would try to help nurse it back to well being where it clung to the church wall of the steeple. One day it was gone and I assumed somebody had killed it because it was nowhere near ready to fly again yet as it had a hole in its wing from one of the handles. The bat did nothing wrong but enter a supposed house of God.
Watching that bat suffer while I tried to nurse it back to health and all for nothing taught me more of the lesson about suffering than the gun because it got weaker and slower and it would have been better off if I had killed on day one which is what i think ultimately someone else concluded would be the best outcome for it.
The hypocrisy I witnessed in the parish and on the steeple of that church may not make much sense to someone who was all grown up as many may figure there was a pest in the parish and it should have been thrown out, but I was young and this was enough to make me begin questioning the validity of church. Why would a universal place for all not accept and welcome all of gods creatures and why would they let it suffer after they injured it? The floodgate had opened, many many questions would follow and very few of them could be answered satisfactorily.
I would have probably had become an atheist anyways, but that is what made me begin to question my faith.
I'm a Roman Catholic as well, now a closet model... See Cat words in dictionary, like catastrophe... Forgiveness is their main offering, not bad everything being equal. Dude you owe God 10 percent of what your made of, cough it up. And all though there are four genders, made by Pillsbury dough people I suppose, who commands kill the other genders? Oh well, confession can be fun. Honestly the Peter/Paul Church in Honolulu is full of Korean and other witches and Baptist Church on Beretania St. has Atheist janitor threatening to sue the parishioner (from gay Paris) if you say, God forbid, God Bless You or.... So go have an orgasummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!
Mine was the hypocrisy of Christians, I always said to myself that the reason was that it is the human weakness, thus I could surly do better.
When I realized that I could not possibly follow the doctrine, thus no one in my eyes could.
Then I had a choice.
I either accept that I am a bad person or the doctrine is wrong or incorrect, thus someone was trying to make me feel miserable.
From then one I started to question the doctrine and all my questions were never answered but dodged thus with time I realized that all the doctrine is about making you feel unworthy so you are forced to accept what Jesus offers. Blind Faith.
Is that a leading question? "Why did I....." How about, at the core of a reality called me, deep with-in, how were you able and other going to be able to realize the inherient will to be free against all odds, ergo, Atheism. Free from hunger, thirst and pherenomes is a Breathairians dream. My soul emminates from Munich, GR, 11-17-1957 at 11:45ish P.M., a true cover up story of having been inbreed, mom's dad, mom and then me - Crown Prince Dude - see Dudeism. Also see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXcaVCXBEfA , Illuminati of Bavaria - Full Documentary, Youtube... TheFreemasonCrew channnel. Like abortion, suicide, Green Stormtrooper, All Globalism, All Day. Wonder why the beliefs offered by the Religion, State and families are not enough to hold us? Sit, stand, kneel - a creator would kneel to teach the "kids" and needs worship not, just love and celebration. As an A-Theist I'm in to teach back the truth, guided by science - all the way home to creation center - follow gravity and where it "sucks" you to doing the gravity thing. I found Religion at the Hawaiian Cannibis (Latin from Hebrew Kaneh Bosm - add Holy Anointing Oil to Kaneh Bosm and search) Ministry - tyrannts actually (Rev. Lilly the forum banner and Rev. Roger Christie, recently released Federal prisioner after 5 years time for King Pin dealer charges in Hilo Hawaii, seems the Amsterdam Cannabis Ministry or Cantheist Ministry has gone down as well - Rodger may, might, could win in appeal in San Fran Cisco.) The Universal Life Church sponsers clergy for free but has forum administrators that are not right as they insist, but banners of the kind ifyou do not do Religon as well as free thinking, my second religous experience. The U.L.C. is a good exampleCrucify of what is wrong with religion and administrators that Crucify happily have turned my stomach, Hawaii Cannibis Ministry and the Universal Life Church. So I'm moving into my stride and invite gay men to contact me, I might get interested in women when I'm 80. Free thinking is my gift, challenge and responcipbility. Lady Liberty, know her, from French and the Marke DeSadie, wikipedia the Libertine and see Johnny Deeps movie the Libertine. Us Lucifarian Illuminatist have gone a long way, out on the tip of the leafs, yes cliche belief systems are a opiate on the masses, but I'm blood-bound to be free and must absorb all the pleasures and challenges and 'empty-handed" feelings at times... I'll go on but not now. I'm in Honolulu and open to approach by life-mate type and seeking to settle in Kali-forn-a-phate (CA) because Hawaii is the Domestic abuse Capitol of the universe. See youtube of Waipahu H.P.D., 20 year veteran Sargent, beating girlfriend. And Molokai Matt's Ancient Hawaiian Belief System for some more facts, especially 500 AD Molokai. There is debate out here about the recognition of a Hawaii State music instrument here, the Ukele or Steel guitar, my vote goes for the knoggin (skull), as the Tahitian art of brutal savagery and the kind use head-butting as foreplay. So do all a favor, do not travel to Hawaii, you get spiritually, physically, emotionally and financially beat up. So here you all go, my first shout in the forum of forums.
Where is the editor, the Universal Life Church sponsers the people with credentials for the Hawaiian Cannabis Ministry, Rodger has finally been released and I want/need a supportive environment away from Domestic Abuse in all Hawaii. Honolulu is a bad, bad place, only thing here important is travel numbers, retail outlets and real estate sales, condo's, etc. Homeless are "poverty pimped", the troubles never fixed and the Landlords are Satanic, really, they are eviction crazy, especially getting the infim, mentals and aged into the most inferior arangement, as we all know, cheaper is better and there is more for less, ALL DAY. And the housing boards or association throw fines all day not to mention if and when a homeless person or family is 'rescued", the rescue is into a place of abuse, hassling all day, going for evictions, stealing security deposits AND reselling damages to the next tennent, as the slum ords here do not repair and will lie to the end of time to make a tennant a victam and person responcipble to pay more and loose. This goes on toooooo much.
With me, I'd always been brought up atheist by my parents. My mother especially is atheist, but my dad is actually pretty agnostic concerning his beliefs. At primary school, we said prayers and stuff in assembly, but I honestly never took religion seriously, and it took me a while to realise that a lot of people do!
In third grade I was thinking about Egyptian gods and I wondered to myself why we knew that these gods didn't exist and why we think that the one God does exist. I came to the conclusion (at 9 years old) that all gods are just as likely to exist and that they all probably do not exist. Atheism is probably the strongest factor behind my personality, it gives me my drive to succeed in life and make something out of the few years I have in existence before everything is left to my legacy.