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How old/young were you when you realized you were atheist/agnostic?

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1

It was in school, I began pondering the differences between atheism, and agnosticism. I eventually decided that the latter was the more scientific approach. So, I guess I must have been about seventeen.

5

When I was four I took money out of the collection plate. I didn't view it as stealing because it was money that people were throwing away. In effect, I was dumpster diving for cash.

Hahahahaha!!!

5

Thankfully, I was born into a non religious household.

4

Around 9 or 10. About the time i figured out santa wasn't real. I figured if they lied about him and all the others, why not god too. So, i started doubting everything.

That it similar to me, It wasn't until I was 13 when I fully dismissed the probability of god...but I do remember yelling at my parents as a child "well if Santa isn't real, it was just a lie...I guess the tooth fairy, easter bunny and Jesus are the same"

4

I was somewhat of a late comer. Born and raised Catholic and two of my brothers became priests...took until I was 29 to doubt it. And then over the course of the last two years I've researched and read as much as I could about how the world really works and what complete garbage the bible is.

Lately though, I did have a sort of "smacked in the face" kind of moment. I went home to NY from CA to see family as I had to go back there for work anyway. They were out in Montauk for vacation and one of the days was the feast of the assumption...a "holy day of obligation"...so my priest brother said Mass right there in the hotel room. The first reading was out of the book of revelation...I nearly fell out of my chair listening to this. Dragons with 7 heads and 10 horns smacking stars down to the Earth and about to devour a newborn baby...I'm convinced part of why people remain Catholics is because they completely zone out during the readings and aren't actually listening to the insanity of this shit.

4

Questioning the church at 8.. became agnostic at 13, atheist in early 20’s.

3

Whatever age I understood what being an Agnostic was. I was very anti religion by 5th grade.

3
  1. In church one Sunday the preacher said animals didn't have souls and wouldn't be in heaven with us. The thought of my pets not being with me made me think he was wrong. The seed was planted.

Ugh I swear these make make stuff up all the damn time!

3

13...it was my pastor right after my confirmation as a methodist that made me question everything. After my confirmation I asked him what it takes as a methodist to get into heaven, and his answer seemed like some way too easy BS to me. The I started realizing the different sects if Christianity were just all,about easier paths to "heaven"

3

I was born a non believer and that never changed.

Stig Level 5 Oct 13, 2018
3

Being a late bloomer, I didn't wise up until 1994 at age 34. That's when discovered that God is just a myth.

The first step occurred, though, in 1988 at age 28, when I discovered that Joseph Smith was a false prophet and I left Moronism (oops, Mormonism).

3

I was raised in the Baptist church until I was 8 and my parents divorced. I believed I was going to burn in hell if I said "ass" or otherwise sinned.

In third grade we discussed the ancient Greeks and their "false religions". I heard the stories about how they had to invent a god, Zeus, to explain natural phenomena they could not understand. From that point I started thinking modern religions were invented for the same reasons.

By middle school I was a confirmed agnostic..I was stunned to see how devoutly religious some of my classmates were. I thought this was surely something they would outgrow like Santa Claus.

I lived in the deep South. I quickly learned to keep my ideas to myself. During "please bow our heads" moments, I learned to look around the room to find the other nonbelievers.

Phord Level 1 Oct 9, 2018
3

One day on Christmas when they were saying grace around the table and thanking God for the food on the table i realized this was a bunch of nonsense because i thought why should i thank God . I should be thanking my father for breaking his ass to make money to buy the food and the people who helped produce it and so forth ,not some god that did Nothing . I realized it was a con and only an idiot would believe this bullshit

3

It was a gradual process over many years . When you are brainwashed into believing and fearing God ,hell, etc and absolutely no one around you thinks otherwise it takes a certain intellectual insight to overcome this .Also in the years around 1960 there was no internet for interaction with like minded individuals.

3

I never was a believer, I was fortunate enough to have not have been brought up in a religious household.

3

Always have been! My siblings and I were brought up totally non-religious, never had any inclination to be otherwise!

3

I questioned religion as a child but didn't follow my own beliefs until I was in my late 20s

3

Ten =)

3

Questioned at about 8 or 9. Up until that point, I’d never really been to a church, and a friend took me inside hers. The place was empty, but she told me all about the Catholic rituals and communion. The whole thing seemed really weird. Specifically the communion. She said the grape juice and cracker turned into the blood and flesh of Jesus. I remember think that was totally gross. When I asked, she said it LITERALLY became blood and flesh. I knew that just couldn’t happen, and even if it did, it was disgusting.

I entertained the idea of a god for a long time, even tried to be Christian in my teens. But I was almost 30 before I actually used the word “atheist” to describe myself.

3

My parents indoctrinated me as a very young teen and I was so thrilled that I wanted to be a minister. This ended badly and gave me much pain through most of my life until the scales fell off my eyes sometime in my 60's. I've felt like a new man ever since.

3

Was a skeptic as a preteen, agnostic as a teen and became hard core atheist as an adult.

2

Began questioning things when I was around 8 years old. Came out to my dad (my mom would have gone ballistic) as agnostic when I was 14. Atheist at 17.

2

I like this question. I recall, distinctly, at the age of six, (Oxford use of commas, you're welcome), of contemplating the question - "What if nothing existed at all, instead of this universe we find ourselves in?". Well, then it wouldn't, and I wouldn't, exist, and that is the simple, elegant truth.

2
2

13 It was a Saturday I had 4 tests for two I was prepared I got 2A's the one I wasn't prepare was postponed. I was an ignorant kid by felt something with god is not kosher

2

Between the ages of 14-16. Read the Bible cover to cover. Read up on the history of the early Christian church. Found it fascinating, but thoroughly human, and completely lacking in the devine. Ditched the divine.

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