My mother was Pentecostal and my father was Atheist. The trauma from living in a household where those two belief/non-belief systems clashed on a regular basis still reverberates throughout our family.

I escaped early in adolescence, with alcohol and experimentation with drugs. I rejected religion, as my father had, but bore the shame of my mother through her indoctrination.

Did I have trouble? Man, did I!

I was 8 and had non practicing parents as it was. I had been the only one in my family to go to church on a regular basis. I was beginning to question everything. I started to go to church less and less of over the next few years. Finally leaving for good when I was 13. I still never told anyone for another decade. I didn’t know what agnostic even was.

Your question is like asking:

Did you have trouble accepting you have better health by breathing clean air after you realized breathing the exhaust fumes of an old bus was not good for your health?

Not being tethered to the dishonest faith (belief without evidence) based assertions peddled as truth (Things that can be demonstrated with evidence) is freedom. I figured out religion was BS when I was in early grade school and not being a theist is a title I consider superior to positions dictated by faith based superstition. Those I have helped see the beauty of reason and reality expressed happiness in being free from the darkness of religion.

I didn't have any trouble accepting it. It was a huge relief, actually. I was taking no comfort whatsoever in the idea that horrific things were happening all over the world while some decision-making entity could be preventing or stopping them, but wasn't.

I did. My whole life centered around my beliefs. Letting go of them has been, ironically, like being born again.

I was never really surprised by my lack of religion. I always found comfort in science and empirical evidence and the older I for the more it began conflicting with religion. That's pretty much when I began asking questions and when religion could no longer answer them I abandoned it in favor of logic, reason and science. Have never looked back since.

I never had any issue accepting the lack of my belief in religion. See, you are born an atheist. You are taught religion. It's up to you whether you believe it or not. Based on the facts I do not.

It was a struggle until it wasn't. I wrestled with the idea for years before I was ready to admit it, and when I finally did, it was a huge burden lifted from my shoulders. The fear of becoming "evil," divine punishment or hell was gone. However, I continued to experience depression as I cut myself off from my religious social circle and worried about hiding my change of heart from my family.

Not really. Deep down I knew I didn't believe so I guess it was just a matter of admitting it to myself. And once I did, I've never thought twice about it.

Well, I think most atheists who were brough up to be religious experience a logn period of doubt before they cross over to being atheist.

For me though, once I crossed teh lien to atheism, I'v ehad no regrets and no desire to go back.

Not at all ..having been brought up Roman Catholic.

I realized religion was all make-believe when I was 8. I know I felt lucky having parents who didn't want to force me to share their beliefs.

Not at all. I was raised Roman Catholic and even had to attend many masses in Latin at my Italian grandmothers old school church when I was a child. I never believed so it was easy for me. I think the hardest part was when I realized in my late teens that some people really, truly, believed in god. I think as a child I thought everyone was all pretending. To me, religion and belief in god is a socially acceptable delusion so I am glad that I see the world with clarity and base my decision on reality and always have felt that way.

Absolutely not, I accept the truth wherever it may lead.the way I see it if anybody should have trouble accepting anything it's easiest having faith that an imaginary being is lurking in the sky somewhere on faith which by the way is blind by definition and totally dishonest because it asserts what is true which is evidently not true.

No, I accept truth and the ability to think for oneself.

I had no problem with accepting in lack of believing religious bs. There was a great weight lifted off when I did away with religious bs and believing there a deity watching over me.

Not even the slightest problem.
Using reason, I saw its absurdities and moved forward happily.

I never experienced any of that.
I was never a believer, and was not raised in a religious family.
But I do know many who did, and I feel for them, That couldn't have been easy in a lot of cases.

No. I mean it was a pretty natural transition and I didn't really even label myself as atheist or agnostic. I still really don't care for labels but I am not afraid of carrying them

Not in the least. As Neil Young wrote, I've seen the needle and the damage done.

When the door opened, it was like I was finally me.

not even a little bit.

g

No. Mine was pretty natural. Being in foster care most of my childhood I went through homes with different religions and each one said the other was wrong. I went along with it and acted the part "believing" like everyone else. I just assumed it was tradition more than an actual belief. I came to hate the strict religious types as well. I was a kid and I was bad no matter what. Somehow I was supposed to know certain things and act certain ways without being taught, through some divine force. I was punished for not knowing and behaving like that.

Of course being told every other religion is wrong over and over you start to realize they don't know who is right or if any are. I was in a bad position and nobody had an answer as to why a "loving God" would do or allow bad things to happen to a child, why I couldn't have a family, and so on. Typical answers were the norm. "Mysterious ways" and "there's a plan" but "he still loves you". I just focused on science and how things worked. The conclusion was obvious very quickly. What's possible and what's probable are vastly different. One is conjecture, the other requires evidence of which we have none.

I ran for it because it meant freedom to me. Things fell apart rather quickly in my belief system in the beginning. It was later that I realized how much psychological damage early indoctrination had done.

No.
I was brought up Lutheran. I moved into athiesm gradually by simply not attending church for some time*. When I thought of what the Bible "taught" us versus what we know through science and common observation, it was easy to make the logical and rational transition.

• It is said that the mind, on its own, will convert to athiesm. It's the reinforcement of "worship" every week, or more, that teaches/brainwashes us into believing ideas that are contradictory to logic, experience and common sense.