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Do you think that one "chooses" to become an atheist or is it more like they always were but only realized it?

If you accept the statement "there is no god, therefore religion (Christianity, etc) is false" as true, then the argument can be made that you weren't really a Christian because Christianity is not real.
For example, you think you are an alien and call yourself an alien, then realize that that belief was false and now call yourself a human. You didn't choose to be a human, you only realized you were one.

Sorry if it is confusing.

AnnaMD 5 Dec 28
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73 comments (26 - 50)

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Even though there is no god, Christians are still a thing. And realizing you are not an alien doesn’t preclude the existence of aliens.
But I don’t think anyone decides to not believe in god when they do.

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As young as i can remember maybe 4 or 5 i couldn't understand catholic church. At that age did i make a choice ?

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No. .....All people, species are born hatched sprouted et cetera Atheists. ....zero people choose as infants to be brutally painfully strapped to a board and have their penis prepuce flesh clamped and scalpeled off then bleed for days with betadyne and urine soaked diapers searing the pain again and again. ...no child chooses to be threatened with hell nor bribed with heaven before entering the real world of Head Start or kindergarten. ...the gibberish sounds gott gawd gods in any language ARE NOT WORDS nor referents without objects. ...all such lies are forced upon us by fake dictionaries cults TV radio preachers and abusive families. ...our Atheism and Feminism is our birthright and patriarchal criminal theocracy is hell for real

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There is a choice of abandoning the deep sentimental relation that we have with religion. In most of people it is there since childhood, it became an element of the self already, that is why even with massive logical arguments in favor of an agnostic/atheistic view of the world, many can't do the leap.
On this sense is a choice, you need to choose to abandon or even to fight against this sentimental connection.
Many choose to not do it and simply become a nominal religious (they say that they are, but in real they don't give a shit about it).
But of course, before this choice comes, one can learn about the falacies and logical flaws, rebel against obvious unethical moves of religions, be abused and get angry with it or any other way that will put this choice in front of them.

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For me it was an awakening as I always had doubts in catholic school. I just could not accept what the priests and nuns were preaching s it seemed contradictory. I later found out it was.Everyone takes the words of the bible to make the case they believe in.

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I believe it depends at what age you became truly curious and if you always asked shy questions, or if you started at an older age

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I think both are possible, different people have different paths towards choosing a belief. Some things you can feel convinced about from a young age, calling yourself an Atheist as soon as you know what the term means.

Personally I just had a large helping of scepticism which made me pay a little lip service but not really believe even when I was young.

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It makes perfect sense. I never would have thought of myself as religious if I have been taught from birth that that was what I am (was) and what I'm supposed to be (have been). In other words, if given the chance, I never would have chosen religion for myself. After giving it a proper think, I began to see how ridiculous it all was and dropped it like a bad habit (which it was). Therefore it could be days that I had reverted back to my natural state after a long stint of pretending to be something I wasn't. Story of my life, really. Almost completely paired down to nothing but the real me now.

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You choose between many directions ... These directions are not all true ... of which, only one is truth ... You have to read and search to realize the truth

belfo Level 6 Jan 7, 2019
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I was sent to Catholic school because my Mom was Catholic and both my parents wanted us kids to get a good education. I was questioning everything and getting myself in trouble from VERY early on.

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For one thing, we all are born with no religion embedded in our brain. It's indoctrination what take us there and eventually some will choose to bail out

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Everyone who has ever lived was an atheist until they were indoctrinated into whatever religion dominated their region or family.

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As soon as I was "aware" I didn't believe in any kind of God, it was forced upon me by school and I was sent to Sunday school needless to say that didn't last long ? they don't like it when you ask questions they can't answer and don't do as your told, Lilith is no longer spoke of in the Bible but she was actually Adams first wife as I'm sure some will know.

We're all aliens just because we choose to label ourselves as human has no bearing on that, well I say we choose but let's face it we're told we're human.

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I think you choose what you believe in. It's chose to leave religion and not have be burdened by fairy tales and dogma. I have few regrets in live, but I wish I was an atheist at your age. Instead of an religious closed minded fool.

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Well the point is to never be content with any answer until u have sufficient evidence.

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I did not choose logic, i think a series of unfortunate events made me recognize it

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I don't think that you can choose to believe anything. I think you are convinced . For good reasons or bad. Even if my life depended on it I couldn't force myself to believe something that I was convinced was false.

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Children are born tabula rasa. They learn about logic as their brain develops through experiences either trial and error or pattern recognition (which has to do with memory). The thing with religion is that it is taught to some from birth or others who are adept at compartmentalizing their minds.

What you're saying does make sense as it is about self actualization (what are you/who are you etc)...

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We are born without a belief in God. We are told there is a god. We are told there is also, Santa, the Easter bunny and angels. We later find out that Santa and the Easter bunny are not real. We ask, "Why the fuck did you lie to me"? We are told, "because it was cute"! We say "Fuck you". Later, we realize that if they lied to us about Santa and the Easter bunny, they are probably lying about God and the angels. We ask them. They tell us, "No, those are real". Suddenly we realize we are dealing with lunatics.

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I remember distinctly being young and trying to be religious. To hear the word of God, fo understand it all...and when I was real with myself..absolutely nothing made sense or was tangible. As I grew, I realized I was not alone and it started to make more sense and I started to find the beauty in the world and people more than stories and ideologies

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I don't think you're born to be anything. When you are born, you haven't been socialized. I think belief and non-belief are part of the socialization one learns over time. It's how open you are to applying free will and to the expansion of your mind to new ideas and concepts.

A person gains their personality through trial and error, I suspect. I don't think the concept of belief or non-belief get to fly under the radar any more than any other social construct.

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I have had beliefs change over time, as my awareness of the world around me has grown. But, I don't think I can really decide to believe 'X' . It results from information I have.I have had beliefs change as I followed information I had thru to its logical ends. Without the knowlege to back it up, i cannot decide to believe in say... 'The Force'. I just cant.

The difference between not being convinced God exists, and , convinced that no god exists, may be revelant here. Personally Im pretty sure no gods exist.

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Like most things, I don’t think we have much choice in what we do and do not believe. We just do or do not.

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