Born that way! No religion practiced in my home and neither parent was a believer so....plus, giving it some thought, it just is logical

I did religious activities but never really believed. It was just easier to go along. Once I moved across country from my family there was no reason to be even socially religious anymore.

My son is an atheist also. My brother believes religion is bullshit but seems to hold onto some religious ideals. The rest of my relatives spout all the platitudes without action.

I’m am independently atheist, independently vegan, independently secular meditation/mindfulness person. I don’t know anyone that does the things I do, it would be nice but I do what I do because I am creating my own path and not following people I don’t resonate with.

Study of the Bible made me an atheist. Any religion that does not have an actual God requires faith. I have not found any religion that does not require faith.
" Athiesm is not chosen it is discovered," -Christopher Hitchens.

What made you become an Atheist?
Logic. Arguments. Robert Green Ingersoll's work. The problem of evil. And so on ... it was a gradual progression.

Are there any other members in your family who are atheists or did you become one independently?
I'm the only nonbeliever in my clan, and I came about it thoroughly independently.

Have you told your family about your religous [sic] thoughts and what did they say?
No, my family remains unaware.

Peace!

What caused me to become atheist? Well, several things. My curiosity is and has always been insatiable. I have always been an avid reader. I learned how to think critically at a young age. Logic comes naturally. I have never been bashful. Because of the foregoing, I have always asked questions and those questions have never been easy ones. I read everything, including the small print on labels. I have always weighed things carefully. As a result, it is doubtful anything else could have happened. This occurred independently of other family members. The family was made aware by simple declaration. A couple had nothing to say about it and were not surprised. The responses of the remainder ranged from incredulity to total shock.

I suspect you may not understand the meaning of atheist. Would you care to explain what it is you think an atheist is? That's the old curiosity at work.

For starters, I have my own thoughts.....

I'm a 3rd generation atheist. Everyone in my immediate family is an Atheist, as are all of my aunts, uncles, first cousins, and many of my second cousins.

We weren't raised religious, obviously, but we were taught and shown many religions as stories that others believed. We celebrated chanukah with some neighbors, celebrated Ramadan with some co-workers, etc.

Short answer: I never became an atheist... Instead, I never believed as a child and I never became convinced of any gods.

Three reasons:

1. I never saw any evidence for gods existing.
2. I didn't need any gods to explain everything that I understood to be true about the Universe.
3. Every holy book I read contradicted these truths, so their messages were useless to me.

I was raised by an agnostic, culturally Christian mother and an agnostic, rabidly anti-christian but deistic father. I'm married to an atheist and most of my friends are athists... My kid doesn't believe, but she's eight so has a long way to go in working out her own position on the question.

Liberating!

What made me become an atheist? The fact that all religions are false, and science explains all that exists without magic. No one else in my family is an atheist, it's just me. I've mentioned it to the adults but nobody's children. It's not a big deal, while my family believes in religion they don't go to church or anything so there not SUPER religious. I'm the only atheist I even know. But right is right so I'm happy to be me. And I'm right....

Became one independently. My children and all cousins of my age are athiests.

What is life like to be an athiest is, in truth, exactly the same as any life. Whatever happens, happens, no matter what anyone believes. How anyone interprets what happens is often a function of what they were told by parents or others. So, it is only the interpretation that varies.

Born a nonbeliever.
Have a family of kitchen Catholics.
Told them, they don't approve and I couldn't care less.
What's it like? Liberating.

The idea of “becoming” an atheist is weird.

Religion requires indoctrination, Atheism exists without. Therefore one doesn’t become an atheist, one just exists without the indoctrination of a religion.

I was educated in religion, even went to a private Christian school, but I never believed it to be a reality. There were too many inconsistencies in the religious teachings. None of it made sense to me. You literally have to accept fiction as reality.

I don’t recall how young I was when I realized it didn’t fit together, because I never believed any of it.

My family always knew I didn’t believe it, though I went through the motions until I was in my early teens. It was simply existing in society and being polite. It was never a point of contention witnin the family, I was just accepted.

You aren't an Atheist? You really should try it....it's addicting.

Logic - I've asked Protestants what they are protesting against and have never gotten a really clear answer...?

I grew up without any religious guidance. I noticed everyone else going off to church on Sundays and asked my dad what religion we were and his answer: "Protestant". It was YEARS before I found out how much of a non-answer that was! Frankly, being adrift like that helped me because it begged the question: "Is one religion better than another?" And prompted me to make a determination for myself, putting me at odds with the rest of my family - which, in and of itself, was an affirmation of the direction I was heading in. So, whether the question related to good/evil, ethics, history, anthropology, metaphysics, or anything else, after decades of poking around and asking all the wrong people the right questions, I concluded that I sure as shit wasn't going to find any answers in the bible and that those who do are customizing answers to suit their questions.

I started to question my belief when I was fairly young. I remember being in religion class and a priest came to talk to us, and I remember him saying that only Catholics could go to heaven, and that didn't sit right with me. So I asked him, "so my friends who are Jewish and my dad with a Lutheran can't go to heaven when they die?" and he more or less said yes. That there was the first strike. A few years later, when my mom forced me to attend confirmation class, I was put in the "problem" group for asking too many questions (ex. if there is only one God, but Jesus is the son of God, doesn't that make him a God too? What about the holy spirit? Are they not demigods?" -- I was expected to accept their word and teachings blindly and without question, and I just couldn't. For years after I said I was agnostic but then realized that that was just a cop out. I didn't believe in a god, or gods, so why not just fully commit to that? So I did. I openly state the fact that I am atheist to my family, it isn't a secret. My mom is in denial about it, and probably always will be. To answer the other question, my dad and sister are also [now] atheists, but that has nothing to do with me... we all came to this conclusion for our own reasons in our own time.

To be honest growing up Catholic probably helped me become an atheist.
I knew and understood but there are too many inconsistencies in religion so I think I just lost interest. I mean I thought some of the messages were good but the fact I didn't believe in every part made me question everything. Then when you read up on other religions you start to see the similarities and trends. They all kinda take things from previous religions and make new rules when someone wants.
It seems like even if there is a God, the religions we have today do not reflect how he would want us to live. I believe religions were a peaceful way to control the masses and make money. Seems counter to the idea of most gods i have read about but especially a christian one

I was born an atheist, went through the Christian "teaching" (mandatory church attendance as parents were theists) but when I was very young, I noticed the church was teaching silly childish stories that contradicted observable reality. During "Bible Study" I managed to find biblical and reality contradictions to every lesson. The last day of “Confirmation class”, the instructor told us about the "Holy Trinity" and I responded "Well, that's just stupid". Before that time I concluded religion was nothing more then a made up mind-fuck game adults used to scare children into doing what the adults wanted them to do. It wasn't until I was older that I realized some old people did not mature to accept a world based on testable reality but maintained the childish position of depending on faith (belief without evidence dishonestly asserted as facts) over testable fact based reality.

When I was young, many of my friends drank the cool-aid (became active Christians) but all have now matured and realize religion, based on faith, is Bullshit. When I was in my lat 20’s an old childhood friend called and asked me, “How did you know?” "Know what?" I responded. “Know that religion is bullshit. You always knew. I have moved to Seattle and everybody I know, My wife and all her relatives, doctors, lawyers etc. all recognize religion is BS”. I responded, “Because religion was nonsensical it did not reflect reality. I didn’t know you actually believed in that make believe nonsense.” He now recognizes religion is BS.

When I told the folks I did not accept faith (belief without evidence) based religion they tried to assert I was an agnostic. I corrected them and said, “No. I do not accept the baseless supernatural faith based claims that a god exists. I am not a theist. Because I value truth based on demonstrable facts, and because there are no facts to support a god even exists, I do not accept the faith based god exists claim. This makes me an atheist. I was strong on my position and they had no choice but to accept my stand.

As for now, one parent is still a theist. She has learned to avoid brining up religion as I openly point out flaws with any and all religion based bogus assertion. I do feel sorry for her as faith reduces the beauty and honesty of reality.

Religion also reduces the value of the one life we recognize we have; The life we are currently living. I once knew a lovely young woman who killed herself because – according to her suicide note found under her hanging body - - “I have killed myself so I can can live forever with Jesus and my dead father in heaven.”

On a side note: As an active anti-theist, I have de-converted several theists. They have all thanked me for helping see the light of reality over the darkness of superstition. The most appreciative atheist was a Catholic who no longer has nightmares about burning in hell forever because some woman seduced a man into eating an apple and pissing off god. He now lives without nonsense based fear and is free to accept reality without the restrictions of faith and dogma. Rather sure this is the foundation of “Free Thinker” although the dictionary definition of free thinker is “a person who rejects accepted opinions, especially those concerning religious belief.” if you are NOT an atheists (one who does NOT accept the opinions of the positive assertion of a god), how can you identify yourself as a free-thinker?

I've been an atheist far back as I remember. My mother was a devoted Catholic, dad a Baptist. Try as they did, they couldn't get me to believe. Even so, my family were/are disappointed by my disbelief, were never harsh about it (just occasionally preachy). Their understanding or patience allowed me to learn about religion without feeling the need to follow.

I don't know that I ever made the conscious decision to become atheist. There was no real ah-ha moment. One day shortly after my son was born, someone said to me "you seem so much happier, see everything does happen for a reason" or something like that, I reference to my many miscarriages. I said something like "nope, it was giving up on that line of thinking that allowed me to gain peace and come to terms with the miscarriages." After that I just never pretended to agree with the religious bullshit anymore, but the actual shift in thinking had happened gradually, well before that.

No one else in my family is atheist. I have an uncle who's Wiccan, and he gets more flack than I do.

My entire family knows about my beliefs, or lack thereof. Some of them still try to "save me" most have decided to keep their thoughts and prayers private.

Life as an atheist is the same as life for anyone else. The sun rises, I go to work, take care of my kid, clean the house, do 8 million loads of laundry. Babies are born, people die, i just don't have the burden of trying to understand why, or what part my suffering or joy plays in some kind of cosmic plan. Shit just happens. Life goes on. And when I die, my energy will be recycled back into the Earth to continue the process. It's quite peaceful, really.

I was born an atheist, just like everyone else.
The religious indoctrination my family insisted upon, didn't take.
I've been on my own since 17 and they've not had any influence.
Some of them know, most don't.
Their acceptance is unnecessary, and I don't care what they think of me.

What made you become an Atheist?

I grew up and no longer needed an imaginary friend, or worse an imaginary enemy

Are there any other members in your family who are atheists or did you become one independently?

My wife is part wiccan/druid and part exogenesist, my son is atheist my daughter is transitioning out of religion.

Have you told your family about your religous thoughts and what did they say?

My father could not care less my mother is dead, the opinions of the rest of my extended family don't matter to me

grew up catholic with a long line of catholics in my family, then family became protestant. Becoming an atheist was done after moving out. Family still is christian. They have a lot of children to raise yet.