Aged 8 but I was persuaded to keep on believing. I actually went to Christian boarding schools so I attended chapel everyday for ten years, talk about indoctrination! Became agnostic in my 20's, then Buddhist for a couple of years in my 30's, then back to Christian again when I married a literal conservative Christian. After nine years of marriage, the last five of which were beyond misery and were basically religiously abusive, I more than discovered my true inner militant atheist. I'm much happier now knowing the truth.

I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and was dis-fellowshipped for breaking the "moral code". I then began my research into cult characteristics. I never went back. I was 21.

I was never really sure i fully believed the whole story. I just went through the motions because my mother forced it on me. As I got into my teen years I just kept being a part of my church because thats just what people in my small town did. I even went as far as to teach sunday school for a year until i realized that i was forcing these small children to believe in something that I myself didnt believe. I quit teaching it and really started exploring other religions in search for something worthwhile. I never found anything until i found Christopher Hitchens. He said everything i couldnt put into words.

I have a pretty good memory and have many clear memories of when I was a child. More than most people that I've talked to seem to have, so if this seems especially detailed or made-up, it's not.

In kindergarten, the teacher brought in some "magic seeds from a leprechaun" for St. Patrick's day. The idea was to put the seeds on a piece of paper and let your imagination do the rest and draw a plant. All the other kids caught on right away and started drawing plants, and adding pieces of paper for the plant to "grow". I sat there and refused to participate because I knew the magic seed/leprechaun story was bullshit and I was going to prove it to her. I refused to draw anything on my paper until she finally gave up and explained to me that it was just a game and that I was just supposed to draw on the paper like a reasonable 5 year old would. Once I understood that she wasn't serious, I played along.

My skepticism only increased from there. I honestly never remember believing in Santa Claus the Easter Bunny. My mom tried to tell me that they were fake when I was about 8 or 9 but I told her that I already knew it was made up. I specifically remember asking my sister a bunch of questions about Santa and the chimney trick and never getting satisfactory answers. I knew that everyone was lying to me but I hadn't developed the thought process to call them out on their bullshit yet.

I always hated going to church on Sundays. I remember throwing a fit when I was about 4 because I just didn't want to go to church or the sunday school that was before it. I just hated the overall experience and I never got over that. I don't remember anything bad ever happening to me (abuse, etc.) I just was never sold on the idea of imaginary friends.

I guess you could say I wasn't cut out to be a religious person. Lol

As a teenager I started having questions about the things I had been taught. I never felt comfortable with religion and when asked just told people I wasn’t really religious. I always wondered why no one else questioned the teachings. Was I the only one? Why couldn’t I just have faith? What is wrong with me? Then about 3-4 years ago I discovered YouTube and found myself watching videos of people saying the things I had been thinking almost my entire life. There were other people like me! It was a very freeing thing to finally admit it to myself. I am now the “A” word! Lol. Atheist.

when i watched one of George Carlin videos

I went atheist at 7; the moment my ability to think critically turned on. It is very interesting indeed to see so many here that similarly rejected supernatural thought at an early age.

When I was overseas for the Army, I read Origin of Species, Why Evolution is True, and The God Delusion. The first two books enabled me to really accept the arguments of the third, and before long, this former minister was an atheist.

Eventually, I couldn't deny my doubts. 12 million people murdered during the Holocaust, an estimated 24-26 million people died during the war between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. Children with cancer. 22 million people are currently enslaved around the world. Hurricanes, tsunamis, fires, flood, earthquakes, riots where innocent lives are lost.
You see people asking for prayers when their mother, father, child, etc. is having a simple surgery and then thank God for, "answering their prayers." When I ask these same people about things like what I listed above,

As a kid, I never gave religion much thought--I just blindly imitated what my family members did. But by the age of 8, I began to feel that Judaism was uninteresting, unnecessary, and just plain absurd. I began to rebel at my parent's attempts to send me to sabbath school and temple. Eventually they gave up. I couldn't have been happier!

In my 30th , more i know about the world . I do not believe any GOd .

I always have - since I was a child - nothing made sense except those things which can be observed/tested for in the natural world.

A couple years ago when I was at church.

Always doubted, but when I began working in management consulting and learned about evidence, I really began to affirm there was no credible evidence of a higher power. Religion would fail any audit.

When i learned how to think and be critical. Religion can't survive if not for indoctrinating children when they are young and still believe in magic. If they were not introduced to religion at such a vulnerable age, the world would be quite different.

Since elementary school when my mother would send me to religious ccd classes after school,I remember my earliest thoughts about religion and all the stories that make it up that I was supposed to take so seriously and as fact and thinking " What a bunch of bullshit."

When I was four (roughly) and I learned that god had murdered everything even though he was love itself. I was young but not retarded. That is crazy.

As early as I can remember. All through my childhood I had the feeling in the back of my head of "this stuff just doesn't add up". Fortunately, I was raised without the lies of tooth fairies, santa, easter bunny, etc., so didn't have any practice deceiving myself.

I never believed in god. I remember being a little kid in church (like 5 years old) and being given a picture of jesus to color in Sunday school. I took my crayons and just scribbled over the picture like I was a baby.The teacher told me to stay in the lines and color nicely, but I refused. Funny thing was at home and school I could color beautifully. I refused to do it at church for any jesus pictures, LOL!

I witnessed the suffering and death of my great-great aunt, who was the nicest person I ever knew, as she went through the stages of Alzheimer's while being mistreated by doctors and caretakers. She never did anything to deserve it. I was diagnosed with depression after she died and began to realize that I had clinical depression all my life. I was displaying so many signs, and even people who knew would say nothing and do nothing to help me through it. It's a hereditary form of the disease, and I guess my mother was just blindly hoping that I didn't really have it. I also suffered night terrors and panic attacks. I just couldn't believe that a God worth worshipping existed if it would make any person inherently depressed and suicidal. That's willful torture, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Furthermore, my aunt's suffering was undeserved and her whole family, who loved her dearly, had to witness the results and deal with them. The world is a beautiful place, but it is too cruel at times for me to believe in a god.

Upon the realization that Santa was a concept and not a real benevolent entity, the other Myths dropped like dominoes. "God" was the last concept to dissolve, and that was really in High School, although I didn't openly share that with friends until College, and I feel safer discussing that with friends and co-workers now than I do with Family.

I always doubted religion, even in my most evangelical days, but back then I just thought it was the devil having his go. When I realised that being true to god was being untrue to myself I had to make choices that tore me, as I had grown to love the god I thought I knew. It came down to the realisation that one or other of us had to be an illusion, as it was impossible that both of us was right. Then it became simple, as only my reality was unassailable.

My parents, hypocritically, made me go to Sunday school though they never attended church, ever. At around seven, I learned about the parable of the prodigal son. The notion that the lazy wastrel was feted and rewarded while the guy who looked after the goats and showed up on time got dealt out seemed monstrously unfair. That was it for me. It was clear that this religion was total BS.

Very young. Around 5 or 6. We were a very catholic family and when Vatican II announced that it was now OK for catholics to eat meat on Fridays, my little brain went hmmmm. I already knew about papal infallibility, so my reasoning went thus: Either all the old popes were wrong when they forbade us to eat meat on Friday, or this present pope is wrong in allowing us to do so now. So right off the bat, papal infallibility took a big hit in my mind, and that was that. I was still forced to attend church so I was subjected to no end of biblical contradictions and illogical dogma after that, but I had to keep this to myself (my father was a strict authoritarian who brooked no dissension in his family). The finest day of my young life was when, at age 13, I was finally released from the obligation of attending church. I've never looked back.

I do not think I was ever a believer. My parents never discussed any religion. My first exposure to religion was by a baby sitter who asked me in I believed in Jesus.

At fours years of age i found a bunch of toys in my parents closet and got them for christmas (jews having christmas tree) and there went my belief in Santa. So the invisible god thing never stuck.