Educating myself on ancient cultures, history of organized religions, the bible itself and science.

Terminating the use of prayer as a scientific trouble shooting tool. The simple process of elimination, in trouble shooting, is so much more accurate!

I did not have one event but a series of small events and awakenings so to speak I came to understand that the all loving, seeing,caring, and powerful god I was taught to believe in could not exist as described in this world. He can't allow all the terrible things that happen to go on if he truly cares, sees and has the power to stop it. The god I was taught to believe in would not have created Hitler or serial killers or pedifiles. Once I started to question the answers were not there.

Being inundated with the absolute certainty attitude among religious zealots, who expressed their views as proven fact, rather than belief.

in my search for that "perfect" church or religious group to which I would join I found out that there's none that I'd be content with and I had to admit and accept that I'd live this life on my own cause nobody among my family and friends knew that I don't believe in belonging to a religious org . . . I'll just be a "cheat" and take with me all the good that these groups preach in order for me to live a decent and peaceful life

Not sure I can name just one thing. It was a build up of things that could not be answered along the way.

I remember being startled to learn that people actually believed that the stories in the Bible were factual. I had assumed those stories belonged in the same category as, say, Greek or Norse myths or Aesop's fables, as entertaining stories that revealed a truth about humanity but were not actual events. My respect for church people went way down, never to arise again.

I didnt turn my back on it I never turned my front to it - Religion was never a problem to me because I never took to it. I was never made to engage with it - When I was of an age for talking or seeing what was going on in my own family; a bipolar mainly manic mother who had worked as a welder on the docks in the war and a depressed father who barely existed any more, due to wartime experiences as an RAF officer pilot then radio officer on the ground responsible for a troop of men - there was no room for anything in our house except madness. I am glad of my experiences because they shaped me into something I recognise as more real than 'story'

I watched my grandmother devote her life to the church, then watched them strip her bank account dry when she became terminally ill. More importantly though, i just don't believe. I won't follow something that I just have no belief in.

When I was a teenager--about 17-- I was a rising star in my religion because I could give inspiring talks to large crowds of youths -- 1000's. One day one of the top figures in my religion, old man, was in an elevator at a hotel with me where I had just given a talk. He told me more or less -- welcome to the club -- ow you going to handle the fame? After that, I never again a talk again. It never occurred to me it was for self or fame. I wanted to vomit. It tooks decades to get out of the religion for good, but after this I stayed far in the background. I had nothing to say to anyone.

Religion never added up to me.

Truly a consequence of evolving. The inherent flaw of proof favouring proof and lack of same a zero sum.I find the equity of life is not measurable by beliefs but actions suggesting the overall equation of life is not a product either.

There was no one event, it was a struggle for forty years to come to this conclusion. Being raised in church by my mother and grandmother, the teachings of the bible never sat right with me even as a child. I believed because I was supposed to. Every member of my family is a believer, so it was hard coming out of the closet, so to speak, in telling them all that I was atheist.

After 7 years of marriage we tired the Methodist, the Crossroads chruch and a bible study but the hook never set. If god is so great he didn't find me. My x is still a Christian I'm not and feel much healthier.

I've never been religious and I was lucky to not have been raised in that atmosphere.

Science

I had gone back and forth for a long time, but one that really marks 'the end' for me was when I was visiting my neighbors church and they had a guest pastor. First I listened to him put the word out for money, berate people for not giving enough..then he hit us with the faggots should be purged from earth and they are all going to hell speech. Got up in the middle, said a big F you, and left. Have not gone back again.

I went to a religious college in the early 80s. One day my New Testament professor raving about the "gay cancer" and how he hoped god would use it to kill all the homosexuals.

Ive never turned back so i guess this don't apply to me

I started having questions that the church was unable to answer. I was in my early teens and I found out even then that I was going to have to look outside the church for answers. I got my motivational push, however, on an evening at a church social.
It was Saturday and the church had gathered for a business meeting that was followed by a pot-luck dinner. There was much arguing. 2 of the more wealthy families were bidding $$ to have things their way and the church was divided taking sides. My friend and I sat on the back row observing. I whispered to my friend "If this is what our examples are, I want nothing to do with church". She agreed.
I was wearing a white skirt, and somewhere out of nowhere, I had my 1st monthly ever that night. Totally unprepared and frantic, I tried to get my mother alone to tell her that we needed to leave. Every time I was able to get her to break away one of the church ladies would follow us where we were and stand there. I would move again and the same happened. Frustrated I yelled at the woman and the entire congregation heard me
"If you aren't the most nosy D BI have ever seen I don't know who is!! Let me speak to my Mother, please!?
Mom was MORTIFIED and we made a hasty exit. She never forced me to attend again. It was almost 2 decades before caving to outside pressures I returned.

I think the turning point in my old belief system was when I was ten or twelve years old and I was praying to god to get my father to stop drinking. Prayer went unanswered and as I got older I started learning more about the world and the terrible things in it that made me question the god I was brought up with as being either cruel or not omnipotent. The more cultures and beliefs I was exposed to made me think about who really has it right? Eventually I was lead to the conclusion that nobody has it right because nobody can prove they are right. It was then that I began seeing all the hypocrisy and negative things that organized religion does and promotes as well as how ignorant what they have to teach is.

I was raised to form my own opinion about the existence of a deity (or lack thereof)

Nothing