Hello Angus,

Interesting question: When I was very young (around ten) I figured out the garbage stories they were trying to teach us in church were in direct conflict with observable, testable, reality. I quickly determined their god "stories" were not representative of reality and therefore god was a fictional character in a childish tale imagined by adults to scare children into doing what the adults wanted us to do. As I found no credible evidence for a god, I quickly returned to my earlier (before church) state of atheist (not a theist) (Not sure I fully drank the god Coolaid but when I was very young and stupid, I think I may have wasted a few (very few) hours praying to the invisible sky daddy.)

As I have been an atheist all of my adult life I can not answer your ". . . As opposed to being religious prior?" I can however contrast my later grade school, high school, and adult point of reference to my friends (including theists I have de-converted) who made the transition from theists to atheists.

When I was young I believed religions were so stupid all adults must realize the lies presented were nonsensical. A few years after college a friend who now lives in Washington State called me and asked me how I know? "Know what?" I replied. "Knew that religions was bullshit." he responded. "You always knew." It was only then that I realized he actually believed in religion when he was in HS and even college. I thought most all HS student realized religions was fabricated and only went to church to appease their parents (Play the oh, yea I believe in Santa Clause game) to make their parents happy.

Of the young and oder adults I have de-converted or helped see the light of reality over superstition there is a range of changes they have told me. Most thank me for helping them and tell me they find the world a much less scary place as those their church taught them to fear, (gay, atheist, etc.) are no longer scary. Most are more accepting of others then before and enjoy reality without fear of (in once case) burning in hell forever. One had emotional issues and returned to faith to deal with life problems. Another one is angry at herself for wasting so much of her life believing in nonsense. She is now amazingly aware of reality and finds herself isolated as most in these parts are (head in the sand) theists. She has found spending time with a delusional theists a waste of her time as their thinking process (valuing fiction over truth) is damaged.

There are many others I have moved into the "agnostic" spectrum as they now openly question the baseless (fact free) assertions of all faith based claims. They all appear content with their adjusted perspective.

Hi, Angus...welcome from me, too! I like to think that developing reason and logic, plus observation of how religions REALLY behave gradually turned me away from the entire concept. Don't know how old you are but...I've lived long enough to see us ''coming out'' in DROVES now. (I think we owe a nod to homosexuals for leading the way.) That's the good news. The bad news is that religions are using politics to sustain themselves and we'll have to fight that SERIOUSLY and SOON!

I stopped believing in religious stuff so many years ago I can't really remember why I did it so I came here because I heard atheist girls are easy. Upon closer detailed study that particular rumor has since been proven to be false.

At the very least, I am not giving what little money I have, to some church. That is a plus, nes pas

Truthfully, it popped up in my Facebook feed. I followed the link because the site offered not just the option of a dating site, but of a like-minded community. I haven't found a way to get comfortable on other dating sites because we didn't used to have them. You met people in real life and relationships blossomed organically. I had hoped this site would be a good blend of community/shared interest first, then dating might be a bonus second thing. I've only been here a week, but so far I am really enjoying some of the discussion boards. To get more to the point of your question, I came to the site already pretty sure about where I'm at religiously speaking (or in my case, non-religiously speaking). I'd be interested to hear from someone who was in the early stages of doubting and perhaps came here for answers, though. Anyone?