Congratulations in finding your way into the light or reality over superstition.

When I was very young I found discrepancies between real world observations governed by the laws of physics and the nonsensical stories told in the bible. At that time I reasoned the entire bible "church" thing was simply BS created to keep children in line. I figured, like the stories of Santa Clause, all adults were in on the game and pretended to believe this BS to control youth as surely no adult could possibly buy into this garbage that contradicted reality.

Many years later I came to the horrifying realization that many old people (I no longer considered them adults as I had a higher standard for the adult classification) drank the cool-aid and believed in god/s. Funny, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was visiting my parents back in the early college days, standing in their lower level 1/2 basement looking past a piano out the ground level windows. Every smell, object, person, all locked in memory. My view of the future world became much darker that day.

For a few decades I quietly lived with that sad realization that most old people that I knew were still drinking the cool aid. Then became active in trying to teach people how to recognize their folly for falling for theism. I de-converted a few and brought a few to tears when I de-constructed the foundations of their faith.

The most common outcome was for theists to become afraid and run away or shout nonsense like "Look at the Flowers!" - yea, that is one of the best argument they had to support their god. For most all god assertions I had a wonderfully wide set of arguments.

Now, I am back to simply recognizing the overwhelming frailty of so many people, how they have become so damaged by faith over facts. How so many have tied their purpose into serving their cult leaders. I have the tools to plow their field of dogmatic faith but I don't know if their ground is healthy enough to support life without their "god" fertilizer.

Perhaps if/when I retire I'll again mount the horse of facts over faith and drag a few more superstitionalists into the light of reality.

Oh man .
No . I was lucky . My father was an atheist and an outspoken man in his community .
We never had any gods or satans in r houses . Never had xmas trees or this or that
When we started school, we were prepared to hear all about it . It was comical to my sister and my self . We played along enough to keep peace , but they knew us as “ the Diavolia “ girls .
By the age of 12 for me and 8 for my sister ( she was very advanced child , she entered medical school at 13 ), my father insisted for us to study world religions . It wasn’t optional . It was his request , and my dad wasn’t a human that impose on others , not even his kids .
He wanted us to study formal ways AND by r selves . I also took similar classes in college , just bcz I knew , easiest grade ever
As we red and red more , he added books of religion rituals ( both Catholic and orthodox ), and we never run out of topics to talk while playing cards the nights . We found the beliefs ridiculus at the very best , and hideous .
We grew up celebrating bdays and new yrs , and r circle of friends was small , near 0, bcz we were not believers . On the upside we were the richest people plus political power , so we did not give two fucks if they liked us or not , money talks .
One of the best things that my father taught us about religions and gods , was that people have to find their way or not, by them selves .
We did not advertise r atheism , neither hiding it though , and we did not scold people for their religions . Looking back is probably bcz r lives and life style wasn’t depending from religion laws , and nobody could tell us what to do regardless . In Europe , u can believe in gods all u want , but the abortion issue is nobody s buisness than yours
My father started and supported several public institutes and facilities , and some of these r still running w his funds even if dead for 15 yrs .
My favorite was and still is the academy for the deaf and blind , bcz my father included a mini church for the residents . When I asked y , he told us , u don’t need Jesus , they do. It’s not about what u believe when u give , it’s about what they want / need .
That shut up my mouth for ever . Say less .
Until I came here on this site , yay , die Jesus die

Mine was a little different and it wasn't precipitated by anything related to religion. It was about having good reasons for everything I believe and everything I do. In a long examination process when it came to religion and god, I couldn't come up with a good reason and abandoned it all.

when the inequities in the biblical story are exposed (seen), the idea of Christianity collapses. there is no longer a struggle to be convinced, or need for confirmation by others.

You are not completely "deconverted" if you call yourself agnostic or atheist.

You have just swung to the other side of the god delusion. The philosophical spaghetti monster sky God construct causes the God delusion and there is both the Christian side and the illogical atheist side to the god delusion .

I was thirteen when I distanced myself from the Catholic church. I got curious about LDS for about five month when I was eighteen and found they were just as full of BS.

As far as I am concerned the "Bible" is as much a fairytale as "Mother Goose", and that is how I treat it.

I think I tried very hard to believe at the age everyone gets baptized which was about 12 or 13 in my area. I was blessed to have a preacher who was not interested in helping me learn about his church and that began my journey away from religion. By the time I was 16, I realized it was a business.

I've told people I'm agnostic ever since then. Occasionally I tell people I'm an atheist because my atheist friends sometimes accuse me of being too cowardly to say that. I don't feel I really need to have a name for my belief system and I don't care whether anyone approves or not.

I do not remember anyone trying to encourage me to stop believing in the Christian religion. For that reason, and perhaps my own ethical code I don't try to convert anyone to my beliefs. Throughout my life I have noticed that most people dig in when you try to change their opinion therefore I think it's futile.

That was pretty much the same process that I went through.

I will add my own step 11. It is the enormous anger that I have for the Christian zealot and Bible literalist who was the headmaster of my primary school, and my consequent refusal to accept any religious maniac of any religious tradition ramming his absurd beliefs down the throats of vulnerable people, particularly children.

Been there, done that!! I was a BuyBull study leader, and participant, and SS teacher, and church volunteer. And then I woke up. And got divorced. Not in that order, necessarily, but kinda went hand in hand.