I was never taught to be religious and by the time I was a teenager it didn't make much sense anyway. The more I learned about religion the less I liked what I learned but it wasn't until I started hearing creationist trying to argue for ignorance over education that I really realized that religion was harmful.

I grew up Christian. My father is a retired pastor. So imagine, every Sunday, I had to go to church. I honestly believed. I even got baptised in my 20s. Yet, soon after that, it just hit me. This whole book doesn't make sense. Everytime I questioned, I got blurred answers which made no sense whatsoever. I've been an atheist now for a year and 6 months. It's so liberating to think for yourself and being a good person because you want to be and not because you're threatened with the fiery pits of hell. It felt like a load off my shoulders. There's no way I can ever go back to being a theist. It's like a magician and his magic trick. Once you see the illusion, you can't unsee it. I'm new, by the way!

Welcome, welcome PersionSting!! (love the name too...)
This place is full of eh... atheists (dhaaaaa...) but also theist, whatever-eist, snake oil pelddlers, loonies, real geniuses and strange characters....

Look!!! there is even Santa here (although on a bad side).. so jump right in, as Arakish said "the water is warm".

You will always find support, good knowledge and a lot of humor here.. (...*but watch for a few characters like Tin-Man when he starts offering eggnog or Arakish inviting everybody to the pool when it's only frigging 15 degrees Celsius, I'm from North Pole and OLD, and I need at least 26 degrees C *...)

"Sting" in your site name, I understand but I'm really curious about that "Persion" part??... (any reference to Persia???)

I was raised Catholic.
I was baptized and went to catechesis from maybe 5 - 10 years old but I was never a full blown Catholic until maybe 2016, after a very unpleasant experience. No one really pushed me to be very religious after catechesis ended, but I decided to believe in the Bible to protect myself from that unpleasant experience in 2016.
After 2 years of being a faithful Catholic, I had another bad experience that led me to question my faith, so I looked online. I left the Catholic faith and considered Hinduism, a much more interesting religion with far more accurate philosophy than anything Christianity could offer.
Two to three months later, I became an atheist, after having done more research.

It’s been almost 7 months since then.

I always felt strange about god/faith. I respected few traditions for a time, even believing a little. Since I'm the kind of person who prefers most of the time to be patient and analyze things before taking a decision, I waited and I asked myself different questions over time. Slow and steady steps. And the questions gathered, but the logical answers contradicted the old religious ones. The trick is to wait and to be bold. To dare. Why most living things must feed on something that is/was alive? I fucking love tigers, for example, but I feel sorry for the dear.
If I, with my limited mind can conceive a far more better world, how could an omniscient/omnipotent being made a mess like this? It's either a blood god who enjoys the suffering of its creation, or no there's no god. Why do innocents suffer? And so on...
Even if "a god" like that exists, I wouldn't accept it.
I begun to put distance between myself and religious people, who chose to live in their "old boxes", despite the latest scientific discoveries. Science gave us so many answers, why not dare to move forward?
There is no logic in religious traditions, no logic in religious customs. No reason in faith, unless it's about faith in yourself. All I saw around me was fear, manipulation, lack of responsibility. And I hate fear. I hate knowing people live in fear, manipulated and belittled by their traditions and superstitions; the hypocrisy, the praying who won't do shit, the endless expectations and lack of action. And these priests, clerics, these despicable humanoids, who prey upon the weak or innocent minds... they should be in jail.
And so I shed my old skin, a skin hampered by the lack of logic, reason and the lack of empathy that faith in such supreme being is.
There are no angels, no demons, I'm responsible for whatever the f*ck I do.
I think somewhere in 2012 I bought "God is not great". It was a delightful surprise for me. I found there few of my own thoughts and questions, it made me want to ask more.
To ask yourself questions all the time - I think this is the way of having a free mind.

My glib answer is that just like all human beings, I was born without belief in any god, and in nearly 50 years I have yet to be given any reason to think otherwise.

I was raised as a Christian, going to a Church of England school and attending Sunday School at the Salvation Army. At one point, there were no other kids at Sunday School except for my sister and me, so we did Bible studies with the aim of becoming Junior Soldiers. I always had a lot of questions.

We moved to a new town when I was 9, so we couldn't attend the Sunday School anymore, but we started to be visited by Jehovah's Witnesses. I took a big interested in what they had to say, and hearing an alternative view about the Bible just raised more questions. I started reading the Bible for myself, and by my early teens, I saw more and more issues and I just couldn't believe anymore.

I ended up becoming a Pagan, because I still had this vague idea that there was something. Eventually, that 'something' become more and more nebulous until I had to question whether I actually believed in it at all. It turned out that I just wanted to believe. By my early 20s, I was identifying as an atheist.

Hello! My fellow good Atheists.
I just want to post my story on how i became an Atheist...

Well... It's a long story... But to make it brief... I was once a pastor of the born again Christian ministry in the Philippines... So, i certainly read the whole bible and try to comprehend it thoroughly... And bang! I realized that the fucking bible are full of bullshits and contradictions... And what we are doing is make flow of money to the church by using some bible verses... I felt guilty and not feeling good about it, because it's very very very wrong... So, i quit. Now, I'm a hard core Atheist... Feeling good... Free from guilt... And I'm proud and happy. Lastly, i think to myself as a good person without god.
Truly... Alan

Buy a bible and never read it-------You are catholic. Buy a bible and only read the parts you like-----you are baptist buy a bible and read it all the way through--------> and you will be an atheist